My First Experience of Beekeeping

by Deb
(England)

A Typical Garden Bee Hive

Hi Jan,

I wanted to do something for our honey bees, knowing they are in trouble with Colony Collapse Disorder.

I asked the beekeeping associations in my area, Staines, England if there was anyone wanting to put their honey bee hives in my garden.

I finally found someone and he brought along a starter hive. The honey bees were very placid and were no trouble at all.

My garden isn’t very big but it was fine for the bees and I loved watching them. They would take off from the hive and immediately fly up and off.

Unfortunately they were attacked by a local wasp nest, which I couldn’t find; otherwise I would have destroyed it.

So later on in the summer I found the bee hive empty, it was very sad.

The bee keeper will bring me a new hive soon and this time I’ll make sure there are no wasp nests around.

My friends are also interested in giving over a part of their garden to a hive so if you have any contacts in the bee world please let me know.

My bee man only covers the Pooley Green area.

Deb

jan's Reply
Don't worry Deb, help is at hand.

Thank you so much for this submission. It is a terrible shame this happened to your bee hive and hopefully the next one will be more productive.

I have contacted somebody who maybe able to help you with your request and will be in touch with you as soon as I have the information you require.

In the meantime have you heard of the Waspinator? this sounds ideal for you or anyone else keeping bees who has the same problem with wasps.

I am providing you with the link here so you can check it out. Copy and paste the whole link into your browser, this site will answer all your questions for you.

http://www.waspinator.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=53&Itemid=77

Please stay in touch and let us know how you get on with your honey bees and hive this year.

Your problem isn't just yours, there are many beekeepers who feel they have to put up with the same problems that you have.

As for the Waspinator, I bought two and hung them at the back and front of my house and wasn't troubled with wasps flying into my house for the whole summer. What a great invention.
Many thanks
Jan