'Urban dwellers 'should keep bees'

[bombus]

A secondhand National Hive, in serviceable condition, can be bought for £20- £30 most years at the Lincoln Bbb Auction, and no doubt at the other auctions held up and down the country. This would seem to me to be a far better option for someone just starting out in Beekeeping, why lay so much money out when you don't really know if Beekeeping is your thing, many aspiring beeks give up after the first few stings.
Or am I just a tightwad

 

[JCBrum]

Or am I just a tightwad

Yes.

I am too.

So are most beeks !

 

[admin2]

I thought making woodwork on a cold winters evening was a large part of the fun of beekeeping ?

What next plastic bees ?

 

[Bebe]

As I've said on another thread I wish experienced beekeepers would put their energies into making sure that new keepers or would be keepers have the information they need, into helping to ensure that there are enough places on beginners courses, into becoming mentors instead of rubbishing something that very few people have actually seen yet.

Most would be beekeepers have a respect for bees and are, quite honestly, scared of the thought of bees and will be attending courses first. Very few people will just take all the advertising hype of the moment at face value and run out to buy the latest 'must have'. Omlet are promoting courses run by Associations as well as setting up a taster course.

We all need to be ready for the influx of would be keepers who want to be informed before they start and helped when they start. This could be good for beekeeping as a whole - but the whole infrastructure of beekeeping will fall if people don't offer help.

 

[Geoff]

Blatant advertising is what you should do if you want to sell something, its marketing. There are a few other firms that could do with doing it better. I have come across a few British firms whose products I want to assess before purchase and sometimes it can be damn difficult finding out anything.
I dont mind blatant marketing, particularly if they are entering a new market as long as their adverts are accurate and truthful.

 

[Brosville]

"the whole infrastructure of beekeeping" - WHAT "infrastructure"? - a network of local associations chained by threats, insurance and "keeping the rank and file in the dark" to a minority-supported "association" that does it's best to maintain the "chemicals are cuddly" view (despite all the evidence to the contrary).
Me? warp twitter and bisted? I think my own "case" is fairly indicative of what the average newbie will be up against...... Visit local association, lovely encouraging people, while waiting for next meeting join "national association's" forum - being used to online fora, discover the wreckage left after major ruckus - loads deleted, members thrown out.......... find it's mainly by people daring to question the association with, and acceptance of money from major agrochemical companies..........
Next meeting of local association, discover the vast majority of members at local level haven't a clue what's going on, but cowed into continuing association by two "leading lights" who appear not to find informing and consulting the rank and file a necessity - told forcibly that if I wish to be a member that I HAVE to be a member of the BBKA......... which being totally against my principles, precludes me from my friendly local association......

 

[jon]

Well Brosville, as you keep repeating the same old guff in spite of it having been debunked on numerous occasions, I feel I have to point out again that you were banned from the BBKA site not for an anti pesticide stance but for race related abuse of another poster (The colonial, remember), and your 300 odd posts have not been removed and are still there for anyone to read.

The sad fact is that a lot of people are unfortunately just indifferent to the pesticide debate. It really is not a vast conspiracy theory orchestrated by bayer and the BBKA.

 

[BKF Admin]

Well Brosville, as you keep repeating the same old guff in spite of it having been debunked on numerous occasions, I feel I have to point out again that you were banned from the BBKA site not for an anti pesticide stance but for race related abuse of another poster (The colonial, remember), and your 300 odd posts have not been removed and are still there for anyone to read.

The sad fact is that a lot of people are unfortunately just indifferent to the pesticide debate. It really is not a vast conspiracy theory orchestrated by bayer and the BBKA.

1000 members and 21,000 posts say you are wrong John.

The BBKA forum is going down like a sinking ship as they have been well and truly "Outed" regards the Bayer fiasco.

Brosville may of been banned for "race related abuse" but some of the replies he got were just as bad.
The mods on the BBKA forum had it in for him from day one and could not wait to play the race card as it gave them the excuse they wanted to get rid of a rather large thorn in their side.

On a personal level I think Brosville is a stuck record and a total pain in the a*** at times,but as a forum we do allow open comment without resorting to editing/deleting posts and banning members.

It's our lack of censorship that makes us the fasting growing Beekeeping forum on the Internet.

 

[Brosville]

I wasn't thrown off for "racial abuse", I'd used the phrase over a period of weeks without problem - they waited for two days AFTER I'd put a particularly obnoxious American firmly in his place after a barrage of insults about environmentalists and the English from him - during which time I received a great many "well done, wish I'd said that" messages - the reason I was barred was because I unilaterally mentioned that I wouldn't alter a word as it was all true!
Several of my posts were to my knowledge edited and/or deleted while I was still a member by the "board statspolizei"
The vast majority of people who actually know what's going on re the Bayer connection are vehemently (and rightly) against it - even those who happily use and condone "chemicals" - it is plain wrong for an "independent charity" to sell it's good name to those who manufacture chemicals that kill bees .....

 

[jimbeekeeper]

Unfortunately Brosille I have to agree with Jon on this one!

This has nothing to do with pesticides etc.

I have been down this road on the poultry sites I go on, when Omlet brought out the eglu and cube you would think they had started world war 3...and it still rumbles on about the pros and cons of the "plastic"

Why is it the simplest things drives us fellow beekeepers apart, rather than embracing the fact of potential new keepers?

I will and have quite happily said in the past, I pretty much jumped in with both feet and bought 1 hive of bees in late August nearly 4 years ago now.

I was not a member of an association or done any courses I did have a book though.

Now look at me (comments to your selves please!)....successfully managing an average of 6 hives producing nucs and mentoring local students and soon to be running “beehaus parties”

On the flip side some people could go on every beekeeping course in the world and read every book and STILL not manage to even find their queen for example.

 

[jon]

The BBKA forum is going down like a sinking ship as they have been well and truly "Outed" regards the Bayer fiasco.

I agree with you that the Bayer sponsorship is a fiasco but the BBKA forum currently has a good bunch of posters and is an enjoyable place to hang out, same as this one.

 

[BKF Admin]

Glad to hear it has improved Jon,give yourselves a pat on the back.

How is the working party focus group getting on in trying to find the square root of a pickled onion ?

 

[jon]

Unfortunately Brosille I have to agree with Jon on this one!

And equally strangely I have to agree with Jim re. the Beehaus and beekeepers.

It really doesn't matter what equipment you use with regard to your beekeeping skills. I cannot for the life of me imagine why there is such animosity towards top bar beekeeping and the beehaus.
I know people who have kept bees for decades who can't handle bees gently, find a queen, mark a queen, make a nuc, artificially swarm a colony, check for diseases, practice varroa control etc.
In other words, the absolute basics of being a competent beekeeper.

The beehaus will bring in a lot of new people.
A lot of them will drop out after a few stings but many will remain as beekeepers and probably evolve on to more cost effective forms of beekeeping equipment.
I don't see it as a problem.

 

[jimbeekeeper]

Omlet thread BBKA forum 3 posts

Omlet thread this forum 140 posts


I think that sums it up!

 

[BKF Admin]

Omlet thread BBKA forum 3 posts

Omlet thread this forum 140 posts


I think that sums it up!

Thats a little unfair Jim !
They may of had 141,they just deleted the other 138 negative comments

 

[jon]

Glad to hear it has improved Jon,give yourselves a pat on the back.

How is the working party getting on in trying to find the square root of a pickled onion ?

Not every aspect of beekeeping is as simple and straightforward as we might like it to be.
It's good to keep things simple of course.
The BBKA forum is hardly moderated at all now and it seems to be working well.
The pesticide debate is a complete red herring.
You can post what you like about pesticides and bayer.
The spats which used to occur there were mostly personal spats, many of them between people who appeared to know each other from local BKAs.
The other source of conflict was top bar beekeeping.
At one stage Phil Chandler and several regulars from the Biobees forum came on to deliberately stir things up.
I noticed the other day that one of them (not Phil) on the biobees forum was boasting about being banned from almost every bee forum on the planet as if that was something to be proud of.
The moderators at the time found it hard to deal with and were probably a bit heavy handed.

Mark, I thought you agreed a while back that it was good to move on from raking over old ground.

 

[BKF Admin]

Mark, I thought you agreed a while back that it was good to move on from raking over old ground.

You are right Jon,I am well out of order !
I have not had the best of weeks health wise and have allowed it to spill over onto the forum.

I would like to apologize to anyone I may of upset.
No offence intended.

 

[jon]

No offence taken and I don't see any harm in poking a little gentle fun at the Chattering classes Beehaus.

 

[Stiffy]

As a very new Beek I would like to say that the majority of people I have come in contact with have been very helpful. Some however have been very negative, tried to put me off with tales of how the bee world is falling apart and disease is killing all the colonies and how I would be wasting my time. The latter was mainly from what I would term as semi-professional bee keepers and I believe was protectionism.
Gald I ignored the negative and have now (with some cxxxk ups) have 3 hives doing okay or until I next look at them

Getting back to the original discussion Beehaus and 'Urban dwellers 'should keep bees' I do wonder if Natural England has been misquoted? I work quite closely with NE and I can imagine that they would encourage people to keep bees but would be more likely to encourage people to provide homes for mason, bumble and solitary bees. I wonder if this announcement has been hijacked by Omlet and the press?
There is a vast difference between keeping a few chickens and 10’s thousands of bees:
Chickens cluck and lay a few eggs, worst case scenario a cockerel crows.
Bees hum and produce honey, worst case scenario they sting and .............

 

[Rosti]

Jim, on a lighter note these Beehaus parties of yours? I have an image of people turning up at dusk and putting their hive tools into a large bowl and later in the evening other beeks chosing a hive tool at random from said bowl to select the person that they will be having 'intimate discussions and practical guidence' with - but only if they promise to use suitable protection - say thymol!

Have I outed a Beekeeping Madam?