HOW TO START BEE-KEEPING FOR FREE

Beekeeping has recently become popular again, having been in decline for more than half a century. Honeybees have been in the news for all the wrong reasons: collapsing colonies, pesticide poisoning and parasitic mites - and all this bad news seems to have triggered a desire in people to want to help and nurture this vitally-important insect that - despite all our scientific advances - we still do not fully understand.

When people first consider keeping bees, their most likely first port of call is their local Bee Keepers Association. Here they will almost always find a friendly welcome and a great deal of technical chat among the 'old hands', most of which will sound like a foreign language at first. When the jargon is translated, it turns out that one will be required to part with a not inconsiderable sum of money in order to buy one's ticket into this arcane world: the glossy catalogs full of shiny, stainless steel are beguiling, but the accompanying price lists can come as quite a shock.

How to start beekeeping for free!