Town v's Country

[grizzly]

I am very glad i put a hive in my garden, it has been fantastic to watch them flying on a daily basis, and as i have a NZ Queen in there when i walk the dogs i can quite frequently spot my girls working as i walk round the town, they really are the Golden Girls and are so easy to spot.

One thing i have noted is the difference in work rate/expansion/honey gathering, between my garden hive and those in a rural out apiary, its quite considerable, and i do sometimes wonder if its really worth the effort in finding and maintaining rural sites anymore.

Couple of pics of my garden hive from today.

 

[BKF Admin]

Maybe its time we started to look for town sites on top of buildings etc ?

 

[hedgerow pete]

sorry the whole of birmingham is booked, never mind there is always else where, i can crop from march till september if it stays warm enough and i can usual get away without worrying about crystalization of osr

 

[Baggyone]

Interesting poll. Will be good to see how many have hives in towns. I'm right in the middle of my town.

 

[peteinwilts]

mine are about 5-6 miles from the nearest town. There are no crops and is in a meadow\hedgerow environment.

The fields are carpeted with clover and the blackberrys have started to flower, never mind the dozens of types of flowers I cannot name!

My new bees have drawn and filled nearly five brood frames in seven days.. no shortage of food in my local countryside!

I guess if we were bound to crops, it may be different...

 

[sphex]

I voted rural, then remembered that I do live in a village. Not sure if that counts as rural, but it certainly does when I'm coming from 30 years living in Bristol!

Also, hello all. I've not posted much recently, ironically because I've been too busy with our new bees! Picked them up from sputnam two weeks ago, and they're doing marvellously. Had the bee inspector visit last week. Little bit of chalkbrood, but he complimented us on what lovely bees they are. Hard-working and very gentle! Stung once when collecting them, but still not been stung since we got them. A little concerned I'll become complacent!

 

[planbee]

Perhaps "Google" maps would help locate suitable flat roofed premises?

John

 

[Ando]

I have flat roofs at work but my old dad don't like bees at all, my folks house is next door, I am planning on one day when he don't come in the office anymore to put a couple of hives up there out of sight, its only single storey.

Mark.

 

[Nellie]

Urban, allotment beekeeper here, slap bang in the middle of Bristol.

 

[Mosquito]

I have 2 hives in my hives in my garden.
And I don't have a Car.

 

[Brian Bush]

I voted for edge of town/city. I am, really edge of a village. Loads of OSR earlier in year. Now foraging in gardens and allotments. Loads of blackberries etc coming into flower in the hedgerows and Lime trees about to bloom in the gardens.

 

[hedgerow pete]

the main differances for us urban beeks is we are slightly warmer than the country oiks we have no worries about stripping supers before the osr crystalizes, cause we dont harvest it and we have a large variaty of flowers from lime trees ( 47 trees bearwood road) to canal bank sides (2km or brambles then rose bay willow herb) so yes you have bigger crops for fields but in the country we had to watch for spraying where as in the towns there is next to no spray or more inportantly an accumulation of pesticides or herbicides as well . so yes your area has it plus sides but from my judgement i would say the urban areas can be better, but saying that i know two beeks in central london that can only keep one hive each as there is so mant others and a very limited supply of necter at the best of times, so it depends what city/ area and its cropping limits where as is the country we used to have dry spots and areas or gaps in flows the city evans others out are we are more continuous