Honeybees on SSSI

I've been offered a lovely site on a SSSI by the landowner. However, this has just been stamped on by Natural England as "The honeybees will deprive bumblebees and other nectar/pollen gatherers of their food".

Nice to know they are doing their bit. They don't seem to be able to come up with any research/evidence to back this up, and seem utterly uninterested in the fact that there is a majority of flowers that bumbles and moths work in which honeybees have no interest.

Not looking for a debate...just fairly amazed and unsurprised at the same time.

Too much power and not enough knowledge. Just saying!

Leigh said:

I've been offered a lovely site on a SSSI by the landowner. However, this has just been stamped on by Natural England as "The honeybees will deprive bumblebees and other nectar/pollen gatherers of their food".

Nice to know they are doing their bit. They don't seem to be able to come up with any research/evidence to back this up, and seem utterly uninterested in the fact that there is a majority of flowers that bumbles and moths work in which honeybees have no interest.

Not looking for a debate...just fairly amazed and unsurprised at the same time.

Too much power and not enough knowledge. Just saying!

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Too much of our tax money swilling around in their pot!

It does seem from other decisions as well that natural England is operated by a bunch of clowns - mind you their former counterpart in Wales (what used to be the CCW) wasn't much better - hopefully we can influence the new mob - Natural resources Wales to the better (there may be a chance, the meetings i've had so far seems promising)

You should try being a shell fisherman under their juristiction...don't get me started on that!

Leigh said:

You should try being a shell fisherman under their juristiction...don't get me started on that!

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What part of North Norfolk? one of our skippers in a Wells lad,met some of the crabbers there when we were working the area. I think his brothers still fish

Brancaster Staithe....a few miles West of Wells.

Edwards boys? Shaun is the one whose a skipper with our mob, used to do the ILB as well, i think he's moved away now after he split up with his wife

Meanwhile, back at the topic...

I do sometimes wonder about this, how the environmental plusses and minuses of beekeeping balance out.

Honeybees are now a farmed species, so having more honeybees per se is no more an environmental gain than having more sheep or cows. Sheep and cows can provide environmental benefit in maintaining grassland habitats, but the same habitats can be destroyed by overgrazing. In the same way honeybees can provide useful pollination services and thereby maintain wildflower species, but if their numbers in an area are too great it stands to reason they will limit the forage available to other insect species.

I have seen my bees driving bumbles off desirable flowers, 'duffing them up' quite fiercely.

It's true there are flower species which can only be accessed by insects with longer probosces, but most flowers are accessed by a range of insects including honeybees.

I know someone with a watermeadow filled with himalayan balsam and willowherb. I was going to ask if I could put a hive or two there, but seeing the amazing number of bumbles and others feeding I didn't, as this was clearly an important resource for them.


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I dare you to find a site just the other side of the fence.....

Dusty

....that is exactly what I intend to do!

Leigh,
Are you saying that even though a person might be the owner of an SSS1 Natural England are final arbiters of whether you can keep bees on it?
If so I am absolutely astounded. Man and his Castle my A**e!!!!

Leigh said:

However, this has just been stamped on by Natural England as "The honeybees will deprive bumblebees and other nectar/pollen gatherers of their food".

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I don't suppose you have a link to some official policy for that? I'm on the brink of doing just the same, although it might be easier to apologise than seek permission

Cie said:

I don't suppose you have a link to some official policy for that? I'm on the brink of doing just the same, although it might be easier to apologise than seek permission

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I phoned Natural England, and they said that each SSSI had its own officer (that wasn't the word they used, but it'll have to do), and they made up their own policy for each individual SSSI - they claimed there was no blanket policy on this. The farm manager was reluctant to tell the landowner of the situation because he knows how much it will p*ss him off....the same reason that I haven't approached this officer directly. I'd dearly love to know his reasoning though. It doesn't seem to be an isolated incident.

They are a law unto themselves....and they really do take things too far.

Well as far as I'm concerned, a lack of policy means that it's personality driven, so they can jog on!

I'm utterly disgusted at that. I think i'll ring them up and ask them why they don't have a blanket policy.

M

It sounds the same sort of policy as the Wildlife Trusts, that will only allow 'native honey bees' on their sites.

Unless the species the 'officer' has in mind are a statutory protected species, or otherwise under some kind of expertly-agreed threat, I don't see how he/she has the authority to be making such a claim. For otherwise it's just one person's opinion - which could well be heavily prejudiced.

Might be worth contacting one of the papers - human interest story/ honeybee population in extremis etc.

LJ

Some of these quangoes are costing Great Britain plc a fortune. Not far from me, on the A38 Dobwalls Bypass they spent the thick end of £350,000 building two bat bridges. These things look like rope bridges and were built across the new dual carriageway on the line of old hedges, removed during site clearance for the new road, so that the bats did not get lost! Bats apparently use landscape features like hedges for navigation (as do most living things).
I don't know how the bats fared between site clearance and completion of the bridge (two years), presumably they stayed at home or got so lost that they had to abandon their roost!
All of this was done at the behest of "the environmental lobby" without any thought either for the practicalities or the cost. Such obdurate prodigality should not go unpunished.
Back on topic, I would be surprised if Natural England would take this matter anywhere near a court, if push came to shove, because they have no evidence. All the beekeeper is doing is re-introducing a native species into an area from which feral colonies have disappeared, due to varroa, etc. Unfortunately, the landowner may not want the hassle.

Is the Natural England "Officer" trying to keep this as a site for their own or a mate's bees??? ;p