Hi Folks,

Bit of an odd one this. A business I work for will be undertaking some work on the roof of an office building in central london (HVAC stuff). The client has recently installed a beehive on the roof I understand as part of their corporate/social responsibility / trying to be eco friendly drive.

The work required has to take place near the beehive any ideas on what precautions might be neccesary?

I would suggest no-one who is known allergic to beestings and keep arms and legs covered and a hat, but wondering wether we need to go to the extent of having a beekeeper in with the smoke thing they use etc.

Cheers.

Thanks a few useful bits in there.

These flight paths change frequently depending on where the food source is. There might be days when you're in the flight path!

The old gag goes:

#1 "I keep bees"

#2 "What, against their will?"

Hello

My wife keeps bees, and I get dragged in to help - the bees don't seem to like me much, and I don't react well to getting stung. When I go anywhere near them, I am fully booted and suited!

If I were you, I would ask the firm to contact the bee-keeper and ask them to move the bees for the duration of the work. This can easily be done.

Whilst the advice here is good, I know from personal experience that they can be very moody depending on what is going on within the hive; the weather; and how much food is about. They get particularly stroppy when it gets windy, as it often is on the top of high buildings.....

Believe me they do not like power tools!! I tried using a strimmer near a couple of our hives and had to beat a hasty retreat when they flooded out in considerable numbers with malice aforethought.

This topic is novel and evidently caused quite a buzz yesterday!! Asking the hive owner and also bee experts for advice is sensible as already suggested. Also, if the bees hibernate or expire during the winter months, this could offer a (relatively) safe season window.

Straying off topic (as I tend to do) I wonder what London honey tastes like, and also just how many flowers there are in Central London from which the bees can collect nectar. Even so, despite my limited knowledge of such matters, I understand that bees help to provide a vital service in pollinating plants with flowers. If there isn't much competition from other hives, perhaps the bees involved have plenty of flowers to visit.

Also, mention of a safe season reminds me to think about removing a number of wasps’ nests from my loft during the coming winter. I found them during the summer but, though they were probably from two or more summers ago and likely to be empty, I chose to leave them alone as they were close to the eaves and unlikely to get disturbed. Although I understand that only queen wasps survive through winters, I’ll probably still put on gloves and my anti-midge net - just in case. Years ago I removed a wasps’ nest in winter from a friend’s loft and was amazed by how such small insects could collectively produce such a large structure and especially the hexagonal chambers inside. As it seemed a shame to just chuck the nest away another friend took it (sawn in half to reveal the chamber pattern) to display at the primary school where she worked.