Latest time to buy bees

[Andy]

And join your local beekeeping association. You should make friends that could be around to mentor and help you over the autumn and more important next spring.

I started two hives last year at the end of Jul. One lot of bees I was donated and I bought 5 frames of brood and a queen for the other. Though I rapidly chilled most of them I got them both through winter and now have 8 going. 1 is a recent swarm from elsewhere and the rest are from my own hives and a mix of queens from splitting/grafting and a couple of outside queens donated.

If nothing else, starting now will mean if you do something wrong and kill the hive (as I almost did) then you aren't going make the same mistake next year. I took some advice from people that really should have only been applied to a very strong hive and of course mine was only a few frames of bees.

It's all about how much study you are willing to put in. I watched a ton of YT and read quite a few books. That was combined with pulling in info and advice from the local association. Local timings for feed/varroa treatment etc are important and you won't get them from the books or videos. I'm in the far North of Scotland so its very different to the South of England.

My take would be to go for it, everything is learning even not making it. I've just had a go a at queen rearing and lost more queens than I made. But I won't make the same mistakes next year (hopefully)