I am Lee from Newport beach. Finally got myself a hive and gathering as much info as I can before introducing some bees.
I am lucky enough to live on a decent sized (for Sydney) block of bushland with minimal neighbours. The neighbours that I do have are all not likely to be affected by my bees other than to enjoy seeing them in their gardens and of course jars of honey as gifts.
I am considering placing my hive on my (flat) roof facing the entrance NE direction. I get dappled tree shade so not too worried about it getting too hot and the trees also give some shelter from the summer NE winds.
If there is anyone out there who would be interested in checking out my setup to be sure im on the right path that would be great. I want to get it right.
Thanks for the reply. Iām up on my roof fairly often clearing out the gutters and enjoying the view. Itās a flat roof with a slight downward pitch but very easy to walk on. Iād happily let me 2 and 4 year old kids up there with
my supervision. I am going to use some wedges to off-set the roof pitch and provide a level platform for my hive to sit on.
Iāve got to write up a leaflet to letterbox drop for my surrounding neighbours informing them of the bees and offering honey during one of our annual street party/meetings in return for them to be mindful and reduce or not use any
pesticides. I canāt be sure that some of them donāt use chemicals on their gardens but if they knew I had bees and the benefit to their garden and flowers perhaps they would adjust their garden care routine.
I have other places I could put the hive but the roof is actually the most practical. Itās out of the way but a large flat platform to work on and the bees can come and go without flying into anyone. I was wondering about strong
winds/storms and how much the flow hives can handle before I might hear a loud bang on the roof as it blows overā¦
Sometimes itās better to seek forgiveness than ask permission. We live in a minority based society now, unfortunately it only takes oneā¦
My hives are in a wind tunnel that rips the shade cloth off the pergola near every year yet I have never had a lid blown off or hive over I have however replaced the Flow roof with a migratory lid.
Hi there @leekelly and congrats on your new hive! As Skegs said, it can be risky to announce your bees to your neighborsā¦but I do think the idea of promoting awareness of the importance of avoiding pesticide use is a very good one, regardless. A gift of surprise honey to a deserving household is always neighborly - just be careful about promises, sometimes beekeeping doesnāt always lead to a honey harvest
I agree with @Eva, I wouldnāt do the letterbox drop either. Call me āmeanā but I donāt give free honey to neighbors. If they want some, they come & buy it from me at my usual affordable price, on top of that, they have to bring their own containers.
Weāre doing a service by providing bees that visit their flowers. They owe us.
I agree Jeff, and wish that more people recognized that. I live in a very friendly suburb with good connections among neighbors, but have noticed that some folks have extremely little knowledge or even awareness of the natural world, even as they plant flowers in their yards. Thereās a good deal of hysteria about bees, because so many confuse them with more aggressive species.
Interesting that you feel that way. I think here in Australia there is a really good understanding of how special bees are. I think there may have been some decent media attention about the plight of bees world wide and coinciding
with the release of the Flow system it gave rookies like me the confidence to give it a go on a small backyard scale with the main purpose being to save the world and get a bit of honey on the side. Iām on āgood morningā¦ā terms with the people in my little
street and most are older couples who take pride in their gardens and we have wild turkeys and rabbits roaming around (its suburban coastal forest) with lots of trees and nature reserves all around. My own land is a decent size (as far as Sydney house blocks
go) with most of is native bushland and now that itās spring the whole place is blooming with god knows what flowers ha ha so Iāll have to learn all about them. I have bees in my yard at the moment and not sure if theyāre just wild or come from a distant hive.
I love them and canāt wait to get my own bees setup.
I just built my hive and it was an experience but I got there.
Oh sorry! To answer the question, I think most people around here are chilled about bees unless there are young children who have not yet been stung and allergy concerns etc my ex wife was even worried about our little ones as we
donāt know how they will react if stung. When I was a kid in the 80ās bee stings were a weekly thing.
Your neighborhood and surroundings sound lovely! Where I live there is too strong an interest in development for $$$ and that seems to reinforce discomfort with proximity to wild land. I love beekeeping in my small, backyard way, but leaving aside large tracts of wild land is of course the truly meaningful way to help bees and other species facing extinction.
We live in a minority based society now, unfortunately it only takes oneā¦