Frequently asked questions.
Where do I keep my beehive?
In terms of plot, your back garden is the perfect place for keeping bees. Not only does this mean you don’t have to travel far for your beehive maintenance schedule, they will pollinate all your garden flowers to make a colourful backdrop! This will also allow you to witness there habits, which is therapeutic but offers good warning for when there may be problems.
If this isn’t possible, do not worry, most local allotments have spaces for beehives and there are even possibilities to set up hives on other people’s land - land owners can be very keen to help out beekeepers - but make sure you have their permission first!
When setting up your hive location within your plot, the following bullet points should be considered (don’t worry if you can’t tick all the boxes!):
Placed on firm, dry land
Elevated off the ground
Level
Dappled sunlight with an airflow to help regulate temperature
Wind break behind the hive
Southeast-facing will give your bees an early wake up call for foraging
Easily accessible for honey extraction - a frame is heavy once full on honey!
Is it legal to keep bees in your garden?
There are no legal requirements to keeping bees, anybody can do it. There are legal requirements on importing bees from abroad, but if you have gone down the BBKA route this shouldn’t be too much of a worry to you as you will have plenty of local options.
You might be worried what your neighbours will think, but if you have a large garden they may not ever know. In urban areas with tighter space, it just requires a little more thought when planning you beehive location but there are plenty of urban beekeepers. If you make sure the hive entrance isn’t pointed towards any walkways or common areas this reduces collision issues.
You will find that bees work out their flight paths in straight lines from the hive, so if you have your hive entrance facing towards a fence the bees will fly directly upwards to get over it. This means they also go above head height so shouldn’t be irritated by any pesky humans walking across their paths!