Oh dear bee loving people everywhere can you help me find a way to keep bees? My yard is perfect for bees except, I happen to live in a "townhome" which means I share a wall of my house with a neighbor and my other neighbor's dwelling is only about 10 feet from mine. We all have 6 foot fences but the real killer is the dreaded HOA, a Home Owner's Association. Stupid me, I thought it would be okay when I bought the place and that cooler heads would save the day and dissolve the HOA once the developer had sold all the units or at the very least that we would meet regularly and discuss the absurdities of the original document and make amendments, but NOOOOO, we must abide by the document however stupid it is so that we can maintain our property values. I am so stupid it amazes me that I've lived this long.
Anyway, now I have bee fever. I've got this bee heaven backyard that feral bees liked so much earlier this spring that they settled into an upside down clay pot. At that point in time, having heard all the media hype over AHBs in recent years, I was somewhat intimidated by the bees and called a local live bee removal fellow (if he's reading this he probably knows who he is) and he took away the little ladies, pot and all. Oh how lucky I was to have free bees but I figured the neighbors would turn me in to the HOA, aka Gestappo, and that would be just one more strike against me. You know, someone in these neighborhoods is always keeping score. In fact one of the ladies on the "board" was complaining to me just this afternoon that my new next door neighbor's husband "seems to go around without a shirt a lot", "my other next door neighbor's husband does the same thing" I said. I wonder if the heat has something to do with it or is it just a guy thing? But I digress.
Does anyone out there have any suggestions about how to go about finding a place to keep some bees? I know my yard is good and would be nice to have them so close to keep an eye on things but I really need another place. Any ideas?
Thanks!