Kit Contents
Practical Guide to Beekeeping - my 'pocket guide' to practical beekeeping, a collection of notes to help day to day beekeeping activities, easily accessed online with any mobile device.
At Your Fingertips - information where and when you need it including month by month tips, season by season guides, disease identification and control guides, basically everything you need for good beekeeping practice in your pocket.
Key Points - sharing and promoting responsible beekeeping, using best practice, conservation of sustainable native honeybee populations, maintenance of healthy colonies, environmental awareness, and embracing our natural world.
Apichat - a sustainable beekeeping discussion forum, moving beekeeping towards more environmentally sensitive practice to ensure future health and sustainability of native honeybees (and other species).
Note - Links and references to regulations are generally to Scottish Government Legislation. Similar regulations for England, Wales, and Northern Ireland are available by web search if they are not listed here 😉.
Thinking about Keeping Bees?
Beekeeping is a rewarding activity that presents the opportunity to directly help sustain our populations of native honeybees, nature, and the environment through responsible beekeeping practice. Honeybees are fascinating creatures, keeping them broadens understanding of the complexities and vulnerabilities of our natural world. If you are interested to know more have a look at the Basics page for an idea of what's involved but please don't think about getting bees until you are sufficiently knowledgeable, trained, and competent enough to look after their health and welfare properly, and without adversely affecting local biodiversity. There's a lot to know and it will take time.
Health and Safety
Health and Safety, yours, your bees, and those affected by your beekeeping practices, are your primary concern. There are many things to be considered to ensure safe practice in beekeeping, most of it is common sense and developing good habits. Use the Health and Safety page as a guide to maintaining good safety standards.
Networking
Beekeepers visiting a local apiary to share best practice.
Beekeepers rarely work alone, its always an advantage to have access to another's experience, an expert opinion, an extra pair of hands or eyes, and it is the most effective way of sharing best practice. Membership of a local beekeeping association, community, club or group can have many benefits: beginners classes; examination for beekeeping qualifications; expert advice and support on all aspects of bee-craft; exchange of ideas and experiences; keeping up to date with developments; and access to a network of beekeepers throughout your local area. Exchange of local beekeeping news and of colony productivity and health status is invaluable in keeping a successful apiary. Networking can and does save you a lot of time and wasted effort!
Other information
When keeping honeybees you quickly discover that there are many other pollinator species in our natural world, some of which you will encounter in and around your apiary, some you can mistake for honeybees, and some that interact directly with honeybee colonies. Information on other UK bee species and wasps can be found here at the Bee Species page, and at the Wasp Species page
Apiary Records
Keeping records is an important aspect of beekeeping, traditionally hive cards or diaries are written up and kept under the hive roof or at home. Alternatively, storing apiary records online using a mobile device is a convenient way to view, add and edit colony records while out in the apiary saving the hassle of guesswork or forgetting things. 'My Apidata' is my own online recording system and is not available for public viewing however mobile beekeeping 'Apps' are becoming more popular and are available for IOS and Android devices from the usual sources and may be worth a look.
About the 'My Beekeeping Kit' website.
Contact Iain Dewar for enquiries, suggestions, corrections and contributions for improving the notes. Always welcome!