"Ophelia" wrote in message
...

"Gopher" wrote in message
...
In message , Ophelia
writes
A report on radio4 this morning, asking people to keep a bee colony in
their
gardens and even on a balcony (for example) for city dwellers. How
practical is this?


There are quite a few instances of this happening in other European
countries although I have not seen it in the UK. I guess it depends on
ease of accessibility to food source. A balcony on a flat in a small
rural town would be somewhat different to that in a high rise block in a
major industrially based city - even allowing for the greater awareness
of the green issue.

There was some mention of a food source, I didn't hear it all. I might
look on 'Listen Again' and see if I get hear it all.

How easy is it to acquire a bee colony, and from whom?

As a beekeeper, I am very aware of the dramatic loss of bees in the UK. It
is certainly true that bees in towns or cities are doing much better. This
is probably due to the variety and abundance of nectar plants in our gardens
and the very low use of insecticides in towns and cities. Bees were hit very
hard 20 or so years ago with the appearance of the varoa mite, which caused
many beekeepers to give up. More recently there have been outbreaks of CCD
(colony colapse disorder), the cause of which is still unknown. Various
theories have been put forward from mobile phone masts to a new virus
originating in Israel - bees are regularly shipped worldwide nowadays so a
virus can be disseminated rapidly. Most of the beekeepers in my area
(northern Scotland) lost all their bees 2 years ago, and have found it
almost impossible to obtain new stock. The only large supplier of bees are
Thornes of Wormit (Tayside) and at the last enquiry the waiting time was 2
years. The cost of a starter colony of bees is in the region of £70 and when
you add to this the cost of the hive components, you have an outlay in the
region of £200. If anyone is interested in keeping bees, they should try and
spend a couple of years helping an established beekeeper to get the hang of
things, before investing in their own bees.

I was without bees for two years due to CCD, but fortunately (and
surprisingly) managed to cature a wild swarm this year and now have bees
again. They are more 'pets' for me as here in the far north we generally
only have a surplus of honey every 3 or 4 years.

Phil