It's that time of year when people who've been pondering getting involved in beekeeping start asking themselves: "What do I need to do next?" So while it might not be the most imaginative first post I thought I'd have a go at covering some of the frequent questions that have come my way around this.
I will caveat all of this from the outset that a lot of this is my personal opinion from 15 years or so as an active beekeeper. For several years I was Education Secretary of my local Association involved in training/coaching people interested in beekeeping as well as those now keeping bees and looking to learn more. Ultimately though Beekeeping is my hobby, I'm not offering my opinion as being "expert" and I'm sure there's a saying somewhere about opinions ;)
Why do I want to keep Bees?
A few years back there were lots of people wanting to keep bees to "save" them. Honey Bees, especially, were in the news and there were lots of stories around how no bees meant we all had to eat grit. Don't start beekeeping because you want to help the environment.
If you want to help bees or pollinators more widely you can do much in your garden to foster an environment that will satisfy you and our flying friends without taking on the responsibility of animal husbandry.
Let a corner of your garden grow wild, if you don't have a garden maybe grow herbs in a window box, put bee or insect hotels up, stop using pesticide sprays, have a look at the Bumblebee Conservation Trust and so on. There are lots of passive things you can do to help pollinators and give you the satisfaction of watching them coming and going to the environment you've given them. Anyone with a couple of pots of Lavender, Rosemary or Thyme will attest to the variety and volume of bees coming their way.
The cold, hard, honest, truth is that the second you decide to put Honey Bees in a box, you're responsible for livestock and you now have a duty to care for them.
Does it sound like I'm trying to put you off? Yes, I am. If I haven't, carry on. What do you want from the Bees? Honey? Just to see them come and go? Aspirations to make a living from it?
For me Beekeeping is a hobby and it's the bees I am most interested in, I love just watching them come and go to the hives and I will never get bored of going through a hive. I also enjoy the engagement with the wider community, I do village fetes, I loved being Education secretary, I take observation hives, where you can see inside the hive, out and so on. I don't actually like honey that much but I get a kick from the enjoyment other people get from it, especially when it's mine.
What's your motivation to be a beekeeper? Hold on to it, it will be valuable when things aren't going right.
What's actually involved?
The UK active beekeeping season is essentially from mid March to end of June, weather and bees depending. As a hobbyist beekeeper you need to look at your bees at least once per week within this period. That is a significant commitment. Effectively it then spans into the end of August but you can probably not have to look at your hives quite as methodically.
What I'm trying to point out here is that there is a significant time commitment involved, especially when it's a hobby. I work 60+ hours a week in the job that pays my living and I don't book weekends away from April through June because I'll need to do something with the bees.
From the end of March you need to start thinking about swarming. Up until a few years ago I would bet my life that most hives thinking about it would swarm at the end of May but that seems to be becoming far more variable. I've seen hives swarm in early April up until the end of July and it's your duty as a beekeeper to manage that. You need to inspect your hives at least once per week within that period. That is quite some commitment and there are going to be times when the weather is working against you but you have to inspect that hive because you know it is going to swarm, or a new queen is going to emerge. Are you prepared to give up that weekend away, or day out with friends to look after your bees?
With practice you can be in and out of hive in less than 10 minutes outside the time to get there, put on your kit, light the smoker, look at your notes from last time, find the bit of kit you need and so on. So while it is a time commitment, it isn't necessarily that onerous day to day.
The art is to figure out on this inspection what you think you need to do on the next. That will only come with time and practice. Looking at the Hive now, what do you think they will be doing next week?
My basic plan is to establish:
Is there a queen?
Do I have Brood In All Stages (Eggs, Larvae and sealed Brood)
Do they have enough food?
Have they got enough space?
What else?
The last point can only come with experience and will vary depending on the time of year, are you trying to get honey, maybe you're trying to raise new queens, is there a chance of swarming? The first couple of years in beekeeping can be very reactive, but as you learn to "read" a hive and observe what the bees are doing you can start to recognise the signs of what they're plotting and adapt your plans accordingly. I always go to an apiary with a plan of just what I'm intending to do when I get there. The bees may have other ideas and throw something unexpected at me but I have a pretty good idea what I'm going to do.
How do I learn?
As a starter, wannabee, beekeeper your local association is a goldmine. There are four national associations:
BBKA - British Beekeepers Association - despite the name, English Beekeepers
WBKA - Welsh Beekeepers Association
SBA - Scottish Beekeepers Association
INI - Institute of Northern Ireland Beekeepers
All of these associations cover non-commercial Beekeeping, they offer a wealth of resource and lobby for the interests of bees and beekeepers at the national level.
My experience is with the BBKA and SBA. Below the national level are county level associations, and below that are more regional, especially in the bigger counties. These should be your first port of call, just search for e.g. "Avon Beekeepers" and you'll find your local county association. In my area we do beginners courses in the new year. So, at time or writing, you might have missed the boat for an actual course, but in the BBKA at least there is an associate membership for those who don't yet have their own bees. My last "big" association was Bristol, you can join there as an associate and come to an Apiary over the year. Learn from more experienced beekeepers, get involved without needing to buy equipment and just get "hands on" with bees before you do anything else. I definitely recommend doing this in your first year as a prospective beekeeper. It's cheap, you get the chance to see what is involved, start building your contacts and just make sure that the reality of beekeeping doesn't actually put you off. Actually being "elbows deep" in a big hive full of bees who might not be best pleased to see you might alter your perspective on whether beekeeping is actually for you or not.
If you can get a mentor, this will really help with knowledge transfer and really helps to know that there's someone in the end of the phone who can give advice. Many Beekeepers will also be happy to let you come and see their bees, an extra pair of hands and eyes is always welcome and I recommend asking as many people as possible. See as many bees and as many different ways of doing things as you can.
There are loads of books around beekeeping some better than others and your local association may well have a library. I don't have a particular recommendation of what you should read, my recollection from when I started out was the "Beekeeping for Dummies" had a very heavy slant on the United States in some of its suggestions. I would just suggest that don't limit yourself just to books on beekeeping, read up on Bees as well, to that end I would recommend Tom Seeley, Jurgen Tautz and Dave Goulson in particular as all having books worth reading on Bee behaviour outside of a focus on Beekeeping.
The internet is a valuable resource, whether blogs like this or more interactive forums are all useful. The BBKA and SBA have forums and there are many more around. Again I'm not going to make a specific recommendation, my one caution is that the quality of advice from "random internet strangers" can vary enormously and it can take some time to work out who's advice is worth trusting. Beekeepers can be very small c conservative and you'll find no shortage of opinion that this approach is wrong, that kit isn't any good, you have to do something like this and so on. If you want to, try it out for yourself, I did. Sometimes they were right, but not always!
My final piece of advice around learning and getting started is that you may have a very specific aim or approach in mind. That's great and definitely hold on to that, but learn the basics first and give yourself the best opportunity to find wider support. You will soon discover that there are a wealth of options, types of beehive and approaches in Beekeeping, the bees however are the one basic constant across all of that. If you start out on a different type of hive to everyone else around you for example, you make it much harder for someone to help you when you run into trouble.
The National is the "standard" beehive in the UK, if you start with this hive it'll be easier to get support from other beekeepers while you learn. If you then decide you want to go in another direction you'll find no shortage of takers if you decide you want to sell your National kit.
I just fancy a single Hive
You might like the idea of a hive at the bottom of the garden, my practical suggestion is have two hives as a minimum. If you only have one Hive then you are very limited when you run into problems. If you have two hives then you have options to use the good hive to help out the one in trouble. Starting with one hive in the first year should be fine, but look ultimately to have two colonies on any given site.
How much is it going to cost me?
Beekeeping can swallow as much money as you're prepared to throw at it. My personal view is don't buy anything until you are absolutely sure that Beekeeping is for you. if you buy everything brand new, including a nuc of bees, you are not going to see much change from around £1,000-£1,500 in the first year! You can reduce that cost buying second hand and many associations run auctions where you might be able to pick up a bargain or two. but there is undeniably a high up front cost getting the basic equipment you need just to manage a colony or two.
Swarms are often seen as a good way to acquire bees on a budget and they can be with the big caveat that you have no idea what you are going to get until they are properly settled and established in a hive. I've had some good bees from swarms and I've also got my share of horror stories. Personally I don't look to collect swarms, I will do if asked, but I don't like the risk especially as I don't currently have a spare site to quarantine them. My suggestion is that if your budget allows it, obtain a Nuc of bees from a reputable supplier and give yourself the best chance of a good colony of bees to learn with.
Can I keep bees in my garden?
Maybe. There are so many variables involved in this, but I think my one point of advice is:
At some point you will have an aggressive colony on your hands, what are the implications of this on you AND your neighbours? There are gardens and gardens. I don't have bees in mine because it's too small and exposed, I know people who have bees in gardens smaller than mine because it's fenced in and they don't sit in it. I equally know people whose gardens were enormous, the bees were well away from where they liked to sit but where it was impossible to enter because the bees were so aggressive.
Can you put the hive on the other side of a shed? could you screen it off? If you have these sort of options it is generally a lot easier to share your garden with a hive or two
What about an allotment?
Councils and allotment associations are generally asking that people have the relevant Basic Assessment qualification. This could be a catch 22 situation for urban beekeepers in particular, given that the Basic Assessment is normally taken having kept bees for at least a year. Some councils or Allotment associations will compromise that you should aim to gain that qualification after a year of having bees on the allotment, but it is something to check. The Basic Assessment is a practical qualification, you will normally visit an association apiary and will have to demonstrate that you have a basic level of knowledge and understanding of day to day Beekeeping. You can assemble hive parts, you know the key diseases, understand swarming behaviour and so on.
I did have bees on an allotment for several years, and the concern was always to limit the chances of the bees being a nuisance to neighbouring plot holders. We ended up erecting insect mesh around the beehives to push the flying bees higher and block the hive's view of the other plots. We also found that the ideal time to inspect the hives is also when our neighbours were working their plots and we spent many an afternoon watching the bees come and go waiting for an opportune moment to be able to open them up without impacting our neighbours.
This is arguably a more pressing situation than bees in your garden if you end up with a defensive or aggressive colony on your hands. We avoided it... just... but if your bees are a nuisance to anyone else you run the risk of being told, not asked, to move them. Where are you going to put them?
An "Out" Apiary
The last option is an out apiary, basically any bit of land that isn't your garden. I now have all my bees in apiaries on farmland. I have a corner of a field for one and another site in some unused land off a lane. The key advantage here is that I have no neighbours to worry about, I can do what I like, when I like without having to worry about anyone else. The tradeoff is that I have to travel to the apiaries and I don't get to just wander over to watch the bees coming and going, an often understated pleasure in beekeeping. They are also not secure enough to leave much equipment on site, I have to bring it all with me. You don't need a huge amount of space for a couple of hives but it is definitely worth making sure you have vehicle access to limit the amount of carrying you need to do, especially when it comes to moving honey about the place.
Even if you ultimately intend to keep bees in your garden, having access to a [potential] site to put bees can be very handy, it can be a safe space to move an aggressive colony to while you sort it out. It can act as a quarantine area for when you get new bees, pick up a swarm etc. And often all that might be asked for in return is a few pots of honey.
Conclusion
If you've made it this far congratulations! I hope I've given you a flavour of what is involved in beekeeping, some things to think about and some pointers of how to take the next steps. Beekeeping can be an incredibly rewarding hobby, it is always a conversation starter and you will find yourself knowing a lot more about wasps than you ever contemplated as well as bees!
I can't overstate the point that Beekeeping is a responsibility. First to your bees, you decided to put them in a hive, it's now your duty to look after them, but also to your neighbours. How might a hive or two in your garden potentially impact them?
I would recommend getting in contact with your local association as a next step, this is the time of year when many run introductory courses on beekeeping and as spring rapidly approaches there will be the opportunity to attend apiary sessions in your local area.
Best of luck at the start of your potential journey into the fascinating world of Honey Bees!
About Me
I'm Neil Seymour, I've been keeping bees for around 15 years. I started as an Urban Beekeeper in Bristol and now reside out in the Mendip hills. The difference in Beekeeping between the two has been quite an eye opener!
I was on the committee for Bristol Beekeepers and the wider Avon Association and was the representative for Avon to the British Beekeepers Association. Since moving to Somerset I've stepped back from that wider involvement but am looking to return to my local association following the Covid enforced break.
I hold a number of BBKA module certificates (Honey Bee Management, Honey Bee Pests, Diseases and Poisoning and Honey Bee Behaviour) plus the Basic Assessment.
Beekeeping is my hobby and I currently have 3 colonies on two sites and am looking to expand up in 2024 working with a friend who I am mentoring on his beekeeping journey.
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