"Ophelia" wrote in message
...
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?


IME, not very.
My German friend keeps bees and when I went over to visit her they seemed an
awful lot of trouble to look after. I saw an article in the newpaper today
too, which suggests they take one hour a week to look after. Hah!
Averaged over the year when they are dormant in the winter perhaps!
All that examining the combs to destroy queen cells so they don't swarm,
setting your smoker going to calm them down, dressing up from head to foot.
All that equipment needed to spin the honey out, get the wax, treat them for
varroa mite..etc.
No. I don't think it's very practical, having seen bee-keeping first hand.
It seems to be a very specialist subject.
It's not like you can get a hive, put it on your high rise balcony and then
ignore it, having done your bit for pollination and in some ways that's what
the article suggested - get bees - do good. No mention of how high
maintenance they actually are.
I think it's an irresponsible suggestion, but maybe that's just me.

Tina