When and how did you start beekeeping?

[Curly green finger's]

Opa kept bees for years on the farm ever since I could remember, I helped in my school days with extracting and getting in his way, I never paid any interest in the bees other than that untill 2017 when I moved 1 hive to the Clee and found myself a mentor of sorts nr Clun.
Beefever has well and truly taken hold and since then I have been expanding slowly with my own bees and Im now employed by someone to look after there bees on an estate nr home.
I love this profession with a passion and how ever many hives I have it will always feel like a hobby to me.

Beekeeping has changed me as a person and how I garden and farm it has made me a better person mentally and physically.
Infact it has changed my whole family life with the little guys helping and being even more so in tune with our surroundings, Not that we we're not anyway they love nature as do I.

 

[Dutchman]

I started in 1972 at the age of 19 when I was introduced to beekeeping as part of a fruit growing course at a Dutch agriculture college. In the years that followed I had 12 years without bees when I changed profession and this was just the time when varroa started. So when I took up my old job again as a hobby I had a good bit of learning to do.

 

[Cuckmere couple]

i started in 2015 (bees in 2016) as my wife wanted us to keep them (neither of us really eat honey!)

as a child we lived in Richmond for 6 years and an old chap Mr Tinker used to keep a few hives in our garden as well as huge flower beds of dahlias and we all loved watching him wander up in his gear and smoker so was intrigued from those early memories too

 

[JamezF]

Not sure when I started. 2005-ish, perhaps. Did the beginners course run by Taunton BKA, but then work, life, children and all that stuff meant I mostly had to get on by myself in what time I had, which has never been as much as I'd have liked. Every year I keep telling myself "This year...", but it's not worked out yet

James

 

[Erichalfbee]

I love this profession with a passion and how ever many hives I have it will always feel like a hobby to me.

Trade

 

[Curly green finger's]

Trade

Craft

 

[elainemary]

Started keeping bees 5 years ago. My passion before then (apart from work and travel) was gardening. Just wondered what my garden tasted like, that and my love of biology inspired me to keep some bees.

My mum told me after I started, that my grandad, who lived in Lincolnshire used to help his friend every year take bees to the North York moors, for the heather crop

In my twenties my next door neighbour kept bees, i remember seeing my first swarm, he gave up as his wife became anaphylactic. Years later he gave me a 1950s book on skep beekeeping.

Only other story of ‘near misses’ is my gardening mentor, now in his 80s, told me he gave another beekeeper space in his garden to keep bees - Jeremy Burbridge from Northern bee books. He introduced me and now I regularly visit for a cuppa and hide amongst his book collection, making up for lost time

 

[StephenT]

My wife booked us in for the winter course at a local BKA just over 3 years ago and then a few months later got given an old hive we cleaned up and then a swarm of bees we put in there. First time spotting the queen of our first colony will be a long lasting memory.

 

[Nannysbees]

My wife booked us in for the winter course at a local BKA just over 3 years ago and then a few months later got given an old hive we cleaned up and then a swarm of bees we put in there. First time spotting the queen of our first colony will be a long lasting memory.

Yes I absolutely agree, when we first found out queen, an amazing feeling

 

[Finman]

Roger mentioned that pre- varroa made beekeeping an absolute joy

What is pre varroa

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

It's that little drop that appears at the tip just before they arrive

 

[Amari]

What is pre varroa

pre- | priː, pri | prefix before (in time, place, order, degree, or importance): pre-adolescent | precaution | precede. Pre- varroa.

 

[Finman]

pre- | priː, pri | prefix before (in time, place, order, degree, or importance): pre-adolescent | precaution | precede. Pre- varroa.

My opinion is, that pre varroa was difficult time. German black bees were everywhere. Very difficult to breed bees, when black drones controlled air space.

 

[Nannysbees]

My opinion is, that pre varroa was difficult time. German black bees were everywhere. Very difficult to breed bees, when black drones controlled air space.

Roger Patterson was saying that before varroa came to the UK it was a pleasure keeping bees as he didn't have to treat

 

[user 20297]

Craft

Art.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Art.

Metier or handwerk.

 

[user 20297]

Metier or handwerk.

Vocation

 

[Curly green finger's]

Vocation

Job
We better stop there because we will run out

 

[Antipodes]

Art.

You've been listening to Bob Binnie?

 

[MintyHerbert]

On the 10th June 2015 my son brought home a cardboard box full of bees, he’d found a swarm on a fence post and thought it a good idea to collect it. We had no hive, suit or equipment. In September son went off to university and left me and his dad in charge of the bees. To be honest I wasn’t too keen on them at first, they were just stingy things that didn’t like me pegging my washing out. It was when I started talking photos of them and watching them. Lose up I became fascinated with them. We joined a BKA and did a beginner course. Struggled with varroa the first year and the bees died in spring but by that time we were hooked. The son developed an allergy to the bees so stays away and doesn’t bring his washing home anymore