Hello from Banff / Portsoy Area

[CraigBee]

Hi all

We have just bought a property in north Scotland, near Banff and Portsoy and would really like to start learning about keeping bees with the ultimate goal of having our own bees.

it woudl be good to hear from anyone in the area (I promise I won't bombard you with questions!!)

Craig

 

[Erichalfbee]

Hi Craig and welcome.
Prime osprey country.

 

[CraigBee]

Hi Craig and welcome.
Prime osprey country.

thanks Dani - it sure is - we have recently moved from just north of you in North Wales up to Scotland!

 

[pargyle]

Welcome Craig ... start reading ... look out for 'Bees at the Bottom of the Garden' by Alan Campion which is a very readable book and will give you a flavour of what beekeeping is all about - but be careful, it's addictive.

 

[Murox]

 

[Mabee]

Welcome to Scotland and beekeeping! It would be good to find your local association. I know the Black Isle is varroa free and so it’d be wise to check what the situation is in your area, you may be able to source bees (and a mentor) nearby.

 

[madasafish]

I went to school at Banff Academy over a century ago - err sorry half a century

 

[BeeAdmin]

Welcome to Beekeeping Forum. Enjoy.

 

[Brenda]

Welcome to Beekeeping Forum. Enjoy.

Welcome Carl I am from Moray just along the coast about 50 miles from your new home. Make enquiries about Beekeepers locally and join your nearest Association as they will advise you on anything you want to know and also buying Bees in the locality. A Guide to Bees & Honey by Ted Hopper would be my recommendation to read for a beginner. Keep asking on this Forum would also be recommended. Good luck!

 

[pargyle]

Welcome Carl I am from Moray just along the coast about 50 miles from your new home. Make enquiries about Beekeepers locally and join your nearest Association as they will advise you on anything you want to know and also buying Bees in the locality. A Guide to Bees & Honey by Ted Hopper would be my recommendation to read for a beginner. Keep asking on this Forum would also be recommended. Good luck!

Sorry Brenda, Ted Hooper is one for the beekeeping bookshelf but it's not a non-beekeeping beginners book unless you are particularly good with wordy books with few diagrams and pictures written in the language of the last century .... the best beginners book, once they have bees, these days is the Haynes Manual of Beekeeping. Will get you through the first two years and enough knowledge to have a good stab at Hooper.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Sorry Brenda, Ted Hooper is one for the beekeeping bookshelf but it's not a non-beekeeping beginners book unless you are particularly good with wordy books with few diagrams and pictures written in the language of the last century .... the best beginners book, once they have bees, these days is the Haynes Manual of Beekeeping. Will get you through the first two years and enough knowledge to have a good stab at Hooper.

I started out with Hooper, Dave Cushman's original site prior to his death and the available knowledge from selected contributors in this forum (you soon get to know which ones give sensible advice). Later on I used my local library service to read a variety of other offerings but found most of them were a hotchpotch of repetition of each other. Some of the publications still around contain "strange" information to say the least.

 

[Brenda]

Word of mouth information is how I began 36 years ago, and Ted Hooper was recommended to read, it did not do me any harm therefore I cannot decry the book. Once I got seriously going I made my own decisions who to read or follow.