Why do you keep Bees?

[aberreef]

Purely money orientated for me, I don't like having too much.

Seriously though, I just love the bees and their products. No other reason needed really.

 

[Davelin]

What else could I do on Wednesdays when the ladies take over the golf course?

 

[Lee Smeaton]

i originally started as a method of de-stressing. I left the military with PTSD and found that it took my mind away from some rather dark places, (also took up metal detecting which is also brilliant for diverting your mind from fripparys of modern day left)

 

[Beeka]

Lee, I don't think we'll hear many better reasons than that, I can relate to this completely.

A friend of mine started my interest in bees earlier this summer, I bought Ted Hoopers book, set up a bait hive and all of a sudden I was a beekeeper and/or had a large number of bees living in my garden! This friend passed away last month and I know he would be really chuffed to see me develop as a beek.

I'm now eager to get a second hive set up and maybe plan an out apiary but I'm not concerned with making money or even taking lots of honey from them. I most enjoy being able to get up close to these wild colonies to study them and maybe help a few to survive as their numbers are dwindling.

Si

 

[alldigging]

I went along with a neighbour when she was looking at getting bees to an apiary meeting where they passed frames of bees round for us to hold. And at that moment I knew I had to have some of my own.
They are completely fascinating and I would love more!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

IThey are completely fascinating and I would love more!

Got to get it past SWMBO first though!

It's about the only thing that's kept me (relatively) sane the last six months I'm dreading this winter, just have to schmooze invites to some decent pheasant shoots!

 

[Little John]

Was introduced to beekeeping as a schoolboy, but my interest in them then came a very poor third behind motorbikes and the local girl's netball team.

Many years later, and now retired, I didn't so much re-discover bees, as they discovered me: a couple of years ago, one afternoon a swarm decided to set up home in a plum tree very close to my back door - indeed so close that I wanted them gone, PDQ ...

It was about 10 minutes after I waved them on their way, I started thinking: "hang about ... why not ?".

LJ

 

[mbc]

As a child I was really keen on bugs. I used to spend hours in the garden watching various insects

I wander how many of todays beekeepers were unquenchable bug hunters when younger ?
I know I couldnt pass up the opportunity to turn over a few stones at every stream I'd encounter as a child (still do to see what trout food is about).

 

[garlicpickle]

I wander how many of todays beekeepers were unquenchable bug hunters when younger ?
I know I couldnt pass up the opportunity to turn over a few stones at every stream I'd encounter as a child (still do to see what trout food is about).

I haven't got any better with age, I can't go for a walk in the woods without investigating under any promising-looking logs just to see what's there.

 

[maddydog]

Helps me forget what i have to do to pay for everything.....
Also i can bore mrs maddy rigid in retaliation for when yet another soap is on

 

[pargyle]

It started with hens and an allotment or two ... my father kept bees when I was young although of only a passing interest in those days and it seemed like a natural progression after the hens ... now it's part of a plan in a couple of years to retire to a small holding and spend all my money heading a bit nearer towards a more sustainable and self sufficient lifestyle. The bees have become a bit of an obsession though ...

 

[madasafish]

Welcome back

 

[pargyle]

Welcome back

Nothing like a spell in the sin bin to lessen the addiction ... but it's a bit like smoking ... just one and you're hooked again !!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Chickens! don't talk to me about chickens! SWMBO just went out and ordered some rickety flat packet 'most popular one next to the egloo with the urban eco warrior' madeinchinaoutofbitsofdunnagewhichcostafortuneonebay chicken coop and took on three ex commercial hens which are now living on the spot where the bees used to live and I had earmarked for a quiet corner to reflect and a new apple tree.
This is her project and she wanted rescue hens not nice marams or legbars or whatever which is what I fancied (remember I was bought up with poultry keeping)
All I had to do is assemble said bit of scrap wood into something resembling a cosy home for Biryani, Tikka and Kojak (my names for said fowl), then build a run big (about 20'x12') and permanent on my insistence not peripatetic and small which is what she thought was OK, clean said run, let chickens out in the morning (she'll occasionally shut them in at night) feed, water,clean coop check their health and probably stretch their necks when the fateful day inevitably but sadly comes. Glad she didn't insist I do most of their husbandry!
Don't you love armchair farming
I did have a bit of a rant to the mother in law and her aunt. but at least it's given me a bit more leverage with the bees (two more nucs turned up last night - I know they're only temporary lodgers until spring but she'll be used to them then abd will have forgotten and won't notice the 'replacements' turning up

 

[thorn]

I'd got the hang of herding cats and needed a new challenge.

 

[alldigging]

Biryani, Tikka and Kojak (my names for said fowl), ...

(she'll occasionally shut them in at night) f

You can get auto-shutting doors for them.

And I bet they're not her names for them are they..

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

You can get auto-shutting doors for them.
QUOTE]
And I have it on good authority that foxes have sussed those and anyway with this piece of boutique crap she's bought it would never work as the timber swells at the mention of rain in the mid Atlantic so all the moving parts, door, pop hole slide etc. just jams and the chickens feel as if they're in a roller coaster when I struggle with it to open up in the morning.
Oh, and did I mention the sad sap who will have to sit up half the night in the back bedroom, window open and silenced rifle at the ready when Charlie decides to mooch around looking for a tasty but scrawny feathered snack?

 

[VEG]

Oh, and did I mention the sad sap who will have to sit up half the night in the back bedroom, window open and silenced rifle at the ready when Charlie decides to mooch around looking for a tasty but scrawny feathered snack?

Thats the bit I thought you would like lol

 

[pargyle]

You can get auto-shutting doors for them.
QUOTE]
And I have it on good authority that foxes have sussed those and anyway with this piece of boutique crap she's bought it would never work as the timber swells at the mention of rain in the mid Atlantic so all the moving parts, door, pop hole slide etc. just jams and the chickens feel as if they're in a roller coaster when I struggle with it to open up in the morning.
Oh, and did I mention the sad sap who will have to sit up half the night in the back bedroom, window open and silenced rifle at the ready when Charlie decides to mooch around looking for a tasty but scrawny feathered snack?

It all sounds very familiar JBM ... we started out with ex-battery hens and a chinese coop that I had to virtually rebuild to make it fit for purpose (hinges and bolts made out of liquorice ! Drawing pins for nails etc etc.) What with fox proof mesh for a sensible size run and the costs of feed we could have probably bought Fortnum & Masons best organic eggs and had them personally delivered in a taxi for less than our first year's egg bill !!!

The ex bats gave us good egg laying for 2+ years but gradually succumbed to old age/tumours and we just have one old one left now (she's well over 4 years old now and no longer laying but even I can't bring myself to get the broom handle out !). So, now we have Sussex whites and I have to say they are lovely hens ... but completely mad !!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

the costs of feed

Yerrrs - O.K. the first lot was just grabbed from Wilko's by SWMBO as she hadn't done any forward planning (so much for the civil service high flyer!!) and it was this GM free 'smallholder' pellets and looked O.K. - called in the farmer's coop on the way back from buying grain for the flight pond and enquired as to suitable food: type1 the same 'smallholder' 25 kilo bag at something like 15 quid the alternative bog standard layers' pellets but not in the twee brown paper sack with rustic green writing but still GM free at half the price - and the difference the smallholders swindle has marigold in - marigold! I ask you is this country now populated by the gullible? or is it me?