How To Start Beekeeping in 2024

How To Start Beekeeping in 2024

Black Mountain Honey is a No Nonsense Beekeeping Channel.

We are based in North Wales and manage around 150 colonies of bees, plus nucleus colonies.

We produce Great Taste Award winning honey and sell nucleus colonies to members of the public.

Our 6 frame overwintered nucleus colonies sell out very fast every year so early ordering is advisable.

We supply F1 Mated Buckfast Queens throughout the season. These are genetics used by the UK's biggest bee farmer - Murray McGregor - and are not available to general public, except through resellers like us! Check out our queens page on our website.

We are passionate about beekeeping and really enjoy helping beekeepers through our YouTube channel.

On our channel you can find information on making splits with swarm cells, making increase with queen cells, grafting larvae, foulbrood and disease inspection, honey extraction and machinery, top tips for beginners, products reviews, instructions and guidance plus much more.

#NO NONSENSE BEEKEEPING is a UK based beekeeping channel, designed to keep beekeeping as simple and enjoyable as possible. There are no overly complicated techniques or intricate pieces of equipment.

We cover all beekeeping topics ranging from queen rearing, disease recognition/control, honey extraction, swarm management/collection, how to make splits and much more!

My personal favourite aspects of beekeeping are selecting queens for rearing, rearing queens for mating, making up nucs for overwintering and collecting swarms.

We aim to bridge the gap between commercial and hobbyist beekeepers and cater for beekeepers of all experience levels.

No matter what your level of experience, please hit the subscribe button and join us on our journey!

Join this channel to get access to perks:

Joining our channel gives you a range of perks including 100% advert free videos and early access to premium video content.

Check out our US/UK Amazon Storefront. We earn a small commission from any products your purchase through our links and this helps support our channel. Thanks for any purchases :)

If you are interested in learning more about our beekeeping activities, then why not follow us on social media or visit our website:

If you enjoyed this video, please subscribe to our channel using the link below.

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[jhangfk]

I have been a beekeeper for 18 years and used National hive with standard frames. Darlington long hive with 14x12 frames, Tanzanian top bar hive with top bars and standard National frames. Also bought flow hive but I was disappointed with progress produced less honey. I am old and disabled so moved to a Beehaus hive which is similar to Dartington hive but not too heavy and a National hive as a spare. Love to watch your videos for hints and tips.

[privatebubba]

Very good intro to help beginners understand the basics needed for beekeeping in the UK. One thing I would mention is that beekeeping techniques depends on climate so the times for ordering and delivering bees will vary. We place orders in Jan. and depending on the weather we take delivery of nucs between mid March and the 1st of April.

[dioncampbell]

Hello Lawrence, thanks for your advice on bee keeping for beginners the information is valuable.

[Goggles]

Thanks for all the top tips and recommendations Lawrence. As a newby, it's appreciated amigo. I have a couple of occupied langstroth in red cedar and most recently bought 5 Layens 12 Frame deeps in pine from a guy in Almería, he'd given up due to harsh conditions namely lack of rainfall making it increasingly harder for the bees. I noticed signs of wax moth so torched all the boxes and frames and set them up around my neighbours land as they are always in the UK. I had a little bit of old comb for each one and rubbed the inside of the boxes and tops of the frames with bee wax that my step dad gave me. I've reduced them down to 6 frames using a divider board, and reduced the entrances significantly to make it easier for the prospective swarm to defend and regulate the temperature whilst they build up. There is a beekeeper with around 30 hives litteraly 200m away. A decent pair of binoculars tells me his apiary is a buzzing thriving active place for bees. I'm guessing his bees swarmed as both our occupied Langstroth hives are from swarms. They arrived 20th March and still going strong. I will inspect when next home as I haven't done that yet 😬
I'm really interested in natural bee keeping with minimal intervention inspired by Dr Leo. The horizontal Layens hive seems like a great way to do that and so I'm really looking forward to seeing how I get on. We're based in the southern slopes of the Sierra Nevada, Granada, Spain. Can't wait to get back and see if we attracted more swarms to the 5 layens hives. I've used wax foundation on all frames apart from the ones with old comb and baited with lemon grass oil. My plan is not to buy any bees, only queens if absolutely necessary due to hopelessly queenless hives. I've scoped out a place just 6 miles away in Padul that sell laying queens for €6. A 12 frame deep layens with frames made of pine brand new costs €46 plus delivery which I think is very reasonable. Spain seems a little more affordable for hives and wax foundation. I paid €88 for 10KG unwired deep frame foundation. I can't say I'm looking forward to getting stung but I'm sure I'll get used to it. Happy beekeeping all. 😎

[GibsonB-ijph]

I just got my 10 frame nuc thank you for your information. 👍

[andyleonard]

Keep up the good work, looking forward to your future videos. I only started last March, got 3 hives in an orchard nr Monmouth and both my sisters agreed to have a hive each in their gardens, 1 in Cardiff and the other in Bristol.

[beewize]

Thanks for the video very well explained!!! 😊👍🏻🐝

[LishmanJamie]

Really enjoying your videos, I get my first hive in the next few weeks, I’ve gone for a FlowHive as me makes beekeeping a bit more accessible as I’m disabled but have a spare poly hive just in case. I’ve joined my local BKA and have found some great support from local beekeepers. Just itching to get going now!

[greghill]

Ok i am in the usa and your videos are a great learning tool for me.

[norfolkallotment]

Hi Laurence, Subscriber number 126 right here. Nice video, keep em coming. Just got my first. 3 hives last weekend. Looking forward to the coming weeks and months

[malcolmleith]

Glad now I’ve purchased two Langstroth hives, and two nuc’s, looking forward to mid May, still a lot of reading and watching to do 😅, really having trouble finding bournville bee keeping associations though

[ebenezerkoranteng]

I do follow u is a very good business

[eastsussexbeesandwildlife]

Thats a great video. Doesn't time fly! Do keep these viewable. 😅

[spike]

have you done anything or could you on the different types of bee availble traits pros cons etc

[JohnShanley-mh]

Hi A Queen I caught in a swarm is a small queen could this be a first year Queen? she is an amazing layer.

[painparty]

What do you with the bees when your hive gets overcrowded and you don't want to keep splitting? I'd like to have a couple of hives, but I don't want to split them and end up with 100.

[samkendall]

Lawrence great vid - 1 question! If you have a couple of National nucs arriving, but have 14x12 National hives...would you follow the process as per your 14x12 transfer vid ? I made a rookie error when buying...🤦‍♂️ if the above is correct, I assume I would then need to buy another National box anyway to put the nuc brood on top of the 14x12 box?

[Toxic-Teddy]

Is it safe to put an eletric fence around the hive (it's to keep out bears)

[nickhulse]

Hi I'm new to bee keeping how much do u sell ur nucleus for

[johnoliver]

Would having the beehives at least 10 to 12 inches off the ground make it easier for bees to sting the badgers underside?