"The Reids" wrote in message
...
A plotholder at my allotment site has applied to keep bees.
Are there any issues I should be aware of?

Have you asked that plotholder whether he/she is properly insured
against problems arising from other plotholders who might be allergic
to bee strings?

--
Franz
The designers of foolproof equipment often forget the ingenuity of
fools

Franz Heymann wrote:
:: "The Reids" wrote in message
:: ...
::: A plotholder at my allotment site has applied to keep bees.
::: Are there any issues I should be aware of?
::
:: Have you asked that plotholder whether he/she is properly insured
:: against problems arising from other plotholders who might be
:: allergic to bee strings?

At the risk of sounding like that American loudmouth, "You cannot be
serious?"
If someone dies as a result of a beesting, are the family expected to track
down the owner of said bee and sue them?
Who's to say it was one of the honey bees and not an errant bee on it's
daily travels?
I think this nanny-state has gone way too far, it's bordering on the
American style warnings issued in McDonalds restraunts, "Warning - contents
may be hot" on the side of a cup of coffee! - it's ridiculous.
Just yesterday in Manchester, the annual taxi-drivers outing for disabled
children has had to be cancelled after 45 years because of stupid red-tape
issues such as drivers having to pay for 'risk assessments' and other
pathetic by-laws.
End result: The kids don't get their day out to Blackpool.

--

http://www.blueyonder256k.myby.co.uk/

"Franz Heymann" wrote in message
...

"The Reids" wrote in message
...
A plotholder at my allotment site has applied to keep bees.
Are there any issues I should be aware of?

Have you asked that plotholder whether he/she is properly insured
against problems arising from other plotholders who might be allergic
to bee strings?

I think you'll find in Law, that to sue someone over a Bee sting is
virtually impossible. Firstly you have to prove that it was one of their
bees, and secondly case law has established that Bees are not owned, they
are just wild creatures to which you can offer a home.

In article ,
Duncan Heenan wrote:


I think you'll find in Law, that to sue someone over a Bee sting is
virtually impossible. Firstly you have to prove that it was one of their
bees, and secondly case law has established that Bees are not owned, they
are just wild creatures to which you can offer a home.

Your first sentence may well be true. But, to the second, the standard
of proof is balance of probabilities and I refer you to Rylands versus
Fletcher - a classic case, known to all :-)


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

"Duncan Heenan" wrote in message
...

"Franz Heymann" wrote in message
...

"The Reids" wrote in message
...
A plotholder at my allotment site has applied to keep bees.
Are there any issues I should be aware of?

Have you asked that plotholder whether he/she is properly insured
against problems arising from other plotholders who might be
allergic
to bee strings?

I think you'll find in Law, that to sue someone over a Bee sting is
virtually impossible. Firstly you have to prove that it was one of
their
bees, and secondly case law has established that Bees are not owned,
they
are just wild creatures to which you can offer a home.

In that case, I suppose one has to resort to a spot of arson as soon
as there is any serious trouble.

Franz

"Franz Heymann" wrote in message
...

"Duncan Heenan" wrote in message
...

"Franz Heymann" wrote in message
...

"The Reids" wrote in message
...
A plotholder at my allotment site has applied to keep bees.
Are there any issues I should be aware of?

Have you asked that plotholder whether he/she is properly insured
against problems arising from other plotholders who might be
allergic
to bee strings?

I think you'll find in Law, that to sue someone over a Bee sting is
virtually impossible. Firstly you have to prove that it was one of
their
bees, and secondly case law has established that Bees are not owned,
they
are just wild creatures to which you can offer a home.

In that case, I suppose one has to resort to a spot of arson as soon
as there is any serious trouble.

Franz

That would be very cruel and likely to attract retaliation. Better to
ignore it. In a healthy adult a bee sting won't do any lasting harm and
even the pain goes within 15 minutes or so.

On Sat, 19 Feb 2005 07:15:42 -0000, "Duncan Heenan"
wrote:


In a healthy adult a bee sting won't do any lasting harm and
even the pain goes within 15 minutes or so.

And the free jar of honey lasts *much* longer ;~}

=================================================

Rod

Weed my email address to reply.
http://website.lineone.net/~rodcraddock/index.html

That is unles you want to make yourself sick or something ;-)

Properly kept bees should cause no problem at all. I keep a hive in my
London back garden. I handle thousands of bees with bare hands. I have
only been stung once - and that was when I was doing something stupid.


If someone in your allotment keeps a car, it is much more likely to
damage you or your family.

Lazarus

--
Remover the rock from the email address

I had 18 bee hives and had no problems.

"Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning."

Ask Your Questions And Give Answers About Country Life And Homesteading
At:

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-an...20Homesteading

"Lazarus Cooke" wrote in message
om...

Properly kept bees should cause no problem at all. I keep a hive in my
London back garden. I handle thousands of bees with bare hands. I have
only been stung once - and that was when I was doing something stupid.


If someone in your allotment keeps a car, it is much more likely to
damage you or your family.

Lazarus

--
Remover the rock from the email address

That's got me wondering...

Is there actually any law against keeping a bee-hive in an urban back
garden? Or any catch-all "nuisance" laws that could be used to get them
removed?

Duncan

On Mon, 21 Feb 2005 20:21:13 +0000 (UTC), "Duncan"
wrote:

~
~"Lazarus Cooke" wrote in message
~news:210220050951503410%lazarus@stonecurlewfilms. com...
~
~ Properly kept bees should cause no problem at all. I keep a hive in my
~ London back garden. I handle thousands of bees with bare hands. I have
~ only been stung once - and that was when I was doing something stupid.
~
~
~ If someone in your allotment keeps a car, it is much more likely to
~ damage you or your family.
~
~ Lazarus
~
~ --
~ Remover the rock from the email address
~
~That's got me wondering...
~
~Is there actually any law against keeping a bee-hive in an urban back
~garden? Or any catch-all "nuisance" laws that could be used to get them
~removed?

It usually depends on your deeds. A lot of houses have restrictive
covenants which state what you can/cannot do in your property. Ours
has a ban on livestock, so we can't keep chickens or bees etc, whereas
the older houses whose gardens back onto ours can, and we hear the
clucking

Check your house deeds (assuming you have the freehold). A lot of folk
don't realise what's in them: the folk who owned ours before us
didn't, and built a conservatory. There's a clause in the deeds saying
we have to get permission from the builders to do anything which
alters the outside appearance of the house but they didn't notice, so
we had to get them to do it retrospectively before our on-the-ball
solicitor would let the sale proceed. Not sure that went down too
well!

If you rent, you'd have to go to the owner and get permission and
possibly find out what his/her deeds permit!


--
jane

Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone,
you may still exist but you have ceased to live.
Mark Twain

Please remove onmaps from replies, thanks!

In article , Duncan
wrote:



That's got me wondering...

Is there actually any law against keeping a bee-hive in an urban back
garden? Or any catch-all "nuisance" laws that could be used to get them
removed?

Bear two things in mind:

1) Most plants require pollination by bees to reproduce - that's how
flowers evolved to become what they are, and that's what they are
for!!!

2) Most wild bees in Britain have been wiped out by disease. Therefore
the majority of pollinating honeybees are kept by beekeepers.

given this, the law is very kind to beekeepers. If it weren't for them,
forget about rec.uk.gardening. There would be precious little
gardening/fruit/trees left.

But most beekeepers (including me) are insured.

Why are you so worried about bees? Compare the damage to human lives
caused per annum by bees to that caused by cars.

L

--
Remover the rock from the email address

In article ,
Lazarus Cooke wrote:

Bear two things in mind:

1) Most plants require pollination by bees to reproduce - that's how
flowers evolved to become what they are, and that's what they are
for!!!

Hmm. I rather doubt that is true. Try the following:

Many plants with decorative flowers (all vascular) that are hardy
in the UK require pollination by bees to reproduce. Not all of them
do. There are a hell of a lot of wind-pollinated plants, others
that are pollinated by other animals, a lot of asexual plants (even
excluding the unicellular ones), and some with some very strange
sexual practices.

2) Most wild bees in Britain have been wiped out by disease. Therefore
the majority of pollinating honeybees are kept by beekeepers.

Or are solitary bees (bumblebees etc.).

given this, the law is very kind to beekeepers. If it weren't for them,
forget about rec.uk.gardening. There would be precious little
gardening/fruit/trees left.

You might be surprised. It would definitely change the pattern out
of all recognition, but that is not quite the same.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

In article , Nick Maclaren
wrote:

In article ,
Lazarus Cooke wrote:

Bear two things in mind:

1) Most plants require pollination by bees to reproduce - that's how
flowers evolved to become what they are, and that's what they are
for!!!

Hmm. I rather doubt that is true. Try the following:

Many plants with decorative flowers (all vascular) that are hardy
in the UK require pollination by bees to reproduce. Not all of them
do. There are a hell of a lot of wind-pollinated plants, others
that are pollinated by other animals, a lot of asexual plants (even
excluding the unicellular ones), and some with some very strange
sexual practices.

2) Most wild bees in Britain have been wiped out by disease. Therefore
the majority of pollinating honeybees are kept by beekeepers.

Or are solitary bees (bumblebees etc.).

given this, the law is very kind to beekeepers. If it weren't for them,
forget about rec.uk.gardening. There would be precious little
gardening/fruit/trees left.

You might be surprised. It would definitely change the pattern out
of all recognition, but that is not quite the same.

I accept these modifications to what I wrote. Indeed I nearly went back
and modified it myself. (Although plants, like us, tend to have sexual
preferences. A bumblebee may fit the bill, or then it again, it may
not. A lot of plants aren't the right shape for a bumblebee.) The fact
is that, as you say, *'it would definitely change the pattern out of
all recognition'*. In other words, honeybees are an integral part of
the way life on earth goes on. Lose gardeners, and you won't lose much.
Lose bees, and you will.

If a beekeeper wants to keep his bees in a commercial orchard, he
doesnt' pay the orchard owner. The orchard owner pays him.

The other point is that there appears to be a wild ignorance of how
honeybees behave. What honeybees do is they go straight up in the air
from their hive to ten or fifteen feet, and head off at fifteen miles
an hour, which is fast going for such a tiny creature, to the nearest
*massive* source of nectar, which is likely to be a lime tree, or a
chestnut tree, or some other major source, up to two or three miles
away. As I say, I have a tiny Brixton garden, with a colony of bees at
the end. I hardly ever see my own bees on my own flowers - even my
lavender, my nasturtiums, my honeysuckle, five or ten feet away. Most
of them are off harvesting more fruitful sources. And once again,
I've been stung *once* by kept honeybees, after years of digging into
the homes of thousands and thousands and thousands of them with bare
hands.

I have, though, been stung several times walking through grass, in
other countries, in sandals, by bees which accidentally got swept up by
my feet. Not my fault, not theirs. They died, I didn't.

L

--
Remover the rock from the email address