First off thank you for all your advice. It really helps.
Yes we will have a mentor but we are also going to "rent" a hive from the training apairy for this year so we can get some experience with our mentor looking over our shoulder.
We do have the site 45 mins away but we only want to use that as a backup plan/emergency as it is so far away we cannot keep an eye on any bees regularly.
We are only at the very beginning of getting permission to get hives on our allotment but it will probably not be this year. Although even if we get an empty hive on the site, it will be a start to get people used to the bees.
We are not part of the allotment association yet but we are trying to join in the next few days or so. I did ask if there were any hives on any of the other plots nearby and the answer was no.
We have already decided to screen the hive(s) if we did put them on the allotment but we are still looking for other sites in the area that are more bee friendly.
We know it is not going to be easy sailing and that peoples opinons can change in a heart beat when the bees swarm or get grumpy.
All we can do is keep looking and go ahead with getting permission, at least then we have it in writing and can do it at any time.
