Would you buy a house next to someone who keeps bees?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What about bats? We're considering starting a bat house because our mosquitos are so vicious, but don't want to freak out the neighbors.

I'm scared of bats, but I hate mosquitoes - so I wouldn't know whether to hate you or love you

[Anonymous]

every evening you could watch the bats take off from house...that could be cool. Don't bee afraid of bats pp...vampires don't really exist.

[Anonymous]

Okay, here's a question from a person totally ignorant about bees and beekeepers...

I'm constantly chased by aggressive bees in the summer. Drives me crazy! Are these different than honey bees?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Okay, here's a question from a person totally ignorant about bees and beekeepers...

I'm constantly chased by aggressive bees in the summer. Drives me crazy! Are these different than honey bees?

Beekeeper here, no way to know without seeing the bees. Honey bees are not the same as wasps or yellow jackets though. They don't bite or sting repeatedly (die on first sting) and they are not the infamous BBQ crashers in your can of coke.

Where are you being chased? Watch the bees and see where they are going/coming from. One thing you can do is sprinkle powdered sugar on bees that bother you. Then they are easier to see when they fly off, so you can figure out where they are holed up. Snap a pic and go online to a beekeeper site like beesource.com or gardenweb.com and ask someone to identify it for you. I'd be surprised if it's a honey bee, unless you are close to their hive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Okay, here's a question from a person totally ignorant about bees and beekeepers...

I'm constantly chased by aggressive bees in the summer. Drives me crazy! Are these different than honey bees?

Are you walking near a hive or wearing smelly perfume and bright flowered prints? I mean, they can't figure out that you aren't a flower until they lick you...

Personally, I echo the sentiments of the majority: major bonus. In fact, I wonder if it means that yellowjackets/wasps/hornets are less likely to build a nest near you? If that's the case, then game on! It's the more aggressive, non-helpful flying insects that are a real nuisance. Those things will chase you down too!

[Anonymous]

Now I'm jealous I don't have more property. I want to keep bees. That sounds awesome. Sometimes I miss living in the country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:every evening you could watch the bats take off from house...that could be cool. Don't bee afraid of bats pp...vampires don't really exist.

LOL. I'm the one afraid of bats. It's not the vampires - its the fact I've always heard that they land on your head and get stuck in your hair. For some reason, that really freaks me out. Something about a bat on my head. Its even turned into a game. My son will pretend to be a bat and try to sit on my head (we talk about my love/hate relationship with bats - I love the fact they eat mosquitos but don't want them on my head).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Okay, here's a caveat. Have you ever had bees form a colony inside one of your exterior (brick) walls? We did. Not fun and not inexpensive to get rid of them. Honey dripping and bees buzzing up in the ceiling above our light fixtures. A few bees figuring out how to crawl beyond the fixtures. My apologies to those of you who think they're wonderful--yes, they are--but not if they migrate.

LOL! It happened to us as well. And we did not have a neighbor with bees, we live in a normal suburban cookie-cutter community. The cool thing we found out is that bees actually sleep at night, YES they sleep! We found sleeping bees all over the basement and learned they wake up, but are not "woken" up by you moving them. Though it cost os $1,000 including the wall repair, it was actually pretty cool.

OK, I'm strange, but we had bee keeper come in, take our bees, and he salvaged as much honey as possible for us that we used for a year until it was finished.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about bats? We're considering starting a bat house because our mosquitos are so vicious, but don't want to freak out the neighbors.

I'm scared of bats, but I hate mosquitoes - so I wouldn't know whether to hate you or love you

Our old house had TONS of bats. It was great in the summer to sit on the deck and watch the dozens and dozens of bats fly over our heads. We were so happy to know they were eating mosquitos.

However, one year they just disappeared, not a single bat to be found. I wonder what happened? It worries me because I know a generous bat population is indicative of a healthy environment.

[Anonymous]

correction: vampires do exist
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/15/aaron-homer-pleads-guilty-bloodsucking-case_n_836084.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Now I'm jealous I don't have more property. I want to keep bees. That sounds awesome. Sometimes I miss living in the country.

You don't have to live in the country. People keep them in NY city. On the patio, on the roof...

http://www.beekeeping.com/articles/us/taste_honey.htm

[Anonymous]

Op just out of curiousity what county/city is this in?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Now I'm jealous I don't have more property. I want to keep bees. That sounds awesome. Sometimes I miss living in the country.

Rooftops.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Okay, here's a caveat. Have you ever had bees form a colony inside one of your exterior (brick) walls? We did. Not fun and not inexpensive to get rid of them. Honey dripping and bees buzzing up in the ceiling above our light fixtures. A few bees figuring out how to crawl beyond the fixtures. My apologies to those of you who think they're wonderful--yes, they are--but not if they migrate.

LOL! It happened to us as well. And we did not have a neighbor with bees, we live in a normal suburban cookie-cutter community. The cool thing we found out is that bees actually sleep at night, YES they sleep! We found sleeping bees all over the basement and learned they wake up, but are not "woken" up by you moving them. Though it cost os $1,000 including the wall repair, it was actually pretty cool.

OK, I'm strange, but we had bee keeper come in, take our bees, and he salvaged as much honey as possible for us that we used for a year until it was finished.

e

You mean the honey that dripped from the ceiling? Cool.