Last week I was asked by an apprentice (who helps manage a landed estate) to identify the owner of an apiary on a part of their land that they are selling. The hives had been there for years without any agreement and they didn't know whose they were.  A previous beekeeper, many years earlier and now long-gone, used to pay with the traditional jar of honey per annum, which the estate was happy with (it works out at roughly £77,000 per acre using the National hive with the 18 "square footprint) but there was no agreement with the new chap who'd been there only a decade or two.

I Facebooked the prime suspect but he denied it and suggested another person who is living abroad but still, I know, has bees over here. No other clues though. Eventually I visited the site and on some of the boxes found brand marks giving the first 3 letters of the name of a local commercial beekeeper.  I passed my deductions on to my apprentice who made contact and came to an amicable agreement that he would shift his hives over the next couple of months. He had wintered them there for a very long time, but I'm not surprised that he was so readily persuaded to depart as many of the boxes had woodpecker damage.

It would save a lot of hassle if the beekeeper had had an agreement with the owner and paid in honey.

Chris

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