How to keep bees25 January 2012
Ever fancied keeping bees? You'll be helping insects that play a vital role pollinating plants and crops.
Getting started
Keeping bees is wonderful, but you need to know the basics before you start.
Go on a course - your local beekeeping association, city farm or beekeeping business may run courses nearby.
Location
When choosing where to put your hive, sheltered is best. Morning sun is also good. Damp is a problem, so raise the hive up on a stand.
Putting the hive entrance by a wall or fence encourages bees to fly out and up.
Equipment
You'll need:
- A hive - basically a collection of boxes filled with frames of beeswax comb.
- A smoker to pacify your bees.
- A hive tool to open the hive.
- Separate frames.
- A beesuit.
- Beekeeping gloves - washing up gloves are excellent.
- Feet and ankle protection.
- Equipment to harvest your honey and feed your bees.
- Treatment against the varroa mite.
- Budget for about £600 (avoid second-hand equipment).
Buying bees
Honey bee colonies reach about 50,000 in summer, and drop to 10,000 in winter. When you buy them, they will be a colony of around 10,000 in a travelling box with frames of beeswax comb full of eggs, larvae, honey and pollen. This should cost about £200.
Settling them in
Put the box of bees on the stand where the hive will sit, un-tape the entrance and leave for 24 hours.
Now you are ready to move the bees to the hive.
First put on your beesuit. Now:
- Light your smoker, move the box and put the hive in position.
- Gently smoke the box entrance, then remove the frames and gently put them into the hive in the same order.
- Add empty frames of beeswax foundation on either side until the hive's full.
- Replace the inner lid of the hive and pop a feeder through its hole with some sugar dissolved in water.
- Add an empty shallow 'super box', then the roof.
- After a week, do your first hive inspection.
Now you're a beekeeper.
This is an edited extract from an article that first appeared in 'Earthmatters', Friends of the Earth's supporter magazine.
Make a regular donation and you can keep up to date with our campaigns with 3 issues of 'Earthmatters' each year.
'Bees in the City; an urban beekeepers' handbook' by Alison Benjamin and Brian McCallum is available from www.foeshop.co.uk, at £10.99.
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