What about being stung?
|
(Yes this can be quite painful - but usually brief)
For most people, the stings are not life threatening and can be painful for a few seconds to hours and itchy for a few days. However, a few unlucky people suffer severe allergic reactions to bee stings and on rare occasions these can be severe enough to require medical treatment. For beginners, we would recommend that they wear protective clothing when inspecting active beehives. Please note that the person in the picture is being deliberately stung in a bee-venom therapy session being carried out in Japan! Please don't try this at home! For further information about bee stings please read the article Treatment for Bee Stings - by RN: Nola McGann |
|
Is beekeeping a time consuming hobby?
Yes, it certainly can be, especially if you are diligent and concerned for your bees wellbeing - and isn't that why you would like to get into beekeeping in the first place? These little creatures will be your responsibility, they are livestock and as such you are required to care for them to the best of your ability and adhere to the Victorian Apiary Code of Practice and the Australian Honey Bee Bio-Security Code of Practice.
From Spring until Autumn you will need to keep an eye on your hive for a number of reasons; swarm prevention, disease prevention, control and management, plus many more general surveillance reasons.
Hardware & equipment has to be maintained. Hives need to be checked regularly. Honey may need to be harvested and processed. You need to consider where you are going to keep your bees: if that will be away from your home you must factor in the travelling time and transportation of equipment to and from the apiary site.
While bees can and will look after themselves, as long as you consider yourself to be a beekeeper you must be prepared to give adequate time to do the job well. You owe it to your bees to protect and manage them responsibly.
From Spring until Autumn you will need to keep an eye on your hive for a number of reasons; swarm prevention, disease prevention, control and management, plus many more general surveillance reasons.
Hardware & equipment has to be maintained. Hives need to be checked regularly. Honey may need to be harvested and processed. You need to consider where you are going to keep your bees: if that will be away from your home you must factor in the travelling time and transportation of equipment to and from the apiary site.
While bees can and will look after themselves, as long as you consider yourself to be a beekeeper you must be prepared to give adequate time to do the job well. You owe it to your bees to protect and manage them responsibly.
Finding the Queen
(sometimes this is a real pain in the neck, but we have lots of options)
She can be very elusive and snappy getting around the hive and there are times when you really have to find her. Whether is be to dispatch her in order to introduce another queen or simply to be sure that the hive has a queen, here is the link to an article by Hilary Kearney that should give you the heads up!
She can be very elusive and snappy getting around the hive and there are times when you really have to find her. Whether is be to dispatch her in order to introduce another queen or simply to be sure that the hive has a queen, here is the link to an article by Hilary Kearney that should give you the heads up!