Looking to start out

[Wraith]

Right looking for some methods for a beginner, only small numbers at the moment.
which method would you recommend?
Already got Dave Cushmans site favorited, any others worth looking at?
Also any good books worth getting?

[Rosie]

Try this site:

http://rotatingtechnology.co.uk/BEES_PORTAL/beefaqIN.htm

I have not read it for a few years but it used to be very informative.

Rosie

[HJBee]

Thanks Rosie
This website is very informative, seems up to date and has all the info I've gathered so far (and some) in a concise and single place.

[Rosie]

The site is owned by Graham Law. If anyone doesn't know him he's a Scottish exile living in Leicestershire. If you can get him to talk to you about the obs hive he has in his dining room he delivers the best amateur presentation I have ever witnessed. You'll be on the edge of you seats throughout. On top of that you will be able to understand him!

Rosie

[Wraith]

Opps I should of said Queen rearing, related, Apeida's, Nuc's, cups, cell punching etc?? which way should I go??

[Jon]

Top tip - join a group. If you are in with Steve Rose you are off to a good start.
My modus operandi is grafting into queenright cell raisers and transferring queen cells into apideas 24 hours before the queen is due to emerge from the cell. I started several threads in the queen rearing section last summer and there is more stuff in my blog as well if you check back to the posts from last summer.

Roger Patterson, god bless him, will tell you that apideas are too complicated for beginners but that's a load of bull. We provided a group of beginners each one with an apidea full of bees and a virgin queen last July and several of them managed to overwinter the apidea and are now asking what they should do with the queens. This was total beginners with their first experience of bees.

[Rosie]

Geoff Critchley does a good queen rearing course near here but if you come here for a couple of days you can help me and get some experience for nowt. There are loads of books on the subject but they usually make it sound more complicated than it needs to be. There are a few of them on the BIBBA web site but it's best to talk to someone about it first so that the basics can be understood before confusing yourself by reading about over-complicated techniques that the books describe.

Rosie