Picture posting is enabled for all :)
Where are you? You need the local Beekeepers' Association, but there's a fair chance that your friend with the bees and the other plotholder will already belong to it. They're the obvious people to ask. With close neighbours you want good-tempered bees, not followers, and from a strain that doesn't swarm too much. Following is when they keep buzzing around people, and it creates stinging incidents which you don't want. Swarming is harmless but it scares people. You need a beekeeper who's on the job and knows what they're doing, and if you can get the hives facing a wall or hedge six feet high (a shed would do it) so they're pushed up above head level, that keeps them out of contact with other people.I've got some followers right now, I hate the bloody things, and I can't wait to have enough drones to be able to requeen that hive! I didn't raise the queen, it's a colony that was passed on to me.
Whereabouts? I grew up on Cowley Road.
I did, but that was when I was under age drinking. The Cricketers' Arms was convenient from school and would serve anyone. The beer was vile, which may explain why!