Beekeeping as a hobby

No hobby is more fascinating or rewarding than beekeeping and nothing gives greater pleasure than eating one’s own very localised honey . . . honey that tastes as it should!

What better way of complementing your gardening and environmental skills than by becoming a beekeeper.

PLEASE NOTE: Clean protective clothing is required for all outdoor meetings, please ask for advice, the Group can provide some items. This is a precaution against the spread of varroa and disease from one apiary to another.

ALSO: remember when discussing beekeeping with other beekeepers that if you ask 3 beekeepers a question about a problem you are most likely to get at least four solutions, the D&DBKA does not endorse everything that appears on this site or is linked from this site!

Our document "Acquiring Bees" is essential reading and can be accessed here.  

Have you ever wondered how bees make honey?

Did you know that honey bees are a very important part of the pollination process?

Throughout the centuries philosophers and naturalists have unfolded many strange and amazing facts about the bee colony and you may be surprised to learn that such a small creature has awakened so great an interest that more has been written about the bee than any other living creature apart from man himself.

Most current estimates indicate that wild bees in the UK have all but disappeared.  Similar declines in wild bee populations have also occurred world-wide.  Historically, of the 100 or so crops that feed the world, eighty percent were pollinated by wild bees.  This is no longer the case.  The demise of the wild bee population is attributable to habitat loss, pests, diseases and pesticide poisoning.

The honey bee is the major carrier of pollen for seeded fruits and just about anything that grows on a vine.  Which means everything from apples to courgettes, including the fruit and nuts eaten by birds and small mammals, need the help of bees.