Harriet Bennett
Why bees belong on a smallholding
A smallholding and a couple of hives are a natural pairing. You have the space that a suburban garden rarely offers, you probably have a mix of fruit trees, hedgerows and rough grass that bees adore, and you get something genuinely useful at the end of it: pollination for your orchard and soft fruit, plus jars of honey that taste of your own patch of countryside.
That said, bees are livestock. They are not a set-and-forget hobby you park at the bottom of the field and visit twice a year. They need water, shelter, forage, and someone who knows what a healthy colony looks like in April and what an ailing one looks like in August. Get those things right and keeping bees is one of the most rewarding jobs on the holding.
Choosing a site away from footpaths
The single most common mistake new beekeepers make is putting hives somewhere convenient for the human rather than sensible for the bees. A hive on the edge of a public footpath, beside a bridleway or next to the gate your children use is an accident waiting to happen.
Bees fly out of the entrance in a fairly straight line, and anyone walking through that flight path will eventually get stung. Aim for the far corner of a paddock, the sheltered side of a hedgerow or a quiet orchard corner at least 30 metres from any path, track or neighbour's boundary. If you cannot manage that distance, face the entrance towards a tall hedge, fence or wall about two metres away — bees will rise steeply over the obstacle and be well above head height within a few metres.
- Sunlight: morning sun on the entrance gets the colony flying early; dappled shade in the afternoon keeps them from overheating in a heatwave.
- Wind: a hedge or windbreak on the prevailing westerly side stops hives being buffeted and tipped.
- Ground: level, well-drained and firm. Hives on a stand about 30–45cm off the ground keep the wood dry and your back happier.
- Access: a firm path for a wheelbarrow of supers, because full boxes are heavy.
- Livestock: fence hives off from cattle and horses. A curious heifer can wreck a colony in minutes.
Water, shelter and year-round forage
Bees need a reliable water source within a few hundred metres, especially in spring when brood rearing is in full swing. A shallow tray with pebbles or floating cork so they can land without drowning is ideal, topped up through dry spells. A pond with sloping edges works too. Without nearby water, your bees will visit the neighbour's gutter, water butt or swimming pool — which rarely ends well.
Think about forage across the whole season, not just the spring blossom. Willows, hawthorn, sycamore, fruit trees and dandelions carry the colony through spring. Bramble, clover, lime and wildflower margins fill early summer. Ivy in late autumn is a vital last crop before winter. If your holding is heavy on rye grass and little else, consider sowing a patch of phacelia or clover, and leave a rough margin uncut.
Getting started with bees and kit
Join your local beekeeping association before you buy anything. Most run beginner courses over winter, which is exactly when you should be learning, and they will help you find local bees suited to your climate, plus a mentor who will answer panicked phone calls in June.
You will need a hive (a National is the common standard in the UK), a smoker, a hive tool, a bee suit and gloves, and a decent beginner's book. Start with two colonies if you can afford it — two lets you compare, and lets you rescue one with a frame of eggs from the other if a queen fails. Buy locally reared bees rather than imports where possible; they cope better with our weather.
Seasonal inspections: what to look for
In the active season, from April to July, aim to inspect every seven to nine days. That interval matters: it is how you catch queen cells before the colony swarms and half your bees disappear over the hedge.
- Spring: check the queen is laying, there is space for her, and stores are adequate. Add supers before the bees need them, not after.
- Early summer: watch for swarm preparations — queen cups with larvae and royal jelly. Have a plan: split the colony, or remove cells if you are confident.
- Late summer: assess varroa levels using a sugar roll or an uncapping check on drone brood. Treat if needed, following the product instructions precisely.
- Autumn: unite weak colonies, reduce entrances against wasps and robbing, and check the hive has enough stores.
- Winter: mostly leave them alone. Heft the hive from behind to judge weight, clear dead bees from the entrance, and keep a strap or brick on the roof.
Keep brief notes after every inspection. Date, weather, brood pattern, stores, temperament, anything odd. Patterns emerge over a season that you will never remember otherwise.
Harvesting your first jars — and leaving enough behind
Only take honey when the bees have a surplus. A rough rule for a UK colony is that they need around 15–20kg of stores to see them through winter, so weigh your hive, heft it, and be honest about what is there before you extract a single frame.
Harvest ripe honey: at least three-quarters of the cells in a super should be capped. Uncapped honey has too high a water content and will ferment. Take supers off in late summer, extract in a clean, bee-proof room, and let the honey settle before jarring. Strain it rather than filtering it to death — you want to keep the pollen and character.
Then feed the bees back. If stores are short, give them thick sugar syrup in early autumn, before the weather turns, and stop before winter proper. Leave them in peace, order your labels for next year, and enjoy the first spoonful on hot toast — there is nothing quite like honey that tastes of your own hedgerows.
