Beekeeper Attitude Survey - grateful for your input

[Talking With Bees]

Hello,

What is your attitude to beekeeping? I took up beekeeping to try and regain my sanity, so I was surprised when I discovered, how many beekeepers were frustrated and fed up with it.

So, with this in mind I thought it would be interesting to run a Beekeeper Attitude Survey to see how people are feeling about beekeeping.

Please vote. It will only take a few seonds. I’ll write up some conclusions when I have the results.

Many, many thanks for your input.

[alblancher]

Your site seems to get hung up when I reply to the third question.

[TheBuzz]

Under bee flowers you have a picture of grape hyacinth under late summer when in fact they're the 1st if not one of the 1st flower to bloom in march.

This will be my 2nd year. I didn't join a club I mostly used this forum and utube to get going. I didn't buy packaged bees I bought local nucs. I'm frustrated because it's not march yet and that's about it.

[Ian]

I dont get the same impression from other beekeepers as you do. I hear alot of positive feedback.
Go to your local bee convention this year. You will see alot of energetic beekeepers there.
Beekeeping has problems , but guess what, life has problems. Just deal with it

[Mbeck]

I like it and generally find it fairly simple to get the results I want. I said simple not easy.
It's going to ruin my illusion when my beekeeping world crashes!

[Adrian Quiney WI]

The OP is in the UK. I'm not surprised the beekeepers he speaks to are fed up. They had a lousy rainy summer, and from what I hear many of them were feeding all summer just to keep their bees alive.

[Ian]

yikes

[wildbranch2007]

The OP is in the UK. I'm not surprised the beekeepers he speaks to are fed up. They had a lousy rainy summer

he should move to syracuse ,that's a normal summer up here, almost all the beeks I know still enjoy the bees, could do without the mites.

[Michael Palmer]

The OP is in the UK. I'm not surprised the beekeepers he speaks to are fed up. They had a lousy rainy summer, and from what I hear many of them were feeding all summer just to keep their bees alive.

I talked to one beekeeper in England. Told me that it was impossible to keep nucleus colonies alive because of all the wasps...yellow jackets to us.

[Talking With Bees]

It seems to work for most people. But many many thanks for trying.

[Talking With Bees]

Many thanks for your response. I am not a flower expert but I think it is a picture of a lavendar under the late summer flowers.

Am frustrated too ... but also anxious, hoping I have a fertile queen in there and not too many varroa and enough food!

[Talking With Bees]

Go to your local bee convention this year. You will see alot of energetic beekeepers there.

That's where I started hearing people saying they were thinking of giving it up!

[Rolande]

I talked to one beekeeper in England. Told me that it was impossible to keep nucleus colonies alive because of all the wasps...yellow jackets to us.

Not sure if that's in relation to this last year or not... If it is, then I must have been lucky here on the coast as the wasps appear to have had a bad year themselves -numbers were massively down on 2011.

Nucs: In general, I'd say that a general rethink of my methods partly based on your own use of nucs (gleaned from your forum input and those sustainable apiary videos) has probably been the best move that I've made with bees for a long time. Only the odd badly made nuc which slips through the management net for some reason ever has any difficulty from the wasps; and who's fault is that, I ask myself!

[GLOCK]

I have spent to much money and made to many mistake and got stung way to many times and had colonies crash do to the mite and me. But i love it i know it's for life. I don't care if i got to feed or ad to my bee yards it's so therapeutic for me. Time to myself the smells the hum the pictures so good for a guy that has tasted alot of fruits and is getting old and has to keep it clean and calm down life has been crazy now it's honeybees and gardens and making money {restaurant}so nice to be able to enjoy sipping tea reading books and watching a healthy hives carrie on there day. so nice.
I will allways be there for my bees.

[Talking With Bees]

But i love it i know it's for life. I will allways be there for my bees.

Inspirational. I hope I am still loving it in 40 years time. This is still my first year.

I have had 80 beekeepers respond to the survey so far ... it would be great to top 100.

[TheBuzz]

Are to at least starting with 2 hives?

[GLOCK]

Inspirational. I hope I am still loving it in 40 years time. This is still my first year.

.

i've only been at it for 4 years not 40 hehe but i am 48