Stinging bees given animal Asbo

A beekeeper has been told to buzz off with his hives after his neighbours took him to court to have an animal anti-social behaviour order imposed on his swarm.

David Dickman was ordered to find a new home for his bees by a court after the family next door were stung repeatedly. A 12-year-old boy was among those attacked by the bees.

Dickman, 45, from Kinnesswood, near Kinross, has been given four weeks to move his hives away under the terms of an "annoying creatures petition."



Tony Dyson and his wife Nessa McHugh had gone to Perth Justice of the Peace Court to have an animal Asbo declared on the swarm being kept in Dickman's garden. Mr Dyson told the court that he and his wife had been stung on numerous occasions by the "black" bees kept in up to four hives by the physiotherapist.

"They continued to attack until you killed them or they stung you," Mr Dyson said. They are aggressive near hives to anything they perceive as a threat. He told me he could do what he liked as it was his own garden and it was none of our business. We were regularly stung and he said we would have to get used to it."

However, Dickman told the court he had been helpful to his neighbours and offered Mr Dyson a bee-suit when he was cutting the hedge.