What do you need to run a successful bee-keeping venture? Start by hanging out with elders, says today's entrepreneurial design expert...
How to…
Make the perfect honey
Paul Webb is one half of beekeeping duo Barnes & Webb – which places hives across the capital, giving people local honey and beautiful, pollinated gardens.
1. First of all you’ll need to start hanging out with strange old men (and women) with beards. These are the beekeeping elders who will eye you with suspicion but with time divulge some of their apiarists secrets. Before looking after your own bees you’ll need one of these guys to teach you the basics for at least a year.
2. So you’ve got your old beekeeping chums, now you’ll also need to go the library. There are hundreds of books and websites on the art of beekeeping. The problem is every book, website, and beekeeper will tell you something contradictory to the last so confusion reins. We have lots of hives and the bees are always doing something new, strange, and perplexing which keeps you on your toes.
3. Now you’re starting to feel like a true beekeeper attention turns to swarms and the dreaded diseases associated with Honey Bees. Awareness of these things is vital to keep your bees happy and getting a good harvest of honey at the end of the summer. Swarms aren’t dangerous, in fact bees are the most chilled out at that time having feasted on heady honey before leaving the hive. Bees also drift from one hive to another so we have a responsibility to keep them and our neighbours bees free of disease. Even if you couldn’t think of anything worse than sticking your head into a box of stinging insects, we all need
to ensure the health and happiness of honey bees and all insect pollinators by planting friendly plants and trees, creating bio diverse environments, and asking for harmful pesticides to be banned for good.
Barnesandwebb.com
Read Robert Urquhart's article about entrepreneurial designers here.