About Beekeeping
When asking five beekeepers a question about bees or beekeeping you often get five different answers - and all have their reasoning to support them.
However, not one of the answers has ever been confirmed by the bees.
We cannot ask bees a question in a way they understand, nor do we understand what they are telling us.
An element of speculation has historically been part of our knowledge about bees and always will be. Through observation and research our knowledge is evolving over time. What we nowadays know about bees is different to what it was hundred years ago, and in hundred years from now our knowledge about bees will be better again.
It could also be wrong drawing the conclusion that the knowledge of a beekeeper who has kept bees for over fifty years is better, compared with someone who is into it for only a few years. Whilst the practical experience plays an important part, it also depends how much time and effort you invest to update your knowledge, along with an open mind to accept new discoveries made by others.
Last but not least, all answers and advice are influenced by motivation.
A commercial beekeeper with 2,000 beehives has a different perspective on beekeeping, compared to a hobby beekeeper with two hives in the backyard. What is right or important for one beekeeper might not be relevant for another and is not necessarily in the best interest of the bees.
Whatever the motivation is for keeping bees, it can only be sustainable when it has benefits for both, the bees and the beekeeper.
Our motivation is driven by our fascination for these amazing little creatures, interacting with and caring for each of our hives and providing them with a healthy environment in which they can grow and prosper, supporting them with the best of our abilities in their challenge to survive our "modern way of life".
Bees are adaptable - and whatever we do interacting with bees can either help or work against them.
Bees survive despite what we sometimes do to them.
Why keeping Bees?
- Harvesting your own honey from your own backyard, produced by your own bees, is the main reason why many beekeepers find their hobby rewarding.
- Pollinating the fruit trees and vegetables grown in your own garden is probably the second common reason for keeping bees.
- Helping the environment can be another reason. Most of the fruit and vegetables we eat are pollinated by bees. Without bees and their hard work, many crops struggle and some would disappear.
- Many beekeepers find their activity helps them relax from the stress of daily modern life. The slower pace that needs to be adopted when around bees transitions the beekeeper in a much more relaxed space.
- If you want to keep bees to make money you are probably on the wrong track. When you weigh up the time and work involved and the return, please be assured - this is definitely not the best way to make money. So, don't quit your job! Not as yet.
Reasons for not keeping Bees
You should not keep bees:
- when you or someone living with you is allergic to bee stings.
- when you cannot look after your bees when required,
and not just
- when it suits you, or
- you think of it, or
- you feel like it!
Although bees are wild animals and in the wild look after themselves, when kept in urban areas they need to be managed by a knowledgeable beekeeper, practising responsible hive management and swarm control.
It is your obligation as a beekeeper that your bees and hives are managed regularly and responsibly.
Undesirable side effects of unmanaged Hives
- You and your neighbourhood will be blessed every spring and summer with swarms emerging from your unmanaged hives; usually one swarm per hive every year!
- If you are not capturing your swarms in your neighbourhood who is going to bear the cost of having them removed and the potential damage caused ? Imagine the trouble and cost of having bees removed out of the floor cavity between the two levels of a double storey building.
- Keeping bees without providing a reliable source of water forces them to fetch water from your neighbours’ backyard, e.g. a swimming pool, potentially stinging the pool users. What if someone is allergic?
- Potential diseases in unmanaged hives will not be taken care of and might spread to other bee colonies in the area, including native bees.
You cannot call yourself a beekeeper when you don’t manage your hives!
Convincing Your Neighbours
One of the biggest challenges in backyard beekeeping is convincing your neighbours that they are safe even when having a beehive nearby.
Unless your neighbours are fine with your idea of keeping bees nearby, you won't find peace as a beekeeper.
Instead of risking your good relations with your neighbours, following a few rules can establish rapport with your neighbours.
Do not place more than one or two hives in your backyard. The presence of three or more hives on an average suburbian block can draw fire from neighbours who do not understand that bees, unless disturbed, are really very gentle insects.
If you want to take care of more than one or two colonies of honeybees find a suitable large block of land nearby and ask the land owners if you can place a few hives on their property.
In most cases farm owners will agree to your idea because farmers know just how important pollination is to crop production. Your honeybees will be more than welcome to stay on farms.
Beekeeping Rules and Regulations
As a beekeeper you need to be familiar with the rules, regulations and obligations associated with beekeeping. Responsible beekeeping is not simply a matter of hosting bee colonies in hives and putting them in your backyard.
In Victoria you must register as a beekeeper and comply with the Apiary Code of Practice and with the regulations defined in a set of Agriculture Notes, especially AG1100 by Agriculture Victoria.