A year after moving in and we were constantly exhausted but getting into the lifestyle of all this growing and producing. Having had chickens for a few years the extra space had allowed us to treble our flock and even throw in some quail. So what next?
Our garden wouldn't support a cow and pigs would annoy the neighbours (and us) so we chatted about the next step in our foray into a smaller than smallholding lifestyle and the answer became obvious - bees.
Every book and website on beekeeping that you can possibly find will initially tell you two important things, first - join the local beekeeping group before getting bees so that you can get advice and answers to your questions and second, if you ask three beekeepers a question you should expect five completely different answers because EVERYONE does things differently and often with success.
So choosing to ignore this obviously conflicting advice I did indeed join the local beekeeping group (or 'beeks' group as they are often called) and did get some advice, however as usual I spent a lot of time reading, checking forums and watching web stuff to get my theoretical knowledge and confidence going.
By the time I'd finally got around to making the decision however I'd left it a bit late before organising some bees and with the previous winter being so bad the new nucs of bees were ready much later than usual; it was the start of July before I got hold of them. Typically I'd regretted only organising one colony (most advisors recommend starting with two so you can compare progress) and on the day of collection managed to find myself a second and got to work rapidly putting together an extra hive for them.
I needed to keep an eye on the budget so I opted for plywood hives instead of the traditional cedar, they look the same and after several coats of all weather paint they still look great despite some horrific wind and rain. We built an area for them in the garden and spent some time fencing it off in a rustic, making stuff out of twigs moment so the kids can't climb all over them.
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| our rustic fencing - not the garish colours! |
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| transferring one of the nucs to the hive |
We had a lot of discussion regarding the pros and cons of keeping the hives in the garden as apposed to some local field or other but I'm glad we opted for home. It is so much easier to keep an eye on them when they are on site and having a large garden and aiming the hive entrance in a safe direction has caused no issues whatsoever, actually we've been really surprised how few bees we've seen around the place given that by the end of August we probably had somewhere in the region of 70,000 bees squating across the lawn.
With absolutely no experience of beekeeping other than these last six months I can happily say that both hives seem to be doing well. They have each come on massively in colony size and seem very docile and happy. As far as I can see everything seems to have been working as it should. They even managed to make a decent honey supply despite their extremely short season and late start, we did try some (yum!) but decided not to try pinching anything significant this year in order to give them a better chance over winter.
Right now they have been locked down for the bad weather and while we'll keep an eye on them now and again it is really a case of leaving them to it and awaiting spring.
The kids, particularly the eldest, have been really interested in the beekeeping and have all been to look into the hives. I was quite excited about getting started but even for someone who does not consider themselves an 'anorak' personality I have to admit I was hooked as soon as I first saw the colony doing its stuff. It is amazing to consider the importance that these little chaps (or chapesses mostly) have in the world and just how much a bee colony is such a well organised machine. Curious to note that by doing a pollen dance they are able to describe the exact location of new pollen sources to their friends after miles of navigation by wiggling their bum but if you turn their hive around they can't work out where the entrance is and the colony fails as they all die outside.
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| the children have really got involved |
We'll be posting loads more about these little blokes over the coming season.
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