Beekeeping Update

I thought it was time for a quick update on our beekeeping plans.

As far as actual beekeeping goes then there isn’t much happening at this time of year, but we’re still busy working on the project for ‘Plan Bee’ in our garden. My Dad has been busy building two hives for us and they should be ready soon. They are National Standard Hives with two supers each, a stand and a nice looking gabled roof. We don’t need them quite yet but all going well then they should be ready and installed in our garen at the beginning of Spring ready to receive some bees of our own.

Unfortunately the bees that we had on loan at the end of last summer didn’t do too well. There was very little forage around for them at that time of year and when they went back to their owner they didn’t have much in the way of stores. They were then fed, but unfortunately the colony perished in the cold weather before Christmas. Obviously this isn’t particularly encouraging, but not all colonies make it through the winter, and such things are all part of bee-keeping. Hopefully this was just a bad year and a bad set of circumstances for this colony rather than an indication that our garden isn’t suitable for bees.

We are however beginning to think of contingency plans should this become the case.

We have also been attending a Beginners Beekeeping course run by the Aberystwyth Beekeepers Asscociation (ABKA). These bi-weekly lectures have been really good so far and have provided us with an opportunity to stay in contact with the other local beekeepers over the winter.

The lectures themselves are well presented and informal enough to be enjoyable. I’ve read quite a few books and tend to pick things up well from reading so I haven’t learnt much yet that I didn’t already know, but it’s still good to reinforce the knowledge and good to be on contact with other bee-keepers. It’s also nice to have coffee and cake with them and a bit of a social gathering, and best of all Anna has been coming with me too. It may not be a romantic meal out but it’s actually quite nice going out and doing something together.

We can do an exam at the end of the course if we wish, although it is recommended to have done a year of hands-on beekeeping for real before taking the exam so that’s probably what we’ll do.

The garden doesn’t look too bee-friendly at the moment, but we are having a little bit of winter sunshine today and the daffodils have bravely poked their heads out of the ground, so we’re looking forward to Spring, along with a flsuh of flowers and hopefully some happy bees at the bottom of the garden.

3 Responses

  1. Avatar forComment Author Lesley says:

    Get yourself some of that Himalayan Balsam. Bees love it and it spreads like crazy so not too expensive to keep them happy 🙂

  2. Avatar forComment Author Lesley says:

    They like borage too, which is easy to grow and has very pretty flowers on

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Alan Cole

Alan is a Freelance Website Designer, Sports & Exercise Science Lab Technician and full time Dad & husband with far too many hobbies: Triathlete, Swimming, Cycling, Running, MTBing, Surfing, Windsurfing, SUPing, Gardening, Photography.... The list goes on.