Getting started.

[stan68]

Hi im interested in keeping bees , but don't no how to get started

 

[itma]

Welcome, Stan.
There's lots of good info on here.
This thread should be particularly helpful http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=14770

 

[HM Honey]

Hi Stan and welcome to the forum.

I would start by getting in touch with your local bee keeping association and arranging to attend one of thier nights. Try and arrange to look in one of their hives as that will confirm you're not going to run a mile the first time you are stood in amongs thousands of flying bees?

Assuming you dont, take it from there.

 

[Lindylou]

Hi Stan and welcome to the forum - place of much knowledge and advice. I started beekeeping last year. Firstly our local association does a taster session, which enables you to look into a hive and to see how you feel about it. Not everybody takes to it. Thousands of bees flying around. But it does give you a bit of early insight. I then joined the beginners course which was really great. To be honest I wouldn't advise starting beekeeping without doing a course first. But then once you start to learn you cannot wait to get your own bees. I am now on the improvers course and am still learning. Good luck

 

[Mellifera397]

Hi Stan and welcome to the forum.

I would start by getting in touch with your local bee keeping association and arranging to attend one of thier nights. Try and arrange to look in one of their hives as that will confirm you're not going to run a mile the first time you are stood in amongs thousands of flying bees?

Assuming you dont, take it from there.

A) join your local beekeeping association (BKA)

B) buy a book on beekeeping. Ted Hooper's 'guide to bees and honey' maybe.

C) get a place on an introduction to beekeeping course

D) get a nucleus of bees from a member of your BKA

E) find a mentor, can often be found through your BKA

Any more questions keep asking. You'll never know unless you ask.

M

 

[itma]

...

Any more questions keep asking. You'll never know unless you ask.

M

Here's one.

Why have all this info collected and carefully set out in a 'sticky' thread if nobody bothers to read it ?

 

[Mellifera397]

When I first joined the forum I didn't know what a sticky thread was, but point taken.

M

 

[itma]

When I first joined the forum I didn't know what a sticky thread was, but point taken.

M

That's why I gave Stan a link to it ...

 

[Sandbee79]

If you don't any beekeepers find out where the nearest starter course is they are usually all over the place at this time of year. You can get a taste for keeping bees.

 

[whoosling]

A) join your local beekeeping association (BKA)

B) buy a book on beekeeping. Ted Hooper's 'guide to bees and honey' maybe.

C) get a place on an introduction to beekeeping course

D) get a nucleus of bees from a member of your BKA

E) find a mentor, can often be found through your BKA

Any more questions keep asking. You'll never know unless you ask.

M

All excellent advice, I did most of these things last year and have repeated the course again just last month - I've got the Haines beekeeping book - really simply explained just like thier car manuals. This place is a godsend and even when silly mistakes are made (as i've done this week and asked for help!!!) good advice, if sometimes very diverse is almost always given, you need to put up with the grumpy answers from time to time but all advice is usually well meant. Best of luck, enjoy your bees when you get them and don't be put off with the absolute panic which comes with the territory.

 

[BeeJayBee]

As well as all that's been said, check this page on Beebase "Advice for New Beekeepers" https://secure.fera.defra.gov.uk/beebase/index.cfm?sectionid=70

There are a lot of useful leaflets on this page "Advisory Leaflets, Training Manuals & Fact Sheets" https://secure.fera.defra.gov.uk/beebase/index.cfm?pageid=167 but it'll help to have a bit of experience before ploughing into them.

Hooper's book is a bit heavy going, but you'll probably need it once you've got bees, so borrow a more basic one from your local library.

Ask questions on this forum, as well as getting in touch with your local beekeeping association.

 

[djg]

A) join your local beekeeping association (BKA)

B) buy a book on beekeeping. Ted Hooper's 'guide to bees and honey' maybe.

C) get a place on an introduction to beekeeping course

D) get a nucleus of bees from a member of your BKA

E) find a mentor, can often be found through your BKA

Any more questions keep asking. You'll never know unless you ask.

M

I agree with whoosling about Mellifera397's advice.

I would like to add two considered comments:

1) Bees are not like computers. You can't "switch them off and switch them on again".

2) Your BKA, on the other hand, can be switched, once you have found your feet. I have ditched my original BKA for a much less ferocious strain !

 

[dpearce4]

I agree with whoosling about Mellifera397's advice.

I would like to add two considered comments:

1) Bees are not like computers. You can't "switch them off and switch them on again".

2) Your BKA, on the other hand, can be switched, once you have found your feet. I have ditched my original BKA for a much less ferocious strain !

So you didn't requeen them then.

 

[Luminos]

I found a susbscription to "Beecraft" useful

 

[djg]

So you didn't requeen them then.

dpearce,

If you are in carriage U on the Glasgow-Euston train and were looking over my shoulder at my pre-edited posting, that's spooky. Please understand that I wanted to avoid any gender/insurrection issues in my edited posting.

But, yes, you "own it"

 

[midas]

Local Beekeeping Associations

2) Your BKA, on the other hand, can be switched, once you have found your feet. I have ditched my original BKA for a much less ferocious strain ![/QUOTE]

You are quite right ... a local association is an invaluable resource for the new beekeeper. We're blessed at ours with a positive input from experienced members bringing through the aspiring keeper. Getting involved is key and most of our growing membership find that the more you put in the more you get out.

 

[djg]

2) Your BKA, on the other hand, can be switched, once you have found your feet. I have ditched my original BKA for a much less ferocious strain !

You are quite right ... a local association is an invaluable resource for the new beekeeper. We're blessed at ours with a positive input from experienced members bringing through the aspiring keeper. Getting involved is key and most of our growing membership find that the more you put in the more you get out.[/QUOTE]

Yes, I know what you mean....I started up as a newbie with the LBKA in 2008. As an ordinary Member of the Association, I organised film screenings ("Vanishing of the Bees"), free stalls at the Bermondsey Street Festival, manned various LBKA stands, passed my Basic, raised money for other Members' bee-ventures with talks and honey-themed menus at a local restaurant, offered mentorship, lent books to other Members, attended almost every meeting, won the Association's "Best Honey Inside the M25" prize at the National Honey Show in 2011...happy days from "Getting Started".

Then management changed, we entered the "Twilight Zone" and the spooky stuff began. You know the sort of thing, midas...

So on to pastures new......with no regrets about the past.

 

[midas]

No I don't know what you mean. Depends where you have been getting your so called facts from, I guess.

 

[midas]

You are quite right ... a local association is an invaluable resource for the new beekeeper. We're blessed at ours with a positive input from experienced members bringing through the aspiring keeper. Getting involved is key and most of our growing membership find that the more you put in the more you get out.

Yes, I know what you mean....I started up as a newbie with the LBKA in 2008. As an ordinary Member of the Association, I organised film screenings ("Vanishing of the Bees"), free stalls at the Bermondsey Street Festival, manned various LBKA stands, passed my Basic, raised money for other Members' bee-ventures with talks and honey-themed menus at a local restaurant, offered mentorship, lent books to other Members, attended almost every meeting, won the Association's "Best Honey Inside the M25" prize at the National Honey Show in 2011...happy days from "Getting Started".

Then management changed, we entered the "Twilight Zone" and the spooky stuff began. You know the sort of thing, midas...

So on to pastures new......with no regrets about the past.[/QUOTE]
And I can see that moving from an elite, unaccountable and unelected committee structure to one where it is democratically elected and bound properly to the interests of its members rather than itself has been a transition you have clearly found difficult. Change can be a painful process and not all can move with the times which is such a shame.

 

[thorn]

Dug, I see what you mean. They don't just drive you away but follow you.