Starting Beekeeping

I do not yet have bee's but i have done simple research and am planning to go to my local associations next demonstration.

I just have a few questions about beekeeping

1. What is the most effective type of hive with the best features?

2. Is it possible to stop swarming with a second queen excluder on the entrance?

3. What are the disadvantages of having bees in a somewhat small area (i have two possible areas for a hive one is my garden (semi detached house))?

4. How can you stop and prevent diseases/swarming (what would you check for in a hive)?

tindam188

Little experience so will do my best to answer

1. Horses for courses. We all have our own favourites. I suggest you ask round at your local association meeting and go with the majority.

2. You can probably stop the queen getting out ( but she does slim down in preparation to swarm), but you will not have removed their desire to swarm. Better to look into the reasons they want to swarm and correct that - I think the commonest is lack of space.

3. How small is small? Obviously if it is very small you will have little room to manouver round your hives, and be limited in number of hives. Main problem with the garden could be your neighbours. That could be sorted by good liaison and getting the bees to fly up when they leave the hive by having a high fence.

4. In general good apiary hygiene and good management, however the bees will do what they want to do.

Your questions are very general and would take ages to answer in full. I would honestly suggest that you ask at your local association about beginners courses - you may have missed the theory, but practical classes will be starting about now. Also get a good book - the standard text would most likely be " a guide to bees and honey " by Ted Hooper. Personally I find the more reading I do the better.

Plenty of vastly experienced beeks on here and you will likely get more detailed advice - I find the frum very useful.

Enjoy your bees when you get them. It is a fascinating hobby but you will get so much more out of it if you arm yourself with some knowledge

thanks, so would queen excluder at entrance NOT stop swarming?

One of the primary lessons in beekeeping is it is impossible to stop swarming.

The urge to reproduce is a powerful one.

PH

can you not prevent swarming by removing queen cells?

You cannot prevent bees from reproducing and to hope you can is a false hope.

What you can do is to guide them in a direction that satisfies both parties, the bees and the beekeeper.

PH

No. They will more than likely just make more

As PH says above. If they are going to swarm they are going to swarm. You can alleviate their desire to swarm by ensuring they have space etc, but once you see queen cells with larvae in, they have made up their minds.

It is then up to you to try to take control by doing an artifical swarm ( basically splitting them into two hives - several methods), when you get to retain them ( you hope).

PH is quicker at typing than me.

Lol

ph

tindam188 said:

can you not prevent swarming by removing queen cells?

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No, but you can render your hive queenless with no chance of improvement without importation of external queen or eggs (speaking from bitter experience)

tindam188 said:

thanks, so would queen excluder at entrance NOT stop swarming?

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Hi, you might want to try this setup if you are really worried about your bees swarming or you could put a bait hive 400 meters away from your colony. While making sure it is about 1 meter off the ground.

I would recommend that you go to as many of your local associations meetings as you can, until you feel 100% happy with handling bees.

Best of luck

Duncan

Hi, sorry put a queen excluder on top of the brood box too lol

Hi - you are asking very good questions, but they are big topics, to which there really are not simple right answers - you shoudl do as much reading as you can find time for, go to the local association, and you will find there are almost always several different opinions about how to approach a problem (just like on this excellent forum!) In the end I try to get as much background and advice as I can, and then decide for myself.

On your third question about having the bees in a small area, I can speak about my own experience: I had my first hive in my small back garden in Dorking. By placing them carefully so that teh flight lines had to go up over trees and large shrubs, and by planting a trellis of runner beans between the hive and our patio, I found we coexisted surprisingly closely. However there were parts of the garden where it was not sensible to go during the day when they were flying, so for that season my garden became rather rustic. I have since moved them onto a farm site, and to be honest it is much more relaxing even though I have drive for 10 minutes to get there - while doing a full inspection in my garden I was always slightly worried that someone next door might come into their garden and perhaps get caught with a sting. You must get prior agreement from the neighbours.

I have found the local association incredibly valuable - I learnt to handle bees, was able to listen to the views of several master (or very nearly master) beeks, made lots of good contacts.

Good luck - beekeeping is the most absorbing and fascinating craft, I hope you will enjoy it!

sorry about all the questions but:

if you have an empty hive near the swarming hive, would the bees go into it on there own?

... and would removing brood and adding more brood space reduce chances of swarming?

answer... maybe.

Sorry but I seriously suggest some serious reading on your part.

I could sit here for the rest of the night answering questions, but.... there is a trade off, and some work on the part of the questioner is only fair.

I may write a book one day but not tonight.

PH

...plus would killing the old queen before new one hatches help?

again sorry about tonnes of questions

A Guide to Bees and Honey by Ted Hooper will answer all your questions and more.

Are you planning to acquire some bees, and if so where from? - for the first season the answers to some of your questions depend to some extent on whether you are getting a swarm, a nuc, or perhpas buying an full colony, regards Andy

Poly Hive said:

answer... maybe.

Sorry but I seriously suggest some serious reading on your part.

I could sit here for the rest of the night answering questions, but.... there is a trade off, and some work on the part of the questioner is only fair.

I may write a book one day but not tonight.

PH

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Poly Hive, is trying to help you. She is not trying to upset you. There are a lot of good books out there for new beeks. Making it up as you go a long really isn't going to help you, nor is asking big questions when your understanding of beekeeping is very limited at the moment.

Why not borrow a book on beekeeping from the library for FREE.

Duncan

nottingham said:

Hi, sorry put a queen excluder on top of the brood box too lol

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And what are your plans for the incarcerated drones in this set up?