- Joined
- Sep 23, 2010
- Messages
- 4,028
- Reaction score
- 4,108
- Location
- North London, West Essex and Surrey
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 70
Bycan,
I respect your wish to begin beekeeping on a large scale but to help you effectively it would be useful to know what beekeeping experience you have to date.
With regard to paperwork there is no legal process to prevent you setting up as any sort of beekeeper. Of course, you will need to declare your occupation to the Inland Revenue, jump through several food hygiene hoops and buy the necessary hive equipment, transport, storage, office, honey processing, bottling, and labelling equipment and facilities, and be able to promote and sell your honey. You will join the Bee Farmers' Association, (link given earlier by Guy) log your apiaries on BeeBase and cultivate a relationship with the local Bee Inspectors. You may need to employ a sidekick.
On top of that you must know your base area for a distance of twenty miles, get to know the farmers, drink in the local pubs and integrate yourself into local activities; it would help to buy or borrow a dog and walk the land you have identified on Google Earth as likely to have good vehicle access to varied forage, but secure and hidden from view. Your background work of chit-chat will lead you to the owners or managers of land, and you will be in a position to ask permission to use that land.
Have you read the books Honey Farming by ROB Manley, or 60 Years with Bees by Donald Sims? Read also Interviews with Beekeepers by Steve Donohoe and many others whose names escape my tired mind. Stay fit, know how to read the weather and recognise most growing things, be optimistic despite failure, learn to make links with all beekeepers you meet, develop a sense of humour, work the longest hours and never stop thinking or learning. I've listed what I can recall, but there will be more.
Let's go back to the beginning: what beekeeping experience do you have?
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