I cant offer any advice Bjs but something I've wanted to do too. I'm worried that I would get it wrong and end up killing the poor things, good luck, I'll be interested to see if you go ahead. Imagine how satisfying it would be to do your bit for nature plus the honey too.

Seriously, I would speak to a local bee keeping group. It's keenly supported, and those I have spoken to are only too willing to include new people in their art. Fascinating, and worthy hobby. Honey bee numbers are down after wet summers, and disease, so we need more keepers. The British Beekeepers Assoc. with links to the various stages, is a good start (Google). Worthy

I agree with Worthy ... enquire at your local Library for a local Beekeeping group or society. Good luck with this very worthwhile project.

Hi Brian,
My husband started a bee hive last summer. It's not really time consuming but you do need advice from a professional. There are so many things you need to know. We bought home 17kilos of honey and left about 12kilos in the hive for the bees. The only one that goes near the hive is my husband (one of the tricks is, the one who will be taking care of the hive needs to visit is daily at first) We are still learning....
I hope this helps a little.
Alex
p.s. our honey is delicious.

I've been considering getting a hive so I'm interested to read feedback on here

you've tapped into a gardener's interest's BJ's. Last year we spoke to a local bee-keeper at length as we are seriously keen to make a start with our own bee's. Plenty to learn & plenty of support always available. Let us know how you get on. A bee blog with photo's at different stage's would be superb.

We recently started keeping bees at Standen with lots of help from the local bee-keepers group. Some of the invaluable help that they have provided include removing bee swarms (and returning them in a hive later on) and providing the original colonies (not available on bee-bay!!).
Get in touch with your local group as a first step.
We now have 4 happy hives!

wow im realy interested in being an apurist to excuse my spelling . theres a place in china that has know bees at all and they have to hand polinate all there fruit trees which is all they can grow there and thats a hard enough job . there very unapreciated but without them we would have know us . id be interested to know how you get on to .

Best of luck with this fascinating subject Brian, Go for It!

Looks like GOY has a shortage of Bee keepers,plenty of encouragement but no first hand advise
I live in hope
Brian

I wonder how big a garden you would need. My garden is crammed with flowers which are attractive to bees and butterflies. It occurred to me that there might be lots of people who would provide space and much needed plants for bees but would not want to tend the bees themselves and would be happy for a local beekeeper to do so, if such an idea is practical.

I don't think it matters how big your garden is Penny as bees can travel long distances to collect nectar. A quick google suggest up to 3 miles but they obviously prefer a local shopping trip!

:^)

Well Pennyfarthing, I too thought that there may be lots of people interested in keeping a hive in my garden which is very large onto fields and is opposite a garden centre not to mention all my flowers. I approached the Surrey beekeeping asscociation saying i was very happy to give up a secluded wild area in my garden free which has its own access drive so whoever used it could come and go without causing any problem to us, and they told me there would be no interest! so much for the demise of the bee! well I still get bees here but not as many as there used to be ... but if anyone on the site who lives in surrey and are interested in a free plot it's still available!

such a shame lisa .

Well, Lisa, I am disappointed to hear that. Your garden sounds ideal! Did they give any reason?