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wightbees

Queen Bee
Beekeeping Sponsor
Joined
Feb 18, 2010
Messages
2,738
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Location
Isle Of Wight
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
How long is a piece of string
Looks like i have loads of options on were to keep my Bees ,when i get them.
(they should be ready in may :) )
My partner put a add in the local freeadds paper , and the phone has not stoped ringing lol. I am going to start visting sites tomorrow.
One of the options is also a newBEE and has offered me some space so we can learn together. I am well please with peoples views to helping me out.
The other person doesn't have any bees as of yet so offers and i will pass them on,,,hint hint. :)
Going to have to start making hives soon, can't wait.
 
That's good news indeed as having a few sites gives you lots of flexibility.

Your problem will be getting enough bees to fill the hives in the various locations.
 
Just make sure you check them all out before making up your mind. You may also like to keep another in reserve as its always usefull to have 2 possible sites.
 
Good for you wightbees, its always good fun looking at sites, just remember there are many things that make up a good site, one of the most important is vehicle access, Hives are nice and light when you start, but after time the back takes a pounding lifting and shifting.

Let us know how you get on.
 
I would like 4 hives , as that would be 2 hives on 2 sites.
But as peters has said , finding the bees and the money to buy them is a bit harder.
I thought about having one site and trying to get a swarm for that site and see what happens and use my other bees ( nuc) on the other site.
But aleast i now have options and i am getting somwhere :)
 
Congratulations on the options.

Make sure that you have a spare box or boxes ready for swarm management.

I found out that they don't want to wait for boxes to be finished. Clipped queens are also a good second line of insurance.
 
First plot is not ideal, the set back is the steep bank to get upto the land.
Although coming down is very easy :)
The good thing about this land is that her husband used to keep bees and she don't mind how many or how long they are there for.
If she was to get horses or anything she said i can put a fence around the bees to keep animals away.
In fact a fence would be good as to help protect them from the wind . The plot is a shallow slope down but there is a little flat patch that could be ok.
The road side is next to the plot , it's just that steep bank lol
 
Would people be able to see your Hives from the road.
It would be good if they were out of vision,
too many Hives being taken nowadays :(
 
Nobody could see anything there. It's also well out the way place and you hardly notice the path up the steep bank to the plot of land . Everyone nows Everyone as it's a small village .
I think i will give it a go there . It's a lovely spot, stream not far and a pond and tap at the bottom of the field .
I have got another one to look at this afternoon so might have two :)
 
Well just got back from my second site, what views they will have overlooking the sea.
Its a big house garden on the top of the cliffs at lake. The cliffs are really high and there is lots of heather and gorse there.

I have a nice sheltered spot at the bottom of there garden and they seem really exited too.Just got to find some more bees lol
 
Go for it.
I was suprised at just how excited people do get.

Recently I was invited to put a Hive on an allotment.
The allotment owner is really excited about the prospect of having Bees there.
Her Grandson has insisted they plant Bee friendly flowers and crops as well.

All the recent news and publicity has certainly paid off. :cheers2:
 
Hi steve
to start with i was thinking that it would be hard to find somewhere to put them, but thats not the case.
I'm glad it's going well for you i hope i have the same success.
 
One source of possible sites could be the channel 4 landshare website:

http://landshare.channel4.com/listings/map

I just had a quick look at sites near me.
There were a couple of folk advertising space in their gardens as 'Veg plots'
though I am sure one of them could easily be persuaded to have Bees there instead if needed.
 
I have just had another offer, of which i am going to have a chat with him about.
The site is perfect as i know it well. The only prob now being i have said to the other two people that i would use there sites and they are very please on the thought of having bees. But this site is the Bees knees lol
At this rate i could have the island filled with bee hives the only problem i have none lol
I don't really won't anymore than 4 in my first year.
Is it off any interest to have only 1 hive on a site or the more the better ?
 
Are any of those three more than 3 miles away from the others ?

I stuck with 3 sites, but i would have a minimum of 2 hives on each, if you wanted bees permanently at each site, that way if one hive needs help you have the other to boost from.
 
Hi Grizzly
Yes they are all more than 3 miles away from each other.
To be fair what is recomended for a beginer umm keen Beginer lol
 
You can have as many as you are prepared to travel to, in your first year i would select the best and plop a couple of hives on it, get your nucs, work the bees watch them grow.

Trust me when i say that next spring, your cute little nucs from this year will probably explode, and you can then increase your stock.

Enjoy.
 
Cheers lets see how it goes then :)
 

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