FRAGILE PLANET BEEKEEPING SUPPLIES

You’ve bought all the right beekeeping equipment and settled your hive down for the winter with a nice warm hive covering and various health treatments, but what can you do in your garden to make sure spring will see a healthy environment for your bees and any wild honeybees in the area?

1.    Turn the soil in beds and compost
Avoiding waterlogged or frozen areas, turn your beds and planting earth a few times over the winter and apply some compost or manure. You’ll have lovely fertile ground to grow on once the leaves are back on the trees!
2.    Order your bees!
Keeping bees is a real seasonal hobby. It can help you get wonderfully in tune with the natural world around you in a way that something like dog or cat ownership could rarely accomplish. The best time to order bees is usually late winter (January-February) because it means you’re likely guaranteed a good post-winter stock of hardy bees. It also gives them the maximum amount of time to establish their colony in your garden before the next winter arrives.
3.    Plan the right planting for your soil
We wrote a blog in August about which bee-friendly blooms are best for various types of soil. The blog was titled “Which Bee-Friendly Blooms Are Best for Your Soil?” and included lots of nice succinct explanations on how to identify your soil type and choose the most promising plants for the honeybee.
We love planning new garden spaces in the winter because it mostly involves reading books and magazines over a cup of hot chocolate indoors! The winter is a great time to make an annual planting schedule and list of bee supplies you’re going to need over the coming year.
4.    Prune, prune, prune!
Next year, you want plenty of blooms for your bees and visiting bees to enjoy. Be sure to prune fragile plants like rose bushes to make sure the troublesome winter winds don’t damage the roots. You also need to cut back perennials to ground level to make room for spring shoots.  Wisteria is a real favourite of the honeybee, so cut back in January to encourage bushy blooms.
5.    Encourage winter wildlife in your garden
It’s not just bees that need a little help in the winter months. Your garden can be a haven for all kinds of creatures. Hanging balls of lard and seed can help winter birds make it through to the opulent spring, and making sure there are a few flowering winter plants could help the odd travelling non-hibernating bee! Winter flowering pansies, heather, winter aconite, snowdrops, sarcococca confusa (also known as Christmas Box) and mahonia x media (Winter Sun) are all fine choices for making sure early risers and non-hibernating bees have a healthy food source nearby.

Self-sufficiency and living an eco-friendly life are pretty standard news items, these days, The rise in popularity of things like urban beekeeping (British Beekeepers Association Memberships are rising by about 25% each year) means the market for environmentally ethical urban hobbies is blossoming here in the UK.
So, you’ve bought your beekeeping equipment and welcomed a hive of Buckfast honeybees, what else can you do to live the good, green life in urban Britain?

Urban Chickens
Just like bees, you get to enjoy the fruits of your labour with managing chickens. Rising supermarket prices and the popularity of self-sufficiency mean more folks than in a long while are looking to urban hen ownership to supplement their pantries.
You wont need bee suits, but you will need to check with your local council that chicken ownership is permitted at your residence. Even if you own your home, some properties are not permitted to keep certain animals (the same goes for beekeeping)
If you are lucky enough to be allowed chickens, there are plenty of great coops out there designed specifically for the space-constrained urban environment. Unlike cockerels, hens tend to be quiet and not very territorial, making them perfect for rooftops, backyards and small gardens.

Organic Gardening
According to a new trend of organic urban gardeners, you don’t need a palatial plot to grow your own veggies and do your bit for green living. Here are three common ways to go about your new hobby.

1.    Look for alternative spaces
If you don’t have the way but definitely have the will to grow your own, look into things like allotments, rental gardens, community gardens, roof gardening and – for the sneakily inclined – even unused park beds and green spaces. Rooftop gardens in particular are becoming incredibly popular, with eco architects citing them as a hugely influential and crucial part of future sustainable housing design in cities.
2.    Grow in your windowsills or indoors
Sunny windowsills are ideal for things like growing herbs and tomato plants. There are plenty of vegetables that require nice warm temperatures to grow, so why not make use of your house as a greenhouse to grow things like lettuce, tropical fruit, tomatoes and heaps of other delicious sprouts!
3.    Micro-garden
Think of it as being a bit like bonsai for vegetables! It’s not the type of plant that makes it micro, but the stage at which you harvest (between the spouts and formations of the leaves). For example, you can grow micro herbs for garnishing soups and salads. Micro greens are very desirable, so you could find yourself with some real gourmet ingredients on your hands.

Living the eco-good life is about adapting your way of life, whether it be in the city, the country or even at sea, to suit your environmental ethics.

Beekeeping can play a fantastically rewarding role in your new lifestyle, so feel free to ask us any questions about keeping honeybees in your environment.

Bees are a vital link in the natural chain, so how can we encourage kids to take in interest?

Education and Enjoyment
Did you know a third of the food we eat is the result of pollination by bees. Without the humble bee, we’d be without apples, cucumber, cotton and cabbages!
Back in September 2011, CBBC’s Newsround covered a superb initiative at a UK elementary school where kids were learning the ins and outs of beekeeping. What’s a hive mind? How is honey collected?  How can bees help you relax in class? The aim of the project was to give children confidence around natural elements that are a) dwindling in the UK, and b) typically thought of as a bit scary. It’s that kind of initiative that gives us a buzz!
The society of the bee and its place in our own natural world can offer a superb chance for education combined with enjoyment. The world of the bee can provide an insight into a micro-society that includes things like the controversial role of the worker bee (e.g. ‘should human society assign “queen bee” and “worker bee” roles?’ and other such debate starters).

Beekeeping Supplies UK
The UK honeybee is a unique creature, and we’re happy to say our bee equipment is specially designed for a life with the humble UK honeybee. Using equipment designed for kids is essential for reasons of safety, and we carry a great range of bee suits and related essentials to make it as easy as possible for you to inspire your little beekeepers and keep them safe.
If you’re a solo beekeeper looking to keep bees at home with the help of your young beekeeping assistants, we’ve got plenty of resources to help you make the best decisions about things like the style of hive, size, timetables, seasonal buys and so on.

Safety
Hives can be dangerous for anyone without the right information and equipment. Where kids are concerned, adult supervision is essential. Children (and adults!) should always be properly suited when working with the bees. Did you know sometimes a dead bee can sting? It’s crucial to make sure children understand this sort of thing.
Allergies often don’t come to light until someone has been stung, so always be on the lookout for signs of shock – vomiting, singling, trouble breathing, fainting, etc.

Beekeeping can be an exceptionally rewarding hobby for kids and adults. We thoroughly support the idea of getting kids interested in beekeeping, and perhaps together we can do our bit to help save the great British honey bee!

Once you decide that beekeeping is definitely something you would like to pursue, you inevitably find yourself with a lot of questions floating around your brain. One of the most frequent of these will most certainly be: “What kind of honey bees should I get?”

Well, there are plenty of different races of honey bee to choose from so you really are quite spoilt for choice. Hopefully, the following guide to some of the most popular races will help you to discern which type of honey bee will best suit your requirements.

Italian (Apis mellifera ligustica)
Originating from the Italian peninsula, these popular honey bees are yellow in colour, quite gentle, bed in well over the winter and build up quickly in the spring. However, Italian bees sometimes exhaust their winter honey stores quite rapidly and are often easily provoked into stealing from weaker, neighbouring colonies.

Carniolan (Apis mellifera carnica)
Carniolan bees originated in the Austrian Alps and the Danube Valley. They are greyish-brown in colour, are extremely gentle, conserve winter food stores well, and build up quickly in the spring. Carniolan bees typically build new combs slowly and swarm frequently.

Caucasian (Apis mellifera caucasica)
Originating from the Caucasus Mountains between the Black and Caspian Seas, these bees are lead-grey in colour, very gentle, and swarm infrequently. Caucasian bees have a tendency to struggle in the winter and build up slowly in the spring. In addition, Caucasian bees are susceptible to Nosema disease and frequently ‘gum-up’ their hives with propolis.

Russian (Apis mellifera)
Russian bees look similar to Carniolan bees, use less propolis than Italian honey bees and are rare stingers. Russian bees are outstanding winter survivors and have a high nectar haul per-bee. They have a tendency to build queen cells throughout the brood season and are quite prone to swarming.

Buckfast (Apis mellifera hybrid)
The Buckfast bee has some very favourable qualities and as such it is a consistently popular bee amongst keepers all around the world. Indeed, they are so gentle that some experts consider them to be better than Italian bees. Their main drawbacks are that they are prone to locking combs together with brace combs, and that they are very enthusiastic with their application of propolis to the inner surfaces of their hives. This means that combs are not as easy to remove and inspect as they should be.

German Black (Apis mellifera mellifera)
This northern European bee was the first honey bee to be taken to the New World of the Americas. German Blacks are in fact a brownish-black colour. Although they bed in well over the winter, German Blacks are nervous, aggressive, and build up slowly in spring.

Africanized (Apis mellifera scutellata & its hybrids)
These honey bees first originated in the east of the African continent. Compared to their European counterparts, Africanized bees (and hybrids) are extremely defensive, have smaller nests and swarm more frequently.

To find out more about bees and bee supplies, explore our pages further or call 0800 6128831.

It may seem strange but bees are often the last thing which newcomers to bee-keeping think about. Indeed, beginners often concern themselves more with things like bee suits, tools and equipment more than they do with the actual bees.

If you are thinking of taking up this fascinating hobby then do yourself a favour: make sure you find out about the real ‘stars of the show’ before you look into anything else.

Ordering bees
If at all possible, always try to buy your bees locally. Indeed, doing so will ensure that they don’t have to incur the trauma and unforeseen risks of being transported over long distances. Similarly, if you are thinking of ordering your bees via post then try to order them from a supplier that is as close to your own location as possible. When it comes to quantity, a three-pound package with one queen per-hive is a more than adequate amount for most beekeeping beginners.

Good timing
Late winter (January or February) is a good time to order bees as it will ensure they will be delivered to you by spring – the best time to start a colony. Starting in the spring will not only give your bees plenty of time to get established in their new home; it will also allow them to feed well on the surrounding nectar from trees and plants, thereby increasing their chances of making it through the winter.

The bee clan
Honey bees can thrive almost anywhere as they use each other to maximise their chances of survival. A colony of bees is mostly made up of sexually underdeveloped females (known as ‘worker bees’) although there will also be some drone bees whose sole function is to mate with the colony’s queen.

It is the role of worker bees to collect food and water for the colony, build wax comb, keep things clean, maintain the interior temperature and keep guard against potential intruders with their stings.

The queen is a mature female that can lay over 2,000 eggs in a single day. This torpedo-shaped bee is not only the largest bee; it also lives the longest (up to five years). Queen bees do carry a sting; however they normally only use it when they are threatened by other queens.

Harvesting honey
Honey can be removed from the hive at practically any time, as long as it is suitably ‘capped over’ i.e. at least 7/8ths of the frame has wax covering the cells holding honey. Unripe honey (honey in cells which are not capped over) has too much moisture in it to be any good. Often the best time to remove honey is before the weather turns cold as this will ensure that it doesn’t stiffen. It is essential that you do not take every last drop of honey as the bees will need some to help them get through the winter.

Explore our pages here at Fragile Planet or call us now on 0800 6128831 to find out more.

If you are thinking of taking up beekeeping then you will most likely have a number of questions about exactly what you will need to get started. Hopefully, this article will provide you with some information about the types of things beginners need to get involved in this wonderful hobby.

Beekeeping equipment
When first starting out, it is preferable to buy an all-in-one bee suit as this will provide you with comprehensive protection and peace of mind. As you become more confident around bees, you can opt for more comfortable clothing options such as a bee veil, hat, heavy long-sleeved shirt, gloves, heavy long trousers and boots.

You will also need a smoker and a hive tool. The smoker is essential as it creates puffs of smoke which calm the bees and reduce their tendency to be aggressive. Smokers are available in a wide range of sizes and prices, the smallest and cheapest of which are quite adequate for beginners.

A hive tool is needed to pry open the hive and separate hive parts like frames of honey, which are stuck together with a resinous substance called propolis, or bee glue. You can either buy a proper hive tool (which is like a small crow bar) or use something like a screwdriver or paint scraper instead.

Beehive
The beehive consists of supers, covers, bottom board, frames, and a foundation. Supers (also known as ‘hive bodies’) are basically wooden boxes without tops or bottoms that are stacked on top of each other (as well as the bottom board) to create the hive. A flat piece of wood called an inner cover is placed on top of the uppermost super to close it up whilst an outer cover is put on top of the whole hive to make it weather tight. Rectangular wooden frames are then inserted into each super. These frames are used to hold sheets of beeswax called foundation. The foundation provides the bees with a place to neatly build their wax combs. The frames will be removed when time comes to harvest the honey.

Environment
Honey bees need five essential aspects to survive and thrive: shelter, nectar, pollen, propolis, and water. Obviously, you can buy a suitable shelter; however, the other elements must be available in the surrounding environment.

Nectar is a sugary liquid substance which is produced by flowers. Bees cannot make honey without nectar.

Propolis, (the bee glue mentioned earlier) is gathered from secretions in trees and shrubs. It is most often used to seal holes and cracks in the hive.

Bees store plant pollen on their legs so that they can carry it back to the hive. Worker bees then use enzymes to convert it to food for young larvae.

Water is absolutely essential to a colony’s survival. If your hive cannot be located near a good water source then you will need to take measures to provide one.

If you would like to find out more, simply explore our pages in greater detail or call 0800 6128831.

The UK may have lost half its natural bee population, but what it’s lost in bees it’s gained in beekeepers. Beekeeping is becoming a popular pastime in the UK, with urban beekeeping in particular taking off in a big way after more than a century of steady decline over the beekeeping community.

Urban Beekeeping

Considered the saviour of modern beekeeping, urban bee enthusiasts are making headway against the 75% overall decline in beekeeping in the UK over the past hundred years. Keeping bees in the urban setting is about practical planning, the right beekeeping equipment, consistent management and really making the effort to create a welcoming environment for the bee community.

There are about 44,000 amateur beekeepers in the UK, but that figure is going up with the help of trends such as urban beekeeping and the awareness created by flower shows and the media.

Promising Growth

Since 2009, the British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) has reported annual jumps in membership. In 2009, membership rates went up by 25% to more than 15,000 before the end of the registration year. According to the BBC, BBKA courses since 2009 have been frequently overbooked and are still in hot demand from amateur beekeepers looking to don their bee suits and do their bit for the British bee. Some London beekeeping associations reported hundreds of applicants for just twenty places on some courses.

Did you know Scarlett Johansson is an avid beekeeper? And so are Ryan Reynolds, Suggs and Vince Cable. High profile enthusiasts are doing wonders for the urban beekeeping community.

What’s the Buzz?

Urban beekeeping is about encouraging bee populations to thrive in unlikely places such as city gardens and roof spaces. The main point is that an urban hive doesn’t need much space because bees will roam for up to three miles around the hive. They’ll collect nectar from a vast variety of plants, which is said to contribute to the superb taste of city honey. Urban bees can also be wonderfully organic, since many city dwellers don’t bother to spray their gardens with insecticides.

Tokyo’s Urban Bees

It’s not just UK bee populations that are struggling. The world has lost around 30% of its honeybees. But in the upmarket Ginza area of Tokyo, urban bees are thriving with the help of some dedicated beekeepers and promotion of the Ginza Hachimitsu (honeybee) Project by it’s leader, Atsuo Tanaka. In spite of being a novice beekeeper, Atsuo spearheaded a project to site twenty hives around Ginza rooftops. Despite having a day job, Atsuo and a team of volunteers run the highly successful beekeeping project, selling the honey to bakers at the Matsuya Department Store to be used in special bestselling cakes. Atsuo reported that at least ten other Ginza buildings have planted roof gardens to help his bees thrive. According to Atsuo, projects like his could be the key to more than just maintaining bee populations now, they could offer a valuable food source in the future.

We love to write blog entries about which blooms are best for your bees, but what are the best plants for bees when categorised by soil types rather than bee?

Loamy
You’re lucky to have one of the best soils. Loamy soil has a good texture, drains well, retains moisture, is packed with nutrients and is very easy to cultivate – the perfect soil!

Bees adore wisteria, and wisteria adores loamy soil. It’s a fast grower and high climber. Try to site out of high traffic areas and instead plant near your bee equipment for peaceful bees.

Clay
Clay soil feels very lumpy and almost sticky when wet, but rock hard when dry. It doesn’t drain well and is usually very cool throughout the year. The great thing about clay soil is that, if drained properly, you can grow some fabulous blooms because the soil retains nutrients very effectively.

Heleniums are hardy perennials with great big daisy-like flowers which bees love. Most UK wildflowers also thrive in clay soil.

Sandy
This type of soil drains very easily and feels sandy (gritty) when you pick it up. It warms easily and is very easy to cultivate. The problem tends to be keeping nutrients in the soil during very wet whether.

Sandy soil is a superb for growing tulips. Honeybees prefer old species of tulips (the grains are too big in modern species).

Silty
A superb soil to be blessed with if managed properly, silty soil is smooth to touch and retains moisture well. It also retains nutrients better than sandy soil despite draining quite easily.
An evergreen shrub with winter flowers, bees flock to mahonia throughout the year and play a vital part in the plant’s pollination.

Peaty
The acidic nature impedes decomposition; meaning peaty soil contains a very high percentage of organic matter. It’s not the most fertile soil in the world but can be superb for plant growth if you add a little fertiliser. Peaty soil retains water like there’s no tomorrow, so drainage is sometimes an issue.

Of all the acidic soil-loving plants, heather is perhaps the one bees favour most conspicuously. The flowering season extends from late July to November.

Chalky
Very alkaline and usually quite stony. Chalky soil lies over bedrock of chalk or limestone, meaning it’s free draining and low in some minerals (these can be added using fertilisers)
Lilac is a hardy tree with spring flowers. Blue, white, purple and yellow are said to be the most attractive varieties to bees, but it can depend a great deal on the species of bee you keep.

Always plant bee-friendly plants away from high traffic areas like pathways, windows and doors.

Hopefully this has helped clear up a few questions for people looking to maximise the effectiveness of their bee-friendly planting. For more information on everything from bee suits to UK beekeeping festivals, visit our blog weekly to stay 100% up to date.

It’s great to see UK flower shows and garden centres taking an interest in adding to Britain’s bee population, both via managed beehives and bee-friendly planting. Here are just three of the great events that flew the beekeeping flag in the UK this summer.

Taunton Flower Show (August 2012)

This year’s County Honey Show at the Taunton Flower Show (Vivary Park, Somerset) was a chance for novice and experienced beekeepers from all over the country to compete in thirty-two different classes for various accolades. As well as awarding prizes for Best Honey, there were various talks and demonstrations to really help people get to grips with everything from cooking with home-grown honey to what the bees of the UK do for us in the ecosystem. Local and visiting beekeepers donned their bee suits to help visitors understand how keeping beekeeping is a practical, accessible pastime for all.

Neil Trood, Secretary for the Honey Show, said, “Having bees in our towns and villages helps to connect us all to our gardens and green spaces, as well as the countryside, and makes us aware of the part we can play in the living ecology of our community.”

RHS Flower Show, Tatton Park (July 2012)

The British Beekeepers Association was invited to host a number of talks at this year’s event, covering every aspect of beekeeping – security and planting to beekeeping equipment and urban bees.

Garden Truro Festival (July 2012)

In its very first year, this festival wanted to maximise the impact of environmental planning and how we can all play our parts in the local community to benefit ecosystems and our love of gorgeous planting. The Cornwall Beekeeping Association was in residence throughout the festival offering advice, hints and lectures to anyone interested in bees (or honey).

Beekeeping can be a huge part of successful garden management. With a little clever planting (we’ve already written several blog entries on the subject), the right equipment and a love for bees (or a Winnie-the-Pooh love for honey!), we can all do our bit for the UK’s struggling bee population.

Bee Facts:

•    Honeybees are the primary insects for pollination on the planet. They’re responsible for the production of more than ninety crops.
•    Of those crops, many berries, apples, cucumbers, cotton and cabbages will all struggle without the honeybee to pollinate them.
•    £200 million of the UK economy relies on the honeybee doing its job.
•    A third of what we eat in the UK is the result of pollination by honeybees.
•    In the UK, we’ve lost 50% of our native honeybees.
•    Globally, we’ve lost a third of the honeybee population.

It’s a tough life for the UK bee right now, and we’re happy to see beekeeping and bee-friendly gardening cropping up around the UK’s garden shows!

There are many reasons why more and more people around the UK are keeping bees. This can be an inexpensive and rewarding hobby and is a great excuse to spend some time in the outdoors. Also, if you keep honey bees, there’s all that liquid gold to enjoy. There’s something really rewarding about tasting honey produced by your own bee colonies. This is certainly one way to cut down on your food mileage!

However, there’s also another important factor that might encourage you to set up your own hives. Bee numbers are dwindling and so by keeping your own colonies, you are doing your bit for the environment.

Worrying figures

According to research conducted by University of Reading and launched by Friends of the Earth, the use of pesticides rose by 6.5 per cent between 2005 and 2010, increasing the risk to bee populations.

Called The Decline of England’s Bees, the study was part of the charity’s campaign The Bee Cause. It also found that two British bumblebee species have become extinct, while solitary bees had declined in more than half the areas assessed. In addition, honey bee colonies fell by 53 per cent between 1985 and 2005.

Useful creatures

The research also drew attention to the usefulness of bees. It noted that it would cost the UK an extra £1.8 billion every year to hand pollinate crops without bees.

Loss of habitat

Meanwhile, those behind the report claimed that the loss of lowland meadows and hedges and the destruction of local wildlife sites have hit bee populations. They suggested that farmers need more support to ensure a bee-friendly countryside.

Commenting on the issue, Sarah Raven, celebrity gardener and presenter of the BBC’s Bees, Butterflies and Blooms programme, said: “Bees are vital to our food supply and our economy so it makes sense for us to do everything in our power to save them. Being bee-friendly in our gardens is a great way to create much-needed places for bees to live and to easily up the amount of food in the UK for them.”

Getting started

If you’re keen to do your bit to help bees, you might want to invest in beekeeping equipment. After all, while the hobby is fairly simple in essence, it’s vital you’ve got the right gear. Here at Fragile Planet we’re specialists when it comes to products like this and should be able to help.

It’s our mission to be an inexpensive one-stop shop for beekeepers and by taking a look around our website, you can peruse a variety of different bits of gear and clothing.

Express deliveries

We know that once you’ve decided to invest in bee suits and so on, you don’t want to hang around forever waiting for the items to arrive. That’s why we go out of our way to make sure we despatch our items as soon as possible. We try to get them out on the first working day after orders have been placed.

Meanwhile, if you need even faster delivery, you can get in touch with us to discuss our express options.