A man went into a pet shop and said, "I'd like to buy a bee please."

The shop keeper replied," I'm sorry, sir, we don't sell bees."

To which the customer said, "Well you've got one in the window."

"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

"mark" wrote in message
...

"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?




I got stung by a bee yesterday. £3.50 for a jar of honey!

That was cheap! Local honey here sells for at least £4.50. Was this imported
honey - 'produce of several countries'?

Phil

Phil Gurr wrote:


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.

Many thanks for that, Phil. Most informative and interesting!

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.

May I ask, the far north of where?

I think I might investigate the option that Sacha mentioned. Do you have
any information on that, please?

"Ophelia" wrote in message
...
Phil Gurr wrote:


As a beekeeper, I am very aware of the dramatic loss of bees in the
UK.

snip

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.

May I ask, the far north of where?

I think I might investigate the option that Sacha mentioned. Do you have
any information on that, please?

The far north of the UK, 40 miles north of Inverness. Sorry, I don't have
any specific information about Bumblebees, but you can glean a lot from
Google

Phil

Phil Gurr wrote:
The far north of the UK, 40 miles north of Inverness. Sorry, I don't
have any specific information about Bumblebees, but you can glean a
lot from Google

Thanks very much, Phil I will have a wee search

ps I know Inverness We used to live in Aviemore.

On 2009-08-05 11:22:22 +0100, Martin said:

On Wed, 5 Aug 2009 11:19:15 +0100, Sacha wrote:

On 2009-08-05 10:26:56 +0100, "mark" said:


"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?




I got stung by a bee yesterday. £3.50 for a jar of honey!

mark

Natural antibiotics and nourishment all for £3.50 - what more could one
ask for. ;-)

Ambrosia?

Only if you have a tin opener.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
Shrubs & perennials. Tender & exotics.
South Devon

"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

"Martin" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 5 Aug 2009 07:55:26 +0100, "Ophelia"
wrote:

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?

Put the Beehaus next to the Egloo?
--


Don't start me on Eglus. They are far too small to keep chickens in, and
they are plastic which often gives the hens unfortunate enough to live in
them respiratory problems.
If anyone would like keep a few chickens, buy yourself a 6x4 garden shed,
lay some second hand paving slabs in front of it and construct a run made of
at least 2 x 2 timber on top of the slabs, attach weldmesh to this (chicken
wire will not do) and put a roof of cheap corrugated sheets on top of the
run.
You now have a fox-proof place, much larger than an Eglu for no more money.

I've noted that the Beehaus comes from the same manufacturers.

I hate this new idea that everyone can keep chickens in the tiniest of
gardens with an Eglu - and now it seems to be extending to bees.

Tina

"moghouse" wrote in message
...
A man went into a pet shop and said, "I'd like to buy a bee please."

The shop keeper replied," I'm sorry, sir, we don't sell bees."

To which the customer said, "Well you've got one in the window."

LOL!

Reminds me of when my bee-keeping German friend was staying with me. We
were shopping and she saw a bee trying to get out of an estate agents shop
window. She went inside and said "have you noticed the bee in your window?"
The staff said they hadn't, so she asked "would you mind if I caught her,
and let her go?" They agreed to it and she flew away.
I think they thought my friend was mad.

Christina Websell wrote:
"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.

Yes, I think perhaps one needs to be very experienced to keep honey bees.
As Phil said, it would better to learn from another beekeeper for a couple
of years before one gets one own hive.

I am very interested in Sacha's comment, about having a 'hive' for bumble
bees. Have you heard anything about those?

On 2009-08-05 17:09:43 +0100, Martin said:

On Wed, 5 Aug 2009 17:07:09 +0100, Sacha wrote:

On 2009-08-05 11:22:22 +0100, Martin said:

On Wed, 5 Aug 2009 11:19:15 +0100, Sacha wrote:

On 2009-08-05 10:26:56 +0100, "mark" said:


"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?




I got stung by a bee yesterday. £3.50 for a jar of honey!

mark

Natural antibiotics and nourishment all for £3.50 - what more could one
ask for. ;-)

Ambrosia?

Only if you have a tin opener.

A rusty one on a knife that has a thingy for getting stones out of horses
hooves?

No, one that gets boy scouts out of horses' hooves.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
Shrubs & perennials. Tender & exotics.
South Devon

In article ,
Christina Websell wrote:

I hate this new idea that everyone can keep chickens in the tiniest of
gardens with an Eglu - and now it seems to be extending to bees.

Bees don't suffer from being crowded - chickens do, badly. There
isn't anything wrong with keeping bees on an urban balcony, but
beekeeping isn't something to just jump into.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 2009-08-05 18:17:45 +0100, "Ophelia" said:

Christina Websell wrote:
"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.

Yes, I think perhaps one needs to be very experienced to keep honey bees.
As Phil said, it would better to learn from another beekeeper for a couple
of years before one gets one own hive.

I am very interested in Sacha's comment, about having a 'hive' for bumble
bees. Have you heard anything about those?

http://www.bumblebeeconservation.org.uk/nest_boxes.htm
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
Shrubs & perennials. Tender & exotics.
South Devon

In message , Sacha
wrote
On 2009-08-05 07:55:26 +0100, "Ophelia" said:

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?

You can buy bee boxes for bumble bees and put them up as instructed.
It doesn't have to be a honey bee colony. Three species of bumble bees
are now extinct. ;-(

And then there is the red or blue mason bee. I have 200 tubes (800 to
1000 bees) of these waiting until next spring.
http://www.admac.myzen.co.uk/bee/
http://www.buckingham-nurseries.co.uk/acatalog/Mason_Bee_FAQ.html

--
Alan
news2009 {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk