I spoke to one of our state inspectors last week and
told him about my neighbors and their complaints about
my bees.  He came out to evaluate the situation on
Friday.  He even offered to mediate the situation.
However, I didn't want to start that at this point as
it didn't seem necessary.  I'd rather wait to see if
things got any worse between the neighbors and us.

While the inspector was here, we stood around the
hives and discussed a few things.  The entire time we
stood there, NOT one bee flew through my neighbor's
yard.  Their flight path, aided by the fence that
surrounds the beeyard on three sides has forced them
to go out the front parallel to the property line and
continue going on their way.

The inspector suggested putting up additional stockade
fencing.  So, to appease the neighbors, we put up two
additional sections of 6' tall stockade fencing.  This
is placed beyond the existing stockade fence, and is
parallel to the property line.  Also, in the fall, we
are going to move the hives closer to our shed - about
10 feet closer to our house than theirs.  I doubt if
this will make much of a difference, especially since
the bees do not fly through their property in any
great amount, but they will see that we are doing
something to keep the bees away from them (even if its
only psychological).

We have a large pond in our backyard which provides a
water source for the bees.  There were a large number
of bees collecting water there while the inspector was
visiting.  So, as far as providing a source of water,
we cannot be faulted there.  If some of our bees
frequent the neighbor's pond, we cannot control that.


We did notice our neighbors having a cookout on
Memorial Day.  We watched them every so often to see
if they were having any "bee problems".  It didn't
appear that they were - no one was swatting at
anything.  We also noticed the neighbors working in
their garden and not being bothered by any bees as
well.

I do think that "out of sight, out of mind" applies
here.  It certainly did the first three years that I
had the bees when they were out of sight of the
neighbors.

Thank you to everyone who replied to my questions - it
is much appreciated.  I especially enjoyed the story
about the empty hives and continuing complaints.  <g>
I think this fence will help - they can't see the
hives, nor can they see the amount of bees coming and
going to and from the hives.

Zee


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