The first sting!

[Plot17B]

would wild bees occupy an empty hive? Is it necessary to 'buy' bees?

speaking from novices point of view!! If you can get a swarm and introduce them, that would be ideal. It would be a lucky hit for the swarm to find the empty hive i reckon (stand to be corrected here).
You can buy bees (nuc) and that is a steady way forward as the colony grows up gradually along with your experience. But a swarm brings in a queen and the colony and assuming they settle well, won't move off somewhere else.
Swarms are free so long as you can source one, but I'd only go for one after I had some real experience of handling them as you'd have to get the swarm into a box to transport to the hive. I've no idea how tricky/easy that would be. The bees swarm after filling up on honey so they are not aggressive, but I suspect some gentle handling techniques would be essential.

Anyone with swarm experience able to advise us novices????
Cheers p17B

[Claire72]

So you couldn't put up a hive, and when one bee finds it, others would come? (like birds to a feeder?)

[Plot17B]

So you couldn't put up a hive, and when one bee finds it, others would come? (like birds to a feeder?)

No, they don't behave like that. Their hive is their home and they return to that specific hive to deliver nectar and manage the brood colony. You can have 5 or 10 hives alongside each other and the bees only return to their own. Very specific.
To adopt a new hive, the colony needs to have their queen and they develop the brood colony. A solitary bee investigating the empty hive would just be passing by, either on the way to the food source or returning home.

[Headfry]

Hi folks, been on hols so have missed out on all the chat!

Some have known their bees to swarm (with a queen)and enter an empty hive close by....what luck! if only it always went like this! normally and in my case they are up a twiggy tree, hanging over a pond, right next to a greenhouse! oh did I forget to mention the brambles- silly me.
Still all is worth it, when you hive them and watch them come and go from your own hive - fantastic feeling.
What good news, I am so glad you are enjoying the course- I loved and miss mine! met a great bunch of people. Yes a National- they are possibly the most popular type of hive now in the UK. easy to get bits for, and easy to work with. Glass quilts - fantastic, just make sure they keep warm in the winter- mine were ok winter just gone, but will put a layer of insulation on this winter - I think?
Its all good fun!

[yoanbob]

we had an empty hive on our plot, it had been empty for 15 years!

[Headfry]

Thats a shame, do you know who it belongs to?