Small garden advice please.

[Askamsandrat]

Hi all. I have tried to find the advice I need but have not been too successful yet so apologies if this is a repeat question. I have been reading up a lot about keeping bees and would really like to get into it if possible. I have never had the space to do it but have just bought a house with a long garden. (Approx 8m wide by 40m long). It backs onto other gardens which are longer still.. my question is; is there a small size hive which is available? I would like to profuse a modest amount of honey and don't want to cause any problems with my new neighbours with adding many bees.. any advice would be very welcome please... Andy.

 

[Millet]

Some people can get away with hives in there back garden but from past experience over the past couple of years i would never keep a colony in the garden, there is to many ifs and buts, for instance if they are stroppy and you decide to inspect at the same time your neighbors kids are kicking a ball at your fence resulting in them getting stung with possible life threatening results, or if they swarm onto your neighbors property and cause a inconvenience thus causing bad blood between you.
The best thing to do is have a good read up on them and try and find a friendly farmer if possible to place the hive/hives away from a built up area.

On the small hive side of things they do not really exist apart from Nucleus colonies that can quickly out grow the space thus requiring a full size hive,then you have swarming issues which requires more equipment for doing splits,it can be endless.
I started of with one colony in June 2015 i luckily now have three colonies and four spare hives.
The best advice of all is buy some good books and read and read for the rest of your life about bees..

 

[Heather]

Hi Andy. If you want a smaller hive, the bees will soon fill and feel cramped. A National should be fine.. I suggest have a word with neighbours to see if they are happy... push the fact that their garden produce will benefit from the pollination...
The garden is fine for size, but you need to site your bees facing the side of end fence so the bees fly up and across the end of everyone's garden, not up and into the garden beyond. A jar of honey to neighbours usually goes down well. And if they swarm - what an opportunity to explain why, how and when it occurs in the hive life. People are usually very interested.
Join your local Assoc too,for advice and just in case you need to have somewhere to move bees quickly in a real emergency....but such moves are rare.

 

[taurus]

I keep bees in our back garden. The important things are that our neighbours love watching the bees and ask after them all the time. All our neighbours get a jar of honey to say thank you for being good neighbours.

The other thing is to choose your bees carefully. I have several colonies all of whom are well behaved. I can walk through the hives in T-shirt and shorts and not have any problems.

I took in a swarm for a neighbour and it turned vicious so it had to be moved immediately to an out-apiary whilst I re-queened it. Without the additional site I'd have destroyed the colony to prevent problems with neighbours.

It can be done - but check carefully and keep on top of the behaviour.

 

[JWF]

Your garden sounds about the same shape and size as mine - I've got 8 colonies at the moment but need to downsize, as it is more than I'm comfortable with in the garden.

Mine are in a section at the end and are surrounded by hedges which are 7 or 8ft tall so the flight paths are well above head height by the time they leave my garden.

But, and it is a big but! Even with your best efforts, your bees WILL swarm at some point. Some people don't care too much, but it might freak people out - so a little bit of discussion with the neighbours at this point can get you a lot of goodwill in the longer term.

Personally I avoid doing any inspections when next doors kids are around, as the thought of grumpy bees getting aggy with their 5 and 10 year old kids doesn't bear thinking about. They did get stung unfortunately when I had a huge swarm at the beginning of this year's season, as did my wife and neighbours 2 doors down, but apart from that it's been mostly ok.

I'll second the comment about joining your local BKA and also having an idea where you might be able to relocate the hive to if it all goes chesticles up!

 

[Beefriendly]

Even with your best efforts, your bees WILL swarm at some point.

I would suggest that clipping your queens wings is an eminently sensible thing to do in a small garden apiary situation. It will at least buy you a bit more time come swarm season, but if you subsequently loose a swarm headed by a virgin queen the fault can be fairly attributed to owner error....

 

[psafloyd]

Hi all. I have tried to find the advice I need but have not been too successful yet so apologies if this is a repeat question. I have been reading up a lot about keeping bees and would really like to get into it if possible. I have never had the space to do it but have just bought a house with a long garden. (Approx 8m wide by 40m long). It backs onto other gardens which are longer still.. my question is; is there a small size hive which is available? I would like to profuse a modest amount of honey and don't want to cause any problems with my new neighbours with adding many bees.. any advice would be very welcome please... Andy.

A large garden is far better than a small one, but when things go wrong, you need to be able to act swiftly. It wold therefore be preferable to have another apiary – perhaps that could be a division apiary in a pinch –-where you could move bees to if they turned nasty.

 

[theeggman]

To the forum Andy.

As said before, find your local assoc. for advice, help and shoulders to cry on when it all goes t**s up.

You've started well by finding here, enjoy the hobby and good luck.

 

[Kenson]

Hi Andy,

I joined my local BKA (Beds) and they are brilliant. I am doing basically what you are doing in a 13m x 100m garden. The local Assoc. told another starting Beek that gardens "Were just not suitable". So I said nothing and let the bees arrive on their own.

Hive (Nuc) is towards far end, to the left, because Errol has no children and never ventures down. Back neighbours are new, but have a high fence between, Pat and Shirley are fine with the bees. So far the "wild" bees (I think they are not "wild", they have escaped from someone elses hive) have been very mild mannered. But I have agreed with Mrs G. that any stinging will result in "Deportation" to another site.

I think keeping bees in a Garden is fraught with peril and I will have to continuously ***** their behaviour (forever) and be prepared to move them if it becomes necessary, or even if it just becomes preferable.

The only Children around the hive are mine, they regularly approach the hive, with suits for inspections but without suits by day. They happily lift the lid to see the bees in the miller feeder now, so their confidence is building.

So, my view is, "Buy your parachute early", i.e. if your assoc has a training apiary get an agreement with the lead that in a "stinging" situation you can move them there for a few days, cultivate a couple of local farmers along the same lines, work aggressively against swarming and have enough kit to catch a swarm immediately if your swarm prevention fails.

Well that's what I'm planning to do / doing. When it goes sadly wrong I will let you know, at the same time I am hoping you can tell me your plans to help improve mine. I am sure others on here will add advice and we may both wind up succeeding

 

[denise washington]

just make sure if you have them in garden you have a high fence so neighbour cant climb over and poisen them like he did to mine a few years ago think now its payback time

 

[madasafish]

I keep bees in a large garden so am not really qualified but here goes.

Ensure your neighbours ore onside - bribe with promises of some of your first honey - and deliver .

At some time they will swarm.. see above.
At some time they may become aggressive so ensure you buy gentle bees...This means proven gentle bees . There is one vendor at least on this forum.

Learn how to keep before starting or you will give your neighbours hassle. Join local Association.

 

[pargyle]

It's not the size of the hive ... it's what the colony grows into that you need to think about. I keep bees in my garden and there are neighbours but - they are well screened on all sides so they fly upwards before heading out .. 6 foot high screens (garden mesh will do) will get them well up into the air.

I'd keep them in a bigger hive (14 x 12 is what I have) as there is more room for the colony to expand andI find there is less propensity for swarming.

Buy some decent bees - you need gentle bees that are well behaved - Buckfasts are good in this respect but either way get someone who knows what they are looking for to inspect the colony before you buy. Your neighbours and family will not love your bees if every time they set foot in the garden they get stung.

Alll colonies will have their moments and you really do need to have a Plan B with somewhere to take a colony if they do prove to be troublesome - an out Apiary can always be found - either farmers or people with very large gardens - you really do need a second site for the worst case scenario when your bees turn nasty - it may never happen but when it does you need to act fast.

Make sure you have all your ducks in a row BEFORE you get your bees - you have all winter to read. read and read some more, do the basic beekeeping course and then read some more ... it's fine keeping bees in your garden and very rewarding to be able to see them on a daily basis and learn from watching them. But ... you need to know what you are doing as there is a bit more to beekeeping than chucking them in a box and letting them get on with it. It takes time, commitment and in the early days - some cash !

It's almost impossible not to get some honey from a good colony but a lot depends on the availability of local forage - start looking at what plants, trees, crops are growing in your locality and then look up what bees will forage on ... I keep bees in an urban environment but there are gardens, allotments, fields and parks withint foraging distance (bees will fly a long way for a productive source of nectar and/or pollen) and I get lovely mixed flavour honeys as a result but some places are becoming very difficult for bees to thrive when there are only single sources of forage.

 

[alfazer]

Ask around for an alternative site, so you have another option if they become hard to manage. Ideally somewhere just over 3 miles from home. That was the single biggest stress-reducing thing I did in beekeeping. You'll find out that its also useful to have a second site for other reasons too.

Don't mention that bees poo. Your neighbours will wonder where the yellow/brown spots are coming from on their windows, car and washing line. Say nothing. We don't need this fact going public.

Make sure you have water available for your bees, before you neighbours have hundreds of them hanging out at their hosepipe, dog bowl or swimming pool.

Personally I would buy a green suit rather than a white one and not mention that I was keeping bees at all.

 

[pargyle]

Don't mention that bees poo. Your neighbours will wonder where the yellow/brown spots are coming from on their windows, car and washing line. Say nothing. We don't need this fact going public.

After years of keeping bees in my garden my WIFE still thinks the brown spots on her car come about as parking it under trees somewhere ... keep the secret - don't tell the world about bee poo !

Blame the trees - they will never let on !

 

[madasafish]

Ask around for an alternative site, so you have another option if they become hard to manage. Ideally somewhere just over 3 miles from home. That was the single biggest stress-reducing thing I did in beekeeping. You'll find out that its also useful to have a second site for other reasons too.

Don't mention that bees poo. Your neighbours will wonder where the yellow/brown spots are coming from on their windows, car and washing line. Say nothing. We don't need this fact going public.

Make sure you have water available for your bees, before you neighbours have hundreds of them hanging out at their hosepipe, dog bowl or swimming pool.

Personally I would buy a green suit rather than a white one and not mention that I was keeping bees at all.

I bought a camo jacket - ideal for pretending I was shooting/hunting /fishing/crazy.