For the last two years I’ve been preparing to keep bees in my garden. I wanted to do something to help these amazing creatures survive. They are such a vital part of our ecosystem and without them gardens and food production will never be the same again.
Like most of my projects I like to do my research first, reading and surfing the net for information to help me make the right decisions. I know bee keeping is a responsibility and I wanted to make sure I had the time and resources to devote to another hobby.
To cut a long story short (for now) I’ve decided for very good reasons to choose to keep bees naturally. It’s a method that is simpler for beginners, less costly to start and is much more in tune with the bees. Natural bee keeping mimics the way bees live in nature and is sustainable.
It’s not about huge honey harvests or complicated equipment, but more in tune with the needs of the bees. Disease control is employed but using an integrated pest management system rather than relying on pesticides that the pests are already immune to. There’s a fantastic website at www.biobees.com which is a great place to start and where I got hooked.
On Saturday I attended a beehive making workshop and made my first top bar hive from recycled pallet wood.
Others in the group used new wood and the total cost of their hives were £28, a stark contrast to some of the hives I featured in the Telegraph at the weekend:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/beekeeping/7512072/Best-buys-for-beekeepers.html
If you are thinking about keeping bees, consider doing it the natural way and spend some time looking into your options. I’ve done the conventional beekeeping course, I’ve attended the pest control lecture days and I’ve joined two local beekeeping groups with contrasting views and experience.
It’s a steep learning curve, but one I now intend to pursue to fruition. Fruition being the rehoming of a bee swarm into one of my homemade hives. Watch this space.
