Introduction

Hello. I started to get interested in Beekeeping several months ago after seeing something on TV about keeping hives. Nature has always interested me but never really considered Beekeeping. In the days that followed I kept thinking it over in my head and as time went by I decided that it could be the hobby for me. Since getting the idea I have been researching as much as possible about as many aspects of Beekeeping as I can. One of the first things I did was ask my father if he'd be interested in helping and he also seemed keen so he got in touch with the people who run the allotment and several weeks or even months later we got the response that it was OK to keep bees on the allotment. I also tried to find my closest Beekeepers club. I managed to find one close to me but couldn't find contact details for them so I found another one that's fairly close and got in touch with one of their members asking about membership and how much it costs and what you get for that. She responded to me very quickly and was very helpful and advised me that they provided a honey extraction room included in membership. I then started looking into buying a hive and bought one from eBay that I believed would be good to start with. I really should have done a little bit more research first as the hive I bought was in OK condition but was a Smith hive so I may have had problems if I later bought a National hive due to different sizes. The hive I bought also didn't have a varroa floor (varroa being the nasty mite that can potentially ruin your hive) again something I should have researched before opening my wallet! Since then I have purchased a National hive that I have built myself which also included my suit, smoker and hive tools!
My objective of this Blog is to put my thoughts and experiences online so hopefully at some point someone may find something useful and also to keep records of what is going on in my hives and for others to pass on their advice!
I look forward to hearing peoples comments.