trevorandfiona
New Bee
Hi,
I'm a complete beginner with a keen interest in bees. I would really like to keep a hive or two at the top of my garden. I live in a terraced house and there are other gardens on either side of mine. The area I plan to site the hive is at the very top end of the garden and the neighbours don't go up there often at all.
I have started a bee-keeping course with my local association and, to be honest, came away feeling very dismayed and wondering whether or not to even bother following it up. The chap lecturing was clearly extremely experienced and knowledgeable but I got the impression that he is a commercial keeper (70 hives apparently) and doesn't think much of having bees in a garden. He is probably right, but is it really all that bad?
I want to approach this as a keen gardener and nature lover who would like to keep a colony of bees to study and, if I get some honey out of it, all the better. If they produced no honey at all then I wouldn't be upset!
My questions are these:
Will the bees from one, or perhaps two, hives be a nuisance to my neighbours when I am not actually physically opening the hive (because I can open the hive when they are all at work as I work from home myself).
During the day / evening will the bees be a problem for me (or vice versa) if I am weeding or having my tea 10 ft away from the hive?
I would really appreciate any opinions - if the chap lecturing us was right then that I just something I will have to accept and bee-keeping won't be for me whilst I live where I do. Or maybe it isn't all doom and gloom!
I'm a complete beginner with a keen interest in bees. I would really like to keep a hive or two at the top of my garden. I live in a terraced house and there are other gardens on either side of mine. The area I plan to site the hive is at the very top end of the garden and the neighbours don't go up there often at all.
I have started a bee-keeping course with my local association and, to be honest, came away feeling very dismayed and wondering whether or not to even bother following it up. The chap lecturing was clearly extremely experienced and knowledgeable but I got the impression that he is a commercial keeper (70 hives apparently) and doesn't think much of having bees in a garden. He is probably right, but is it really all that bad?
I want to approach this as a keen gardener and nature lover who would like to keep a colony of bees to study and, if I get some honey out of it, all the better. If they produced no honey at all then I wouldn't be upset!
My questions are these:
Will the bees from one, or perhaps two, hives be a nuisance to my neighbours when I am not actually physically opening the hive (because I can open the hive when they are all at work as I work from home myself).
During the day / evening will the bees be a problem for me (or vice versa) if I am weeding or having my tea 10 ft away from the hive?
I would really appreciate any opinions - if the chap lecturing us was right then that I just something I will have to accept and bee-keeping won't be for me whilst I live where I do. Or maybe it isn't all doom and gloom!