Urban apairies

[hedgerow pete]

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I have writen an article about urban bee keeping and apairies to help some of you how need extra help. I would prefere to have constructive criticism rather than abuse and I hope those who read it will hopefully learn or at least have thier eyes opened.Right you are all lab rats now . i have writen this as a trial i am trying to get some extra money as a article writer for web sites or magazines. Please enjoy when i become a professional writer instead of a bee keeper I will think of you all, NOT

 

[Melbourne12]

That is a great article! Very interesting and informative - it's certainly given me ideas for future expansion.

The only suggestion that I have from our extremely limited local experience is that garden centres can be good landlords for a small number of hives. Like the factories in your example, they're secure, and they understand the need for pollination.

 

[Metamorphosis]

I have approached two large Garden Centres and explained that I am a beekeeper and it would be nice to incorporate a bee hive out of reach from the public but showing their support for the need for pollination.

Their main concern was members of the public being stung and taking legal action against the Garden Centre. In the end they decided not to go ahead with any bees in the centre.

I do not really understand why as when we were walking round the centre there were bumble bees and honey bees visiting the plants.

Yours;

 

[Baggyone]

I'll add something to that.

I know the owner of Downderry nursery and he had a beekeeper ask him if he could put a hive nearby. As Downderry deal in Lavenders then it seems an ideal situation. However, an awful lot of plants were deemed unsalable because once the bees had been there, then the flower goes and people just think they are old plants.
Better to have one near the garden centre not actually at it.

 

[Widdershins]

Thats fantastic!!!! Thanks for sharing that with us, it really gives us all a fair few ideas to play with...

 

[Nellie]

Allotments are fraught with potential strife. I nearly lost my Allotment plot and I'm still hosting a hive for someone else who's run foul of his allotment board and this is in a city that I consider to be relatively bee friendly.

My one piece of advice to any beginner who is doing a course or starting to buy kit with the intention of putting a hive or two on an allotment is:

Start being nice to the site reps/board/council now

and Have a backup plan. You do touch on some of the potential problems With allotment beekeeping

I like a lot of the tips in the article although I find the style itself quite difficult to read to be perfectly honest but I'd be interested in a bit more information in the bee sheds.

Also consider the local "green" restaurants, we've got one here actively advertising for a beekeeper to put a hive or two on the roof.

City farms might be worth asking though I suspect they might be less willing given the number of mewling brat... little darlings tramping through the place every day, one of which is bound to try and lick the hive entrance.

I also checked out the Soil Association and approached a couple of local organic farms. I know Brum is a bit more sprawling than where I am, but if local farms are an option sending them an email or giving them a phone call is worth trying.

As is looking up the local smallholding association and approaching them.

 

[hedgerow pete]

Thanks for the tips. I did not cover garden centres as there are none where i live. The thing with bee stings is proof of ownership of the said bee. this is a problem i have all the time announce your a bee keeper and you are to blame for any and i do mean any animal problem for stings by wasps and hornet to dogs barking ,because your bees have stung him, do not answer mental challenged mums with the answer of look love if it was going to be my bees that sting you little s** i would of got them all 45,0000 to sting him, does somewhat start the conversation off on a bad foot

i would aviod any where that has the general muppet public walking around for those reasons, i dont belive the soil ass. is any good and would not waste my breath same with local farmers, all in this area want kicking of and letting some one else to have ago

lastly nellie you said hard to read i would love to know why you said that so i can improve it

 

[Nellie]

I guess in some respects it's a matter of personal preference and, to be blunt, it needs a damn good edit. You do have a tendency to flit between different styles of writing. Some paragraphs are quite matter of fact others drift into what's almost a narrative. I like the information that's in your article, though in some places I'd have loved some elaboration; what's a bee shed for example?. But my inner grammar nazi is positively twitching

I'm no professional writer and I'm not perfect myself, but if I may give some advice: Take what you've written (not just this, anything more formal than a forum post) and sleep on it or at least go and do something else for a couple of hours. Then go back to it and read it to yourself out loud, preferably from a printed copy and with a pencil in your hand. It sounds stupid but you'll pick up a lot of grammatical errors that way, you can hear that this paragraph needs a comma, there should be a full stop, that sentence doesn't scan and so on a lot better by taking a break from it and then reading it out loud. That way you'll be reading what you've actually written, not what you think you've written and, more importantly, how it is going to "sound" when someone, who's coming at it not knowing what the content is, reads it.

 

[hedgerow pete]

thanks nellie, if i do another one i will try that, problem is i build schools and colleges i just didnt study in them

 

[hedgerow pete]

theres a new bee shed film on you tube, i will post the link later when i know it works , made by me of course, it expains badly how i deal with swarming. i realy must write a script and stick to it or how about getting nellie to edit the scrips first

 

[taff..]

thats full of good idea's and thing's I wouldn't have thought about.

I agree with Nellie that a good edit would do it wonders, the simple things like they're/their/there and too/to, double space after a full stop and so on can make it so much easier to read.

bloody good effort

 

[Nellie]

Think I found your YouTube vid. Need part II asap, got loads of questions

 

[taff..]

Think I found your YouTube vid. Need part II asap, got loads of questions

can you post a link please?

 

[VEG]

I think this is it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoJ7irjojpY

 

[jon]

Nice video Pete. Thanks again for those pea seeds.
I have 8 colonies on my allotment. One of those bee sheds would be nice.

 

[hedgerow pete]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoJ7irjojpY

you lot are quicker than i am , i down loaded uploaded thingy, threaten to stare child got it onto you tube , he said we have to wait for the thingy to do something , i went back to the allotment came back to find loads of comments and evan more requests
thanks for the support. the look around the shed is being beaten out of tim sorry loaded by tim to night

 

[hedgerow pete]

sorry to all how realy understand the english langue , but due to certain issues i left school earlier than most and evan tho i love the classics i do lack there understandings of the way it works also dylexia does not help, the ideas behind the article was to put as much information down without the consrants of using these message boxes allowing me to polish yes i did several times (6) before publishing it, there is lots of advice but as one person correctly pointed out i mix to much knowlage with angry rantings and true passion for my hobbie and i and as yet am unable to seperate them, aparently it shows up to you lot but i missed it completely sorry, i would be worried that next time it would to clinical if i used a script and edited it, suggestion would be great,
pete

 

[Hombre]

Super job Pete. It came over well. It's as well that the local problems are understood as most people just don't have anything similar happening in their neighbourhood. I look forward to each of your videos. This was the first after seeding the canal bank, I hope that I haven't missed any.

Have your sunflowers sprouted and did you pop along to get bargain sugar? I think my sunflower seeds planted in the garden directly a week to ten days after yours have got lost. Big bag, they don't do them loose any more - I probably ruined their profit model by buying a few ounces all those years ago.

 

[hedgerow pete]

i took home 25 kg of sugar but i doubt if the girls will see it it has gone mostly in to wine and beer production, we had a look for the sunflowers at the weekend but none up yet the ferns are up to three foot with no bramble showing yet which is nice to see

 

[Nellie]

sorry to all how realy understand the english langue , but due to certain issues i left school earlier than most and evan tho i love the classics i do lack there understandings of the way it works also dylexia does not help, the ideas behind the article was to put as much information down without the consrants of using these message boxes allowing me to polish yes i did several times (6) before publishing it, there is lots of advice but as one person correctly pointed out i mix to much knowlage with angry rantings and true passion for my hobbie and i and as yet am unable to seperate them, aparently it shows up to you lot but i missed it completely sorry, i would be worried that next time it would to clinical if i used a script and edited it, suggestion would be great,
pete

My other suggestion, find someone to be your "editor", who'll puctunate and check spelling/meaning of your articles without losing your style. There's a reason most publications still have an editorial team though far be it from me to suggest that a lot of journalists can't spell/punctuate either.

I'm not a journalist, writer or an English language graduate for that matter, but I do occasionally manage to bang out the odd document/article that isn't too badly punctuated. If you'd like I'll have a go at editing your article and you can see what you think.