No maintenance if I don't want any honey?

[meidel]

actually there was a lot I like about the TBH in your link - the side bars on the top bars, the way the lid is attached on a hinge with the chains at the side - usually such a large lid would be really heavy to lift; and the thought put into allowing other frame types to be inserted, besides the low cost of course!

 

[Chris Luck]

I know lots of Brits, (and some French people, one is our Vet), here in France that have a hive or two with honey bees that they leave alone to their own devices, never touch them and never take any honey.

We have all the same "bee health issues" here as in the UK it's just not such a censorious society in the French countryside and bee swarming is just a fact of life, especially with all the feral bee colonies that are already living in trees, house walls, roof spaces etc.

But as you can see from the response on this forum you will almost certainly come up against opposition in the UK unless you have sufficient land of your own.

Chris

 

[ratcatcher]

actually there was a lot I like about the TBH in your link - the side bars on the top bars, the way the lid is attached on a hinge with the chains at the side - usually such a large lid would be really heavy to lift; and the thought put into allowing other frame types to be inserted, besides the low cost of course!

thank you, always nice to get praise, after having a queenless colony in a tbh and the only other beeks I know use frames/nationals, getting some eggs/larvae in for them to make a new queen was neigh on impossible, thus the idea for a square tbh that would take 2 national frames came about.

this is the second one I built, but has a fitted queen excluder (moveable) something that I'll add to the first one as well, it'll be good to know the comb I use for cut comb has not been used for brood

http://youtu.be/oe0pCAdCWxo

 

[Sir Quej]

Redcatcher.... I agree, bee keeping can definately be done on a budget. My persoanl experience has been a lot more expensive than it needed to be to be honest. I paid £132 to go on a training course that told me nothing I hadnt already read in the books. I then paid £150 for a cedar hive that I could have (and have since) built out of plywood for £30, and i paid £100 for NUC of bees when i could have been paid to collect a swarm?

So to compare the two available routes:

Expensive Route
Item - Cost
Training course - £130
Cedar Hive - £150
Suit - £50
Other Tools - £20
Nuc of Bees - £100
TOTAL - £450

Inexpensive Route
Item - Cost
Train with another keeper - favour owed
Lots of reading - Free
Plywood Hive - £30 to £40
Suit - £50
Other Tools - £20
Bees - someone pays you £30 to remove them
TOTAL - £70 to £80

I know this can be done because my 2nd and 3rd hives were done this way. Granted, i already had the training but I dont think I got anything from the course that I didnt already know from my reading anyway.

 

[ratcatcher]

Redcatcher....

its RATCATCHER, like as in pest controller

 

[Tobeeornottobee]

Hmmm

Thanks for all the replies. I had assumed £400-500 for a hive and gear - at £100 it sounds a lot more do-able.

There is a time factor though - I have enough other things to play with

Idiot comment coming up - It strikes me as odd that bees definitely need lots of management - surely they must have existed in the wild at some point?

Maybe its like Pandas - they won't copulate then we wonder why they're becoming extinct

 

[Cazza]

If you don't have time, I think it's best not to start. There are plenty of new beeks who have timw to do it properly.
Cazza

 

[Chris Luck]

Idiot comment coming up - It strikes me as odd that bees definitely need lots of management - surely they must have existed in the wild at some point?

Perhaps I wasn't clear, they don't need lot's of management - that's optional and they can and do exist perfectly well "in the wild", it all depends on what you want from them AND most serious disease issues are more likely to be spread by bee keepers than the bees themselves.

Chris

 

[ratcatcher]

Thanks for all the replies. I had assumed £400-500 for a hive and gear - at £100 it sounds a lot more do-able.

There is a time factor though - I have enough other things to play with

Idiot comment coming up - It strikes me as odd that bees definitely need lots of management - surely they must have existed in the wild at some point?

Maybe its like Pandas - they won't copulate then we wonder why they're becoming extinct

yes, maybe you misunderstood my tongue in cheek comments, you could easily get bees then leave them to do, what they have been doing for thousands of years without us interfering.

my comments where such, because keeping bees becomes addictive,

 

[Poly Hive]

Leave alone bee-keeping is one way to do it but when your swarms are in the neighbours chimney then your popularity can nose dive.

Just something to consider.

PH

 

[VEG]

One thing you have to consider is bees will swarm. If you have neighbours near you they wont be too happy when that swarm takes up residence in their home. If left alone there could be 4/5 swarms from that one hive in a matter of weeks.

 

[Chris Luck]

If left alone there could be 4/5 swarms from that one hive in a matter of weeks.

Anything's possible but not likely in my experience, I rarely get any casts from my "unmanaged" hives and from what I know feral colonies don't often throw casts either.

Chris

 

[VEG]

Just saying what could happen thats why I said "could" not will happen.

 

[Chris Luck]

I realise that, I'm just being pedantic to avoid any misunderstandings.

Plenty of people on this forum seem to have swarm problems despite all their efforts and some of them I seem to remember have their bees in gardens, perhaps keeping bees in gardens isn't generally a good idea?

Chris

 

[Poly Hive]

I for one don't think it is as the issues it can create are bigger than I personally want to deal with.

Been there... and it is seriously awkward. Not to mention the possibilities of legalities.

It's sad but that is the reality.

PH

 

[VEG]

Plenty of people on this forum seem to have swarm problems despite all their efforts and some of them I seem to remember have their bees in gardens, perhaps keeping bees in gardens isn't generally a good idea?

Chris

I used to keep bees in my garden and I dont recommend it to anyone, I always sing the praises of an out apiary.

 

[Andy Duff]

Leave alone bee-keeping is one way to do it but when your swarms are in the neighbours chimney then your popularity can nose dive.

Just something to consider.

PH

leave alone beekeeping is not beekeeping. You may get lucky and everything is fine for a couple of years, but when your left alone bees spread their nasty diseases to a proper beekeepers hives you are costing him/her time and money.

 

[Chris Luck]

So you are an advocate of destroying all feral honey bees Andy?

and just to be sure, what diseases are spread by bees alone and what is your evidence?

What I see and hear about is disease that is spread by bee keepers and bee dealers.

Chris

 

[Cie]

To what extent is this do-able and to what extent is it a rubbish idea?

It is doable, but it's not really as simple as getting a hive and some bees and hoping for the best. As has been said, you can build a hive yourself, quite cheaply, which is designed with the bees in mind rather than the honey farmer.

Abbé Warré’s book Beekeeping For All, covers the reasoning behind his hive design. Everything from the volume of bees required, hive integrity, why frames are far from ideal, why the hive essence shouldn't be disturbed so the bees can fight for themselves. It's worth a read and will help you to decide if your idea is workable for you.

Unfortunately a great many beekeepers aren't very fond of such outlandish ideas, and so support can be hard to find.

 

[Andy Duff]

So you are an advocate of destroying all feral honey bees Andy?

and just to be sure, what diseases are spread by bees alone and what is your evidence?

What I see and hear about is disease that is spread by bee keepers and bee dealers.

Chris

Hi Chris. I have only once been asked to remove feral bees, 2 years in a cavity wall.

So following your logic, none of us should treat our bees for anything, and exactly how long would honeybees last then.

There is a thing called cross contamination with any disease, and if you have evidence that bees out in the fielld do not pass on their nasties then it might be quite a revalation.

But then again I am just a simple hobby beekeeper, in 40 + years of beekeeping I have never lost a colony to anything, kept bees on the tightest of budgets and never been stung, make of that what you will. I am simply stating my opinion