Looking/Offers for a new apiary site

What is needed in an apiary:

Some of this (like shelter for example) can be fixed or put in place if not naturally there of course.

• A sheltered space - a space nicely sheltered from the wind but yet not too shaded or overhung by branches. Open to sunshine from the south would be nice.

• Dry level ground - you don't want the space around the hives to turn into a mud bath. Also, you don't want to be tripping over rocks and hollows while carrying a box full of bees. It doesn't have to be a bowling green to put hives on it... an awkward bit of farm headland could be easily good enough but the hives need to be level and accidents are best avoided.

• Vehicle access - best is to be able to drive right up beside the apiary rather than lugging equipment/hives across fields, otherwise that little knife or spare frame or whatever always seems to be back in the car when you need it.

• Access - the freedom to call in on the hives whenever needed. From about April to September this would be pretty frequent, a minimum of weekly from May through July, sometimes late in the evenings or at the crack of dawn for moving colonies. Over the winter visits would be much less frequent.

• Secure and away from prying eyes - somewhere that they won't draw much attention from light fingers or overly curious teenagers.

• Remote - you can manage your bees well and keep docile strains of bees but they do have their off days for a whole host of reasons, ideally the hives would be far enough away from a regularly used garden/house/yard/footpath that nobody would get stung while the bees are having a bad hair day.

• Safe from animals - you don't want to turn up to discover that a cow has tried to use your hive as a scratching post.


What would be nice to have in an apiary:

• A water source - bees need water, it's easy to provide it and water only dries up at certain times of the year in Ireland so it's not hard to mind, but if there was a river/pond/dripping tap nearby that would be handy.

• Watchful eyes - it's nice to have your hives somewhere that a friendly pair of eyes might notice a problem and give you a call... Hives knocked over... Somebody poking about... A swarm...

• Particularly good forage - forage should be in the "must have" list too but it's hard to find places in Ireland that haven't got some forage. Particularly good forage includes interesting things like acres of heather nearby, or fields of oil seed rape for an early crop but more importantly includes abundance of hedgerows for blackberry and hawthorn, lots of trees. Chestnut, willow, hazel, lime all have different benefits. Lots of urban gardens around can be good too. The most important thing is a range of flowers for forage at different times of the season. Most plants only have a short window in which they bloom and offer nectar and pollen so while, say, willow is good for early pollen, as soon as the catkins are all turning the bees need to be able to turn to something else. Bees will forage over a radius of up to a couple of miles so you don't have to have everything on their doorstep either though.


What a beekeeper can offer you:

• Bees and honey - traditionally a beekeepers rent would be a jar of honey per hive. It's hard to find honey more local than from your own garden/farm.

• Maintenance - the beekeeper would usually look after making sure the area around the apiary is looked after. Grass tidied up etc.

• The use of a spare bee suit - Beekeepers may have a spare suit with them so if you feel like getting a guided tour of the inside of the hive, join in anytime, a spare pair of hands is often useful.

• Insurance - members of FIBKA are covered by third party insurance for their beekeeping activities.


This thread is for "looking and offers" only.
Please post additional requirements to improve the information on this post in another [url="http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057234141]thread started by brianmc[/url]