You must consider carefully before
following the path of coarse beekeeping. Its disciples must have the same
dedication and attention to fine detail as those who take up any other
intricate hobby such as piano smashing.
The first steps of the coarse beekeeper
are easy. Your local library will provide you with a copy of one of the many
books written by an experienced beekeeper which will illustrate the equipment
needed and describe in detail the life style of the honey bee. Many experienced
beekeepers feel it is incumbent on them to write such a book.
Do remember to renew you possession of
the book at the library before fines are imposed, that would never do.
The same library may be able to put you
in touch with a local beekeeping association and give you details of their
meetings. You should go to a meeting and introduce yourself as being keen to
learn about the craft. At this stage a demonstration of enthusiasm works
wonders. It might also get you a copy of a beekeeping equipment dealers
catalogue. This will save you having to contact one since none, so far as I
know, have 0800 telephone numbers. Although allowing yourself to enquire
generally about membership and the possibility of free beekeeping classes your
enthusiasm should not allow you to actually pay a subscription.
Reading the catalogue together with the
beginner’s book will immediately convince you that your first pound of honey
could be very expensive indeed. However the coarse beekeeper knows that no
corner must be left uncut in the search for true perfection.
Your occasional attendance at a meeting,
or the hoped for classes, will allow you time to gather up the minimum amount
of such essential equipment that can’t be substituted by other items. A longish
screwdriver and a paint scraper from your toolbox would replace a hive tool. A
suitable length of net curtain worn over a broad brimmed hat and tucked well
into a jacket could well replace safety equipment such as a veil. A more
sophisticated version I have seen is an old fencing mask with further material
sewn around it to prevent access by bees. A replacement for a smoker is more
difficult unless of course you are a smoker yourself in which case a pipe
filled with well rubbed War Horse or a small cigar will suit admirably and yes
I have seen it done.
At association meetings always listen for
mention of old Harry having passed away or old Jimmy packing up because of his
bad back. Here are sources of cheap equipment. Not necessarily good equipment
because old beekeepers are noted for putting up with much loved and familiar
equipment long after it really should have been changed.
Getting bees is relatively simple. Set
out a hive with some used comb in it and wait for a swarm to take up residence.
Success largely depends on how far away you are from the nearest beekeeper and
could take some time or even fail altogether. A more certain way is to inform
local police offices and pest control of officers, both of whom are told of
swarms having landed in a variety of odd spots, that you are prepared to
collect a swarm within a given distance of your home. You should undoubtedly
get you some bees that way. Do have a care to check before your journey that
they are actually a swarm of bees and not an underground bumble bee nest.
We now look at the management of the
bees. It is a fact that the less bees are disturbed by the beekeeper the better
they are for it and the more honey you will be able to gather. Disease in bees
has become an ever-increasing problem over recent years and must be addressed
at all costs. Gone are the days when a coarse beekeeper need only take the roof
off a hive twice a year. Once in the Spring to check that the bees flying in
and out are actually living there and not robbing and to put some supers on and
again in late summer to take off the honey supers. Unless disease is tackled
there is little doubt that you will lose your bees. There is of course the
short term option of requesting the seasonal bees officer visit you to check
your bees. I say “short term” because success in any case depends on what you
tell him and I fancy the man will soon whittle out the over-coarse beekeeper
who is merely using him so learn quickly from him what you will need to do. The
“term” gets very short if you try the old trick of “while you’re in there could
you mark and or clip the queen for me, add or remove supers” etc?
Otherwise management is mainly concerned
with swarm prevention, queen rearing and honey harvesting. Swarm control means
far too many visits to and manipulations of the hive and the colony or fiddling
about with multi gated boards to suit the true coarse beekeeper. If you allow
the bees to swarm in their own time you can save all that work. This also has
the effect that you may well be able to collect the resulting swarm from where
it rests and put it into another of the late Harry’s hives. You will also get a
new queen in your existing hive without the bother of all that troublesome
queen rearing.
This leaves only the honey harvesting.
Although it may be unusual advise for the coarse beekeeper a certain amount of
time spent in the preparation will in the long run save both time and money.
Buy unwired wax for your honey supers it is cheaper. Cut sheets length-wise
into 4 equal strips and t one strip at the top of each frame. Only the most
profligate beekeeper would use more. The bees will form their own cells along
and below these strips. When it comes to harvesting the honey remove the
frames, cut carefully along the joint where the bee made cells meet the
provided foundation. Cut the oblong block of honey filled comb into sizes to
the cut comb containers or old margarine tubs depending on the destination of
the honey. Properly labelled cut comb containers can be sold. That in old
margarine tubs can be used to pay any tradesmen prepared to barter his labour
for your honey. They are out there, I have had roofs mended and cars repaired.
The coarse beekeeper’s preparation of the
bees for winter is to go indoors and forget about them until spring. There is
no need to mention mouse guards because unless the late Harry had them fitted
to the hives when he died the coarse beekeeper is unlikely to own any.
Similarly wasted is the advice not to
brush any snow off the hives because it helps to insulate the colony. It would
never cross the coarse beekeepers mind to do such a thing.
And so the coarse beekeeper’s year ends.
If the advise on the unavoidable disease control has been followed the bees
should survive the winter. They have after all survived several million of them
without the ministrations of “proper beekeepers”.
IAN COPINGER
