Norfolk Honey - getting started in beekeeping
Getting started in beekeeping
You have wanted to keep bees for years but just how do you get started? Do you read a book? Watch a video? Go on a beekeeping course? Buy the bees and get stuck in? Join your local beekeeping association? Where can you get help and advice?
Tips
Two tips before you pay for anything
1. Beware of buying the beehive before you buy your bees. Many beekeepers who sell bees also sell equipment and as bees are in very short supply they are rationing the sale of bees to their customers only.
2. Make sure that before you pay for your beekeeping course that you will be sold bees at the end of the course by the those running the course. You don't want to get to the end of the course and then start looking to buy bees.
Beginners buy a new hive with bees ... click
here
A good place to visit is the British Bee Keeper's
web site http://www.britishbee.org.uk/
Training and Courses
Before you start your bee-keeping you could be well advised make contact with
your local bee-keeper who can give you tips and tricks and local contacts. If
you are in or near Norwich you can contact me
if not visit the British Beekeepers' Association's web
site
to find your local association.
Training courses in practical beekeeping give you a hands on experience. At the
end of a practical beekeeping course you will know how to open a beehive and
what to look for in order to assess the condition of the hive.
In Norfolk, Eastern
College offer a practical bee-keeping course in the spring -- see their web site
for the Practical
Bee-Keeping course If you are reading this in the summer and can't wait for
the spring to find out about how to start bee-keeping you can sign up for their
winter course Introduction to bee-keeping.
Norfolk beekeeping
courses run by Eastern College -- click
here to go to their site
Their course tutor is Paul Met calf -- watch his
video -- click here
to buy Paul Metcalf's video
Paul is also the president of the Norfolk Bee
Keepers Association -- click here
to go to the Norfolk Bee Keepers site
Most counties in the UK have beekeepers association that are affiliated to
the British Beekeepers' Association
If you have read the books and feel ready to jump in at the deep end then
you can buy the bees and take my online beekeeping course. email
me for
more details.
If you are in Norwich and would like join me for a practical
beekeeping
experience please email
me I offer sessions on various days of the week
If you are in Norfolk and would like to buy bees and equipment -- read on
New equipment with bees
If you are looking to get started in beekeeping - but are short of time - this
could be just the thing for you - a new hive with a mesh floor with a nuc
of bees inside locked down and ready to travel.
Beekeeping equipment
Specialist beekeeping equipment is available from a range of bee keeping
equipment suppliers many of those bee keeping equipment suppliers have local
agents who hold
a selection of their stock items. Hopefully as time goes by you will be able
to find those suppliers and stockist's (those who have web sites) in our
directory You can also find bee-keeping equipment suppliers in the Yellow
Pages
Setting up your apiary
The position of your beehives is important if you have close neighbors for
obvious reasons. other than that an open patch of ground a few yards square
that is protected from
the attention of large animals and is not exposed to excessive winds is all
you need.
Buying your bees
Now for the exciting part -- buying your first hive
of bees . Needless to say not all honey bees are the same when it comes
to how much honey they make, if they like swarming or if they aggressively
protect their hives. When you are new to bee-keeping it will be hard for you
to
assess one hive of bees from another. Until you have had some practical experience
of opening up more than one beehive you won't know the difference between one
hive of bees and the next.
For the past few years I have been actively selecting bees that are easy to
handle for beginners -- please read my page on bees
Getting started 2010 - click here
for a new hive with bees
(If you want to give a present to a beginner in Norfolk UK in the form
of a voucher please email me)
If you are based in Norfolk you can email
me for my mobile number
If you want to keep bees on your property but have someone else look
after them please consider my hire
a hive scheme.