Author Topic: Can you just keep bees for pollinating? (Read 3315 times)

suziequeue · « **on:** June 24, 2011, 07:45:13 pm »

Can I just have a beehive and bees for pollinating and not honey production?

Fleecewife · « **Reply #1 on:** June 24, 2011, 10:03:47 pm »

Why not just encourage the wild bees - bumble bees and so on. They are apparently far more efficient at pollination than honey bees, so you need fewer, and hardly anyone seems to be supporting them

Anke · « **Reply #2 on:** June 28, 2011, 10:55:50 pm »

Yes, encourage wild bees/bumble bees- less work if you do not want the honey... look at egglady's recent post... so much trouble with bees!

egglady · « **Reply #3 on:** June 28, 2011, 10:59:49 pm »

oooh, i second that comment anke!!!

OhLaLa · « **Reply #4 on:** June 29, 2011, 12:03:14 pm »

I also say encourage the wild bees, you can buy nice little nest kits.

I've also attached this link for you:

http://www.bumblebee.org/nestboxes.htm

Plantoid · « **Reply #5 on:** June 29, 2011, 11:03:56 pm »

Yes but you will still need to work the hive to check for disease and to snuff out queens etc & requeen when needed or they will swarm and cause nusinace.
You would ideally need to mug up on modern bee keeping for much has change in the last 20 yrs or so .
Keeping one hive is not adviseable for should it sucumb to disease o, mice , wood peckers or badgers etc you will lose the pollination benefit .
Locally in East Anglia there were numerous orchard owners/ farmers who kept & left bees alone specifically for crop polination of fruit, borrage and rape seed . The number of swarms emerging fron these sites kept me in pocket money for 15 years or so.

It is so noticeable to find that the area ( within a mile or so ) near three or so hives tends to have much more vibrant flowers year after year than an area devoid of an apiary