Naybours

Sad to hear that two fellow bloggers on either side of the Atlantic are concerned with neighbours. Rufus felt he had to move his bees from North London to an undisclosed village; the other doesn't want urban neighbours to know that bees may be nearby, so I'm being very discreet about that location.

I once kept bees in my uncle's large (by British standards) suburban garden in southern England. One neighbour had been stung by his bees years before, so decided to become a beekeeper (good for her!). She often looked like she'd been in a boxing match with puffy eyes after she'd been stung (I never did figure out why she was stung so much.)

I eventually had to move my bees from his garden (I still miss the fantastic honey they brought in) because his son-in-law was stung, had a bad reaction and was severely warned off by his doctor. Conscientious as I'd like to think I am, even then I thought the doctor over-reacted. And I'm glad to say the victim thinks so too now -- he has since been stung since with no alarming results.

I'm lucky that my neighbours are very good even though one got stung on the tip of his nose once. I laughed heartily -- but not before he laughed first!

I only keep nucs (small mating colonies) in the garden now mainly because my black cat has threatened to leave home if I ever bring a full colony in again. I well remember sitting in the garden once -- she jumped on my lap and after about a minute a bee landed on the very tip of her black nose, Whether she was actually stung I'll never know because I have never seen a tiny cat scale a seven foot wall so fast. She didn't return 'til nightfall. The rest of the household (and visitors) have escaped sting-free (so far).

Oh, BTW, Rufus, I do hope bee stings in the hindquarters aren't responsible for that condition known as megarectum?