beekeeping only for rich folks?

[onymee]

I am desperate to start keeping bees. All my life I have kept various small livestock and been self sufficient in milk, meat and eggs. However as my health has deteriorated over the decades, and I no longer keep goats or pigs, I figured I could use the old goat paddock to keep some bees in. However, unless I go and 'swing me 'andbag' down the docks, or win the lottery, I can't see how I can ever afford to start. With hives around £300, plus the cost of a nucleus, and the equipment, it's way beyond my means. So I figured polystyrene hives were the way to go. After all, polystyrene is cheap and easy to make isn't it? Yet according to all the sellers I have seen online, they still cost over a hundred. How on earth can they justify this cost?
So it seems I am doomed to want unless my numbers come up. So, how does one start if one is on a budget?

 

[VEG]

Make one ya self

 

[adrian wilford]

no, i know of someone who started keeping bees in wooden shoe boxes, many years ago but it can still be done today. You dont need all the fancy equipment, make yourself a top bar hive from recycled timber, before bee hives they were kept in straw baskets.

 

[dpearce4]

Make one ya self

much cheaper to make the hives yourself or buy in the sales.

 

[onymee]

as I mentioned, I don't have great health and would not be able to make one quite apart from the fact I wouldn't know where to begin.

 

[onymee]

much cheaper to make the hives yourself or buy in the sales.

when and where are these sales please?

 

[johnnythefridge]

Welcome to the forum. I started by trawling this forum, reading a few books, joining a local bee keeping club and tagging along on some of their apiary days before booking onto a local beekeeping course. It worked out ok so far...

 

[dpearce4]

there is one starting on monday with a company called Th0rnes and P aines have thiers on at the moment.

i will pm u the links.

 

[onymee]

I've spent the last 2 years researching, reading, speaking to beekeepers etc and am confident that I know what I need to know to be able to keep them properly. I do have lots of animals of various species, am a dog behaviourist among other stuff and would never consider getting any animal unless I'd done my homework. So now I am in a position to get some bees but just can't afford the hive and equipment and don't feel confident about getting secondhand stuff.Perhaps it's time for a spring clean and selling stuff at the carboot sale to raise some cash. I really really want polystyrene hives after researching the different ones.

 

[onymee]

there is one starting on monday with a company called Th0rnes and P aines have thiers on at the moment.

i will pm u the links.

oooh thanks, will have a look at those.

 

[Tom Bick]

Google Top Bar Hives

 

[rayz_x]

Your leaning towards poly hives may well be a good decision. Only thing I would say there is that they are like lego - you will need matching bits for them probably from the same maker. If you use the same wood hive as everyone around you can generally buy, borrow or bodge something that will work if you need parts.
As others have said, your local association is a very valuable resource.

Ray

 

[dpearce4]

you could offer the site to a beekeeper for a cut of the honey.

 

[onymee]

Google Top Bar Hives

I did look at those. I figured they'd be better for my back problem too but have decided on the Langstroth

 

[pargyle]

If you do a g00gle search for 'Top bar hive plans' you will find on the various websites that:

a) You need very little equipment - bee suit, gloves, hive tool, smoker are pretty essential and all can be found on fleabay relatively cheaply - my set cost me less than £40 for the lot. You don't need a whole lot more to start.

b) Top bar hives are very easy to build - it's a box with straight bits of timber to support the comb. Mine was built largely from scrap timber, the plans on the web are so easy to follow and there are no critical dimensions except for the width of the top bars.

c) If your health is poor you really don't want to be lifting heavy brood boxes and supers full of honey (which you would have to do). A top bar hive requires no substantial lifting anbd can be sited at a comfortable height to work on.

You may not get as much honey (in a good year) from a TBH but if you are looking for self sufficiency with, perhaps, a small surplus then this may not be an issue.

I'm surprised you haven't considered this option already if you have been looking at the various possibilities - or perhaps you have and discounted TBH for some reason > Worth a bit of further investigation IMO.

 

[onymee]

Your leaning towards poly hives may well be a good decision. Only thing I would say there is that they are like lego - you will need matching bits for them probably from the same maker. If you use the same wood hive as everyone around you can generally buy, borrow or bodge something that will work if you need parts.
As others have said, your local association is a very valuable resource.

The poly made sense to me on several levels. The insulation being the main one and the fact that according to what I have read, there has not been an incidence of AFB in poly hives.

you could offer the site to a beekeeper for a cut of the honey.

I would much rather have my own, plus thanks to my owning some rather large dogs, nobody gets access to the goat paddock unless I escort them :0) That's not a problem normally but if the hive owner needed to care for his hives or move them or there was a problem, I'd have to make sure I was here for them to be able to do so. The other issue is because I keep poultry and have show birds, I'm reluctant to allow strangers onto my land because of possible disease. I am determined to have bees this year come hell or high water. I LIKE bees, and bees apparently LIKE me. As a little girl way back in the olden days, I would happily allow bees to land on me and was never stung, according to my mother. Those nasty old yellow and black boggers on the other hand, stab me at every opportunity .

 

[onymee]

Google Top Bar Hives

If you do a g00gle search for 'Top bar hive plans' you will find on the various websites that:

a) You need very little equipment - bee suit, gloves, hive tool, smoker are pretty essential and all can be found on fleabay relatively cheaply - my set cost me less than £40 for the lot. You don't need a whole lot more to start.

b) Top bar hives are very easy to build - it's a box with straight bits of timber to support the comb. Mine was built largely from scrap timber, the plans on the web are so easy to follow and there are no critical dimensions except for the width of the top bars.

c) If your health is poor you really don't want to be lifting heavy brood boxes and supers full of honey (which you would have to do). A top bar hive requires no substantial lifting anbd can be sited at a comfortable height to work on.

You may not get as much honey (in a good year) from a TBH but if you are looking for self sufficiency with, perhaps, a small surplus then this may not be an issue.

I'm surprised you haven't considered this option already if you have been looking at the various possibilities - or perhaps you have and discounted TBH for some reason > Worth a bit of further investigation IMO.

the reason I discounted them was because I'd read that bees are happier in a vertical structure. The weight is why I thought about poly ones. Honey is nice, I eat and cook and drink with honey in.I also use it on cuts and wounds. A surplus could always be bartered or given as gifts. I will go and have another look at the top bar ones and see if perhaps I can pay someone to cut the timber for me.

 

[REDWOOD]

Forget carboot, open an eBay account, you will make more money and th0rnes accept Paypal

 

[oliver90owner]

'The fens' covers quite a large are. Could you be just a little more specific? There may be a forum member quite close by.

 

[onymee]

'The fens' covers quite a large are. Could you be just a little more specific? There may be a forum member quite close by.

there are lots of beekeepers close by. One of the friendliest is in Outwell near my best friend.He also makes and sells hives, but he doesn't have polystyrene ones. I may get a nuc' off him as his bees were nice and docile when I visited him last year.