Hello Paul,
As a newcomer, I would echo some of the previous comments. It is really easy to spend a lot of money very quickly when you first start, without really knowing if beekeeping is for you (bearing in mind that bees are not even domesticated livestock, never mind pets).
We took the following approach:
1. We joined the local association
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You can visit apiaries and handle bees for only the cost of a veil and a pair of marigolds (and sometimes you can borrow these for nothing).
You can get an insight into the likely time, effort and money you’ll need to commit.
You can ask experts about where you are thinking of keeping bees – it may not be suitable.
If you decide it is for you, you have access to real live experts (and insurance).
2. We read plenty of books
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I can recommend reading all of:
Beekeeping for Dummies by Kim Flottum, and Howland Blackiston
Bees at the Bottom of the Garden by Alan Campion
Practical Beekeeping by Clive De Bruyn
A Practical Manual of Beekeeping by David Cramp
Guide to Bees & Honey by Ted Hooper
I’m sure your local library will be able to supply them – ours did. Reading these books will give you an idea of what is involved, and will show you some of the (many!) different opinions on the best way to do things. I have tried to rank them in increasing order of “technicality”.
Once you’ve gone through these, get hold of a copy of
At the hive entrance: Observation handbook by H Storch
If you are anything like us, you’ll spend hours sitting watching the bees, and this is an interesting set of conclusions about what the outside activity tells you about what might be happening inside. It is hard to get hold of, but you might be able to download a copy from the interweb. I wish I had found this earlier – it would have resulted in fewer panics!
If you decide to go ahead, I’d also recommend
The Beekeepers Field Guide by David Cramp
which is a good summary of a lot of information in a small, portable volume.
And if you want a sense of the complexity of what you’re taking on, read:
The Buzz about Bees: Biology of a Superorganism by Jürgen Tautz et al
3. We went on a course with the local association
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Nothing beats hands-on tutorials; sometimes the book descriptions just don’t make any sense until you see it in real life.
4. We had a visit from an existing local beekeeper
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He had a look at our garden, and talked to us about where we could put hives and where we shouldn’t.
5. We found some other new beekeepers in the area
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This means that we are able to look at more than one hive each week. If you only have access to one hive, you cannot tell whether what you are seeing is normal or not. It also means you’ve got someone to talk to when things seem to be going wrong.
6. Then… we bought some hives and some bees
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We probably paid more than we needed to for the hives, but that’s life.
We got one nuc from a local beekeeper (met through the association).
We got another nuc from a contact on this forum.
This sounds (and looks) like a long list, but it meant that we were able to see if it was really for us without spending a huge amount of money. For us, it was about a year from first thoughts to first bees.
If you feel put off by having to wait to get going, remember you could quite happily fill the rest of the summer handling bees on apiary visits with your local association, gaining experience that will be invaluable when you are standing (probably alone) at the side of your own hive full of bees for the first time.
Others would doubtless suggest a different route. My personal view is that you might consider taking the rest of this year to learn about beekeeping and to try out handling bees, and then start with a nuc next year.
Good luck
Stephen
