Beekeeping in the park

[maddydog]

Put some empty hives in and see what happens to them?

Good idea. Find a couple of cheap hives and if there are as many feral colonies as you claim it won't be long before you have free bees.

 

[BMH]

If you look at what it costs for a beekeeper to start up and then multiply it by four (the number of hives you say you will have room for) you could be looking at £3,000 easily, then you have to factor in the bees, which can be fairly costly depending on the time of year you get them and many other factors too. Putting them somewhere so public you may want to multiply that a few times to factor in all the stuff you would need to replace.

I have seen and heard (infact JBM posted a thread a while ago about bees in a park where some local yobbos decided to push them over/knock the roofs off) of vandalism even in secure areas.

I can assure you that everyone on this forum is either a beekeeper and therefore a lover of the stinging little beauties, or at least an aspiring beekeeper who is also a lover of the stinging little beauties.

Many members of this forum have been keeping bees for decades too.

I would personally heed the advice of the knowledgeable people on here.

Me? I wouldn't want to risk my investment or my girls by whacking them in the middle of a common where all and sundry could get at them.

Where on earth did you buy your beekeeping gear? Harrods!!

£3k for 4 beehives seems insane considering you can get a complete poly hive for around £100, frames and wax for £50, bees for £120, jacket, smoker, tools etc say £100 all in. thats £370. say £400. Id say you are out by at least a factor of 2 there.

 

[Millet]

Where on earth did you buy your beekeeping gear? Harrods!!

£3k for 4 beehives seems insane considering you can get a complete poly hive for around £100, frames and wax for £50, bees for £120, jacket, smoker, tools etc say £100 all in. thats £370. say £400. Id say you are out by at least a factor of 2 there.

I have spent around 2k on 3 hives and other equipment that is needed since last May and that price keeps going up..

 

[BMH]

I have spent around 2k on 3 hives and other equipment that is needed since last May and that price keeps going up..

That's just crazy. I have spent around 3k in total and I now have 13 hives and 3 nucs. started off with 2 full colonies at 250 each and a nuc at 150. all splits and caught swarms for increase but bought all equipments. it's all swienty poly so good quality even though it's poly.

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[Millet]

That's just crazy. I have spent around 3k in total and I now have 13 hives and 3 nucs. started off with 2 full colonies at 250 each and a nuc at 150. all splits and caught swarms for increase but bought all equipments. it's all swienty poly so good quality even though it's poly.

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The 3 x new National Ceder hives will have been £500 alone, then there is 3x better quality slotted QX to go on top of them, 2 x bee suits/ smoker / tools and loads of other bits, Oxalic acid vaporizer and other varroa treatment, then there is the honey extraction side of things, extractor /filters / 20litre buckets with honey gates/ refractometer and loads i will have missed out, oh and around 2000 spring bulbs,

 

[BMH]

The 3 x new National Ceder hives will have been £500 alone, then there is 3x better quality slotted QX to go on top of them, 2 x bee suits/ smoker / tools and loads of other bits, Oxalic acid vaporizer and other varroa treatment, then there is the honey extraction side of things, extractor /filters / 20litre buckets with honey gates/ refractometer and loads i will have missed out, oh and around 2000 spring bulbs,

I have all of those things apart from the spring bulbs.

How much is a new cedar hive? I assume you didnt go for seconds?

Everything I buy is seconds apart from the poly bits. Dont know why anyone would buy first quality??

 

[Millet]

I have all of those things apart from the spring bulbs.

How much is a new cedar hive? I assume you didnt go for seconds?

Everything I buy is seconds apart from the poly bits. Dont know why anyone would buy first quality??

£166.66 , , they do vary in price from what i have seen ranging from £120 for pine and upto £280 for ceder.

 

[madasafish]

I must be a mean bastaaard .

 

[Millet]

I must be a mean bastaaard .

I will be having a go at making them myself at some point this year, then i can join the mean bastxxd gang.

 

[BMH]

£166.66 , , they do vary in price from what i have seen ranging from £120 for pine and upto £280 for ceder.

Not that much difference then?

 

[mike_bike_kite]

The optimist in me hopes that a populace starved of access to a variety of nature will embrace this

I'm not sure what Dickensian image you have of London but I get all kinds of wild life in my garden from foxes and squirrels, to parakeets and storks, to frogs and stag beetles. The bigger issue is keeping the wildlife out the house!

I met with a chap from the LBKA today to discuss options on where to place the hives and I think we've settles on quite good spot now. If we surround the proposed site with fencing then this should keep the bees above peoples heads and also hide the hives from miscreants. I asked him about theft of hives and he told me it was moderately rare in London.

We'll probably be taking the cheaper options on hives and may well look at the poly hives. Our aim is to find an experienced mentor in South London who might want to store a couple of hives on our site and then guide the rest of our group on keeping bees. This should allow us to start the whole process next year.

 

[Swarm]

What Stork would that be, then?

 

[Millet]

What Stork would that be, then?

It might be a Crane. , well that is what my lady friend calls Grey Herons she also calls great spotted woodpeckers (kingfishers) lol

 

[Brigsy]

I'm not sure what Dickensian image you have of London but I get all kinds of wild life in my garden from foxes and squirrels, to parakeets and storks, to frogs and stag beetles. The bigger issue is keeping the wildlife out the house!



I met with a chap from the LBKA today to discuss options on where to place the hives and I think we've settles on quite good spot now. If we surround the proposed site with fencing then this should keep the bees above peoples heads and also hide the hives from miscreants. I asked him about theft of hives and he told me it was moderately rare in London.



We'll probably be taking the cheaper options on hives and may well look at the poly hives. Our aim is to find an experienced mentor in South London who might want to store a couple of hives on our site and then guide the rest of our group on keeping bees. This should allow us to start the whole process next year.

I'm a Londoner Sir. It was just a prosaic way of saying I hope people enjoy it.

 

[Brigsy]

And the stork is probably a little egret.

 

[mike_bike_kite]

I've always called them storks but their proper name might well be grey herons. They stand about 3' high and enjoy eating my neighbours fish. I forgot to mention the spotted woodpeckers, I get these as well

 

[Brigsy]

In that case yep, Grey Heron. I thought we were talking more elaborate fauna.

 

[Millet]

I've always called them storks but their proper name might well be grey herons. They stand about 3' high and enjoy eating my neighbours fish. I forgot to mention the spotted woodpeckers, I get these as well

Them Grey Herons are pretty common they stand in the fields where my hive is catching field voles and swallowing them whole, Lesser and Great Spotted Woodpeckers are common too but i am led to believe it's the Green Woodpeckers you need to worry about during the winter months regarding hive damage.
Good luck with your venture.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I'm not sure what Dickensian image you have of London

Hmmm we've already got streets strewn with homeless, children going home to unlit and unheated homes, people going through supermarket bins and queueing up at the modern equivalent of soup kitchens - and whatever we in the provinces have, London always has to have bigger and better so..............................

 

[BeeJayBee]

I met with a chap from the LBKA today to discuss options on where to place the hives and I think we've settles on quite good spot now. If we surround the proposed site with fencing then this should keep the bees above peoples heads and also hide the hives from miscreants. I asked him about theft of hives and he told me it was moderately rare in London.

The other school of thought is that if the hives are highly visible then miscreants would have less time to damage them, and the local community would start to 'own' them because users of the public space would see them and watch what happens, and might even be interested in learning about the bees.