Starter Bee Keeping Sets?

[Digger-07]

Bumble bees nests are OK. Only the queens overwinter in the relative comfort of a pile of leaves or compost heap. She will start to look for a new nest site soon and begin a colony that only lasts a year.

Bumble bees really do need our help because we are too tidy and clear away any site that they would normally use for a nest. They normally bury into something, I had three different species in the same compost heap last year and had to wait until September before I could be sure they had left home.

[Shortie]

They're really mis-understood too. In our old house there was a tiny hole in the external cavity wall. We only noticed it because our neighbour got all stressed out one day when they saw a bee flying out of it.

Anyway, they were doing no harm and this was about 3 years ago when there were alot of reports about the general decline in bee numbers so I felt pleased to be doing 'my bit'. I know it wasn't a mason bee as it was yellow and black stripey and quite a few would come and go

My neighbours really stressed out about it all the time, I was hillarious. They weren't allergic to their stings so I couldn't see the problem

This is why we want to get a small nest for them. Okay, it's not a lot but we don't have huge gardens in London to accomodate a hive

[Crazy Chickie]

When I first started gardening I used my grass clipping as a mulch on my flower borders (not a good idea by the way), the next spring I noticed that some of the dried grass had formed into a little mound. Curious I took my hoe and carefully lifted off the top to have the whole mound turn into a mass of bees. I went running off into the house incase they were P'ed with me but they wern't too bothered and just rebuilt the mess I'd made of they're home. The bees were very docile and I could weed and garden around their nest without them getting upset. They were a great addition to the garden and made me feel really good about being a messy gardener

[Alice]

Hi Shortie, are you looking for hives to keep honey producing bees, or are you just looking for the kind of bee house for solitary bees, which will just look after themselves. I have bees in many varieties using my garden and find it fascinating to watch them - all sizes and colours, doing things in their own way.

[snakeshack]

c j wildbirdfoods sells mason bee nesting kits from the oxford bee company,bumble bee nests are easily made from a large (10 in) terracotta pot upside down with a piece of slate to cover the hole and a hosepie entrance tube,fill with old birds nest or similar.
If you are looking for a cheap green way to keep honey bees try searching for warre or top bar hives,there are plenty of free to download plans.

[matthew2riches]

I'd (in my head) like to keep bees but in the flesh I am petrified!!

I have seen various hives, new and used on that famous auction website and all the accessories too!

[Mrs Dobby]

Hi Mathew,

We started Beekeeping this year, we've now got 3 hives and are building our 2nd apiary, there's lots of info on the BBKA website and forum, plus some info and piccies on our blog if you want to take a look!

Mr D has a phobia about stinging insects, but he loves getting into the hives and seeing the bees, its cured his phobia!

Be careful about buying 2nd hand, you never know why they are being sold or what happened to the colony that lived in the hive, it could easily be infected with disease such as foul brood, so talk to someone who knows what they are doing, or seek out your local BBKA group to learn a bit before you part with any of your cash! Thornes are one of the best places to buy from online, and they have a January sale, so its worth taking a look at their website (they also do some good value basic starter sets too)

Starting out is not cheap, bee suit, smoker, gloves, hive tool, the hive itself and the bees to go into it can cost you quite a bit, and quality does vary greatly (what looks like a good bargain can turn out not to be up to the job), and for extracting your honey you will need access to an extractor (big spinning thingy), which normally go from £100 upwards for a plastic one to £200+ for a stainless steel one (dont buy anything that isnt food grade, there's a lot of tin plate ones on ebay that are no longer considered safe for food use)

Between the 4 of us that set up our apiary together we recon we've spent the best part of £800 (4 suits and sets of gloves, 2 smokers, 2 hive tools, 3 hives, the 3 colonies of bees, the stainless steel extractor, uncapping knife plus the wood and matting we used to make our apiary), which makes the 8 1/2lb of honey we harvested this year (we didnt take much as we wanted to leave enough to see the colonies through the winter) probably the most expensive honey ever! Lol

But, as we're now pretty well set up, this years harvest from those 3 hives should cover the initial outlay - though with a 2nd bigger apiary under construction and plans to get another 4 or 5 hives this year, we'll probably still only just break even by the end of summer!

I hope you look further into keeping bees, its fascinating, rewarding and really relaxing, you'll be surprised at just how placid, gentle and calm the bees can be!

[matthew2riches]

Thank you for that Mrs Dobby, I'd like to see some locally and then I can see upfront what I would be dealing with

[miffy]

Whilst looking for hen houses i found the beehaus by Omlet.
If you go onto their website it tells you all about it, they give you help setting up the hive and lots of info re bee keeping too.

[BFG]

You can make various bumble and solitary bee homes.

Lots of different sized holes drilled in blocks of wood and bundles of hollow stems (e.g Red Valerian or Bamboo) tied together and hung up will provide egg laying sites for solitary bees.

A buried tea pot with the spout used as an access tunnel is supposed to be good for some types of Bumbles. They like the access tunnel apparently. I made loads of caves/hollows in the rockery surrounding my semi raised pond for bumbles, as well as amphibians.

Some Bumbles nest in grass tussocks and others in muddy banks (mud is also used to plug the holes and stems mentioned above by some bees). Creating natural environments is good if practical.

The best thing you can do for them is to plant loads of nectar and pollen rich plants with a good coverage of the foraging season. If you aim to have at least 3 wildlife friendly things in flower at any time from March to November, there'll be no shortage of bees and other wildlife.

[seasprout]

Make your own Bumble Bee nest sites.

This might be of interest, its from the Bumble Bee Conservation Trust, there's a survey and information on how to make a few different types of nesting boxes and locations for the different species of bee.

Bumblebee nest box trial

[northepaul]

We had miner bees in the back lawn last year. They were so interesting to watch, tiny and docile - because they are stingless, (added bonus for me as I am allergic) they really helped my elder daughter overcome her phobia of insects and taught my younger daughter to respect them.
Hope they come back this year!
We also put a mason bee house in the garden but not sure if anything used it.