The European honeybee population has declined over the years for a number of reasons: diseases such as foulbrood, parasites such as the varroa mite, excessive exposure to pesticides and colony collapse disorder (Dundee University is currently researching some of these areas). With the increased awareness of the perilous state of affairs and also just how much honeybees contribute to society (it is estimated that a third of the food we eat is pollinated by bees), more and more people are taking up beekeeping as a hobby.
Some choose simply to keep bees and observe and learn from them – their beekeeping is kept small-scale and sustainable with minimal disturbance to the bees. Others like to enjoy the benefits from small-scale beekeeping and share honey with friends and family (ensuring that the bees retain some of their honey stocks for the winter ahead). Apart from honey, other useful hive products include royal jelly and propolis, which are used for nutritional and medicinal purposes, and wax which is used in candlemaking, cosmetics and wood polish. There is of course the commercial side of beekeeping. There are a number of ‘would-be’ beekeepers in Linlithgow, each at different stages of their development.
Bees can be obtained in a number of ways:
You can obtain a ‘nuc’ (ie a nuclear hive). This consists of four or five frames from an existing working hive and includes a queen. The frames also contain honey, pollen, eggs and larva. (Local novice beekeeper Maire started out with a small nucleus of bees and built up her colony over the winter. She now has two hives at the bottom of her garden and benefitted from an excellent beekeeping course run by Dunblane and Stirling Beekeepers Association – see below).
You can get a package of bees. These come in a small screened cages. There is a can of sugar syrup in the cage and a queen in a box. The bees are taken from an existing hive and the queen is bred separately and may not be related to the hive (unlike the nucleus). The package is put in your hive and the bees have to get used to the new queen. If they are fed well and they get on together, the hive will soon establish itself.
You can put your name down on a swarm list. Swarms are used for association members to obtain their first bees and associations generally have ‘swarm coordinators’.
This winter was a particularly harsh one in Scotland and many very experienced beekeepers in Scotland have lost colonies, so many beekeepers are now building up their stocks. In previous years, beginners would have benefited from a supply of nucs (there is a huge demand for Queen rearing at the moment and the supply of queens and bees in the form of nucs is a very hot topic.) The price of bees is also very high and it is recommended not to purchase bees from outside Scotland. The Scottish Beekeepers Association is strongly encouraging its members to only source their bees from within Scotland in order maintain the integrity of the Scottish gene pool and to avoid the introduction of more disease from outside Scotland. Dunblane and Stirling Beekeepers Association have started a Queen-rearing project to help with this and are encouraging the production of nucs and bees within the association, especially for new members.
Becoming a member of a beekeeping association:
Those based in Linlithgow and Falkirk can choose to become members of either the Edinburgh and Midlothian Beekeepers Association or the Dunblane and Stirling Beekeepers Association. Both offer extremely good benefits to the novice beekeeper, not least a readily available network of supportive beekeepers from the local area.
Ideally new beekeepers should be guided by a bee mentor, certainly in their first year as the hobby can be a little daunting at first. Learning from experienced beekeepers is invaluable and the association team up beginners with a local beekeeper / buddy who is available for advice and help.
Dunblane and Stirling Beekeepers Association
This association is very active with meetings held throughout the year – from summer apiary visits (to association members’ hives and the association’s own hives at Stirling University), through to winter lectures by visiting experts in various fields. There are also a number of special events, including a honey picnic, an association dinner and a summer outing.
The association also runs an excellent beginners’ course. This generally runs from January through to April and consists of indoor sessions to learn more about bees, equipment, methods and diseases. There are then opportunities for ‘hands on’ experience at hives belonging to other beekeepers. Members of the association also attend to share their experiences and techniques and to give demonstrations on how to use the equipment. This excellent course ‘The Basics of Beekeeping’ is also available as a download (note this is from the Edinburgh and Midlothian Beekeepers site). For more information contact Peter Hunt via the website.
Edinburgh and Midlothian Beekeepers Association (EMBA)
Membership of the EMBA entitles you to: beekeeping beginners’ classes, examination for beekeeping qualifications, expert beekeeping advice and support on all aspects of beecraft, eligibility for insurance and compensation scheme, a series of winter lectures and importantly a network of beekeepers throughout the Lothian area. For information about beekeeping courses, contact the Education Officer via the website.
The Scottish Beekeepers Association
The Scottish Beekeepers Association is the national body representing Scotland’s beekeepers within the UK, throughout Europe and globally. It is a registered charity, run by volunteers. The association has an excellent library of books, periodicals and archives which is housed in Edinburgh. There are also a number of excellent downloads from subjects as varied as the ‘Scottish Honeybee Health Strategy’ to how to make honey-based drinks.
The British Beekeepers Association
The BBKA works to promote bees and beekeeping and to provide a range of member services to beekeepers in the UK. Most of its members ‘belong’ to the BBKA indirectly. Primarily, they belong to local associations, based mainly on English counties. The website is a useful source of information and has an excellent section for children and teachers -Bees4kids.
Other useful links:
This US site focuses on sustainable, low-impact, low-cost, chemical-free, small-scale, ‘organic’, natural beekeeping, using very simple equipment that you can make at home. They maintain quite rightly that our native ‘black bees’ (Apis mellifera mellifera) have been under tremendous pressure from diseases and modern agri-technology practices and blame man’s activities, in particular the un-natural movement of bees around the world and the ever-increasing use of crop protection chemicals and agents in the food production industries. The effect has been the introduction of disease and pests. The result is devastating effects on the normal bee life-cycles and behaviours, particularly their reproduction and fertility levels, and geographical location abilities, all so essential to their existence.
The health of livestock and honeybees in England
The role of the honeybee in the food chain is so important that in 2007 the National Audit Office collated research working out the value of honeybees to the UK economy. The value of the bees’ services were estimated at £200m a year and the the retail value of what they pollinate was valued closer to £1bn.
The Co-operative Bank has launched Plan Bee to support the UK bee population – with good info links and a couple of videos to watch, plus link to Vanishing of the Bees website, giving info on the film of the same name.
If you’d like to buy local honey, Almond Apiary honey (from Bathgate) is available at both the Millstone health food shop and Pardovan Farm Shop, and Taste café also stock local honey in the deli.
If you’d like to keep bees but don’t have a big enough garden, we know of a couple of local landowners who’d be happy to have some hives on their land – please get in touch via the contact page. If you’ve got some land that you would be happy to have bees on, please also get in touch.
Thornes is a reliable source of beekeeping equipment, with a shop in Fife as well as online ordering
The Bumblebee Conservation Trust are a great source of information on supporting bumblebees, and are based in Stirling