Permaculture Media writes…
“Beekeeping has suddenly become popular again, having been in decline for more than half a century.
Honeybees have been in the news for all the wrong reasons: collapsing colonies, pesticide poisoning and parasitic mites – and all this bad news seems to have triggered an almost primitive desire in people to want to help and nurture this vitally-important insect that – despite all our scientific advances – we still do not fully understand.c
Ever since I can remember, beekeepers have been regarded by the media as harmless, doddery old men (mostly), who do strange things with wooden boxes full of bees, while dressed in sartorially suspect garb. However, this image is beginning to change, with more and more women and young people being attracted to the idea of learning this ancient craft and a new urgency in the air about preserving our honeybees for their important role as pollinators, as well as for their own sake…”
Hi David
Important to note that in Australia bee keepers must be registered.
Also important for the potentially interested person to be aware that if hives are not properly managed, they will swarm … overcrowding or weakening of the queen means reduction of pheromone levels in the hive, leading a mass of bees to depart with the old queen and seek a new location to build a hive, while younger bees raise a new queen in the hive.
In Australia such escaped, feral bees have displaced both native bees and also many animals, taking over hollows in trees and shoving the native bees out of habitat, meaning also that some native plant species, closely dependent on particular species of native bee for pollination, are squeezed out.
Overall, the story is a bit breezy, the work and thought required to manage bees well is not insubstantial. I have kept bees (until I had a high level allergic reaction, they get worse each time) but in general, I think of it a bit like farm welding, task that demands close attention, a service easier left to others unless you have many hours reliably available. If a garden has poor pollination of plants, therefore perhaps lacks bees, best to plant more bee forage, such as bush basil. My bush basil flowers almost continuously.