Why keep bees?

Beekeepers are a diverse lot too, but united in their love of bees and their friendliness to newcomers to the craft. You are assured of a welcome at any of our meetings, and of all the assistance you could wish for as a beginner. Together with friendship and practical guidance, we will also provide you with training to equip you to take a national beekeeping qualification, should you wish to.

Commitments involved when starting beekeeping

What does it mean to be a beekeeper?
Beekeeping is not just about having a hive at the bottom of the garden and collecting some honey once or twice a year. If you intend to keep bees there is a significant time commitment. Before taking up beekeeping you need to arrange for theoretical and practical training in beekeeping, preferably through a local Beekeepers’ Association. Training usually involves a course of lectures and practical sessions in an Association Apiary or with an established beekeeper.

When you have honey bees, you become an owner of livestock, with the responsibilities that brings – to the bees and to your neighbours:

• To keep the bees healthy you must practise good animal husbandry.
• To prevent annoyance to neighbours you must try to stop the bees from swarming.

Honey bees are a threatened species (honey bee numbers have been in decline). Bees are subject to attack from pests in the form of mites, and diseases, some of which are notifiable to the Food and Environment Research Agency (FERA) and require the attendance of a FERA Bee Inspector, after which the bees may be quarantined.

Being a beekeeper requires a commitment to give time to the bees at least once a week between April and September. There are two main activities during this period. The primary one is examining the bees and their brood to check on health and implement swarm control. The second is to be on the lookout for infestations of mites and diseases and to arrange treatments when necessary.

Throughout the summer the bees will collect and store nectar and periodically additional space has to be provided and processed nectar removed as honey. In the early autumn the bees are likely to need to be fed with sugar syrup to try to ensure there is enough food for the colony to survive to the end of the following March.

There is a financial commitment to becoming a beekeeper. You should be a member of a Beekeepers’ Association and you should have enough hive parts to support at least two colonies of bees (one for the colony and one to cope with swarm control), protective clothing and a variety of tools including a smoker.

The initial year’s set up cost is likely to be in the region of £400 with further costs of up to £600 in the first few years depending on the form of beekeeping you adopt. The recent problems with bees have resulted in beekeepers needing to replace their own stock and the shortage of bees has caused the price of bees to increase to as much as £200 for a nucleus colony.
Look at www.thorne.co.uk for prices of equipment.

Before any of this can be undertaken, it is vital to find a site to keep the hives which is safe, free from the risk of vandalism, and will not allow the bees to annoy neighbours or the general public

The CBKA Beekeeping for Beginners Course is aimed at those who wish to keep bees. The Course is very popular and often becomes oversubscribed. This means that the level of support we try to offer to new beekeepers may not be available as there are not enough experienced volunteer beekeepers in the Association to support everyone. If, having read the outline of what is involved in becoming a beekeeper you decide your main interest is just in finding out more about bees rather than keeping a hive, let us know of your interest and the CBKA will try to arrange a short seminar on bees and beekeeping for those seeking only background knowledge.