KEEPING BEES

All you need to know about hives and honey

I’m a real ‘wannabee’. I’ve dabbled with the idea of keeping bees for years – from apprenticing with a beekeeper to writing books about pollinators – and yet, realistically, I know I’m not quite ready to take the leap to looking after my own hive. Life is abuzz with work and family at the moment and so, to get the best of both worlds, I rent out a corner of a cherry-lined field to my beekeeping friend and her hives. I get the benefit of her bees pollinating all my fruit and vegetables and, in return, she knows the insects are gorging on pesticide-free flowers and blossom to create the most gloriously fragrant honey. I’ve learned a lot from my beekeeping buddy simply through watching her work calmly around her bees. And, even better, like the tooth fairy, every now and again she quietly leaves a pot of liquid gold on my kitchen window ledge.

GETTING FROM A TO BEE

You don’t need much space to keep bees but what you do need is plenty for them to forage on. Ironically, suburban allotments, rooftop gardens and city-centre parks often provide access to a richer variety of flowers and plants than some of our countryside, with its swathes of mono-culture crops.

Wherever you live, if you want to start beekeeping, go on a course. Not only is the learning curve huge fun but you’ll discover a network of bee-lovers, too. The British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) has a comprehensive list of courses and will also point you in the right direction in terms of kit supplies, equipment for sale and where to find a healthy bee colony. Find out more at bbka.org.uk.

Our bees gorge on pesticide-free flowers to create glorious honey

ACQUIRING ALL THE KIT

Some BBKA local groups have a try-before-you-buy scheme, which lets you borrow a hive and bees for a short period under the supervision of an experienced keeper. If all goes well and you like the process, you can then buy the hive and bees – now nicely settled – directly from the association. In addition, you’ll need a beekeeping suit, plus gloves, smoker and a hive tool.

If you don’t go through the BBKA, National Bee Supplies (beekeeping.co.uk) has starter kits for around £500, which include the hive and clothing. In addition, you’ll need to budget around £250 for a five-frame nucleus of bees and between £150-£500 for a honey extractor. A copy of the now-classic Bees at the Bottom of

the Garden by Alan Campion makes perfect bedtime reading for bee-ginners.

RENTING BEES

If you’ve got a corner of land or garden spare, consider renting it out to a beekeeper. Your local BBKA group will often pair ‘wannabees’ and beekeepers together, or you might be able to arrange something through an online beekeeping or smallholding forum. You could also advertise your land through a community noticeboard or parish council newsletter.

If you live in the city or suburbs, Urban Bees (urbanbees.co.uk) allows you to mark a map with your location and will hopefully match you with a nearby beekeeper. Most contracts between beekeeper and landowner are informal, while ‘rent’ is typically a jar of honey per hive per year. Not all land is suitable for beehives – keepers look for somewhere accessible by vehicle, sunny, sheltered and with lots to forage on locally.

PRODUCING HONEY AND WAX

Beekeepers rely on the fact that bees tend to produce more honey than they need. To get through the winter, honeybees make and store between 10kg-30kg in the hive, but need only about 10kg to survive. The skill of the beekeeper is to know how much honey to take and, crucially, how much to leave to keep the colony happy.

If you want to sell your honey, there are a number of rules and regulations you’ll need to abide by, including UK food safety legislation and honey labelling. The British Beekeepers Association has an excellent guide to both at bbka.org.uk/beekeepinglegislation. Beeswax is also a useful by-product of the process and, kilo for kilo, is actually more valuable. Find free introductory courses on all aspects of beekeeping, including Harvesting Honey and An Introduction to Extracting Beeswax, at perfectbee.com.