My eco solution to rat problems

[l_ouise]

Hello.

 

I keep on toying with the idea of getting some bees but i have a lot of concerns and the more i read, the more i get confused and concerned.

 

Firstly, i am not after loads of honey. Just a finger full every now and again would be great!

 

Also, i am not after something that is going to become a lot of work.

 

I just want to set it up and taste the honey every now and again.

 

My house is about 10m from my next door neighbours. I am also about 10m from the main road, but i live in a small rural village so it is hardly busy. My back garden is about 25m by 40m and it back onto fields.

 

So, my stupid questions:

All the hives look fairly big. Is it possible to just have something like a 30cm cube?

Does a smaller hive mean smaller swarms?

Am i going to be able to still sit in the garden?

Are they going to bother the neighbours or the dogs?

Will my chickens eat all the bees?

Could the hive be underground with a lid on the surface?

Are they genuinely worth having?

 

Thanks!

[Olly]

 

All the hives look fairly big. Is it possible to just have something like a 30cm cube?

Hives come in various sizes, but the smallest is still about 20" square (sorry, I don't do metric!) You could build your own hive to any size you like, but bees increase in number regardless of the size of the hive, so you would find them swarming very early in a smaller hive. You can't really have a small colony of bees, they will go on expanding and when they get overcrowded, they will swarm.

 

Does a smaller hive mean smaller swarms? Not necessarily. I suppose if they swarmed earlier there wouldn't be so many of them, but a swarm is a swarm.

 

Am i going to be able to still sit in the garden? Yes. I can go right up to my hive on a sunny day without problems - they will not bother you while you are sitting in the garden.

Are they going to bother the neighbours or the dogs? For the same reaso

n, it shouldn't bother the neighbours, however they may perceive them to be a problem. Unless they swarm, the neighbours need hardly know they are there.If they are nervous about bees however, then if one of them gets stung by a wasp your bees will be blamed!

 

Will my chickens eat all the bees? No! My hens ignore the bees completely.

 

Could the hive be underground with a lid on the surface? Er - no. Bees need to fly in and out, and you need to be able to gain access to it. There would be problems with damp and ventilation if it was underground - in the wild, bees usually nest in hollow trees.

 

Are they genuinely worth having? Yes, they are absolutely worth having, in fact I am absolutely obsessive about them and consider it the best thing I've done since I got hens. I wish I'd started bee keeping years earlier! However, they DO need a bit of care and attention - whether you want honey or not - and they do need management to avoid them swarming.

 

I would advise you to contact your local bee keeping group, they will very probably be willing to invite you along to an apiary meeting or just to someone's own apiary on a weekend, show you inside a hive and talk you through what's involved. Or you could find a Beehaus party, and see what they are like. It's a fascinating and fabulous hobby, but not one to undertake unless you're sure about taking it further. Anyway, remember - no such thing as a stupid question, ask away if there's anything else confusing you!

[chickenanne]

To echo Olly: join your local assoc and learn about bees before considering going any further. After all, the more you know the more you will enjoy it. They are fascinating creatures, and it is a privilidge to deal with them.

The more you learn, the more you will be able to see what they're up to.

 

Actually, the only thing am not sure I agree with Olly on is re: neighbours. Bees can be aggressive (either because of temperament, becuase of queenlessness, bad handling, weather, forage....) so it is perfectly possible that if you take no precuations and site the hive badly, then your neighbours would be troubled by them. It's something that every beekeeper needs to consider carefully IMO. It is unfair to expect genuinely bee-phobic neighbours to be happy about your hobby (though possible that they will be prepared to put up with it cheerfully enough if you handle it well) and no-one should be expected to put up with next-doors badly managed and aggressive bees right beside their patio/kids trampoline/door/or whatever. A colony of bees can have 40,000 +, and a couple hundred stings would easily be enough to kill most adults (ignoring allergies etc). I'm not suggesting that hives are a disaster waiting to happen or anything, but there's every reason to be aware of the risks badly placed bees can pose to others.

 

I'm not trying to sound negative or off-putting; beekeeping is a brilliant hobby, IF you have some knowledge.

[Toots]

for my 2p worth,

 

yes keeping bees in the garden is possible, with the right temprement bes won't bother anyone. I have a hive at the bottom of the garden that you can walk r fet from and the bees still don't take much notice of me! That said the temprement can change very quickly. I have a farm where i keep another hive. If the garden bees did change they would be shipped out sharpish.

 

the hive temprement can be due to many things like chickenanne said. Even though there is a risk i love having them in the garden and would probably move more in there if i had to move these ones out!

[Daphne]

I'd echo all that has been said about if you decide to go for it then get some training. I've personally found beekeeping far harder than chicken keeping and after just 1 year with a hive (and now two), I feel the more you know about it the more you realise how responsible you have to be with regard to possible (albeit unlikely) consequences.

 

For me, bees have been extremely interesting in terms of their behaviour as a group, subsuming the individual. I still get excited when we inspect a hive and find them all quietly going about their daily bee business....with no dramas and ideally making me some honey as well as for themselves! The flip side (for me) is the worry when they are being bolshy or doing things you need to manage - they are wild creatures after all

 

If you are in 2 minds, maybe go to a taster course if you can find one. But deep down if you aren't pretty motivated I think I might stick to visiting a local beekeeper for some local honey once in a while! I don't think beekeeping is either easy or for everyone - but thats just my personal view.

[AJuff]

I too have considered keping bees and have lots of doubts too. I went on a bee keeping course last summer and decided yes i would get some and then changed my mind. As I'm still not sure I went over the top to plant bee friendly plants and flowers. I am thrilled to say the local bees here love my flowers. The beekeeping course i went on gave us some seeds so i grew Vipers Buglos I think it was called. The bees have found it and come back .. it is swarming with lovely little honey bees.

[v8landy]

Hi Ajuff

 

I have to say its nice to see that you weighed up all the options and then decided bees where not for you, rather than rushing out and getting all the kit and bees and the loosing them or worse.

 

I keep poulty, pigs and bees and bees are the most demanding on so many levels.

 

But keep planting the bee plants and enjoy them in other ways.

[beesontoast]

So, my stupid questions:

All the hives look fairly big. Is it possible to just have something like a 30cm cube?

Does a smaller hive mean smaller swarms?

Am i going to be able to still sit in the garden?

Are they going to bother the neighbours or the dogs?

Will my chickens eat all the bees?

Could the hive be underground with a lid on the surface?

Are they genuinely worth having?

 

 

You won't keep bees in a 30cm cube for long. A smaller hive means lots of swarming - they will run out of room quicker - and most likely they will abscond if you try to put them into a box that small.

 

If your bees are of good temperament, you will be able to sit near them. There are no guaranttes, though, as queens are superseded and the new queen mates with whatever drones she can find. Ditto with neighbours and dogs.

 

Chickens may eat bees they find on the ground. Not necessarily a bad thing, as they will remove any diseased bees that cannot fly. When we get Small Hive Beetle in the UK, they will be very useful for interrupting their breeding cycle, as part of it takes place in the sopil around hives. If you have chickens, keep your hives well off the ground, as they may eat them off the landing board.

 

No, you cannot keep honeybees underground! Why on earth would you want to?

 

Only you can judge if they are worth having for you. However, I have yet to meet a beekeeper who thought they were not.

 

I suggest you think about having a top bar hive rather than a conventional framed hive - less to buy, less to do, no heavy lifting and more compatible with chickens!

[OXFORDBEE]

If your bees are of good temperament, you will be able to sit near them.

 

This generally true. However, temperament is relative to the bees; forage and also time of year. Bees can be absolutely wonderful before the oilseed rape is in flower. If they are working oilseed rape then they can become absoulte devils!

 

You also need to be aware that in July bees can become quite defensive (there's no nectar and there can be lots of foragers ready to defend the hive). This is quite different to say mid April when most of the bees are young and the colony behaviour is completely different.

 

You also need to be aware that the hive location can modify colony behaviour. There is a saying "Bees in a wood never do any good" and this is somewhat true. I've found that bees in a copse can be much more time consuming to inspect as they require more time to keep under control.

 

You seem to have a decent sized garden which is a plus but you do need to think of your neighbours when siting your hive. Bees are much easier to move than neighbours and if you have a field at the back of the garden why not put them in the field if you can?

[troyca]

I had bees before I had chickens. Bees are more worry than work as they are always doing something unexpected. It isn't a case of set up and forget! I have recently moved my bees into my back garden from a nearby garden where I trialed having them. The first two seasons were pretty straight forward so I moved them closer. The problems then began of course but bee keeping is a huge and enjoyable learning curve and bees,as any bee keeper will tell you,don't read the books. You have to be on the ball and don't take anything for granted. Things in a hive change, and with it bee attitude-possilbly the most important element of keeping bees for pleasure ,not profit.If you know how to keep a queen of good temperament in residence then all should be well if you let any old queen take over you could be in for a rough ride. Bee Keeping is not a passive past time in the active season. It is facinating and the honey you get -if you get any- is the sweetest reward for your effort. In Bee keeping there s no such thing as a stupid question!