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From: "Bill Truesdell" " Removing feral colonies in buildings can be a messy
job, especially in an urban setting. Most beekeepers I know would
> not handle that under those conditions just because of the potential of
stinging incidents and liability. Generally, they recommend a pest
> control business which has the necessary coverage, and who usually destroy
the colony"

We would all agree with that. Saving a particular colony where there is
conflict is often not practical. The same with trees on a development site.
But in UK the common principle is that for every tree a developer must
destroy, two new ones are planted in a more suitable location.  So the need
to destroy this colony could have been seen as an opportunity for local
beekeepers to negotiate a suitable site to locate a replacement hive(s)
within the city, from where care and interest in bees could be promoted to
the public .  In London, bees are kept on the publicly owned Kenwood estate,
at Roots and Shoots and various city farms.  The number of beekeepers within
London is growing. Many county beekeeping associations in UK have sites in
public parks.  In Paris bees have been kept in full public view in the
Luxembourg Gardens since the 1860's - and training courses are run.
Amsterdam has the most beautiful bee gardens , where several beekeepers keep
hives amongst exotic planting.  All these sites do wonders for promoting
beekeeping - and help to avoid incidents where holigans attack wild things
out of ignorance.
Exercising a love of violence for its own sake is not childish fun - it
indicates lack of opportunity for the child to learn about the world into
which he has been born - where 3/5 of his food is dependent on pollination
by bees.

I appreciate there are vast cultural differences between USA and Europe that
lead to different priorities.  But it seemed worthwhile to stress the
possible from the incident.  'A good bee is a dead bee' is a crude slogan.
Was it Einstein who said:' When the last bee dies, mankind has only five
days left'?

Robin Dartington

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