Are there urban beekeepers here?

[dogwood]

Is anyone on BCUK doing urban beekeeping as mentioned in this article?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090920/ts_afp/britainenvironmentfarmbees

This is just so cool!

I would love to get into this and do my bit to help stem the decline (not to mention honey!!), but since I live right in San Francisco I worry the effect on neighbors etc.

If there are any urban beekeepers here, can you post some thoughts on it?

 

[TeeDee]

That looks very interesting. Thanks for posting up.

 

[dogwood]

I've just done a little searching locally and it turns out that the San Francisco Bay Area is sort of a hotbed for urban beekeeping in the US...

http://www.sfbee.org/Welcome.html

However, given the varied skills of BCUKers, my guess is we've got some here. So I've got my fingers crossed that you'll post your experiences.

 

[y0dsa]

We keep three colonies of bees and neighbours can be, shall we say, problematic. It seems we are not alone in this:

http://www.thecourier.co.uk/output/2009/09/18/newsstory13804743t0.asp

Don't expect neighbours to welcome your initiative, even if so called urban beekeeping is becoming more accepted.

But hey, go for it. Bees are wonderful and amazing and rewarding!

 

[dogwood]

We keep three colonies of bees and neighbours can be, shall we say, problematic.

I'd really appreciate some more information on your experience and advice with respect to neighbors on this.

Some specific questions:

Did you approach the neighbors in advance before setting up the hives?

Do you share any of the honey harvest with them?

Do the neighbors object because of actual problems with the bees or simply because they just have a worry about it?

Do the neighbors have kids and do kids affect their feelings?

Any further info you can provide would be greatly appreciated!

 

[EdS]

looks like an adaption of a top bar hive that uses frames rather than natural comb.

Have a look for on google for top bar hives- there are loads of plans. You could alter them by making it straigh sided and then use frames