Omlet Smart Autodoor - New in box

[Toots]

I have planned on getting bees in my garden as I overlook a disused piece of land facing south, nice sheltered area etc, but realistically i only have space for a couple of hives before the locals get restless so as well as the garden i looked into out hives,

 

There are several allotments near byy but the council are NOT keen but are investigating anyway.

 

so my next thought was farm shops with out PYO (the pyo places didnt seem too keen because of the public being there!!

 

Well i rang 1 farmer and i have a space for 2 to 6 hives!

 

Great guy, keeps chooks as well just happy to help with the bees! doesnt want anything from me at all! He has someone that he buys honey from but if i end up with a surpless he is willing to talk about helping shift some (the honey is just a bonus for me)

[Nics Chics]

x 28 National Hives

x 6 Warrens aka: The Girls!

 

It's a great idea

 

My husband started off with one hive in our garden last year (which we still have in situ) and now has 27 outhives on two different sites - one in the gardens of a local manor house and another on a nearby farm. With all of the recent media coverage beekeeping has attracted most people are quite intrigued by it and more than happy to accomodate outhives if they can.

[Lesley]

Great news

[Olly]

Congratulations! A lot of people in my local group use out-apiaries, some of them are other people's gardens who don't mind a hive and quite a few are on farmland.

 

Gosh Nic ... one hive to 28 is a big jump in the space of just a year.

I'm thinking of expanding my apiary this year - from one to two hives!

[Toots]

If i hadn't found space on the farm my next step was to look at the landshare scheme again.

I tried to get some land to grow veg but the plot i applied for had gone (a farm shop with too much space that has now shut down)

 

there are quite a lot of people who have a large garden but can not get out to use it!

[v8landy]

Its always good to have a couple of other places (ideally more than 3 miles away) that you can use, not only for other crops (if the farm has them) and also expansion, but if you have a rough hive, so you can get it out the way while you sort it out.

 

Also to isolate any swarms etc before bringing them into you main group.

 

Yes I have to agree 1 to 27 is a very big jump.

 

The most I ever had was 12, and that was hard work for me on my own + full time work. I now prefer to keep 4 or 5 at the most.

Edited March 16, 2010 by Guest

[Nics Chics]

x 6 Warrens aka: The Girls!

x 28 Nationals

 

When my husband gets a bee in his bonnet!........excuse the pun!

 

It's a 2 man operation really as he manages them all with a friend. They've made all of their hives themselves which has really kept the set-up costs down and collected all of their bees from swarms, splitting the colonies down when they are strong enough.

 

As I said in my profile.....I'm a beekeeping widow!

[MedusA]

Congratulations, Toots.

 

Sounds like a real symbiotic relationship between you and the farmer. All the best with it!

 

Like Olly, my expansion plans are rather modest i.e. one more personal hive this year. Although, if the allotment apiary goes ahead, we could be looking at 3 more colonies there too.

[Toots]

my expansion plans are very similar.

 

1 hive in the garden expanding to 2 from a swarm control

 

and from 2 to 4 at the most over a couple of years from taking in swarms and natural expansion.

 

I have a friend who is looking to get space on another farm and alotment where we plan to work together (2 heads being better than 1.. although with bee keepers that means 3 ways of doing something!)

 

however Chris does seem to be looking at getting a lot more than a "few" hives.