1. We no nothing about the beekeepers experience, skill level, or general ability to get along with others.
2. In Boston, we've had people come in from neighboring states, setup warre hives in the city as a business...the cheap price being due to the fact that they won't have to come into town and check the bees often...after all, they are in a warre hive. When this issue (and my comments about swarming) made it back to the warre list, almost universally, the members there objected to any objection to bees swarming in the city. In short, not all beekeepers are knowledgeable, not all are smart, not all are responsible.
3. If a beekeeper is quoted in the paper, or makes a statement to a judge or mediator along the lines of, "yes, I have bees on my property, but that doesn't impact the neighbors chances of getting stung", they will lose all credibility.
4. Last spring we got some packages that were "lousy with virgins"...whole installed packages swarmed off the first day. Some of our neighbors have swimming pools (and I know the bees visit them).
5. Although I'm not aware of any of our neighbors getting stung, we have had people stung during inspections who were further from the hive being opened than the property line.
6. I think everyone should use whatever protection they feel comfortable with...but I've been in lots of beeyards with Michael Bush, and if he's in a bee yard where hives are being opened, he is the first to put on a veil. This isn't a criticism, but an observation that even he knows that once hives are opened the chance of stinging goes way up...we have a big (multifamily) house on a not so big lot...we have hives within a couple of feet of the property lines.
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