"Bogansky." Usually when bees, or
> anything else, come under attack the cause is one of two reasons.  A
> negative incident, which at best all you can do is damage control,
> because the Genie is out of the bottle, or an uninformed individual that
> just assumes having the bees in the area is cause for concern.  There is
> a possibility of working with this one but it just may be easier to move
> to the country.  Seriously, the best thing we can do, as already
> mentioned by others, is put forth a positive image and work really hard
> to educate the public.
> Right now I am wondering what has been benefit of my starting this
> discussion "

Well, it's August - hot , wet and the silly season for news.  We had some
fun with this one - so worth it on its own.

Obviously, when suggesting negotiation in the midst of 'pandemonium' , my
tongue was in my cheek.  But the theme was surely useful in discussing that
the public should be induced to take a balanced view of bees - colonies
cannot be left where they endanger humans but unless space is provided for
bees in suitable places then the public will miss out on understanding their
true nature,  and dangerous incidents can happen.  The kids who threw stones
could easily be dead now if the colony was truly AHB that behaved as just
described by Dennis.  More positively, selling honey depends (in UK at
least) on a positive association of bees with the 'good life', the mythical
golden days of old, purity, food of the classical Greek gods.  I would not
sell many jars of 'killer juice' in the market.  I was seeking to make the
point that any publicity gives the opportunity to propose change - the
suggestion could have been made,  after the bees had gone, that there should
be a place where bees are kept in the city , and parents and schools can
visit for interest.

As has been said, there are many places in Europe where bees are on public
display, most often on sites provided by city authorities.  In my small town
the 'city farm' has an obs hive and beekeepers hives alonside the cows, pigs
and chickens.  And of course there are many reportsof bees being kept
peacably in US towns.  Mayor Richard Daley put three hives on the roof of
Chicago City Hall; David Graves advertises for private New York roofs and
sells 'New York City Roof-top honey' for 8 dollars a half pound.   There are
said to be 300 hives within Paris - and there are far more in London where
beekeeping is said to be trendy.

Bees are NOT  inherently dangerous (unless AHB) - any more than guard dogs.
French beekeepers get annual insurance for 1 euro (=1 dollr) ; UK beekeepers
get insurance included with their subscription.  All the public sites will
have been obtained originally thru negotiation -  cooperation between local
beekeepers and authorities.

Keth and I entered the fray because the general reaction on the list was so
one-sided.  Acording to the media reports only 4 people got stung - before
the fire brigade arrived and caused the pandemonium.  My colonies are often
quiet enough not to need a veil - but put one in a city and throw stones and
I could get a better sting-count.   So this was a fuss about nothing , but
everyone was saying 'BAD bees, that should be destroyed without a second
thought'.

If beekeepers do not promote a reasonable attitude to bees, who will?  Ron
says 'easier to retreat to the country, you cannot argue bees are doing good
in a town'.  I am surprised.  Perhaps noone has a garden in US towns?

Robin Dartington

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