Layne, Peter, et al,

Having read both sides of the issue, I feel how precarious our beekeeping
is.

Although I have never had any incident with my neighbors, although I live
at the outskirt of a city, although my bees are on my and others’ private
properties, and most important, although I did serve my community by
removing bees, appearing on TV and newspaper, etc.—-I am well aware that a
money-mongering tort lawyer can eat me up alive tomorrow, just as he/she
would gobble up any small business in California now.  Family-owned,
generations-old restaurants are sued, right and left, and are going belly
up by these vultures and their scams, according to late NPR news.  Worse,
they charge the business-establishment thousands of dollars, milking
profits without labor—-without even actually going to the court.

Sure, I am ready to defend myself, arguing to the injured party to prove
that they were MY bees that stung him/her; luckily, my apiaries are
surrounded by numerous feral colonies, and I know most of their nests.  I
certainly do not want to buy insurance for my hobby other than the home-
owner’s.  On the other hand, if someone dies from a mass-stinging
incident, I feel someone must pay the family something if the incident had
happened in the vicinity of my colonies.

Knowing such dilemma, I trod lightly—practicing “defensive beekeeping,”
just in case.  For instance, I situate my bees in a secluded area, as far
away from neighbors as possible, sometimes using double tree-fence lines
[forty to seventy feet high] and others in the middle of nowhere
surrounded by huge round bales.  Out in the country, their water sources
are largely ponds and nearby river.  All three apiaries are a hair out and
away of the city limit to beat any argument through technicality if
necessary.

Most important, I try to know my bees’ temperament, work accordingly, and
handle as gently as I can under the circumstance.  Given such
precautionary measures, all taken in advance by a beekeeper, I hope the
jury members would find me fair should I end up standing before them.  A
single queen, at times, would produce unevenly tempered workers—-depending
on the batch of sperm she had garnered in the open-mating—so that you
don’t always have to requeen if your apiary is situated far away from any
residence: you are the only one who has to put up with their antics for a
while.


Yoon