MikeT
Field Bee
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2014
- Messages
- 645
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- West Norfolk
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 5
Now back into beekeeping after over 50 yrs, I have wondered if it was more difficult to start then than it is now. I believe it is far easier to start in 2015 than it was in 1965. The reasons being:-
• The internet - able to get information immediately from search
engines and this excellent forum.
• Excellent well illustrated books in colour, in 1965 illustrations were in
mainly line drawing or black and white photographs
• Digital photography – able to take photographs and send them
immediately for help in identification of problems and diseases.
• Most people now have a car to get to meetings and out apiaries
• Telephone most people have a telephone, few household had a
phone in the 1960s and mobiles had not been invented.
• Easier equipment supplies, able to order on line .
• Cheaper equipment because of increased competition through the
Internet with foreign suppliers.
In the 1960s we did have better support from MAFF (and there were more Bee Officers), excellent Advisory Leaflets and illustrated booklets on various aspects of beekeeping these only cost a few shillings each. Advice in the mid 60s was difficult for new beekeepers unless you had a mentor near by. I was lucky, thanks to my Rural Science teacher Tug Wilson at Bremilham School, Malmesbury. For those of us who were interested in beekeeping we were taught the basics, hands on while handling the bees at school. I was also lucky in winning a prize from Wiltshire BKA of a start up kit including bees.
If you ran out of equipment in the 1960 it was possible to get supplies from farm suppliers who were plentiful in those days.
• The internet - able to get information immediately from search
engines and this excellent forum.
• Excellent well illustrated books in colour, in 1965 illustrations were in
mainly line drawing or black and white photographs
• Digital photography – able to take photographs and send them
immediately for help in identification of problems and diseases.
• Most people now have a car to get to meetings and out apiaries
• Telephone most people have a telephone, few household had a
phone in the 1960s and mobiles had not been invented.
• Easier equipment supplies, able to order on line .
• Cheaper equipment because of increased competition through the
Internet with foreign suppliers.
In the 1960s we did have better support from MAFF (and there were more Bee Officers), excellent Advisory Leaflets and illustrated booklets on various aspects of beekeeping these only cost a few shillings each. Advice in the mid 60s was difficult for new beekeepers unless you had a mentor near by. I was lucky, thanks to my Rural Science teacher Tug Wilson at Bremilham School, Malmesbury. For those of us who were interested in beekeeping we were taught the basics, hands on while handling the bees at school. I was also lucky in winning a prize from Wiltshire BKA of a start up kit including bees.
If you ran out of equipment in the 1960 it was possible to get supplies from farm suppliers who were plentiful in those days.
