I’ve been thinking about getting a couple of beehives for the garden in light of the fact they are under pressure through disease, mites, etc. and also I love honey!
So I’ve done a bit of reading and have even found the local club which I intend to visit but in the meantime does anyone on here keep bees who might offer a bit of advice in setting up for the first time?

cheers

We host a couple of hives through our local beekeepers assoc. Works really well – we provide space in the garden and generally keep and eye on them and the bee keeper has a key to the garden gate and lets himself in and out to do most of the work and processes the honey, whilst showing us inside the hive etc when he’s there.

Get ‘paid’ in honey each year which is brilliant. The intention was to use this as a stepping stone to having out own hives, but TBH, the arrangement suits all of us at the moment.

EDIT: Cost of even starter colonies is pretty mad at the moment (compared to what they were a few years ago) – one of our colonies has bu$$ered off in search of (I suspect literally) pastures new as spring has been so late, so we’re wating for more queens to breed rather than restocking from scratch.

I have kept bees for about 4 years now and have 2-4 hives if you just want to help the bees rather than have lots of honey look at getting top bar hives a lot cheaper to set up and a different way of beekeeping.

Look here

http://www.biobees.com/
there are groups all over the country

Not really relevant, but I’m possibly picking up some hives this weekend. Local beekeepers club organised a short course, run by a a former commercial beekeeper, and included a visit to one of the club members’ apiary.
Not an expert, but how does a top bar hive help the bees? It makes access to bees more difficult so makes checking on their condition, presence of mites/diseases or possible queen cells not to mention treatment of any of these more difficult, no?

As stated it is a different way of beekeeping as there is a lot less disturbence and management required. With a window on the side it is easy to look in and see what is happening and you dont need to dress up either.

Many conventional beekeepers dismiss it straight away but both have their advantages/disadvantages I have 2 of each and if I started again i would only have top bar hives, but then I only want enough honey for me and my friends I cant be bothered extracting,bottling selling 100lbs of honey and storing all the frames, suppers etc. It is cheaper to set up a top bar hive and no lifting other than a full frame is required or fancy equipment such as extractors etc.

Have a good look a both and see what you fancy

I’ve just taken over 2 hives and am new to it all, so i can’t advise to much at all.

What you will experience is that many Beekeepers have their own ways of doing things, so find one that suits you, then adapt it as you go along.

Be prepared to have to feed them lots as the present climate doesn’t let the Bees forage as much as they may need for a growing colony.

I’m hoping to get the first suppers on soon, although today was very windy and cloudy, there was a fantastic amount of actively from the hives today. And with the Blossom starting to come out in the Orchard in which the bee’s reside, they can get off to a god start.

I was at Newcastle University last night to see a showing of ‘Queen of the Sun’ (link), a film about CCD and other issues that bees and their fellow pollinators are facing. There was a talk afterwards and one of the PhDs recommended that people who want to get into beekeeping might do better, and be more generally useful to the cause, if they went to an established local ‘keeper and worked with them, at least at first. It’s a fairly time-consuming process and many people seem to manage well sharing responsibilities, and then also their skills and knowledge.

Well you’ve already found your local club, so get in touch with the secretary and see if they have any open days (mine are every other saturday) so go along and introduce yourself. Hopefully they’ll have a mentor system going on so you can call someone if you’re worried.

My only recommendation is to buy your nucs (or even full colonies if possible, but I doubt it given how awful the spring has been) locally – please don’t buy foreign bees or queens as local bees are adapted to local conditions. Greek / romanian bees don’t last well in UK summers. I think this is a big part of why so many colonies are dying.

Don’t worry too much about if you use nationals / WCB’s as the only real difference is when you extract (which you probably won’t yet as you won’t have that much to do).

I’ve found every bee book says the same thing ever so slightly differently. Your first hive is similar to your first baby (though personally I don’t have kids but friends / brother does) – you worry about them all the time but they find a way to confound and exasperate you!

I personally wouldn’t go for top bar hives but others may have a positive experience with them. Use what you’ve got, the bees will figure out a way to cope. Try not to use new nucs with old hives, but if you’ve only got old hives buy a weed wand / flame thing and burn all the propylis / crud off the old wood. Don’t use plastic queen excluders as they warp (IME)

A lady down the road from me is very much into the spiritual side of life, and she keeps her bees depending on the phases of the moon and things like that and the bees are fine. Chances are the bees will be fine if they lived in a box in the shed as bees are hardy things. Don’t stress about them. You’ll start off fussy and making everything neat but in a few years you’ll chill and let the bees do what they want.

Like sharki says every bee keeper is different and all beekeepers hives are different too. Don’t worry, in a few years you’ll have a “feeling” for each of your hives and you’ll know what to do.

Oh, join bee base and I’d recommend paying to join your local association too (I pay about £30 a year IIRC)

When you’re up and running check them at least every 7 days but in the height of summer every 5 as if they’re inclined to swarm they could create supercedure cells in 5 days, keep an eye on queen cells. Don’t take too much honey off (I extract 1/3, leave 1/3 for stores and 1/3 for them). Don’t worry about swarms if you check every 5 days, I’ve had swarms at 6 and 7 days but never 5. KEEP RECORDS for when the bee inspector comes around, and make sure you see queeny at least every two weeks (easier said than done though).

Treat for varroa! Use the small trays that look like fancy cat food (apigard / apilife) and use oxalic acid in winter. I’ve never had varroa problems. And yes you can eat thymol-ly honey as it really doesn’t taste funny.

Don’t bother extracting, for small amounts of frames buy a large plastic box (asda / dunelm mill type places) that fits and use the tool to scrape the caps off, let it drain in front of the fire, use collanders then wet muslin to filter. If you only get nucs I wouldn’t even think about honey this year, and even in the summer keep them fed – look in your books for syrup as it fills stores nicely and they’re not as dependant on water.

IME early june is the latest time to get a nuc, and May swarms are the best (being worth a load of hay and all that) so get yourself known at your club when swarms come in.

In terms of practicalities, put your hives facing east but they have protection but also a free run so they can range properly (e.g. in a corner a next to a hedge but at least 10 ft of space). Make sure they have water accessible, a dog bowl full of gravel is fine but not so much water so they drown. Take the mouse guard / wooden block / whatever off so they can get in easily in the summer. In winter keep the bottom clear for air flow and you may want to insulate the roof so flat ones aren’t ideal.

I’ve missed a tonne out but in a nutshell I think I’ve covered it. Shout if you need more info 🙂