Yummy yummy - I want honey in my tummy.

[isthatporridgeinyourzone]

Beekeepers! I know there's at least one out there (yes, I'm talking to you Humphrey Cobbler). Please tell me how difficult it is to keep bees and where do I start?

Its not difficult, just contact your local society and join a course.

There you can also get equipment at a discount sometimes.

Alternatively, put a hive out and wait for a swarm to arrive!

You can also "adopt" a beehive. here

Do you have bees meltedmars? If so is it huge amounts of work? What are the main tasks?

No I don't but mum did.

Its about an hour a month, she says (she's trying to persuade me, can you tell?).

You have to keep an eye on what they're doing, feed them when you remove honey, maintain the colony,...

Are you brave enough?

Ooh yes, I'm well hard me. I mumsnet after all . Are you not tempted?

Might be...

Tell me why.

I've got bees. It is DEFINITELY more than an hour a month I would say more like an hour a week, if you've got problems with your bees even more than that, plus more if you just want to sit there and watch them go in and out carrying their pollen.

I went on a Beekeeping Appreciation Day where they did a bit of theory and took you to some hives, and then the following year did the Practitioner's course which was an evening a week for 6 weeks and then about another evening a week for the next 6 weeks in the Branch apiary actually manipulating some bees.

Now had my own colony of bees for a year and I am now working towards what they call the Basic Assessment, which is kind of like a driving licence for beekeeping i.e. basic level of competence.

It can be extremely rewarding, hopefully you get some honey, and I love knowing that I'm doing my bit to help bees survive but I would strongly recommend getting yourself on a 'trial' day from your local BKA - as you might like the idea but when you've got 10,000 bees a few inches from your face you need to know if it's going to freak you out or not.

The other aspect is that your initial outlay can easily be a few hundred £ - a starter colony of bees can easily cost £150, plus there's your hive (£100 at least) and bee suit (£40-50 at least) and tools (£30-40), so you need to (a) be sure you want to do it and (b) commit to learning how to look after them as a swarm going AWOL can be a pain in the ass as well as an expensive mistake.

I could ramble on for ages but if there's anything you wanted to know please shout

YOu can also look at www.britishbee.org as they've got some advice for beginners.

That's really helpful Whoami. I've been in touch with the local BKA and will follow up on your suggestions.

Can I just ask - what kind of housekeeping do you need to do on a weekly basis then?

Porridge honestly my local BKA have been just brilliant, when I first joined I thought they were all a load of snooty middle class retired gentlemen who dismissed me as a silly young girl (I'm 35) but they have bent over backwards to help and have been totally fantastic!

Some people do just leave their bees to it and that is fine - and there is a strong logic in the fact that every time you open the hive it stresses the bees, and should therefore only be done if there is a genuine need to.

Unfortunately since we had our bees we have had lots of problems with the bees becoming queenless and a bit aggressive - and so have needed to open the hive a lot to check for things like, is the colony settling in, is there a queen, if there isn't looking for signs that the bees are growing a new one, any eggs or larvae, are they storing their own supplies, watching out for signs that the bees are going to swarm and if they might then taking action to prevent it, checking for signs of disease and treating the bees to prevent disease ... so some weeks in the summer we have been doing something bee-related a couple of evenings a week. We never got any honey last year as our colony was too small, and then some wasps got in the hive and killed them all and ate any scraps of honey still remaining so we had to start over again.

Last Friday we spent a whole evening moving our hive from one location to another - we got kicked out of the allotment as our bees were pestering people

I suppose on reflection that balances out over the winter though when you do very little? And maybe if we had 'easy' bees then it would be less.

Sounds bloody fascinating Whoiam. Thanks for that.

I felt the same about my chickens - though the local Poultry Club would be unwelcoming but they were great. Also had loads of trouble the first year then very little since. I'm hoping that your bee troubles are behind you!

Many thanks for all your advice - can I impose on you again as I find out more?

Oh yeah it's fantastic and I am in total awe of how amazing the bees are - my 'girls' are great! I keep hens too. Omlet have a very good beekeeping for beginners forum - although don't think so much of their hive, the Beehaus

Please do, 'impose' all you like! You may regret it when you find I don't shut up