Before getting my first bees here, I set up some hive boxes in my backyard a couple of weeks before arrival of the packages. A few days after setting up the hives, I saw one of my neighbors in his back yard, so went over the fence for some neighborly, unimportant b.s.ing. While we were talking I mentioned to him that I would have some bees for my hives in about a week. He was surprised that I was going to have bees and actually thought the hive boxes I'd set up were compost bins since I grow a few veggies in my yard too.
From time to time during the summer I'd see him and he'd usually ask how the bees were doing, etc. And, of course, he'd ask if I ever got stung. From his questions, it seemed he was somewhat interested in bees.
One day, while I was in my garage, his two little girls were playing out in their back yard, and I heard him say to them: "Hey, get away from that fence, he's got those goddam bees over there, you know!"
Although, my bees never harrassed him, I guess he still preferred that they weren't next door to him. He did enjoy the free jar of honey I gave to him at season's end though.