Natural Beekeeping International Forum

[Oneeye]

Hi all ... I was wondering if there is any local bee keepers around Telford that would be willing to help me out with my first year bee keeping !

If so please get in touch many thanks Sam

[Oneeye]

??? Anyone ???

[Barbara]

Hi Sam and welcome.

Unfortunately I'm not near enough to offer support but I didn't want you to despair of getting a response to your first post. Hopefully, someone local will pick up on this soon or you could use the search facility at the top of the page (under the "Natural Beekeeping Forum" heading). I would suggest putting Telford or perhaps local county names in the search field to see if you can find someone local and then send them a Private Message (PM).

Good luck getting a response, but if not there are plenty of us at the end of a keyboard to offer support and advice.

Best wishes

Barbara

[semiautonomous]

Hi Sam! Sorry I haven't been on here much recently. I'm no way near experienced enough to be a mentor, I just started beekeeping last year, but i'm happy to give any support I can. I currently have two htbhs and all three of my colonies managed to survive the winter in good shape. Not that I think I had much to do with that :-p. Do you have any bees yet?

[Oneeye]

Thank you Barbara I'm sure I will have plenty of questions as this will be my first year of bee keeping ! I'm trying to do as much reading and utube as possible I've looked at doing a starter course but I think there fully booked at the BKA local to me and it don't help as I don't drive due to only having 1 eye if you haven't guessed by the user name lol !

Semiautonomous ,,, thanks for your reply also . I am due to pick up a full colony tomorrow evening that comes with hive bees and basic tools smoker bee suit ect and I have another pre ordered due in about 5 weeks from bs honey bees ! I've sort of jumped into it head first I paid the deposit witch gave me a couple of months to get to grips with the basic's then I see a full set up for sale at a good price and thought why not after reading it's better to have 2 hives as a strong hive can help the weaker hive out if needed !

I was wanting some one to just check the hive over an just make sure every thing is in order when they have settled ! I don't mind paying for the fuel ect just want to make sure the bees are getting every thing they need !

Thanks again
Sam

[andy pearce]

Sam,
sorry, I am not in Shropshire enough at the moment to be a mentor. When I am at my apiary it is usually at short notice and at this time of year, and weather dependent.

I assume from your post that you have bought a basic national hive kit and some bees from a bee supplier. Shropshire beekeepers (SBKA) will run courses and usually evening handling sessions at Radbrook College Shrewsbury, this may have changed as I left SBKA some years ago. This is a train and bus ride for a non driver unless you find someone to take you. It all depends on what you want. Over here we use all sorts of hives for all sorts of reasons but with a balanced ethos on the whole. It is generally the bees not the honey, less interference and so called manipulations and letting the bees do things they do as part of their life cycle rather than interfering with those processes. This is generally not the way of the other beekeepers where honey may be the object and lots of fiddling about to make that happen.

It all depends on what you want, where you want to take it and why you want bees, but the SBKA will tell you about bees and let you handle them, then you can make your own mind up. When I left it was solely National hives and nothing else, all others were dismissed as rubbish. I know some members are running top bars and maybe the odd Warre so things maybe changing. Even though I left over the pesticides issues, they ran a useful basic course and re acquainting at the handling sessions was useful. The National Hive is a bee keepers hive, designed for access and fiddling about. There are other hives and other methods.
A

[Oneeye]

Yes Andy both hives are British standard nationals the hive I'm picking up this evening is a over wintered colony already in the hive so it's just a matter of picking them up !

The pre ordered hive is this years colony comes in just a bs brood box on 8 / 9 frames with mess floor c/b roof, so I've bought a hive off eBay to add to it and build it up !