# General beekeeping > Starting out >  Hi from Whitley Bay

## WillieBee

I have just come across this forum, so thought I would join. OK, I am not in Scotland, but I am quite nearby, in Whitley Bay, near Newcastle.

I have just completed a beekeeping course, but sadly I don't have a suitable spot for my hive. I had thought the garden would be OK, but now I realise, starting out with a single hive is far from ideal and anyway, I think I would like a few hives.

Kind regards !

Willie Bee

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## gavin

Welcome, Bonny Lad!  Geordies are at least as welcome as anyone else.  The pal of mine who got me into beekeeping hails from Sunderland.

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## Dark Bee

Failte don forum. A knowledge of bees is useful, but at a pinch a little familiarity with dobermanns ( two "n's" please), slugs, horses and Galloway cattle will suffice. :Cool:

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## Neils

Hi Willie,  Welcome to forum.

Out of idle curiosity, why do you think your garden isn't suitable?  

Starting out with a single hive is fine, but you should be perhaps to expand that to two as your first target in beekeeping, not necessarily in the same season and perhaps accepting the risk that you might lose them over winter.  Better to only moderately mess up with one hive rather than make a royal gash of it with two!  :Wink:

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## WillieBee

> Out of idle curiosity, why do you think your garden isn't suitable?


I live adjacent to a golf course, then there is farmland, while on t'other side are all the urban gardens, so I assume there would be good forage.

However the spot I had in mind, the only logical spot really was the gap between the rear of my garage and my greenhouse, probably 8' x 8' in area. However, this doesn't get any sun until about noon, as it being blocked by the house (running n-s). This is probably not too critical, but I know now i would want more than a single hive. the garage roof was another possibility, but this is exposed to some quite cold and strong winds. I can see the cheviot hills from the upstairs window, so the wind is coming pretty far. There is also the lack of any sun at all, until late afternoon.

With all this in mind I have set up a small website, which I hope to match would-be beekeepers, or experienced keepers looking for hive space, with others who have a suitable spot. If I can be the first to benefit, that would be great.

I heard a couple of days ago that I might be given the opportunity to look after bees for an organisation nearby, as their existing beekeeper is moving away. I haven't heard yet, so i am keeping my fingers crossed. It was the chap who run a recent beekeeping course that got in touch with me, so hopefully it will be a good opportunity for me to hone my new beekeeping skills.

Regards and thanks for the welcome

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## WillieBee

> Welcome, Bonny Lad!  Geordies are at least as welcome as anyone else.  The pal of mine who got me into beekeeping hails from Sunderland.


thanks for the welcome

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## janeoh

Hi You may wish to check out the Co op website who has set up a similar system to your own. It is based on landshare. Simply state if you are a mentor, beekeeper or land owner. - Hope all goes well, Jane

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## Neils

> I live adjacent to a golf course, then there is farmland, while on t'other side are all the urban gardens, so I assume there would be good forage.
> 
> However the spot I had in mind, the only logical spot really was the gap between the rear of my garage and my greenhouse, probably 8' x 8' in area. However, this doesn't get any sun until about noon, as it being blocked by the house (running n-s). This is probably not too critical, but I know now i would want more than a single hive. the garage roof was another possibility, but this is exposed to some quite cold and strong winds. I can see the cheviot hills from the upstairs window, so the wind is coming pretty far. There is also the lack of any sun at all, until late afternoon.
> 
> With all this in mind I have set up a small website, which I hope to match would-be beekeepers, or experienced keepers looking for hive space, with others who have a suitable spot. If I can be the first to benefit, that would be great.
> 
> I heard a couple of days ago that I might be given the opportunity to look after bees for an organisation nearby, as their existing beekeeper is moving away. I haven't heard yet, so i am keeping my fingers crossed. It was the chap who run a recent beekeeping course that got in touch with me, so hopefully it will be a good opportunity for me to hone my new beekeeping skills.
> 
> Regards and thanks for the welcome


Willie, all sounds perfectly sensible reasoning to me.   

As Janeoh points out the Co-op do have a scheme, "Hive Talking", in place on their website trying to match beekeepers with potential apiary sites which may be worth a look. 

If your own site has a more local focus then I reckon there's room enough for it too, we ran something similar in Bristol for a little while but started to have concerns that there were a lot of people perhaps taken with the notion of having bees in the garden without too much consideration as to whether it was actually suitable for them to have bees there; or a stranger tramping through their garden once a week for that matter being matched up with Novice beekeepers who perhaps weren't necessarily experienced or objective  enough to judge whether that site they were desperately after was actually suitable for them either.

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## Cameron Haggie

I have an unwanted bee colony in my garden I wish to have removed, you appear to want some bees....would you like them...












> I have just come across this forum, so thought I would join. OK, I am not in Scotland, but I am quite nearby, in Whitley Bay, near Newcastle.
> 
> I have just completed a beekeeping course, but sadly I don't have a suitable spot for my hive. I had thought the garden would be OK, but now I realise, starting out with a single hive is far from ideal and anyway, I think I would like a few hives.
> 
> Kind regards !
> 
> Willie Bee

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## Dark Bee

> I have an unwanted bee colony in my garden I wish to have removed, you appear to want some bees....would you like them...


Your offer is very kind and perhaps you could give a few more details. It would be helpful to Willie to know for certain they are honey bees. Where is the colony situated and what do the bees look like; what size are they ?

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## madasafish

Welcome WillieBee

A very sensible approach as most beekeepers who succeed end up with N times the number of colonies they first thought of.

Where N ranges from 1 to several hundred...

(Yes,,, I am a boring former physicist..:-)

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## beejazz

> Willie, all sounds perfectly sensible reasoning to me.   
> 
> As Janeoh points out the Co-op do have a scheme, "Hive Talking", in place on their website trying to match beekeepers with potential apiary sites which may be worth a look. 
> 
> If your own site has a more local focus then I reckon there's room enough for it too, we ran something similar in Bristol for a little while but started to have concerns that there were a lot of people perhaps taken with the notion of having bees in the garden without too much consideration as to whether it was actually suitable for them to have bees there; or a stranger tramping through their garden once a week for that matter being matched up with Novice beekeepers who perhaps weren't necessarily experienced or objective  enough to judge whether that site they were desperately after was actually suitable for them either.


Totally agree, I was looking for another site and got in touch with some people who advertised space, one nice lady hadn't spoken to her husband about siting bees in their garden!, and another chap had a toddler/barbeques in his patio garden, he had more enthusiasm than any idea whether bees would be suitable in his out-door-living space.  There is a desire to 'save-the-bees' amongst the non-beekeeping population..packet of wild flower seeds may satisfy?

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