beekeeping

[Millet 4,497]

Here is Susan she can be a right bitch at times, the last one was a old winter girl she will be dead soon, poor old Mable.

 

[Fenrunna 23]

the easiest way to get into bee keeping and the cheapest is top bar hives, this way the bees because they aren't forced are much friendlier allowing you to get used to handling them , then move onto nationals etc as I did many years ago , although I am slowly turning back over to top bar hives as the bees as I have already said are much friendlier , easier to keep and require far less work , and for the tiny amount less honey obtained a better value of time involved - honey produced

[Fenrunna 23]

does anyone know how good the pheramone(spelling) attractants are as i ordered a pack of 2 with my order, they are supposed to get swarms to come to an empty hive, i thought i would assemble the brood chamber and get it out there with the attractant and some honey and see if i get lucky just incase i dont get a call for a swarm, i have also been told that a little propolis can help to get them in with the smell?

one local beekeeper told me that the scouts for a swarm looking for a new home will travel up to 3 miles so am hoping that this may work for me?

just use lemon grass oil dropped onto some beeswax and rub inside bait box

[Millet 4,497]

I made a split from a calm colony and introduced a laying Queen into a 6 frame Nucleus , she was released from the cage on Saturday, the bees are calm so the candy plug option was not needed which would have meant another 3days in there for HRH.. happy days.

 

 

The test frame from a nice colony placed in to a laying worker colony has one and only one Queen cell drawn from young brood, if this emerges and mates i will put the lottery on.

This is a very aggressive colony note the little darlings guarding the Queen cell.

 

Edited July 5, 2017 by Millet

[DANPOV18 16]

Good luck at bee keeping. Hope it works out for you.

[ryaldinhio 4,591]

This may be a daft question but is bee keeping hard work? or once you are set up you leave them too it and harvest the honey? Its just that I have quite a good sized garden and I am on with sorting it out bit by bit. Part of what I want is a good veg plot and also a number of fruit trees. I had thoughts of putting a hive near the veg plot and fruit trees to help polination but also get the honey.

[moxy 617]

This may be a daft question but is bee keeping hard work? or once you are set up you leave them too it and harvest the honey? Its just that I have quite a good sized garden and I am on with sorting it out bit by bit. Part of what I want is a good veg plot and also a number of fruit trees. I had thoughts of putting a hive near the veg plot and fruit trees to help polination but also get the honey.

You get out what you put in. It's not hard work but they need looking in on a regular basis.

Health checks and varroa treatments. Swarm control, emergency feeding, record keeping etc

There's a bit more to it than putting bees in a box and leaving them to it.

Beekeepers in my area have struggled this year due to the wet weather and the prolonged June gap. The bees haven't been able to get out to forage and the plants haven't yielded sufficient nectar. This has led to feeding the bees more than usual.

I had two newish colonies suffer badly as they had no stores. My larger colonies tucked into their stores which means I won't harvest much honey this year.

[Millet 4,497]

 

This may be a daft question but is bee keeping hard work? or once you are set up you leave them too it and harvest the honey? Its just that I have quite a good sized garden and I am on with sorting it out bit by bit. Part of what I want is a good veg plot and also a number of fruit trees. I had thoughts of putting a hive near the veg plot and fruit trees to help polination but also get the honey.

You get out what you put in. It's not hard work but they need looking in on a regular basis.

Health checks and varroa treatments. Swarm control, emergency feeding, record keeping etc

There's a bit more to it than putting bees in a box and leaving them to it.

Beekeepers in my area have struggled this year due to the wet weather and the prolonged June gap. The bees haven't been able to get out to forage and the plants haven't yielded sufficient nectar. This has led to feeding the bees more than usual.

I had two newish colonies suffer badly as they had no stores. My larger colonies tucked into their stores which means I won't harvest much honey this year.

 

[Squeamish5 309]

.

Edited October 10, 2017 by Squeamish5

[Squeamish5 309]

.

Edited October 10, 2017 by Squeamish5

[stealthy1 3,964]

Got offered a hive in the Spring, turned it down due to workload, wish I had now.

[Millet 4,497]

This forum has gone from shit to even more shit unless you shoot shit guns and slaughter with that thermal image gear, Bee wise we are doing good and the girls are ready for winter.

[moxy 617]

20 minutes ago, Millet said:

This forum has gone from shit to even more shit unless you shoot shit guns and slaughter with that thermal image gear, Bee wise we are doing good and the girls are ready for winter.

Did you feed much?

[Millet 4,497]

16 hours ago, moxy said:

Did you feed much?

Not as much as the past couple of seasons, i requeened the 3 hives this year, two are on brood + half and one is on double brood so what ever they collected i left it for them to feed on, they all got 12ltrs of 2:1 thymol syrup and each hive weighed over 100lb, so hopefully that will see them through to spring.

[Millet 4,497]

On 07/11/2017 at 15:42, Millet said:

Not as much as the past couple of seasons, i requeened the 3 hives this year, two are on brood + half and one is on double brood so what ever they collected i left it for them to feed on, they all got 12ltrs of 2:1 thymol syrup and each hive weighed over 100lb, so hopefully that will see them through to spring.

Anyone alive..