4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[Guest]

Hello All

 

Could anyone give me some idea about minimum start up costs as I would love to take up bee keeping but I have a very tight budget

 

Thanks R

[Redwing]

I've copy and pasted this from the Beehaus thread, its a post by m100:

 

From one the biggest existing supplier of beekeeping equipment you can already get a complete package excluding bees for the following amounts

 

£108 for the hive (in cedar, that will last 50 years and uses no petrochemicals)

 

£152 for above plus smoker, hive tool, leather gloves, jacket and veil, bee brush, smoker cartridges, 1 gallon feeder and a mouseguard.

 

£239 for all the above plus manual extractor, three 15lb buckets, one 30lb bucket with fitted nylon valve, a nylon double strainer and an uncapping fork.

 

all these prices are plus VAT but carriage is free.

 

A nucleus of bees from a local bee keeping association will be from £40- £80, a swarm will cost nothing.

 

So you can be up and running with bees for around 350 quid, or 270 quid if you get a swarm.

The site referred to is http://www.thorne.co.uk

 

As I understand it though it is ideal to start with two hives

 

You might find second hand houses on ebay or via your local association

 

It all seems very complicated to me but best of luck with your venture

[Egluntyne]

Hello rooster. Nice to see you posting again.

 

If you join your local freecycle, you might be able to pick up an unwanted hive.

 

Also, there are one or two manufacturers who sell National Hives on ebay, and they seem to go for around £100 - ish.

 

If you are handy, you could perhaps make one yourself. There are plans available quite cheaply or even for free on many of the beekeeping sites.

 

It would be a good idea to have a look at **British Beekeeping Assoc Website** for a local group and to attend one of their courses etc.

[beesontoast]

How to start beekeeping for free

[Patricia W]

Thanks, beesontoast, I like the idea of rubbing the inside with beeswax and luring your own bees in! Well worth reading.

 

Tricia

[Guest]

Thanks all,

some interesting reading ahead I think

 

R

[Lesley]

We bought ready assembled hives from Ebay - they are very good.

[jam]

Hi

 

Are bees a lot of work? Or should I say, any more work than chickens. Does the hive have to be kept in a lonely spot in the garden to prevent disturbing them or getting stung, or can you just put it anywhere. Do bees mix with chickens and guinea pigs? Does it cost a lot to look after them and if so does it pay off? What do you mean by a swarm and a nucleus??

 

thanks

[Olly]

Hi

 

Are bees a lot of work? Or should I say, any more work than chickens.

 

No - a bit less than chickens I'd say. During the winter you don't need to do a lot. During spring, summer and autumn you need to inspect them regularly, and depending on what you find you might need to do more or less, but most books reckon about an hour a week during the summer.

 

Does the hive have to be kept in a lonely spot in the garden to prevent disturbing them or getting stung, or can you just put it anywhere. Do bees mix with chickens and guinea pigs?

 

You need it positioned somewhere so that the bees' flight path won't take them straight into a neighbour's garden; there are various things you can do i.e. by setting up barriers to they fly up rather than out, but you do need to consider things like footpaths, children who might be playing nearby etc. It rather depends on how big your garden is. Most people seem to think bees and hens can mix ok, I don't know about guinea pigs!

 

Does it cost a lot to look after them and if so does it pay off?

Once you've bought the hive and got your bees, you shouldn't need to spend a lot - sugar syrup to feed them through the winter - but like most hobbies, there are a lot of extras you can get! Honey retails for between £3 and £4 a jar and you could get 60lbs of honey or more, so if you're prepared to put in the work to make it suitable for sale, you might recoup your costs. I wouldn't count on it, though!

 

What do you mean by a swarm and a nucleus??

A swarm is a group of bees that has left the hive and taken off to find a new nest. A nucleus is a queen bee and some workers, usually about half a hive, and they're sold as a sort of 'starter kit' because once you've got the queen bee and some workers, she will lay a lot more bees till you get a whole hive-ful. That's a bit of a simplification, but if you do some reading around the subject it will all become clear!

[Kermit]

Redwing's reply is bit steep. OK, if you want everything new then that's the price. However, here's what we've done:

 

Hive - borrowed - plan is to build one from scratch. There are plans available for Nationals from a number of places. I have had some 18mm ply cut to size and I now need to build them up. Price for ply - £37, but enough for 2 brood boxes and 2 supers.

 

Hive tool - second hand - £3

 

Veils - £6 each - one for me and one for Peaches (Fiona)

 

Gloves - marigolds from Co-op

 

Smoker - £23 - new

 

Feeders - rapid and contact total £9

 

Nuc of bees - £80

 

Frames and foundation - £20

 

No need for an extractor, as we have access to one through the local BKA

 

I have nothing against chequebook bee keeping, except all my cheques are very special (made from rubber ). Don't forget that a hive that lasts 50 years is fine if it is 30 years old... Second hand is a great way to go.

[Somerford]

I might add that the benefit of a BeeHaus is that you get two hives in one. What alot of newbeeks forget is that in the second year, sometimes the first, your bees will want to swarm.

 

This means you need more kit, which means an urgent purchase to keep the bees on site. The BeeHaus allows 2 colonies to live in the same hive, so you get more honey and at the end of the year, you unite them back to one colony. Or you can sell the new queen and a few frames as a nuc to another newbeek, so helping pay back the cost of the beehaus even more quickly.

 

Somerford S

[OXFORDBEE]

so you get more honey and at the end of the year, you unite them back to one colony.

 

Just bear in mind you will get just the same amount of honey, if not more using conventional hive management and two hives which you unite back at the end of the season.

 

Depending on how you manage your bees, and assuming you are fit and able(!) if you don't wan't increase then all you need is some spare supers, two queen excluders and two sheets of 12mm plywood.

 

One of the plywood sheets should have batons round three sides to make a floor the other is a lid (you can use a sheet of plastic under the lid to avoid the bees sticking it down). You can overwinter the bees with plywood sheets quite happliy but they are primarily for summer use.

 

Just artificially swarm your bees into a super. When the virgin queen is mated, remove the old queen and unite the bees back together (you now have a stack of supers on top of the original hive) and the job is done

 

For increase just artificially swarm your bees into a deep box.

 

The benefit of the beehaus being two hives in one is somewhat marred by the lack of frames provided. Two empty supers are provided yet you have to buy the frames for them to use them. You will also need to buy deep frames for artifical swarming. If the hive came complete with a full set of frames it would not have the hidden cost of having to buy extra frames before you an fully utilise it.

 

Having extra equipment for swarm control is recommend by all the beekeeping books I have ever read, and using conentional hives means each colony of bees can be moved independantly which provides more management flexibility. This can be extremely useful.

 

Oh a quick question ... when you want to increase your supers on a beehaus do you have to buy a set of 4 to keep the roof level (even if you only actually need one or two)? I think I've seen pictures of Dartingtons where the roof was spit in two so you could manage your two stocks of bees independantly.