Honeybees on SSSI

[Vramin]

So it seems the general attitude here is "F**k the rest of the wildlife, as long as our honeybees are ok."

Small minded bunch of folk, aren't you.

We all know that bumblebee species are in serious decline, with many already absent from the Uk, and some reintroduction being attempted. What's wrong with certain areas being reserved for them? There are plenty of places to site beehives that aren't SSSI.

SSSI is designated for a reason, and should be respected, and indeed encouraged. God knows enough native habitat has already been destroyed by us.

 

[Black Comb]

Never seen so many bumbles as this year.
Many others (beekeepers and non beekeepers say the same).
Of course the size of this particular SSI may be relevant, half an acre or 20 acres?

 

[TOBY-3652]

Never seen so many bumbles as this year.
Many others (beekeepers and non beekeepers say the same).

call after call about bumble bees this year....... Iff bumble bees are so much in decline why are they not protected?????? any bees as the law stands can be destroyed. so one side of the sssi they are protected and the other side there not..

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

So it seems the general attitude here is "F**k the rest of the wildlife, as long as our honeybees are ok."

Small minded bunch of folk, aren't you.

We all know that bumblebee species are in serious decline, with many already absent from the Uk, and some reintroduction being attempted. What's wrong with certain areas being reserved for them? There are plenty of places to site beehives that aren't SSSI.

SSSI is designated for a reason, and should be respected, and indeed encouraged. God knows enough native habitat has already been destroyed by us.

Hold your horses butty - that's going a bit too far. SSSI are there for a reason, but putting hives on the land don't matter a jot - there's enough there for all the insects I the no beehive policy on SSSIwas applied in this area I can think of quite a few beekeepers who would be knackered.
This is obviously a petty little bureaucrat going that extra inch too far. There's quite a few in CCW that are the same and a handful in the National Park authority who are causing havoc in real people's lives

 

[Little John]

SSSI is designated for a reason ...

... and the reason for this one is ... ? Rare bats, rare orchids, rare newts - could be anything. How do you know it's bumble-bees ?

LJ

 

[madasafish]

Do beekeepers plant bee friendly plants, answer swarm calls, rescue bumble bee nests from gardens and do their best to help the environment?

Yes.

If that is ""F**k the rest of the wildlife, as long as our honeybees are ok.", then I am Finnish and have several hundred hives.

An offensive reply best suited to an unthinking environmental fanatic and I am sure is not meant by Vramin.

As for calling us "small minded"..


How to make friends and influence people...

 

[gavin]

SSSI is designated for a reason, and should be respected, and indeed encouraged. God knows enough native habitat has already been destroyed by us.

This kind of paper by Dave Goulson's group will be the reason for Natural England staff believing that, at some sensitive sites, excluding honeybee colonies makes sense. Whether or not the paper is actually right, I'll leave up to you to decide. Making correlations like that is fraught with difficulties.

http://www.sbes.stir.ac.uk/people/goulson/documents/goulson_sparrow_2009_jic.pdf

G.

 

[Margaret Elisabeth]

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

Dusty

 

[Vramin]

An offensive reply best suited to an unthinking environmental fanatic and I am sure is not meant by Vramin.

As for calling us "small minded"..


How to make friends and influence people...

Yes. Sorry. I do apologise. I really shouldn't post after lunchtime drinking. I feel rather embarrassed to have been so horrible. Just a bit of a sore point.

I know someone who had bats in his barn, but decided to disregard their protected status, as he thought it was his right to disturb them if he wanted. His barn was his castle and all that. So that was the end of those bats.

Sorry. Started again! I'll get off my high horse now.

 

[charlievictorbravo]

The paper cited above by Gavin states, rather tentatively , “..If honey-bees do impact on bumblebees as our data suggest, then care should be taken when positioning hives; for example it would seem sensible to avoid positioning large numbers of hives near or in sites where rare bumblebee species survive” It’s quite a leap from that tentative conclusion to a blanket ban on honeybee hives being situated in SSSIs.
The research that was done to back up the paper was undertaken in Scotland where, it is opined, the honeybee may not be native. As far as this forum topic is concerned, the SSSI is in Norfolk, where the honeybee is almost certainly native and where no evidence has been produced to suggest the SSSI in question is inhabited by surviving rare bumblebee species.
It would appear that this may be a case of “a little learning is a dangerous thing”!

 

[summo]

it would appear his data "suggests", which in science speak means there are no obvious conclusions at all, but I need to make it have a bit of a point, as somebody has funded my work and I don't want to make it look like I wasted time and money on research for a whole summer.

I farm here, we have about 20 hectares of sensitive meadows of different types, most would probably fall under SSSI in the UK, most are in a similar bracket here. Rulings are different as you aren't allowed to do anything which will impact the site, which includes on adjacent land, like digging drainage etc. which could alter neighbouring land...

But, bees not a problem, almost encouraged. From what I've observed, apart from on some trees, solitary bees and honey bees, are often targeting very different species. Indeed many meadow flowers are buzzing with bumbles, or have lots of butterflies, but the bees disappear off to other flowers sometimes. Looking at the flight path from my hives and the pollen colours.

It can't be that complex a study to do properly, plant observation, combined with pollen samples from hives/nests etc.. A very precise conclusion could be made and even area specific.

 

[madasafish]

Yes. Sorry. I do apologise. I really shouldn't post after lunchtime drinking. I feel rather embarrassed to have been so horrible. Just a bit of a sore point.

I know someone who had bats in his barn, but decided to disregard their protected status, as he thought it was his right to disturb them if he wanted. His barn was his castle and all that. So that was the end of those bats.

Sorry. Started again! I'll get off my high horse now.

Thanks.

 

[madasafish]

Record numbers of bumbles here. The plants they share with bees appear to be opium poppies and phacelia... hardly native to the UK. And limes when in flower.

But many other plants appear mainly visited by bumbles..and of course bumbles start earlier in the day and finish later than honeybees and fly in colder weather - so appear to have inherent advantages over honeybees when foraging.

I suspect a properly scientific study which measured these things quantitatively- eg pollen weight collected with/without honey bees present - would take years as there are so many variables. And cost a fortune. So until it is carried out, all a matter of opinion...

 

[Stiffy]

Thanks.[/QUOTE
Bats have been in serious decline and anyone who deliberately destroys a roost needs reporting to the police. With good mitigation the barn could have been converted and bats allowed to continue using it. Its people like this that make Natural England have such rigid ideas!
S

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

 

[RogueDrone]

I think another issue of hives on the SSSI, is also the fact of the BK trampling across it to get to the hives and the damage that would cause. NRW are approachable and will work with individuals and generally an agrement can be agreed. This is certainly the case on the SSSI for which I manage in Ceredigion.

Colin

 

[Sean.]

I think another issue of hives on the SSSI, is also the fact of the BK trampling across it to get to the hives and the damage that would cause. NRW are approachable and will work with individuals and generally an agrement can be agreed. This is certainly the case on the SSSI for which I manage in Ceredigion.

Colin

Why would they be trampling on it?

One of mine are on a area of Site Special Scientific Interest, and I don't trample all over it. I've been asked to put more in the area as the clover has been doing so well, and are the other flowers.

It's a bit daft putting bees where you would have to lug them across a ploughed field, or via a overgrown wood - don't think so.

 

[Hivemaker.]

No problems with keeping bees on land designated as "SSSI" here, there is thousands and thousands of acres of of it, most of the land in fact, National park and National Trust within that.