Keeping chickens and bees

[Tonyfuller]

Hi folks

My first posting

The boss and I are moving over to France later this year/early next year and we hope to be living somewhere in or near the Perigord Noir/Vert areas.

Apart from keeping chickens (our friends who have lived in France for eons keep them and when we're there I get to feed them and stuff) and think that keeping chickens won't be a problem for us.

But one of my ambitions has always been to keep bees and this may just be the opportunity I need to produce (not directly myself you understand) eggs and honey, wax and the like.

I've enjoyed looking through the chicken posts but don't recall reading anything about bee keeping.

Does anybody keep bees, any ideas about good French websites, local apiarists and such?

Regards

TonyF

[Iceni]

>
>I've enjoyed looking through the chicken
>posts but don't recall reading
>anything about bee keeping.
>

Well you wouldn't expect to, would you ?

John not Di

http://www.iceni-it.co.uk

[Choochoo]

Hi TonyF

I have kept Bees for 15 years in the UK and 3 years in France.
We dont live in France yet but go over frequently and do whatever needs to be done then.
We had big troubles exporting them to France and there are logistics problems which I havent sorted out yet regarding sourcing of materials and replacement Queens.
If you need any help let me know .

Regards


John

[Pucette<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Pucette<FONT><P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt">"Qui ne connaît pas la campagne lhiver, ne connaît pas la campagne et ne connaît pas]

A lot of people around here keep bees (I'm in 24, near borders with 87 & 19). There are well-organised syndicats which most keepers belong to; they provide pots etc. relatively cheaply and perhaps other equipment too.
Varroa (?) is a big and relatively recent problem, I think it's a parasite?

[Washy]

Sorry I forgot, regarding the postings on swarms and important point for anyone finding a swarm is that they will rarely sting. They will have prepared themselves for leaving by filling themselves up with honey which means they cannot bend their bodies sufficiently to sting. However if really annoyed I expect they could perform a sting, it kills them so this is a last resort tactic.

If a swarm suddenly starts whirling around you, cover your head and walk calmly indoors or stand still as they will be more intent on gathering an a mass around the queen than stinging you.