The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Bees & Beekeeping => Topic started by: Gardners Cottage on May 16, 2020, 01:23:19 am
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Hi all,
I am in a nice Victorian wall Garden, with a lot of fruit trees planted (Apples, pears, cherries, plumbs, berries of all kind and a lot of flowers), in the central belt of Scotland. Although I have not experience a major pollination issue in my garden as all the produce generally thrive thanks to the wildlife ( wasps, bees, birds etc), also thanks to the nice weather apart icy wind (that hammered lots of things early in May). I wold like to establish a bees hive. This is mainly for honey production, wildlife preservation and general interest.
Could anyone share suggestions on websites active (got in touch with many with poor response) for training, equipement purchase, social (distancing). If you are local on ML2 area give me a shout! it will only cost you a training + 2 jars of honey, lol! I will buy back experience & equipment.
Apart this, if anyone has valuable reading, reference suppliers and general suggestions, please get in touch!
Antonio
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Best to start with the
https://www.bbka.org.uk/find (https://www.bbka.org.uk/find) your local group, they'll know if there's any bee keepers in your area who can help you out.Also look up some of the area group websites. There's lots of info on them to help you start.
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I second what Dogwalker says. Approach your local association and you should be able to get a mentor nearby. There are some terrific websites out there, but there's nothing like help in person when you're starting out - opening a hive and going through the frames and all those bees can be a bit overwhelming at first.
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Ted Hooper has written several decent beginner book for beekeepers .
Be aware of the witchcraft & supersticous beekeeper who thinks their bees are some magical creature . They are stingy little buggers who sometimes in spite of the attentions of the beginner sometimes produce a surfeit of harvestable honey .
Do read upon feeding your bees , you might need to do it several times a year & get no honey crop if you want to take your bees through a long cold wet winter or through a long hot dry summer when a lot of plants stop producing pollen & nectar.
We are now about to enter the " June gap " a time when a lot of beekeepers take off far to much honey and consequently the because ther is not nectar or pollen about in the hotter weather … the bees suffer tremendously as the queen slows down laying too . .