Land available

[jimmyriddle]

Hi all, I am a farmer from Lincolnshire and I have some land with osr on, if anyone is interested in putting bee hives at the centre of the farm I would be very interested.
Thanks
James

 

[yeogi75]

hi and welcome
i live too far away to take up you offer, but sure they will soon be queuing up to take up your offer, as you probably know bees can increase you rape yield by about 15% per cent as seen on bee sites, so if you have 30% seed loss its only really 15% seed loss, so its a win win situation plus some honey for you toast

 

[mbc]

Hi all, I am a farmer from Lincolnshire and I have some land with osr on, if anyone is interested in putting bee hives at the centre of the farm I would be very interested.
Thanks
James

Marvelous post ! Bravo jimmyriddle

Maybe to really explore the power of the interweb to practically help beekeeping we should copy this post and use it as an example for interested parties on other farming and smallholding forums.

 

[Les]

Hi jimmyriddle
Just out of curiosity how is your OSR doing this year? There have been stories flying about that a lot of farmers are ploughing it back in because of a poor crop.

 

[jimmyriddle]

Generaly osr is poor throught the country this year, on total i have written of over 50 acre of osr and i will re drill it with spring osr. the crops that were early drilled look good although they have taken a battering with slugs and flying rats.
I still have 100 acre of winter wheat to drill but some of this may now be drilled with spring linseed and a little wheat and oats as the price of spring wheat seed has increased dramaticly, i wont be drilling any beans this year as they made a good bit of money last year and so everyone is growing them this year where they didnt get there wheat in and the prices will reflect this when it comes to combining

 

[Amari]

Hi all, I am a farmer from Lincolnshire and I have some land with osr on, if anyone is interested in putting bee hives at the centre of the farm I would be very interested.
Thanks
James

Sounds as though you should start keeping bees yourself. Diversification is all the rage so I read.

 

[georgia b]

Hi James
I'm interested and I've PM you

Georgia

 

[jimmyriddle]

Diversifcation... i have enough on my plate at the moment as it is.
And ime not sure i would have the time to look after the bees myself and ime not entirely sure what it entails

 

[Anduril]

Marvelous post ! Bravo jimmyriddle

Maybe to really explore the power of the interweb to practically help beekeeping we should copy this post and use it as an example for interested parties on other farming and smallholding forums.

A farmer I know had tried to get bees on his land through the Royal Welsh Show to no avail. It was only when I rang him that I was able to keep bees on his land. This cooperation would help Associations, beekeepers, farmers and newbies who do not have a space of their own.

 

[johnandyrob]

Should we have a "land available" section to make it easier for people looking for bees to be put on their land?

 

[VEG]

Well done jimmyriddle for offering the use of your land. Maybe you could get other willing farmers with land available to put it on here as well.

 

[Margaret Elisabeth]

Should we have a "land available" section to make it easier for people looking for bees to be put on their land?

Good Idea, I knew there was something missing!

 

[Anduril]

Should we have a "land available" section to make it easier for people looking for bees to be put on their land?

That would be a good idea as well as a sticky. The information should be made available to farming fora. Associations need to keep details of willing farmers and beekeepers who are retiring who have apiaries on farmland so that others can take over as long as the farmer is willing. A good PR exercise for everyone.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Should we have a "land available" section to make it easier for people looking for bees to be put on their land?

I was just thinking the same when I read the first post - it'll be a help to both farmers and beekeepers - a win win situation

Someone might be able to help you with the pigeons as well!

 

[mbc]

I was just thinking the same when I read the first post - it'll be a help to both farmers and beekeepers - a win win situation

Someone might be able to help you with the pigeons as well!

I have one apiary on some land where its almost a condition of being allowed to have my bees there that I spend a bit of time shooting the pigeons come winter.

 

[jimmyriddle]

Most farmers would welcome the idea of bee hives, they just dont know where to look, They would also be worried about killing them of, thankfully we have large game covers for them to sit in

 

[RoofTops]

Well done to Jimmy but farmers shouldn't have to advertise. I have never been refused - just knock on their door with a couple of jars of honey in your hand after already scouting out where you want to put your bees and any reasonable farmer will agree.

The main thing is to have a good idea where you want to put the bees and be able to answer any questions the farmer may have about spraying.

And at the risk of sounding a bit dismissive if you don't have any honey to give them (e.g. this is your first season) or don't know what to do about spraying don't think of taking bees to OSR unless you want a panic crash course in beekeeping which is what you will get with rapid colony expansion and swarm control measures to be taken.

 

[johnandyrob]

Well done to Jimmy but farmers shouldn't have to advertise. I have never been refused - just knock on their door with a couple of jars of honey in your hand after already scouting out where you want to put your bees and any reasonable farmer will agree.

The main thing is to have a good idea where you want to put the bees and be able to answer any questions the farmer may have about spraying.

And at the risk of sounding a bit dismissive if you don't have any honey to give them (e.g. this is your first season) or don't know what to do about spraying don't think of taking bees to OSR unless you want a panic crash course in beekeeping which is what you will get with rapid colony expansion and swarm control measures to be taken.

Good advice the problem I have is finding who actually owns the land. Farms near me have long since sold their land and have become just houses unfortunately keeping farm in the name of the house. I knocked on three farm doors last year to ask permission to put hives on rape only to be told they were no longer farms and had no idea who the land belong to.

 

[Anduril]

Good advice the problem I have is finding who actually owns the land. Farms near me have long since sold their land and have become just houses unfortunately keeping farm in the name of the house. I knocked on three farm doors last year to ask permission to put hives on rape only to be told they were no longer farms and had no idea who the land belong to.

Look on Yell type in farmers and ring them around 9pm they are usually in. Introduce yourself as a beekeeper. Ask about land easily accessible and south facing. Some farmers will bend over backward and fence an area off for you as their machinery does not go into all the corners. You are responsible for maintaining your apiary area. Other farmers will ask you to put up the fencing yourself, this is easy enough with an auger, I have used a manual one. It takes about half an hour to drill down two and a half feet per post. The farmers are accommodating enough and will take you around their farm. If the fields are too waterlogged they may offer to drive you down to the apiary once it is set up.

 

[blackcavebees]

Should we have a "land available" section to make it easier for people looking for bees to be put on their land?

Good idea, what do you think admin?