Thank you Brian - hello to you and other hive-dwellers!
I am lucky in that in my area (dept 47) we have an evangelist for bee-keeping who runs classes for free. I have done a 6 week introduction which covered everything at a high level and thus allows the decision to keep bees or not to keep to be made. This coming year, we have the opportunity to take British Bee Keeper Association exams. If you watched the ITV programme Little England, you may have seen Bridget (bee evangelist) along with Sally (secretary of our local association) where the latter was about to take (and I can report pass) her BBKA exams.
I am also fortunate that we have a local cabinet maker who is also a bee keeper and queen-breeder. He is a French guy called Frederic - between he and Bridget, they purchased some Buckfast Abbey queens and have bred from those so Frederic makes your hives and then colonises it with a growing nucleus before we take delivery. Mine are coming this Spring.
For me, the fascincation goes back to school days where we used to do Ag.Sci as it was called. The teacher kept bees and as well as the traditional hives, we had an observation hive in the classroom with glass sides. Somewhere, down the line I plan to do something similar as the moving tableau of bees hard at work is a wonder to watch.
In the meantime, our association is also quite co-operative and I plan to hang around with some more experienced keepers while they work on their hives to gain experience and knowledge of my own. Having been lucky enough to sample the proceeds of some of them, they do a fine job.
So I will shut up and stop waffling on. I expect I will have a load of questions as things go on and look forward to chatting with you all.
All the best,
David