Does anyone keep bees please?

hethmar

Just toying with the idea of bee keeping as a hobby - the occasional pot of honey would be nice too and of course, world wide the bee population has been decimated.

Does anyone keep bees please and how difficult is it/how much time involved?

midnightraven3

i am a member of another forum
and there is a bee keeping section/community on there
i shall pm you the details

chelms38

I personally don't keep them,but I could of sworn I saw something on tv where bee keepers are looking for gardens to put their bee hives in.They do all the work and share the honey produce with you,but I don't remember what show it was or where you get in touch.I guess if you do some googling you may find some beekeeper clubs.

Good luck if you do go ahead as we need the bees to survive.

hethmar

Many thanks. midnight's forum has given me a link to an open day at a local college who also has a ten week evening class.

Chelm, that would be ideal really as Id hate to not look after them properly at the beginning. One of my reasons is the fact that so many bees have died in recent years that the world really is at risk by their loss.

I have a neighbour from hell and Im just wondering whether he would make a fuss - or would he have to know really. We have a 450 ft garden and reading the links it would seem the optimum position is facing south west which is exactly the direction away from the NFH

chelms38

hethmar wrote: »

Many thanks. midnight's forum has given me a link to an open day at a local college who also has a ten week evening class.

Chelm, that would be ideal really as Id hate to not look after them properly at the beginning.

I have a neighbour from hell and Im just wondering whether he would make a fuss - or would he have to know really. We have a 450 ft garden and reading the links it would seem the optimum position is facing south west which is exactly the direction away from the NFH

Wow, 450 ft garden.You could open a caravan park.:rotfl:

I imagine you could have an area filled with several hives and loads of wild flowers around them.

elantan

could i possibly get a pm with the link too ...i dont plan on keeping any just yet but in a few years time i do ...have got some books that i have read but i think a class would be better for me ...thanks

hethmar

elan, in case midnight doesnt see your post, I will email you with the details she kindly sent me.

Im getting quite excited about it now, reading all the links and googling for information. There seems to be a very active bee keeping association in my area.

elantan

i know my boss keeps bees ...she has said she wuld be willing to show me how to keep them ...but i didnt want to stress her out ...she has more than enough on her plate at the moment ... trying to deal with the earthship will take alot of her energy ...so i think a class will be ideal ...off to read it now ...

thanks

hethmar

Anyone else interested, also check out this site which is re natural bee keeping without all the expensive paraphenalia. It does also sound better for the bees.

http://www.biobees.com/

Irony

Best to look for your local assoc.(google).See what work-shops they will be running,they will be popular so bee quick.They will have apiaries so you can try "hands on"

In Sussex, April & May there are bee markets/auctions.

I've read couple of books,joined my local assoc,got a swarm day booked for my first work-shop( beginners course was fully booked) Also ordered 1 beehive from supplier & hat with veil just in case:p.
Found some good videos on youtube (search beekeeping for beginners etc). Fatbeeman very interesting.
Why tell the neighbours;)

ixwood

I highly recommend the highly biobee's site mentioned above.

"Top Bar" hives, as recommended on there are a lot cheaper and easier to work with than traditional hives like the WBC/National. The site is for natural bee friendly bee keeping.

Also, read the site for info on Bayer (a multinational agrochemical/pesticide company) and the British Bee Keeping Association (BBKA). If you like bee's, boycott the BBKA. Some local groups will allow you to join them without joining the BBKA.