Does anyone keep bees please?

Chickenbrain2009

I have kept bees for several years but have been decimated by the weather. I live in Surrey. To buy a nuc costs over 100 pounds. I have been advised to put my name down with the police? Apart from anything else this is getting very pricey. Does anyone have any other ideas for getting some bees. I belonged to my local group before I recently moved house, but even there any bees were very expensive.

ixwood

swarm catching/luring. There's some good threads on the biobees site

hethmar

If you lure/swarm catch - I know this is probably very naive, but how do you know they are the "right" sort of bee? I keep reading also about temperaments - if you buy some bees then surely you are likely to get the better sort and also back up from the seller?

Kimitatsu

We had a wild swarm that appeared in our garden - it was an impressive sight! They nested in the garden in the end for the summer and we never had an ounce of problem with them - just marked the entrance to the hive with a stick so that we didnt cover it up when we were gardening.

I looked into bee keeping as we have a supplier of equipment not far from us but being honest it was REALLY expensive and getting the honey was quite a complicated thing. So we have offered the local bee keeping club use of the garden for hives this year in exchange for honey (DS2 gets hayfever so it helps) which means that I dont have to worry about killing them but hopefully they will settle for the next few years.

Good for you though - I am off to look at the biobees website now, but your local association is always a good place to start I find

chelms38

Talking of bees,the last couple of days there has been a huge bumble bee the size of a golf ball and it keeps tapping against the window.Last two years I have had a few of those really big hornets(from other parts of Europe I think) also hanging round the window.

vaksam

Hi hethmar,

I'd also second going along to your course at the college and also see if your local beekeeping association runs any courses.

I went on a weekend course with my local association a couple of weeks back, which comprised of one day theory work and a days practical, covering working in the hives, woodwork (ie putting together frames/boxes etc) and extracting honey. It was fantastic, and from the end of the month I'll be attending weekly 'apiary nights' to get more hands on experience.

This is great for me as I currently live in a flat with no open space while we save for a house deposit, but to be honest I think I'd rather have a season's supervised hands on experience before taking on my own hives anyway! Though that said, some people on the course were planning to get their own bees this year, I guess it all comes down to how confident and prepared you feel. After this I'll be looking for a suitable site for an out apiary of my own.

It also means I can spread the costs a little bit as starting up is very expensive - ie I'll be buying a beesuit and a few bits and pieces before starting to attend the apiary nights.

Whatever you decide to do - good luck, and please keep us up to date on your beekeeping endevours - it's nice to hear how other newbies are doing!

Kimitatsu

chelms38 wrote: »

Talking of bees,the last couple of days there has been a huge bumble bee the size of a golf ball and it keeps tapping against the window.Last two years I have had a few of those really big hornets(from other parts of Europe I think) also hanging round the window.

Those are "proper" bumble bees as opposed to honey bees, in our garden they always signal the start of spring we have had a couple of them in the garden this last week, they are just a bit dozy at this time of year and not the brightest specemins so take care when you are stepping out otherwise you can unwittingly step on them.

Hornets tend to congregate in wooded areas but I have never found that we have been stung by them, its the perennial wasps that tend to be the menace. We also get miner bees in the walls sometime, and solitarys (you can put up some bamboo sticks in the nook of a tree or buy an insect house for the wall if you want to encourage them) and all of them help pollinate the garden :T

hethmar

vaksam and Kim - have a look at that biobees site as they offer a much simpler method without all the complicated bits and bobs I read about on other sites. Also Im a bit worried about all the chemicals that some sites seem to use - the biobees site seems much more natural.


"This site is about sustainable, low-impact, low-cost, chemical-free, small-scale, 'organic', natural beekeeping, using simple equipment that almost anyone can make at home. If you have not yet heard of 'top bar hives' or 'natural beekeeping', then this is a place to learn about them.
You will find plenty of reading material here, with opportunities to learn from experienced beekeepers".




Im not desperate for tons of honey and wax, I just want to help the honey bee population and at the same time have an interesting hobby. But we shall see, I may be terrified at my first time of opening a hive :eek:

vaksam

Hi hethmar,

I like the biobees site - some good food for thought on there I think regarding more natural beekeeping!

After I booked on my weekend course, I suddenly thought - what happens if when we are opening a hive I completely freak out?:eek:

Luckily, I managed to book onto a 2 hour taster session to try it out, and am pleased to report that I didn't panic! The first time, when all the bees started flying around I was very, very aware that they were there for the first ten minutes or so, but then natural curiosity took over and I was fine after that! It stood me in good stead for my weekend course though, and I felt much more relaxed.

I say give it a go - then you can make up your mind. Even if you decide not to keep bees yourself, you could offer out your garden to a local beekeeper to site some hives. :T