My thread. New bee keeper needing info. will update with pics of my project.

[smithhive]

Hello Irishguy,
Hang on to your money and venture into the bee world cautiously. To risk a few hundred pounds on 2-3 hives is one thing, to spend 6 grand on 25 hives is another matter.

Get a couple of years experience with a small number of stocks before you do anything rash or better still work with a commercial beek. It may well be that you are a natural future beefarmer but you need some experience first.

It can all seem so easy and profitable from reading but until you have spent a full day working and perhaps half the night moving bees you can have no idea how much hard physical work is involved for what is often such a pitiful return.

I do other work as well as the bees but they are my main enterprise and after reading the above you may well wonder why I do it, as indeed I do myself sometimes wonder.

Well , it is a kind of insanity but I do love it. I have kept bees now for 37 years and I am absolutely sure that if I had put the same time and effort into a more standard business I would now be a wealthy man. Believe me when I say I ain't.

Sorry if some of this sounds negative BUT please proceed slowly and good luck!

 

[richardbees]

Hello and welcome, QueenMaster

Presumably Dadant hives are the Fr equiv of the Br National hive?

 

[QueenMaster]

Here are some hive types you can find in France :

Dadant 10 is not mandatory in France, but it's sold for northern france. It's the most common.

Dadant 10 divisible is for me !!! Easier than dadant 10, lighter (anyway heavy when it's full of honey), same frame for everything.

Dadant 12 is for sedentary buckfaster. (don't try to move it, difficult to find, discontinuated)

Langstroth is used in south east France. (also heavy)

Voirnot is used for mountain area. (great but there are very few equipment sold in shop)

Warre is for hipsters !

TBH is for punks !

You see not everybody is in Dadant, but it's easier to follow the crowd !

Cheers,

 

[richardbees]

Do the Voirnot hive stands have two legs shorter than the others -- so the hive's level on a slope?

(sorry! old joke about haggis in hilly Scotland)

 

[Finno]

Please, please, join your local beekeepers association and start with one or two nuclei which you should be able to source locally, or at least within Ireland north or south. The "Dummies" guide is hardly a good foundation on which to embark on major expenditure. There are no full time commercial beekeepers in Ireland (to the best of my knowledge) and one need only look at the weather for the past few summers to realise why this is the case. It is easy to be over enthusiastic without basic knowledge. Recommended reading for beekeeping in these islands:
Guide to Bees and Honey by Ted Hooper or Practical Beekeeping by Clive de Bruyn.

 

[Outlander]

Yet again I'm not going to say anything. I'm really getting good at this keeping my mouth shut lark. Admin will be so pleased with me.

 

[dpearce4]

Yet again I'm not going to say anything. I'm really getting good at this keeping my mouth shut lark. Admin will be so pleased with me.

Why do u keep telling us ur gona keep ur mouth shut, it makes u look a bit silly.

 

[Outlander]

I may have looked more silly had I of opened it. But now we are here the OP sounds more so.

 

[dpearce4]

hes not silly just very enthusiastic as many new beekeepers are. wants to run before he can walk, i know as i did the same that is tried to run before i could walk in lots of hobbies/jobs. Sometimes its worth asking and trying as long as you can take the hits.

 

[Outlander]

OK may be I'm a little harsh and discouraging. So here goes. Don't do it, just get two hives but before read lots, do a course, Join an association and don't look forward to being stung, hurts like hell for a while then irritates for days. Oh unless it worse and you have a real bad reaction and sometimes but not often you die. Good luck and happy beekeeping.

 

[adrian wilford]

stinging

wear surgical gloves or similar, but have with you a bucket of water with washing soda crystals in for 2 reasons, 1, hygiene wash and clean your gloves between each hive inspection, 2ndly if stung, scrape out the sting with hive tool its in your hand, or very close by, wash hands/gloves on of course!, in the cold water solution job done, gets rid of pherimone, amazing how quickly sting subsides and doesnt attract other bees to attack! oh and be calm and gentle all the time

 

[dpearce4]

OK may be I'm a little harsh and discouraging. So here goes. Don't do it, just get two hives but before read lots, do a course, Join an association and don't look forward to being stung, hurts like hell for a while then irritates for days. Oh unless it worse and you have a real bad reaction and sometimes but not often you die. Good luck and happy beekeeping.

Sorry outlander now that is just very condescending.

 

[BeeJayBee]

I started with two hives, before going on a course but after reading a lot - both in books and on the internet.

I did a course, later, which was fronted by somebody who's been keeping bees for years, but who admitted that they were very much thrown in at the deep end and learned as they went along.

There isn't a right way to start. Plenty of people keep bees without ever going near either a BKA or the internet.

So, surely, if somebody has the nouse to find stuff online and take the time to ask a couple of questions then they'll also have the intelligence to find out what they need, and also find out where to go to find any additional support they think they need. Disparaging comments are offputting and, frankly, unnecessary.

 

[Outlander]

No it wasn't. It was the bog standard info given to most new comers. Start with two as that seems to be best. Read a lot; take on a course join a local club. Nothing condescending about that at all. You wouldn’t be snipping and picking on me would you dpearce. It does appear that I can not say anything with out it provoking a reaction from you. I'm just glad I have thick skin and broad shoulders.

 

[BeeJayBee]

I may have looked more silly had I of opened it. But now we are here the OP sounds more so.

And that isn't a disparaging comment?

 

[Outlander]

And that isn't a disparaging comment?

Well may be just a little Joyful but I have corrected myself and now your picking on me but I do forgive you as it's the season and all that.

 

[BeeJayBee]

now your picking on me

No, I'm not. Merely pointing out that what you said was mean and impolite.

 

[dpearce4]

Yet again I'm not going to say anything. I'm really getting good at this keeping my mouth shut lark. Admin will be so pleased with me.

OK may be I'm a little harsh and discouraging. So here goes. Don't do it, just get two hives but before read lots, do a course, Join an association and don't look forward to being stung, hurts like hell for a while then irritates for days. Oh unless it worse and you have a real bad reaction and sometimes but not often you die. Good luck and happy beekeeping.

No it wasn't. It was the bog standard info given to most new comers. Start with two as that seems to be best. Read a lot; take on a course join a local club. Nothing condescending about that at all. You wouldn’t be snipping and picking on me would you dpearce. It does appear that I can not say anything with out it provoking a reaction from you. I'm just glad I have thick skin and broad shoulders.

Before you say it im not picking on u or snipping at you, I was mearly commenting that you looked silly with ur first post and you know the reason why, I have seen lots of the posts that you are referring to when u say that admin will be happy that you not commenting, but with your history of comments to people i think u need to really take a step back and think before you even post something as daft as the first one you did.

it is you that ends up looking like a fool in the end because you then follow up the original post with further silly ones.

As you say you have broad shoulders and a thick skin please remeber that lots of others dont, and as a new beekeeper the OP should be encouraged to start small and learn the craft first before going further into it. The way you posted was not encouraging at all.

Please remeber others feelings when posting.

I wont say anymore, other than I hope you have a great new year and your bees provide all you want from them.

 

[oliver90owner]

Don't do it, just get two hives but before read lots, do a course, Join an association and don't look forward to being stung, hurts like hell for a while then irritates for days. Oh unless it worse and you have a real bad reaction and sometimes but not often you die. Good luck and happy beekeeping.


The only really stupid bit that I noted was the bit 'sometimes but not often you die. as most people only die once!

Not believing the advertising hype is the first thing (how many new beeks, with 25colonies, would have averaged top side of 40kg this last year; second is start small, but not a single colony (so two?); Getting stung can be a total anti-climax or an 'end of project' occurrence, or anywhere between those extremes.

The reading and doing some sort of course and joining the local BKA is the standard advice these days (sadly there are far too many who start out without a decent grounding on the topic and haven't got a clue when something goes wrong but, clearly, not everyone is as bad as the worst (that's a relief! and is absolutely correct)).

Perhaps written too bluntly for some, but about right.

Couldn't make head nor tail of the original post, so likely nobody else would either; perhaps Chrismas merriment fogged the issue or some are just tooo sensitive to take the post in the way it was intended.

 

[Ausbee]

The 25 working hives will cost £250 each = £6250 and should return you about one ton of honey

If I did my math correctly, you expect to get 40 kg of honey per hive in your first year. Is this realistic? I learned it being on average 20 kg per hive (per year), and alot less in the first. Did I learn it wrong?