New beekeepers are often worried about where to keep their bees and ask “can I keep bees in my garden?” In the UK there are no actual laws about where you can keep bees, other countries are different. Whilst the law allows you to keep bees in your garden there are still many things to take into consideration.
Your Lease
First of all, if you are in rented accommodation you need to check your lease as many landlords don’t allow livestock.
Neighbours
Secondly, what about the neighbours? Whilst officially they cannot object you must remember that in general the ability of people to tolerate other living things around them gets less and less by the day. Just because they are enthusiastic about save the whale doesn’t mean they will be the same about flying stinging insects and can make life difficult. You should also keep in mind that on a nice summer day when you are inspecting your bees in a full protective suit your neighbour may well be sunbathing or having a BBQ the other side of the fence.
It is also worth remembering that a tiny number of people are severely allergic to bee stings and it is worth checking with neighbours in case any of them suffer in this way.
Creating a good atmosphere where your neighbours are happy to stay inside for half an hour or so while you look at your bees will be very useful. A couple of jars of honey usually goes a long way here. Maybe you could even get them into a bee suit every once in a while!
Access
Access can often be an issue when it comes to keeping bees in gardens. Don’t forget that everything is nice and light when you put your hive in place but hopefully you will soon have to move very heavy supers to wherever you are going to extract your honey. Make sure that you have adequate access. The good thing about them being in the garden is that at least they are close by and you don’t have to drive out to your hives every week. Also, it makes it very easy to keep an eye on them.
Time & Equipment
Keeping bees in your garden will dramatically cut down on the amount of time you spend getting to and from your bees. You don’t need to worry about not having the correct bit of equipment in the back of the car as you will have everything close at hand. This is always a big advantage.
Distance From The House & Obstructions
Another thing to take into account is the distance between your house and your hive or hives. Hopefully you will have selected a calm bee such as Buckfast but even the calmest of bees are allowed an off day. This might be because they have lost their queen or stores are short or the weather is bad. Whatever the reason, you don’t want emotional bees just outside your back door. It’s also important to remember that even the best beekeepers lose a swarm occasionally and once again you don’t want that happening right next to the house.
Pets & Children
If you have calm bees then it is often the case that pets and children are more of a problem to the bees than the other way around. However both can be inquisitive and this can lead to them getting stung. It is also good advice to keep pets (especially long haired ones) away from the hive as bees can get caught in their hair which causes the bees to panic and sting.
As you can see from the above there are advantages and disadvantages if you keep your bees at home. For most people the advantages will outweigh the disadvantages but as with keeping any animals think carefully before deciding on the position for your hive.
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