Beekeeping

Not a bee keeper as such but hoping that I will have a hive in my garden soon 😄

IANABK but have done a course and worked on a communal farm where bees were kept. I think they are fascinating creatures and worthy of our greatest respect and help. I also love honey and it always amazes me when I smear 5-10 grammes of it on my toast to think that each bee will only produce about 2g of honey over the course of its' lifetime!

I read the other day that honeybees are non native, so by keeping them we are starving our native bee population of pollen. Was from an insect obsessed zoologist, so more of an expert than I.

Have a friend with hives though, his honey is very good too.

I think they are fascinating creatures and worthy of our greatest respect and help. I also love honey and it always amazes me when I smear 5-10 grammes of it on my toast to think that each bee will only produce about 2g of honey over the course of its’ lifetime!

I totally agree, although I only add honey to hot drinks. I have never kept bees but I have been on a couple of talks about bees and had a very long tour of an apiary involving wearing all the gear and using the smoke and opening up the hives.

The more I learnt about bees the more I was fascinated by them, their story is one of the great marvels of nature.

And yeah, if you wash away a quarter of a teaspoon of honey in your washing up you are probably washing away one bee's lifetime work!

I read the other day that honeybees are non native, so by keeping them we are starving our native bee population of pollen. Was from an insect obsessed zoologist, so more of an expert than I.

Have a friend with hives though, his honey is very good too

Complete codswallop. Honeybees are native, although many people keep none native varieties (which is irrelevant really).

There are potentially some problems where large numbers of commercial hives are found, but even that is debatable, seeing as most commercial keepers will move their hives to follow different crops anyway. A few hives in the garden is going to make any no difference at all (and is perfectly in keeping with natural densities due to loss of wild nest spaces).

The biggest problems for all bees are loss of habitat/forage, plus environmental pollution (pesticides and the rest). Competition with other bees is a red herring.

Ex beekeeper here. Kept bees for most of the 90's, loved it, but found dealing with all the honey they made got a bit tedious. I didn't eat alot,but in a good year I would have around 250kgs to try and process/sell.
I'm thinking of having another dabble, but this time using a long hive or something that doesn't really produce much honey.
Good luck with yours, it really is the best thing to just sit and watch them do their thing.

My wife wanted to get into it a few years back. She joined a local society, went to meetings, read all the books and listened to advice and talks before taking the plunge and starting small, with a swarm of 3 dozen or so.

But from the start it didn't go well, no matter what instructions she followed for handling them they were just lacklustre and showed no signs of interest. She was thinking of packing it in but a keen young apiarist from the society offered to come round and have a look. What a transformation; when I looked out into the garden, he had my wife's 36 bees out and flying around in no time!

(with nod of head to Sir Humph and Samantha)

Is there a way of hosting a hive or two? Ideally someone else does all the work and I get to enjoy watching them buzzing around.

Time for this I fear

Mrs Stretch keeps bees, they are fascinating to watch especially if you get to see them being introduced to a new hive (I'm sure there's some Youtube vids if anyone is interested) but quite labour intensive during the summer. They are highly organised colonies and it's interesting to watch them going about the different jobs they have.

As @lesshaste says the honey harvesting is hard work especially honey from rape pollen which is particularly difficult to shift and needs taking out before setting; a motorised centrifuge is a worthwhile investment if you are going to get serious about it.

My wife is in her second year of beekeeping. She loves it but does find it stressful at times, worrying whether she is doing things right. She can never find the queens, is always worried about crushing them when she inspects the hives, whether she should or shouldn't be feeding them etc.

It seems there is contradictory advice on just about every aspect of beekeeping from the 'experts'. Seems that they disagree on just about everything which is infuriating for a newbie. She did a course with the local beekeeping society but it was all delivered remotely because of the plague, which wasn't ideal - not enough hands on.  Thankfully she has a friend who does it and is a bit more experienced.

Despite the frustrations she successfully dealt with her first swarm last year, created a new colony and took a modest honey harvest.  She keeps threatening to buy me a bee suit so I can 'help', I keep changing the subject 😙 Not really my thing, but I'm proud of how she has dealt with it all

She has just been to the national beekeeping conference at Harper Adams ag coll.

Any beekeepers on the forum?

First year beekeeper here – my bees arrived two weeks ago. So far I’m finding it absolutely fascinating, combined with a little nervousness.

It is really mesmerising watching them on our cherry tree which has just flowered.

Have you started weekly inspections? They should be expanding rapidly now that the weather is improving. It can be quite surprising how quickly they run out of space at this time of year.

Kept hives for 2 years, fascinating but became allergic to stings and ended my career in A+E 😒

oldnick
If you're in Merseyside I know a beekeeper who does this.

Know a few beekeepers through work, host a few hives and keep an eye on some natural hives/swarms.

Beehive politics is amazing to hear about and everyone's experiences seem to vary.

One of the keepers is very pessimistic over their future and disease and yield whilst another talks of trying to wind back but the hives are just producing more and more.

Some follow the crops whilst others are targeting locations for the plants. Our lime trees on one site are desirable for the green tinged honey and hives on another site situated for the heather although the bees barely make it away from the flower rich area along the streams.
Chestnut honey though I am told is foul.

@Marin unfortunately not, Notts.

A big Chestnut tree in the garden, so maybe we aren't a desirable location @timber?

My grandad kept bees and doing the honey was the highlight of my summer holiday.
Taking the frames out and trying to avoid getting stung.
Cutting the capping off is simply the best thing in the world.
Then the centrifuge.
Then lift onto the freezer and open the tap into the strainer.
Then the comb honey. OMFG

Gorgeous.

Fascinating.

But the question everyone wants to know is: how often do you get stung?

Dad has kept bees for years. Good years and bad years. He is convinced it improves his garden due to the extra pollination. Never short of honey.
If you are selling the honey it helps to be in a club and you do need to label it. Not sure what a jar of local honey costs near you but round here it’s nearly a tenner!🤣. It’s never going to make you rich though. If you are in a local club there will also be gear to borrow. Centrifuge and capping knife are handy but the centrifuge is a bit bulky.
Oh and you don’t need to clean it when you are finished, the bees will do that.
Get some antihistamine.
Check frequently for veroa in your area.

250kg of honey a year ?!?!?

Based on the 2g per bee that’s over 100k bees.

I don't think honey bees live very long in the summer so I think the 2g of honey per bee is possibly produced in just 2-4 weeks. The 250kg of honey per year won't be produced by bees all living at the same time.

Yeah, around 40,000 in a strong hive in mid summer,sometimes would have six or seven on the go!
But Ernie is right, a bee will live for around 20 days in mid summer,so big turnover of workforce.
In the winter they can live for upto 6 months, because of all the slacking that goes on.
Mid summer=live fast die young!

I was looking at flow hives which is a tap in a specially built hive so you don't disturb the bees in the hive.
Anyone seen this and what are peoples thoughts?

This thread is a good reminder for people to stop pulling up the dandelions, or using weed killer.

This thread is a good reminder for people to stop pulling up the dandelions, or using weed killer.

100%

It's a crying shame what people do to their lawns in the name of vanity/neurosis. Dandelions in the spring/autumn (which also feed the finches) then in the summer clovers, self heal, birds food trefoil etc. are all great pollinators plants and all can be mowed as normal once established. A large lawn can often provide more flowers than are in the boarders/planted areas.

See also other thread on no mow May