Beehive

gletley

I want to do my bit for the honey bee and have decided to have a beehive in my garden.
The only thing is I would prefer for some one else to put there beehive in my garden and look after it, as long as the bees pollinate my flowers and fruits I'm more than happy to have the bees as residence.
Could some one advice me if there is a society that asks for places for beehives to be kept. I'm not asking for any money, I just want to do my bit for nature and the bees are having a bad time at the moment.
Any constructive advice would be greatly appreciated.

Yolina

Sorry can't help with you finding a beehive, but the local school has had a couple of beehives just across the road from me for a few years and frankly it's a bit of a nuisance at times. I'm in a flat but have a terrace with plants aplenty and it is a bit unnerving when I'm outside and there's a lot of bees flying around the terrace constantly (I'm talking something like maybe 30 at any given time) and knowing that in summer there's a bee population of over 50000 only about 40 metres away is a little bit :eek: I have to be super careful when I pick stuff up for instance and looking after the plants is a tad more complicated with so many of them about. Maybe I should ask them for a couple of free jars of honey since they're on my plants so much :rotfl: (at the moment, like every spring, they've taken possession of my rather large rosemary) It's got to the point that I'm considering getting rid of the mock orange, which always flowers all the way through to October, as I usually don't get to see the flowers for all the bees on it (and would give it to the school, or at least cuttings if I can't get it out reasonably cleanly)

Edit: maybe try emailing the British Beekeepers Association http://www.bbka.org.uk/contact/ and see of they can be of any help

Oceanmist

Yolina wrote: »

Sorry can't help with you finding a beehive, but the local school has had a couple of beehives just across the road from me for a few years and frankly it's a bit of a nuisance at times. I'm in a flat but have a terrace with plants aplenty and it is a bit unnerving when I'm outside and there's a lot of bees flying around the terrace constantly (I'm talking something like maybe 30 at any given time) and knowing that in summer there's a bee population of over 50000 only about 40 metres away is a little bit :eek: I have to be super careful when I pick stuff up for instance and looking after the plants is a tad more complicated with so many of them about. Maybe I should ask them for a couple of free jars of honey since they're on my plants so much :rotfl: (at the moment, like every spring, they've taken possession of my rather large rosemary) It's got to the point that I'm considering getting rid of the mock orange, which always flowers all the way through to October, as I usually don't get to see the flowers for all the bees on it (and would give it to the school, or at least cuttings if I can't get it out reasonably cleanly)

Bees aren't usually aggressive unless they are defending their hive. Whenever I get a bee fly into my conservatory I carefully pick it up at take it outside and I never get stung.
I can't understand why anyone would deem them to be a nuisance!

lostinrates

Oceanmist wrote: »

Bees aren't usually aggressive unless they are defending their hive. Whenever I get a bee fly into my conservatory I carefully pick it up at take it outside and I never get stung.
I can't understand why anyone would deem them to be a nuisance!

Well, i dunno. As novice bee keepers we were advised to keep them away from paths, areas where people milled, and anywhere we would have to mow (they can take against mowers and feel threatened by them).

Plus, the swarm risk, notideal in many situations.

My feeling is a beehive in the wrong place could well be a nuisance.



Op, contact your local beekeeping group (your county group might well have a website) and ask them. Bees like to get some east sun in the morning, have shade in the middle of the day so they do not over heat. They also, believe it or not, get stolen, so somewhere discrete from passers by,

Yolina

Oceanmist wrote: »

Bees aren't usually aggressive unless they are defending their hive. Whenever I get a bee fly into my conservatory I carefully pick it up at take it outside and I never get stung.
I can't understand why anyone would deem them to be a nuisance!

I know they're not aggressive unless threatened, and there obviously always were some around before the school put in their beehives but I'm not talking about the odd one, it's 30+ all the time from April to October on plants about a metre away from where I'm sitting! I'm allergic to wasp stings so am unlikely to be allergic to bee stings too - though I have no intention of finding out :rotfl: The mock orange is definitely what attracts them the most in summer so as I've said, I'm going to give it to the school so that the bees can still collect from it since they like it so much and I'll put in something else that's early spring flowering instead that way everybody should be happy

RAS

lostinrates wrote: »

Well, i dunno. As novice bee keepers we were advised to keep them away from paths, areas where people milled, and anywhere we would have to mow (they can take against mowers and feel threatened by them).

Bees do not like vibrations (think about it, they live in the dark and use vibration to communicate to each other) so do not locate them near a lawn that will be mown.

Also their flight path needs to be high above places which humans would otherwise interrupt like paths.

lostinrates wrote: »

Op, contact your local beekeeping group (your county group might well have a website) and ask them. Bees like to get some east sun in the morning, have shade in the middle of the day so they do not over heat. They also, believe it or not, get stolen, so somewhere discrete from passers by,

Good idea. They may have an apiary, so you can see what is needed and they can tell you if your garden is suitable.

poppysarah

Find your local bee keeping group.
I don't know if they like you to do the course so you can handle them too but it would make sense.

lostinrates

RAS wrote: »

Bees do not like vibrations (think about it, they live in the dark and use vibration to communicate to each other) so do not locate them near a lawn that will be mown.

Also their flight path needs to be high above places which humans would otherwise interrupt like paths.



Good idea. They may have an apiary, so you can see what is needed and they can tell you if your garden is suitable.

So, other things that could cause vibration...traffic, foot fall etc also


Our super laid back bees probably would have been fine in a playground or a maternity ward but.....


Also, i would suggest that pllanting bee friendly plants and flowers is a small thing everyone can do. With rape already in flower while not much else is really going its easy to see how some bees near me will be very distracted by that. I am also looking at my own garden plants and making sure that where i put something that is less bee friendly, like a double rose, for exame, i also put something with easy access to some tasty pollen.

lostinrates

poppysarah wrote: »

Find your local bee keeping group.
I don't know if they like you to do the course so you can handle them too but it would make sense.

If a bee keeper puts a hive on you land the bee keeper tends to them themselves.

Mojisola

You can do a lot in the garden to help our other bees -

https://www.bumblebee.org/helpbees.htm
https://www.bumblebeeconservation.org.uk/gardening_for_bumblebees.htm
https://www.foxleas.com/bee_house.htm

and loads of other websites.

RAS

One of the best plants is borage; not for nothing do bee-keepers like taking bees to the borrage - it produces loads of nectar at a time when there is very little else and can be cut back for a second run late in the summer.

Our apiary is like a tall fruit cage; pushing the bees up to 2 metres before they fly out and forcing them up to the same height before they enter. This means that they fly high over the plot so the humans working it are OK.

One lot are totally laid back Italians who are largely unfazed by awkward humans (like the plot member who has been known to stand right in front of the hive entrance to have a look at them). If we have to undertake gross manouvres they calm down very quickly and head for home immediately.

The other lot are fiestier and much more defensive; they will buz a human who get immediately in front of their hive and take a lot longer to recover from active management - buzzing round their hive and scenting like mad for a lot longer.

Neither lot get used as a target for football practice, any powered machinery used nearby or humans pounding past when running.

The only recent issue has been their discovery of the nearby pond; the water collectors were cueing up on a moss covered stone to drink in the hot weather so we decided not to get between them and their hive. We could however watch them unprotected from about 3 feet the other side.