Beekeeping
From establishing and managing your own apiary to harvesting and selling products.
Updated 18 April 2024
Managing bees
As a beekeeper, you will need to actively manage your bees to keep them healthy and ensure that they produce honey and other products (see ‘Products’). An example calendar of what you can expect to do across the year is available on the Inverness-shire Beekeepers’ Association website.
Regular inspections
Depending on the time of the year, hives will need to be examined weekly or monthly to ensure the bees are healthy and have enough space to produce honey. BeeBase has a best practice leaflet on inspections, and you should keep records of inspections for each hive. SBA has a template record card.
Feeding bees
Healthy bees should be able to feed themselves with enough forage. However, during gaps in available forage, prolonged bad weather, or after harvest in the autumn it might be necessary to feed the bees with syrup. BeeBase has guidance on feeding here.
Swarm management
Sometimes bee colonies may split and leave the hive to establish a new hive. This is called swarming.
Swarming bees are considered a wild animal and are no longer legally under your ownership. However, if you have sight of the swarm and are actively chasing, you might be able to recover it.
Above all, effective swarm control is both an ethical obligation and a fundamental aspect of responsible beekeeping. Uncontrolled swarms can create public nuisance, result in expensive removals from buildings, or establish themselves in tree cavities. If these wild colonies carry disease, they may pose a long-term health risk to managed hives across the surrounding area. We strongly urge beekeepers to take responsibility for swarm prevention and discourage the idea of simply keeping a hive and “letting the bees get on with it.”
More information and how to control swarming:
Preparing for winter
Beehives require less attention in the winter, but you should ensure that the hives are protected from predators and weather, treated for disease (see ‘Using medicines’), and the bees have sufficient stores to survive.
More information on overwintering bees: