Hello from south west France

[general-confusion]

Hello , I thought I would introduce myself as am new to the forum , I am 48 years old and live in the Vienne region of France , I am taking a 16 hour introduction to bee keeping course and am looking to get my first hive and colony shortly afterwards. We live in the country but have various types of forage nearby such as sweet chestnut , oil seed rape , peas , sun flowers and fruit trees as well as lavender so hopefully the bees will have enough to keep them going !
Steve

 

[Fritillary]

Hello - Bonsoir! - And here's to your new venture!
Bees are more fascinating than I ever imagined, and I hope you find that too. And like me, I'm sure you'll learn so much on this forum.

(I like your name - I can relate to that! - I trust though in your case it describes only the first primeval condition from which creativity and order will surely flourish??)

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Hello , I thought I would introduce myself as am new to the forum , I am 48 years old and live in the Vienne region of France , I am taking a 16 hour introduction to bee keeping course and am looking to get my first hive and colony shortly afterwards. We live in the country but have various types of forage nearby such as sweet chestnut , oil seed rape , peas , sun flowers and fruit trees as well as lavender so hopefully the bees will have enough to keep them going !
Steve

Welcome to the world of beekeeping Steve. I'd suggest you need to make contact with an experienced and capable beekeeper near you who can mentor your venture as 16 hours training is going to leave huge gaps in the knowledge you will need.

 

[Fritillary]

Are you taking a course with other beginners locally?

 

[jfullerton]

Welcome to the site. Plenty of help and support on here as long as you don't have a thin skin..!

 

[general-confusion]

Hi , thank you all for your warm welcome and words of advice , yes I am doing a course locally , it is about 15 miles from me and is run by an English guy called Paul and is following the material in the BBKA guide to beekeeping. He is helping us with advice , practical experience and supplies and is able to come out to us if we have questions and problems , he also has a honey room we can use when we need it.

 

[B+.]

Bienvenue Steve

I am so glad to hear you have an experienced mentor! Having the support of an experienced beekeeper can help you in so many ways! I'm sure you'll do fine.

 

[Brigsy]

Welcome.

 

[Ukrainian beekeeper]

Welcom))

 

[Plenty of honey]

Hi Steve, welcome. I am right up in North Brittany. About as far away from you as i could possible be. Dont know if you know, there is Face Book beekeeping group called Beekeeping in france, its actually quite a lot of nice english speakers who just enjoy keeping bees. lots of different abilities and experience in different types of hive, although the Majority is probably the Dadant. You will see there is quite a few other beekeepers near you who are english speaking if thats your thing.


https://www.facebook.com/groups/BeeksinFrance/

If you want contacts with other English and French speaking beekeepers, then follow this link: http://abeille.gudule.org
If you dont already know, Chris Luck runs a website called www.planetpassion.eu
on that you will find another list of beekeepers willing to collect swarms as well as other interesting wildlife things, birds, amphibians, reptiles etc.. get yourself on the list, or the other list above and you never know.
best of luck

 

[general-confusion]

Thank you Richard , lots of new information , I will look forward to checking out the sites mentioned. As far as hives go I am going for 2 Dadants , simply for availabilty of frames and foundation
Many Thanks
Steve

 

[Plenty of honey]

Thank you Richard , lots of new information , I will look forward to checking out the sites mentioned. As far as hives go I am going for 2 Dadants , simply for availabilty of frames and foundation
Many Thanks
Steve

Good choice, you will find everything fits, most other have Dadants and if you buy a swarm or colony, it is likely to be on Dadants.
All the best

 

[general-confusion]

Update
My friend was looking at buying some furniture from a couple moving back to the UK ,when he noticed the chap had 2 bee hives , "what are you doing with those" he said ,the guy said he was looking to rehome them for 150 euros including a ruchette, a suit and some tools , so it looks like I will have 2 colonies very soon !!

 

[REDWOOD]

Get a Beekeeper to check them out for any nasties before you buy them

 

[general-confusion]

Thanks Redwood , I will get my mentor to check them out (the vendor was also a pupil of his)

 

[Leila]

Hi Steve! I'm also getting Dadants. I'm in Italy and completely new to beekeeping

 

[general-confusion]

Hi Leila , congratulations , I hope you enjoy !

 

[Piecrust]

Looking for resources support in SW France

Hi Steve,

I've recently moved to the South West and I'm new to beekeeping.

Can you recommend any hands on courses in the area, places to buy equipment and obtain bees, people to advise on the best species for the region etc?

Whereabouts in the region are you? I'm in a small village near Cahors in the lot valley.

Perhaps we could meet up sometime?

Kind regards,

Mark.

 

[Anduril]

Hi Steve,

I've recently moved to the South West and I'm new to beekeeping.

Can you recommend any hands on courses in the area, places to buy equipment and obtain bees, people to advise on the best species for the region etc?

Whereabouts in the region are you? I'm in a small village near Cahors in the lot valley.

Perhaps we could meet up sometime?

Kind regards,

Mark.

His last activity was back in April. This is Richard Noel's post
https://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showpost.php?p=580990&postcount=10 Chris Luck has passed away.

 

[castanea]

Hi Steve
Bienvenue en France