Beekeepers Professions

[user 6127]

So many retired people on here. Must admit, more than I thought.

I'm personally still nearer my 20's than retirement.

I own and run a property services company, specialising in returning repossessed properties to the market (so no work since March....)

Own 4 acres of Sussex countryside, that I purchased back in July, after years of renting from a landlord we were sure was going to drop dead any day, and the future of us on the land was unknown. Expanding the bees is in the business plan.

 

[Hedgerow Honey]

Spent most of my life in agri, spent three years as a apprentice, worked around a bit then started my own mobile welding business till 98, I then worked in New Mexico for a year. I already had my HGV license and took a job on milk tankers when I came back from the US, moved on from that to Welsh Water then fell lucky and got a job with the number one, quality road fuel supplier, been there twenty years now, mainly for the final salary pension. Have been around bees for most of my life, my grandfather and uncle moved between thirty & fifty until my grandfather passed away, I still kept the odd few in a corner of a field, but they were never seriously looked after.
Jumped in both feet first during 2011 and decided to grow commercialy.
Ive had a few health issues that held me back a bit and been through a divorce, and moved to a new county. Now out the other side and should have two hundred production colonies next year split between 14x12 and commercial, lots of nucs also.

 

[Beekeeper Brownie]

I reckon I'm probably one of the youngest on here at 28, so I'm no where near retirement yet. I work in agricultural plant breeding, specifically working with sugar beet. With my job I'm always getting offers for apiary sites but I've only got enough time for the 15 I've currently got. I noticed this summer as I've now got them split across two sites it does take up quite a bit of time. I started 5 years ago with some good 'mentors' from the local BKA. I got into beekeeping as a random suggestion form my mum one day, her late father used to have a few WBC hives on his farm until he became allergic.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I reckon I'm probably one of the youngest on here at 28,

I think Ben Pullen will just about beat you there
His forum name is Vergilius

 

[Curly green finger's]

Scary isn’t it?

Am I safe to talk about OA home made strips.

 

[timix]

Software engineer, 28yrs old. Still a beginner at keeping bees. I spend most of my time coding with minimal physical activity, so I love to get out once in a while and watch the bees how they defend the hive against robbers and whatnot

 

[John McC]

I started 8 years ago, 2 years before retirement. I have 13 hives and sticking at that. They are in 3 out apiaries near me. Love the bees, but it was a bad year this year, so looking forward to next year. Each year has been a learning experience. Really happy with my bees, always something to talk about.

 

[Sharpe32]

Police custody Sergeant here, 36 years young, 1st year beekeeper.

 

[Newbeeneil]

Am I safe to talk about OA home made strips.

I think you are right curly, I'm glad I only clean my hives with my OA crystals

 

[Curly green finger's]

I think you are right curly, I'm glad I only clean my hives with my OA crystals

I don't clean the inside of mine! my "girlys" do it for me

 

[pargyle]

Am I safe to talk about OA home made strips.

Too late ... the boys in blue are scheduled to be banging on your door at 3am tomorrow with a warrant looking for white powder and the means to vapourise it ...

 

[pargyle]

I think you are right curly, I'm glad I only clean my hives with my OA crystals

and then they are coming for you .....

 

[madasafish]

Bee friendly plants are nice but bee friendly shrubs - and trees are far better in terms of bang for your square meter of soil..

I grown dwarf ceanothus (deep blue colour) and buddleia from cuttings in late summer, overwintered in a cold frame. And provide them free to people with gardens who ask about bee plants.

I also grow opium poppies and phacelia and give visitors seeds as above...

 

[No Neo Nics]

This is a really interesting thread. I'm a radiographer and am lucky enough to have my 4 or 5 hives at the allotment. It's fun; I'm very 'hands off' and found the BBKA methods confusing and sometimes unkind to the bees, so I feel as if I've gone much more along 'natural' bee keeping lines, and actually doing very little. I hope the bees like my style; I assume they do as one day last summer they decided to swarm, I never saw them go any where so I went to have a look. Swarming any distance was clearly too much of a faff for them so they just popped immediately next door into No 2, Bee Street - an empty brood box I'd put there as an offering and for storage. I was so excited to be doing nothing!! I got into it because my wife thought it'd be fun. We went on the confusing BBKA course and at the end of it were left to 'get on with it' - no mentors or the like. Ali got stung and I was left to sail solo.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Too late ... the boys in blue are scheduled to be banging on your door at 3am tomorrow with a warrant looking for white powder and the means to vapourise it ...

Well they never arrived, I was awake with the kettle on.
To busy they can't be interested in a part time crock like me

 

[madasafish]

This is a really interesting thread. ! I got into it because my wife thought it'd be fun. We went on the confusing BBKA course and at the end of it were left to 'get on with it' - no mentors or the like. Ali got stung and I was left to sail solo.

We (North Staffs BBKA) try to give beginners a choice of people to assist them. Usually area based as the distances involved are quite large . So people always have someone to ask for help either by phone or physical assistance.. Whilst there is no "right" way to keeping bees , you can learn an awful lot from experienced people. Unfortunately Covid has screwed a lot of that up as a couple of our experienced mentors are self isolating so are going nowhere ..

 

[amandaj57]

Bee friendly plants are nice but bee friendly shrubs - and trees are far better in terms of bang for your square meter of soil..

I grown dwarf ceanothus (deep blue colour) and buddleia from cuttings in late summer, overwintered in a cold frame. And provide them free to people with gardens who ask about bee plants.

I also grow opium poppies and phacelia and give visitors seeds as above...

Can I ask how you propagate your Ceanothus, please? I have a beautiful large bush that is deafening to be near in June and repeat flowers, it is in bloom now, with lots of buds yet to open, and covered in my girls. I have tried to take cuttings but have never been successful. The picture was taken a few minutes ago but the girls were too nippy for me to get them in frame.

And in keeping with the thread. I started keeping bees as a 32-year-old maths teacher. At 45, I took a sabbatical from my Head of department job to do my Maths Masters, then realised how much more enjoyable life was without the politics of teaching. Six years later, I have never gone back and work for exam boards instead in various roles and have converted a barn on our smallholding to a holiday let. I work about six months of the year but without all the travelling etc, have found I am no worse off. The main problem is my heaviest work period coincides with when the bees need me most so it has been a bit of a balancing act. I am looking forward to reducing the amount I do in the coming years.

 

[Beegarden]

Can i ask what bee friendly plants you have
[/QUOTE
I don't want to tell a Granny (Nanny) how to suck eggs, but here's a list of some of those that are visited by honey bees and many other pollinators. I do have other new ones in flower now (eg Caryopteris, Salvia Ulginosa) but the continual rain hasn't allowed me to watch if they are popular or not. Here's a selection:
Starting from Spring: Pulmonaria is very popular with solitary bees and spreads very easily, crocus, all Brooms (not honeybees), Crab apple and pear, Ceanothus (always busy), Ribes (especially ribes laurefolium for honeys, yellow evergreen), Mahonia, Rosemary, Muscari, Hellebores, winter Heathers - Erica carnea, Sarcocca
Summer: Helleniums, Erysimum (orange in partic.), Russian sage, Scabius, , Crab Apple and Pear, Magnolia grandiflora - go mad for it, Gaillardia, Buddlea Butterfly bush- attracts the odd Hummingbird Hawkmoth too, Buddlea globosa - really popular, Phlomis, Cotoneaster tree - hums with honeys and bumblies, Chusan Palm - again love the flowers, Cordyline - very popular, Passion flower, Viper's Bugloss, Sea Lavender, Centaurea montana, Thyme- only some, partic pink, Veronicastrum virginicum Fascination, Tansy, Erigeron glaucus, Allium, Cyanara cardunulus, Nepeta, Agastache blackadder, Astrantia, Echinops, Verbena bonariensis, Knautia
Autumn/Winter: Geranium Roxanne - flowers and flowers and spreads quickly, Viburnum Tinus, Colchiums

I try to plant perennials in threes, to allow the bees to crawl from flower to flower. I

 

[enrico]

just thought I would attach this. Back in the 90's but still makes me laugh! I was often called on to go to swarms. Saved the Comms dept having to find someone in the yellow pages! I look much older now!!!!!

 

[The Poot]

View attachment 22451just thought I would attach this. Back in the 90's but still makes me laugh! I was often called on to go to swarms. Saved the Comms dept having to find someone in the yellow pages! I look much older now!!!!!

A beekeeper with a go faster stripe, no less!