Busy Keeping Bees

Yesterday I attended an introductory course on beekeeping at the Hackney City Farm. The course was was run by LILI (the Low Impact Living Initiative). The course was predominantly aimed at people looking to keep bees for honey production and although I said I was only interest keeping bees to benefit the environment, they were really helpful and enthusiastic, suggesting which type of hive would suite me best and the techniques I'd need to use. It was interesting to learn that honey bees don't need as much help (as they are being managed) as solitary and bumble bees, so I'll be building another insect house and encouraging the weed patch to grow!

The best part of the day was when we got to go up onto the roof to watch Ian, one of the course beekeepers, do a hive inspection. It was a beautiful sunny day and I found it really calming watching and hearing the bees go about their business. I am definitely still keen to have my own hive despite the process being quite a lengthly one, starting with an 8 week course, following a beekeeper for a year and then being mentored for another year. I'm going to look into the 8 week course in the second ha;f of the year and have plenty of resources to look into in the meantime.

The attached picture is of a Western Honey Bee, which are the most common species manged by beekepers in the UK.

LxXx