The Secret Bee Garden
Part Two
Having no place close to home for my bees, I started to think outside of the box...
I moved into a new flat and missed having my bees nearby. Then I noticed a piece of 'no-man's land' next to my new home, so I made myself a secret door in the fence and started working on a secret bee garden.
This is my story!
The Secret Bee Garden Blog...
About
Having moved into a small flat with no garden, I was missing having bees close to home. I tried asking around local places for an area to use as an out-apiary but nothing came about. I then spied a bit of what I shall call "no man's land" - an overgrown, unkept area secluded from passers by. I tried locating an owner but drew a blank, so opted to put an empty hive on it and see if anyone complained. No one did. Yet!
The swarm
Having prepared the secret bee garden, I was lucky enough to collect a swarm of bees that needed a new home...
The other swarm
I then received a call from an old beekeeper who had two swarms he needed to re-home. I glady took one (a beekeeping friend took the other) and moved the bees into their new home.
Flow frames
Back in the early part of 2015 Flow hives and frames were beinglaunched. It was an invention for getting honey from the hive with minimal disturbance to the bees. I took a chance and paid my money, even though production wouldn't be until the sept of 2015. I bought some flow frames at the time more for the fun of it as I already had bee hives and a honey extraction system, but - now living in a flat - they actually would be useful.
Honey
If and when bees from the secret bee garden start producing enough honey for me to remove (approx 2017) it'll all be untouched by human hands as such, or last touched by the bees, as honey from flow frames goes straight into the jar after turning a tap, completely unfiltered, therefore containing some pollens which are beneficial for hay fever sufferers. I'll also be producing comb honey in ross rounds, again last touched by the bees.
Legalities
I know nothing about the law, and some might see what I'm doing as wrong, but keeping bees is addictive and once you become a beekeeper, it's hard not to want bees around you. As for the area I'm keeping them in, maybe I could be done for dumping (?) as I've put some wooden boxes there. Remember we don't own the bees, purely provide them an area/box to live in, so I'm not keeping livestock there as such. I'm not suggesting anyone else should do this; in my case, it was more a case of 'needs must'.
The next stage
My next project will be to clear a little more of this area and maybe push forward around 3m - just like a little path to nowhere. At the end I will position a national hybrid hive on around three wooden pallets. Hopefully I'll get another swarm this year that I can place there; this colony would then be built up to produce 'Ross Rounds' comb next year.