Musings on a subject
I guess I never thought that beekeeping would be easy but then again it never crossed my mind that it would be so hard.
It seems to me that it is a hobby that is surrounded by myths and legends that we simply pass on.
I started keeping bees over 40 years ago on nothing more than a whim.
There was no internet so I trusted the old men round me who puffed on their pipes and whispered words of wisdom in my ear about what I should be doing or should not be doing.
When the internet came along many of these myths that I had believed in were dashed to pulp by modern thinking people who had studied beekeeping rather than just muddling along like I did.
It amuses me how slow people are to change their methods. So often I hear the phrase ‘My bees are fine with me doing it that way so I am not changing’, and in go the matchsticks again to give a through draft over winter!
It was not that long ago that I realised that maybe matchsticks were good for lighting fires but pretty useless when keeping bees and that insulation is the key! I tried to explain that to a pipe sucking senior but he just laughed and saved his used matches in his matchbox for later. I call him a ‘senior’ but to be honest I am older than he was. I just like to think that maybe I am more open to change and progress than some but I haven't made the leap to polyhives as I have a lot of investment in wooden ones.
Talking of investment, that is another thing no one mentioned when I started.
A few bees in my hive in the garden was really all I wanted so I was quite taken back when a kind gent donated a recently captured swarm. I tried to explain that there were more bees there than I really wanted but he just smiled and poured them in.
The following year my one hive became two and the year after that my two hives became four. Then I spent a few years not caring about swarm control at all and just letting them get on with it. I had run out of space and money. That proved more trouble than it was worth when I spent a miserable few days taking my chimney down to get the little darlings out. Oh yes, that was another thing that no one bothered to tell me, your hives WILL swarm. Not only that but they will choose the moment when you are all hot and bothered, when you are just about to go out, when you have just inspected them, and then what? You stand there and watch the secondary part of the swarm as they go off to find a new home. Do they go in your bait box? Do they heck! They fly away over the fields and the trees and far away or even worse find the one hole you never knew you left in your newly rebuilt chimney. “Quick! Light a smokey fire in the grate to stop them building comb.” Good idea, until you realise that you sealed the chimney up barring the one hole they found and now you have a house full of smoke.
So this is the calming hobby you envisaged? At the precise moment you are trying to let the smoke out of the windows and the neighbours are asking if you want the fire brigade the bees decide that your chimney is not for them and they join the others flying over the fields and the trees and far away.
I confess to being a bit of a control freak and if there is one thing that bees don’t like its control freaks. They sit at home on rainy days planning their next move on how best to confuse and rattle me. I can see them looking at me through the front entrance. I leave them to it. I know I can’t out think them, all I can do is climb onto the roof again and block up that stupid hole in the chimney.
I guess I never thought that beekeeping would be easy but then again it never crossed my mind that it would be so hard.
It seems to me that it is a hobby that is surrounded by myths and legends that we simply pass on.
I started keeping bees over 40 years ago on nothing more than a whim.
There was no internet so I trusted the old men round me who puffed on their pipes and whispered words of wisdom in my ear about what I should be doing or should not be doing.
When the internet came along many of these myths that I had believed in were dashed to pulp by modern thinking people who had studied beekeeping rather than just muddling along like I did.
It amuses me how slow people are to change their methods. So often I hear the phrase ‘My bees are fine with me doing it that way so I am not changing’, and in go the matchsticks again to give a through draft over winter!
It was not that long ago that I realised that maybe matchsticks were good for lighting fires but pretty useless when keeping bees and that insulation is the key! I tried to explain that to a pipe sucking senior but he just laughed and saved his used matches in his matchbox for later. I call him a ‘senior’ but to be honest I am older than he was. I just like to think that maybe I am more open to change and progress than some but I haven't made the leap to polyhives as I have a lot of investment in wooden ones.
Talking of investment, that is another thing no one mentioned when I started.
A few bees in my hive in the garden was really all I wanted so I was quite taken back when a kind gent donated a recently captured swarm. I tried to explain that there were more bees there than I really wanted but he just smiled and poured them in.
The following year my one hive became two and the year after that my two hives became four. Then I spent a few years not caring about swarm control at all and just letting them get on with it. I had run out of space and money. That proved more trouble than it was worth when I spent a miserable few days taking my chimney down to get the little darlings out. Oh yes, that was another thing that no one bothered to tell me, your hives WILL swarm. Not only that but they will choose the moment when you are all hot and bothered, when you are just about to go out, when you have just inspected them, and then what? You stand there and watch the secondary part of the swarm as they go off to find a new home. Do they go in your bait box? Do they heck! They fly away over the fields and the trees and far away or even worse find the one hole you never knew you left in your newly rebuilt chimney. “Quick! Light a smokey fire in the grate to stop them building comb.” Good idea, until you realise that you sealed the chimney up barring the one hole they found and now you have a house full of smoke.
So this is the calming hobby you envisaged? At the precise moment you are trying to let the smoke out of the windows and the neighbours are asking if you want the fire brigade the bees decide that your chimney is not for them and they join the others flying over the fields and the trees and far away.
I confess to being a bit of a control freak and if there is one thing that bees don’t like its control freaks. They sit at home on rainy days planning their next move on how best to confuse and rattle me. I can see them looking at me through the front entrance. I leave them to it. I know I can’t out think them, all I can do is climb onto the roof again and block up that stupid hole in the chimney.
