By Kathleen Clerc - VP of PCBA

As some of you know, I am an Urban Beekeeper. This kind of beekeeping is practiced in cities and neighborhoods in more populated areas. It can bring its challenges. I live on a 5000sqft lot in South Tacoma, and at one point I had 9 hives wintering here (for easy mite treatments through Fall). When spring came, my bees descended on EVERYONE. Even the most friendly and welcoming of my neighbors had something to say about how they had been effected. So with that, I communicate with them every year and work on making it as nice an experience as I can. I like to write an article every once in a while about how to stay friends with your neighbors when you are working in close quarters. The area in which I live in is a former redlined neighborhood. Basically that means it was a neighborhood designed for low income and segregated families. Neighborhoods such as mine, have very little trees, very little care has been taken to create an environment friendly to people, let alone to bees. It’s basically residential neighborhoods amidst industrial sites. In fact, one of the reasons I started to beekeep, was due to not ever seeing bees here, for 5 years straight. No kidding! My garden was pollinated by FLIES. You heard me correctly, FLIES. And actually there are articles coming out that state my observation to be true. Flies are the #1 most important pollinators, after bees. I digress. Due to the little resources naturally available to the bees, my bees were raiding everything they could! Especially water sources. I learned a lot the year that I had 9 hives on site here, I believe it was 2023. I continue to learn more and more each year. Firstly, that’s too many hives for this lot! The rest, I will write about below.Lessons I learned.

1.Bees are hungry for essential minerals. It help aid their digestion and make for happy healthy bees. A lot of these minerals are found in moss, algae and water sources. Having a water source is a legal requirement per Pierce County for keeping bees. I dug a pond in 2022, but I was not thinking about how important it was to train and bait the bees to actually use and enjoy the pond, EARLY in the season. I really learned that last year and took very seriously, baiting them by March. This left the bees exploring for water sources outside of my pond in previous years. They were raiding my neighbors hot tub, another neighbors pool, causing subsequent stings by going unnoticed or stinging during attempted rescue from the water. They were on the sides of cloth pots licking at the moss, and generally just in places they didn’t belong! It took a monumental effort to train them back to my pond last year. So this year I did it differently. I made sure to do a nice big water change on the pond once the daily temps started hitting above 50 degrees. And then I made sure to mineralize the water by adding pond salt. I make sure the pond is well salted. I leave the pond unshaded, so it grows a healthy amount of algae. The algae carries essential minerals for the bees too. I then put in wine corks and other floats for the bees to float on. My first year I did not do floats and had many bees unfortunately drown as I don’t have a good “bank” for them to line up on with the design of my pond unfortunately. Finally, and most importantly, I put drops of lemongrass oil around the pond. Not an enormous amount, but it serves as the bait. The lemongrass oil is the most essential part of baiting the bees to my source of water. How I keep the water, is how they decide to keep coming. They like it dirty! I keep it balanced enough.

2.Water source issues are absolutely the #1 challenge with being a good neighbor when those around you have pools or hot tubs, lake front properties, etc. Bees LOVE chlorine, and all the dead skin from people and bacteria in the water is, for some disgusting reason, their kryptonite. It is really hard to keep the bees from causing some trouble here and there. People want to enjoy their water! Your bees make that much less enjoyable and can be a cause for contention. Things my neighbors have tried have been, spraying citrus essential oils around the area, generally bees don’t like that too much. Upgrading the cover to their hot tub. Assessing for any manner of hole that the bees can climb into, because they will, 100%, and finally, cover it. Honestly, what worked best for one of my neighbors was to throw a tarp over the hot tub cover, that goes all the way to the ground. It was the only thing that finally stopped the bees. But when he has the hot tub open, it’s fair game… He’s already been stung this year. And he lets us know, every time… albeit kindly.

3.Recommend saucer-type hummingbird feeders. Bee tongues can’t hit the syrup with that type of feeder. Oh, and all red – no yellow. The yellow attracts the bees.

4.Motivate your neighbors! Victory gardens are a big deal on my block. Most of my neighbors are retired living on SSI and since covid, everyone who is anyone on my block, grows food. So when I brought the bees, generally it was met with enthusiasm! Their gardens are doing wildly well, and we love that we are given fresh veggies as a thank you. I like to give back and provide a good jar of honey to each house on the block, every year. This investment into my little neighborhood has really paid off. It has begun to bring everyone together and now in my 4th year, I have a big group chat with most of them, all discussing what is being planted, how to help the bees, and how to alleviate any issues with them. We all do something different. One neighbor grows a massive amount of tomatoes. Another, a ludicrous amount of squash. Obviously, I brought the pollination!This year, I went out of my way to provide each of my neighbors with a bag of native wildflower seeds, and that was a source of a lot of joy for everyone. I mean they were really really happy to plant these seeds. I think that is a direct result of our relationship building and good neighborly behavior. I can’t wait to see the flowers blooming and all of the insects we might see now because of it!

5.ALWAYS LISTEN. I do this by making sure that their concerns are heard in a non-confrontational way. I VALUE their opinions. I don’t push back at them when they are concerned, I use it as a learning opportunity and talk it through with them. Honestly, most of their concerns are based in lack of understanding or knowledge. And a calm, confident and friendly response is the key. People in life want to be heard. I follow up and invite them to my house to go through the hives with me. I educate them on things they can do at their house to help the bees! I make myself readily available for any and all questions. There is A LOT of this that goes in to being a good friend to your neighbors.

6.Reduce the chemicals! I educated my neighbors on their chemical use. My next door neighbor has a massive gravel driveway that he would spray with roundup each year. I spent a long time researching and found that rock salt (not the type they use for ice) has long lasting effects on reducing the growth of plants. This is our third year testing it out. We found that it requires A LOT of salt. But my neighbor has been wonderful. He hasn’t sprayed for 4 years now, and he goes through with the investment into rock salt. Each year he tried again, and the driveway is easier and easier to care for. Last year, we joined him! You need to be extremely careful of where you put the salt though as it will kill all the plants around. But honestly, it hasn’t done so permanently and as effectively as the internet will tell you, which is why we are applying so much more this year. We have areas that we truly do not want plants and never will. This is a much safer way to do so. It is certainly not the only answer to weeds, but it was my best answer for the problem that presented itself in our situation.

These are the problems and solutions that I have worked on for the last few years to keep a strong relationship with my neighbors. Your situation will be different and unique to each of you. I encourage you not to give in to frustration. Stay kind. Do your research. Reach out to me if all else fails. I love to research and find solutions! Happy beekeeping!