Urban Beekeeping Beginners:
Our Triumphs and Failures (part 1)

This blog post is the first of three that follows our journey into urban beekeeping as beginners. In it, we look at how to start beekeeping, highlighting the benefits for both bees and humans. We explain the importance of careful planning and research, essential equipment and answer a common question “How much does it cost to keep bees?”. We finish this first instalment with an account of our first bee delivery, capturing the excitement and anxieties we felt as two new and inexperienced beekeepers. 

Owen & Lorna x

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1. Exploring urban beekeeping: Our new adventure in sustainable living

As an earthy couple, we’ve always embraced a lifestyle rooted in self-sufficiency and sustainability. To us, our home is more than just a living space; it’s our sanctuary, where we cultivate our own food, care for our chickens (we have five), and tend a thriving vegetable patch and greenhouse. Every day, we look for new ways to work and harmonise with nature and boost our self-sufficient pagan lifestyle.

However, there was one endeavour we’d always dreamed of pursuing but never actually got around to: beekeeping. The idea of keeping bees in our self-sufficient but urban environment had been a long-held (if slightly scary) dream that was not only about producing our own honey. We also wanted help our declining bee populations, which play a critical role in pollinating the plants and crops that sustain both us and the planet.

So, in 2021, as the UK slowly began to emerge from the shadow of the Covid crisis, we decided it was time to finally embark on our urban beekeeping journey. We knew it wouldn’t be easy, but by keeping bees, we knew we would not only be supporting a species that’s critical to the environment.

2. The rise of beekeeping in residential areas

Urban beekeeping refers to the practice of maintaining honey bee colonies in residential areas, such as on rooftops, in gardens, or within public parks.

Unlike traditional beekeeping, which has long been associated with rural settings, like farms, monasteries and grand country estates, urban beekeeping brings this age-old activity into the heart of our towns and cities. This shift reflects our growing awareness of the vital role that honey bees play in our ecosystem, a trend that has gained significant momentum in recent years.

More importantly, studies have shown that urban bees often fare better than their rural counterparts. This is partly due to the diverse range of plants and flowers found in our towns and cities. But it’s also because urban bees are exposed to fewer agricultural pesticides than bee colonies in the countryside.

As a result, honey bees are thriving in our towns and cities today better than they are in more rural green spaces, where diseases, predators, crop spraying and habitat loss impact on wild bees daily.

Urban beekeeping is a reflection of how the ancient relationship between honey bees and humans is evolving and how both species are benefitting from it. It also illustrates how people are finding new ways to integrate nature into their daily urban lives—even in the most unexpected places. Whether it’s a hive on a high-rise rooftop in London or a small apiary in a suburban back garden (or yard), beekeeping in urban areas helps to ensure that bees continue to play their crucial role in our ecosystem.

3. How to start beekeeping

In many towns and cities, beekeeping is conducted from a flat roofrop, such as a high-rise building or a garage. Back gardens, too (even a balcony) can make suitable locations to keep bees without worrying or disturbing your neighbours.

Before even getting to this stage, however, thorough research and careful preparation are a must if your beekeeping journey is to flourish. It’s also important to understand the needs of the bees you will manage, including the most suitable hive type, the best location and the essential equipment required, such as a bee suit and smoker.

We did our homework during lockdown, taking advantage of the extra time at home to emerse ourselves in the world of beekeeping. We learned that beekeeping isn’t something you can just jump into on a whim and we needed to have everything in place long before our first bees arrived.

To build our knowledge, we used to a variety of resources—books that laid the foundation of our knowledge, websites that provided up-to-date information and an endless stream of YouTube videos from seasoned beekeepers who generously shared their experience.

We recommend you start by joining a local beekeeping association (many offer a beekeeping course for beginners) where experienced beekeepers will give you valuable insight and advice (and possibly your first colony). We didn’t take this important step at first, only joining a group in our second season. It was a delay that would later come back to haunt us. But more on that later..

4. How much does it cost to keep bees?

Beekeeping, like any other form of animal husbandry, inevitably incurs a certain amount of financial outlay. Fortunately, most of this comes at the start and much of it can be spread out over several months, making things a bit more affordable. The main costs associated with keeping bees are:

• The cost of the equipment required to maintain and manage bees.
• The cost of the beehive, including a stand.
• The cost of the honey bee colony that will live in your hive.

5. Essential urban beekeeping equipment

As mentioned above, the good thing when you’re just getting started with beekeeping is you can spread the cost over many months. If you order your bees, say, in October (as we did), you’ve got till the following April to get everything else, including a bee hive.

Here’s a breakdown of what beekeeping supplies we bought, while we awaited the start of the beekeeping season.

• Bee Suit: Where bee suits are concerned, you definitely get what you pay for (in other words, if you buy cheap, you’ll pay for it!). A good quality bee suit will not only keep you safe from stings, it will also give you the confidence to tend your bees without fear. Hubby had already previously purchased a decent bee suit. Which just left me.. so I went for the BusyBee Ventilated Beekeeping Suit on Amazon and have had no cause to regret the purchase since.
• Tools: There’s really not a lot you need when it comes to beekeeping tools, at least not at first. Really, all you need is a decent smoker to help control the bees and a good hive tool for frame manipulation and general maintenance. However, queen clips are also useful to keep your queen bee safely out of the way while you inspect the hive, as are frame grippers and a bee brush. None of this equipment turned out to be very expensive and, again, we turned to Amazon, where we found this handy beekeeping starter kit, which included all the beekeeping essentials we needed.
• A Good Book: Okay, not exactly equipment, but definitely a must have. The top two beekeeping books we’d recommend are, first, Beekeeping For Dummies, which tells you everything you need to know about beekeeping, including buying the right equipment, sourcing bees and harvesting honey; and, second, the Haynes Bee Manual (that’s right, the same people who do the car manuals!), both of which quickly became our beekeeping bibles. One, or both, of these books will serve the novice beekeeper well.

6. How much does a bee hive cost?

This is where things can get a bit pricey, with bee hives costing anywhere between £150 to £350. We did look into the option of buying one second hand but decided against this, since (we’d heard) a previously occupied hive can still harbour disease even after being left empty. Also, the way we looked at it, a bee hive was a worthwhile purchase that would serve us well into the future.

Depending on the type, a typical bee hive is made up of a 8-12 frame brood box, which serves as the heart of the colony, where the queen can lay over a thousand eggs a day. Above this brood box, there is at least one honey super (a shallower 9-12 frame box where the bees store surplus honey).

To stop the larger queen bee laying eggs in the honey frames upstairs, a metal or plastic mesh known as a queen excluder is placed between the super and the brood box, which prevents her majesty from ascending up into the super.

There are several options to go for with bee hives, such as hive type (e.g. British National or Langstroth) and hive materials (pine or cedar). For the latter, most beekeepers recommend cedar, as its natural oils help preserve the wood against rot and decay, which means less maintenance over time.

We decided on a cedar British National, which has so far served us well, but at £300 was rather expensive. Today, we’d probably go for something cheaper, such as this cedar Langstroth beehive, which comes with a brood box, one super (with frames and foundation) and is really all you need in a bee hive to get started.

7. How much do bees cost?

If you’re buying from a commercial bee supplier (as we did) you really need to do this well in advance. Colonies can be in short supply as the new season approaches so, ideally, you need to order by mid-winter at the latest, to be sure of getting your bees in the spring.

We pre-ordered our bees in the October of 2021 from reputable supplier on the web, with delivery due the following April. The colony cost £300.. Not a small sum, by any means but these were living, breathing creatures that we knew would enhance our lives, so were a worthwhile investment.

Once the season starts (April/May), cheaper colonies can often be purchased from local swarm collectors, who will usually belong to a local beekeeping association in your area. However, swarm colonies are often smaller than those purchased from commercial bee suppliers and may not be as healthy or robust.

8. Our first bee delivery experience!

Christmas 2021 came and went in a flash and 2022 was suddenly upon us. In Feb/March, we started to receive emails from our bee supplier reminding us of the spring arrival of our bees (Squeee!).

Thursday 21st April was the day when our bees arrived and when we opened our front door to a nervous-looking, handlebar-moustachioed postman.. “These sound pretty angry!” he exclaimed, before hastily depositing a large green nuc box at our feet, a loud buzzing coming from within..

Urban beekeeping fact check: A nuc box usually holds five frames of bees, including a laying queen. The term “nuc” is short for “nucleus colony” and a nuc box is typically about the size of an old computer tower.

Constructed from polystyrene or a similar material and specifically designed for housing and transporting bees, nuc boxes are most often used by new beekeepers to get started but can also be handy for many other beekeeping tasks.

9. We introduce our bees

Funny thing.. Throughout all our beekeeping preparations, I never really contemplated how I’d feel when coming face-to-face with our bees when they finally arrived. I never expected to be scared..

Don’t get me wrong, I think bees are the cutest little things. They’re funny, furry and a delight to watch as they go about their buzzy business. But having a box of several thousand of them, angrily overheating on my living room table scared the bejesus out of me!

“They’re going to get out!” I exclaimed, gripped by panic, as I peered at them through the thin mesh vent that was the only thing that prevented the vibrating mass of heads, legs and bodies from escaping their temporary prison into my living room!

Fortunately, this terrifying prospect quickly dissipated when hubby picked up the nuc box and calmly took it out into the garden. As per instruction, he placed it on top of our new bee hive; then (without wearing a bee suit!) carefully opened the nuc box entrance..

To my relief, no giant plume of angry bees erupted from the box to engulf my husband, only a gentle, steady stream of much relieved inmates, enjoying the cool air in the surroundings of their new home.

Tomorrow would come the task of moving them into the hive, when we would “handle” our honeybees for the very first time..😲

Like it or not, we were now urban beekeepers!

Next: Urban Beekeeping Beginners: (part 2)