This year is the first time (apart from the beginners course) I've felt like I'm really learning something about practical keeping. Being an antisocial sort, I've never really engaged much with my local association (although I do keep up my membership), so I've tended to learn from books and online information. Keepers have a saying, "bees don't read books", and it's very true, they don't behave anything like the way the books suggest.
This year, I found out why.
Approaches to teaching beekeeping vary from place to place. I learned at my local association, and after the course was given a swarm. My beekeeping mentor is extremely knowledgeable, and always willing to help, but I really, really hate feeling like I'm imposing on people, so I tend to make my own mistakes and do my own research.
The key here is 'swarm'.
Some associations train new keepers, then encourage them to buy bees from a supplier, like Thornes or Paynes. That way, you get even tempered bees that are cooperative and not too swarm-prone. Others, like ours, provide new keepers with a captured swarm.
Bees from a swarm will be prone to swarming.
Therein lies the problem. Much of the information in books and online has been written by longstanding, experienced keepers with established apiaries and calm, well bred bees. They give the impression that bees behave predictably because theirs do. You have to read a lot deeper to find the 'oh ffs what are they doing NOW' information.
If this sounds familiar, http://www.dave-cushman.net/ is a URL you need to know. The BBKA facebook group is also useful, because it has a real mix of inexperienced and experienced keepers: the former pleading for help and advice, and almost invariably getting it (although, being a forum type environment a certain amount of bad tempered trollery and impatience is inevitable from time to time).
In any case, the main thing I've learned this year is: if you are keeping bees from swarms, and you are having trouble controlling swarming behaviour, you shouldn't be surprised. Don't believe what the basic books tell you, experiment with swarm control techniques and learn from your experiments. Most importantly, make a conscious decision: would you rather risk losing a swarm, or losing a colony? The answer depends on your circumstances; if you keep in a suburban area where swarms are disruptive you may prefer to risk losing colonies rather than filling your neighbours gardens with swarms. Some keepers will be aghast at that, but for some of us that choice can be the difference between carrying on, or hanging up the veil.
