Top ten tips for beekeeping garden hosts

Lots of National Garden Scheme garden owners keep bees, but are bees and garden visitors compatible? Our bee-blogger Colin David says yes, but there are a number of essential rules to follow to ensure that visitors and bees are a happy combination.

Here are Colin’s top 10 basic rules for beekeeping garden hosts:

1. Know that your bees are docile. If in doubt any questionable hives can be shut up for the day
2. Do not inspect hives 48 hours prior to your garden opening
3. No strimming or mowing around your hives 3 days prior to opening
4. Hive entrances to face a hedge or fence
5. Rope off apiary (4m) and put up advisory signage
6. Have a tried and tested swarm control strategy in place
7. Advise all visitors of the apiary and insist that anyone with a known bee sting allergy is carrying their Epi-Pen
8. Consider setting up an observation hive so that visitors can get a close-up view of the bees without going near the working apiary
9. Expect the unexpected
10. Have fun!