Legal enquiry

[Bgood]

Dear Bee Keepers,
The owner of the field next to our Play group has placed 2 hives near to where the children play. For safety sake I wondered if there was a recomended minimum distance for the hives to be located.
Many thanks Bgood

[Chris]

There is no 'minimum safe distance'.

It is down to the judgement of the beekeeper. He or she has responsibility for the safety of other people, and if beekeepers do not locate hives sensibly then members of the public can pick up stings, and this can invite liability claims against the owner of the bees.

The vast majority of beekeepers are very sensible and considerate, and the last thing they want is for memebers of the public to get stung and for them to visit a lawyer. Most beekeepers aim to keep their activities 'hassle free'.

In practice, and even over quite short distances, bees are unlikely to be a problem for members of the public for most of the time. The risk of stinging is increased if and when a beekeeper has to open up his hive and go through his colony, and this might be a once weekly/half hour thing.

I could sit on the top of my beehives hour after hour and day after day without getting stung, however, when I go through my colonies I check that no members of the public are around to be on the safe side.

[G4WIL]

Hi bgood,
as with all things, common sense should rule the day :).
Have you spoken to the guy?
Maybe he didn't think about the play group, when he located his hives. If he owns the field, then surely you could come to a mutual understanding with reference to where he puts them!
For instance he could place a screen so the bees are guided way above the heads of the children, and also agree not to work on the hives when your play group is in session.
Maybe it is vehicular access the hives that has caused him to place them where they now stand.
Should he agree to move them, then even though it's the active season , he could move then 3' at a time to where ever in the field is more appropriate :)
Finally, I wouldn't let this situation fester, I would speak the the man, and also contact the local branch of the BBKA, for advice, maybe he is new to beekeeping and needs a little guidance:cool:.

John Wilkinson

[Norm]

If it was in Spain, I think I am right in saying it would have to be more than 100m away. If the beekeeper is the owner of the land, presumably he is aware of the play group playground. If so, he is being totally irresponsible knowing lots of little uns will be running around near his hives and reporting him to the local authority is in order. He doesn't deserve a discussion.:mad:

[Adam]

When I kept bees on my local allotment, there was no minimum distance, it was only by sense of duty that meant I put up a large mesh round them to make them fly up into the air. This was right on the boundary of side-by-side plots - I had no problems and no reports of stings at all by the neighbouring allotment holders, despite some initial reservations.

I was careful to select times to inspect when my neighbours weren't visiting.

Adam

[Beeswax]

I thought that it was 10m from any public road or bridleway.

Bob

[ChrisBroad]

There is not to my knowledge any legally specified distance. I think the law would have more to say about negligence if something went wrong, but this is open to interpretation. The beekeeper will know the temper of the bees and the likelihood is he/she has made a judgement about a safe distance (how near are they?). Where the beekeeper has failed is to liaise and reassure you in advance.

I think there is an opportunity for some valuable education for the kids. It's not acceptable to expose them to unreasonable risk of harm. But its also not in their interests to instil irrational fear into them. A healthy respect is the right balance. If they can see the hives but not feel threatened then that's about right.

I'm also wondering, are the beekeeper and the landowner the same person? If the field is oilseed rape coming into bloom it's probably a temporary arrangement and they'll be gone in 6 weeks.

Regards
Chris

[momo]

Taken from another site:

There are no laws as such mentioning keeping bees in the UK and prosecutions against beekeepers have been on the grounds of ‘Statutory Nuisance’ , "Whereby interference with the enjoyment of the neighbouring property is a prerequisite"

Part Three of the 1990 Environmental Protection Act has a list of nuisances to which abatement (reduction) procedures apply. These include the nine listed below:

6.Any animal kept a place or manner which is harmful to health or a nuisance (See section 79(1)(f))

[Adam]

I think we need the original poster back to fill in some more details. Exact distance, any trees in between, have they spoken with the beekeeper etc? Is it temporary.

Adam