complete noob needs some adivce

[MuswellMetro]

one of our members is very allegic to bees and carries a two epi pens

she recons she is stung twice a year and works with two layers of clothing, normal long sleave clothing and a full suit, wellies and leather gloves with nitrile gloves

the suit has got to be the best, she uses sheriff suits @ £120+

i've been stung twice this year ( proper stings) once when i left the veil just open and once through the suit when i sat on bees in the car and had only short on underneath

other stings: just dont notice the pin prick stings through rubber gloves anymore, washed the gloves the other day by hand rather in the machine, held them up with water inside, hundred of mini leaks through the sting holes, never noticed them at all

 

[ghostman11]

ok - so your small holding is actually quite big and a viable business with several workers. so yes you could have an apiary run by someone else for you.

re the allergy - since you work in the countryside occasional stings are likely anyway - have you considered Venom Desensitisation Immunotherapy given your previous life threatening reaction?????

i did undertake VDI a long while back and it didnt go well! so its not an option, on the plus side i dont seem to get stung anything like as many times as most the workers here!

we are large for a small holding (210 acres) and the business is very varied. getting someone to run it is an option although kind of grates on me that i cant be hands on but from the sound of it being stung if you keep Bees is pretty much part of the job!

i will deff go ahead with the business plan and see what happens at the planning session.
so the next couple of noob questions!!

one the things we do here is offer holiday type courses one of wich is wood turning using timber from our own small wood. its fairly popular and one the things that appeal to me is to use the wax from our own hives on the course!

so the how long is a bit of rope question is............... taken an average size hive how much wax could we exspect to harvest in a year? i aknowledge that the first year we cant exspect miracles but after everything has settled for a year or so. in reality we probaly have more use for the wax than the honey lol

one the big things we are doing as well this year is installing camera's all over the place includeing inside some the incubators, this will be mainly for the new website etc, so how feasiable/practicle would it be to have some sort of observation pannel in a hive with say IR lights and a cam??

i know some theese questions seem daft but we kind of mesh all parts of our business together as much as we can.

 

[ghostman11]

i like the look of the masonary blocks!! i will make some of those up. how do we actualy attract the bees to use them tho?? or do they just..............turn up

 

[BERNIE]

as your reaction is so bad to stings it is not worth the risk.the more times you cross the road the more your chances go up of getting run over.and with your medical history it will like be crossing m25 blindfolded carrying sign saying 50 points if you hit me. go for the hedgerow.

 

[barratt_sab]

i hve thought long and hard about the question of stings and to be honest i spend all day every day (almost) working outside in long grass and paddocks etc and i only been stung 4 times in 10 years, for me being stung is a risk every time i step out the house so i figure if i take all the precautions i can and use the right kit of good quality then the increase in risk should be minimal. i hadnt considered bees clinging onto the suite tho, but we do have an outside wet room so i guess i would just have to make sure i jumped under the shower in my suite when i had finished messing with the bees
i would realy hate the safety aspect stopping the project. and trimming hedges is boreing!!!

I too worked outside for many years, and like you got stung relatively few times. Things can be a bit different when dealing with hive of bees - particularly if they aren't so keen on what you are doing.

I'm sure that with good kit you must be able to substantially reduce the risks - having worked at a nuclear plant, I know it's possible to completely isolate yourself from the physical environment if you try hard enough!

I guess you have to ask yourself whether the risks involved for you, together with the procedures you'll have to go through to help ensure your safety outweigh your desire to be closely involved with bees.

 

[newportbuzz]

be aware that introducing a few hives to a area will increase the number of bees you meet in the feild aswell. so you WILL be increasing your chances of getting stung even if you stay well clear. the bees tend to propolis up the cameras (BEE GLUE) but one outside the hive is a popular thing watching the enterance to see whats going on but the ones inside are hard to run
with regards a wax harvest i dont know. never heard of anyone aiming for just wax altho im sure it can be done.
you mentioned that you would like to try several diferent hives most are not interchangeable which makes managing a bit harder.
you should consider which breed of bee you would like to keep as you are looking from a conservation point rather than a money point
hope it goes well for you and hope you dont get to many stings
with regards prices i am south ireland so a hive is around 200 euro and a nuc is about 120 euro but you have to give the box back a hive with bees can be anywhere from 300 to 400 those are for national hives. dont have info for comercial or other types check thornes for ball park prices tho. just search thornes on google

 

[ghostman11]

i assumed most keepers kept the wax!!! for us woodworking types its pure gold lol. it would be nice to have our own honey but if i am honest i am not personaly the bigest fan of it now give me a block of the wax mmmmmmmmmm i love that smell!! and the sheen on a nice bit of seasoned oak!!! greatttttttttt.

worth every penny but would rather produce my own

 

[newportbuzz]

i assumed most keepers kept the wax!!! for us woodworking types its pure gold lol. it would be nice to have our own honey but if i am honest i am not personaly the bigest fan of it now give me a block of the wax mmmmmmmmmm i love that smell!! and the sheen on a nice bit of seasoned oak!!! greatttttttttt.

worth every penny but would rather produce my own

think we crossed wires i ment that the wax is more of a bi product than anything else but i presume if you keep giving them foundation and removing when they have drawn it you would be able to get a wax crop but its very expensive in honey..
if you are a woodworker why not make your own hives there are plenty of plans on the net. or buy one and use it as template

 

[ghostman11]

i been looking at plans, and will probally have a go at making one when i find a decent plan of one i like. i am not that great at general woodwork i am more of a wood turner, but we have a decent workshop here and i am pretty sure i could make a fairly good hive with some decent plans.
as for the wax i just have a thing for the smell lol. the honey aspect is probaly the least important for us, i know that sounds odd but i can think of so many diff ways we could intergrate bee's into many aspects of our business.

 

[Skyhook]

I also think given your condition to bee stings best not to do it.

why not look into making nesting sites for Mason Bees on a large scale and Bumble Bees

Best way to help bumble bees? create hedge banks- perfect environment!

 

[Queens59]

Try looking on the Scottish Beekeepers site - their plans are great as is Dave Cushman. The best Top Bar Hive plan is from www.farmco.co.uk/tbh.pdf (thanks Brosville)- I'm a newbee in East Devon if that helps. Good Luck!

 

[ghostman11]

well it may be possiable to do both the hedge project and bees as it seems like keeping bee's isnt as exspensive as i first thought. its certainly alot cheaper than a hedge!! and quicker to do

on a side note do any members have experiance of national bee suplies in devon??? they are relatively close to me. and if we go ahead i would like to use them

 

[Queens59]

YES - I have popped to them and rung with an order, as unfortunately the are not able to take online orders. I ordered two porches for my WBC, from 2 different suppliers. 1 came in 2 pieces and 3 screws - Okehampton sent me a complete porch, 3 screws and pre-drilled guide holes - guess which one I fitted first?? Friendly people, happy to give advice to newbees...great (and no, I don't work for them or know anyone who does)!

BUT - beekeeping can be expensive...but if you can make your own kit or buy second hand or hire it can be cheaper...

 

[ghostman11]

Try looking on the Scottish Beekeepers site - their plans are great as is Dave Cushman. The best Top Bar Hive plan is from www.farmco.co.uk/tbh.pdf (thanks Brosville)- I'm a newbee in East Devon if that helps. Good Luck!

roughly whereabouts are you? anywhere near okehampton or lifton?

 

[Queens59]

Nope nr Ottery

 

[louiseww]

As someone who is allergic to wasp stings and carrys adrenaline for that.....the first thing I did was have a bee sting to check that I was okay with it. I am alright but as a previous response said, no matter how careful you are there will be the odd one who gets you! So only you can weigh up the risks.
Can you set it up and have someone else look after the hives and you do the work involved that doesn't require direct access to the bees such as woodwork, honey harvesting, mixing syrup for feeds etc.
If you go ahead it is the time of year to start attending meetings to learn and then you get them next spring, so my advice is join your local group.
Good luck with it and I applaud your campaign to help the wildlife on your land........how about a campaign to stop gardeners using poisons on their lawns and other plants .....these are the idiots who want wimbledon lawns with no thought to the insects. Sorry about that a hobby horse of mine!!!ha!

 

[barratt_sab]

I have dealt with NBS over the phone - my experience is friendly helpful service, reasonable prices and quick postage (and no, I'm related!)

 

[Brosville]

".how about a campaign to stop gardeners using poisons on their lawns and other plants" - funny you should say that - it's one of my pet hates too, and have had a protracted email correspondence with my local BBC radio station on the matter (Radio Southern Counties, or whatever it's called this week) - they had a succession of "gardening experts" on their Sunday "Digit" gardening advice programme who were blatantly plugging pesticides (usually by name- repeated, and often spelt out, just so they got their commission from "Big Ag Pestco.Inc") - most prominent being plugs for "Bayer Provado", which is a neonicotinoid.
I'm pleased to note that the blatant plugs now appear to have stopped (I hope permanently), but have noticed a corresponding "big push" from the pesticide companies to make their toxins look positively cuddly - all the DIY places and gardening centres are full of Kath Kidston lookalike packs of "Provado"..........
As I've said until I'm blue in the face, there is no need to use pesticides in the garden (if I can manage it.......) But notice that following "the media good guys" like Monty Don, Alan Titchmarsh and Bob Flowerdew, there's a visible campaign to try to sell the idea that gardening with toxins is somehow normal, natural, safe and acceptable (and that you're a leftie bedwetter if you don't)

 

[drstitson]

garden poisoners

Richard jackson and the couple who run the gardening pages of the Sun and NotW seem to suggest pesticides and weedkillers as the answer to all gardening woes.

bring on Bob F pissing on his compost heap whilst balanced on a pile of old tyres.

 

[BKF Admin]

but have noticed a corresponding "big push" from the pesticide companies to make their toxins look positively cuddly

I noticed last week that Rowse honey have a new organic/homemade looking label.

They plan to spend over 3 million pounds on branding to topple Marmite as the top selling spread.

The labels says "Pure and Natural",shame they have heated the dear life out of it to stop granulation.


Maybe its time the BBKA spent some of that chemical money on educating the public regarding what "Raw" honey is and pushed the supermarkets to stop demanding a non granulating product.