Bees are doing great!

[wmfd]

Nice one, they look great - and they look like they've been busy filling comb - how much do you think you've got?

I've just taken up beekeeping this year. Have one hive, a nucleus I got from the local association at the end of May.
They've been busy but not sure if I will get any extractable honey though - they're insisting on filling every corner of a commercial brood box first.

Plus their behaviour is somewhat variable - too many examples of following/aggression. Not sure if my ham-fisted examinations are winding them up or they are just miserable. :wha:

Good luck with them!

David

 

[Muddydisco]

I'm on Nationals started with one in may and had to split in June, So have two hives now both have a super on, one hive has the super Half full the other is only just starting to fill it. Hoping I can get at least 10kg out of them this year, so I can have some for beer and the rest as presents.

How long since you got your bees? Ours have just calmed down since having them really thats 2-3 months ago. No real agression now and never had any following.
and you could always requeen next year and hope their temperment changes with that.

 

[wmfd]

I'm on Nationals started with one in may and had to split in June, So have two hives now both have a super on, one hive has the super Half full the other is only just starting to fill it. Hoping I can get at least 10kg out of them this year, so I can have some for beer and the rest as presents..

10kg is pretty good - especially given you've split.

Looked at Nationals but then some of the local bee-elders suggested Commercial brood to give some room. We get plenty of oil seed rape over here and so colonies can build up pretty quickly in the spring.

Did go with National supers though, and have one on the hive at the moment. I've taken the excluder off to get them to go up, as they seemed reluctant to - hopefully find out if that's been successful when I next take a look inside.

How long since you got your bees? Ours have just calmed down since having them really thats 2-3 months ago. No real agression now and never had any following.
and you could always requeen next year and hope their temperment changes with that.

I've had them just over a month, picked them up at the end of May. So would be good if they would settle in a bit.

When I picked them up the person who'd built up a load for the association talked about having to move all of the association nucleuses from his garden as he'd had trouble with neighbours getting stung (but he didn't know which hive).

So I suspect its the queen and if they stay troublesome then I'll be replacing her next season (unless they supercede her before I get there!).

David

 

[Muddydisco]

Yeah i thought about Commercials but ended up with two hives at an offer I couldn't turn down. If need be I'll go double brood next spring.
I had the same problems with getting them in a super and was told to always super without an excluder for the first week then make sure your queen is in the brood before putting on the excluder. It worked straight away!

 

[wmfd]

Always the way, if you get a good offer it makes it an easy decision. Unfortunately I had to buy new, it is a cracking hive though!

Sounds like it might work then, just hoping for some nice weather tomorrow so I can get them opened up again.

David

 

[battwave]

Really impressed guys. My grandfather kept bees and my wife and I have talked about it, bot don't know if a domestic garden is large enough to start. We have cats also, and I don't know if that would be a problem.

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[wmfd]

Really impressed guys. My grandfather kept bees and my wife and I have talked about it, bot don't know if a domestic garden is large enough to start. We have cats also, and I don't know if that would be a problem.

Any advice would be appreciated.

I'm really just learning, would be worth getting a more experienced view!

I think it really depends on the garden and the bees. We're lucky in having a large garden, so I can put them well out of the way - and I have seen next door's cats waltz past the hive without a care in the world.

Others I've spoken to have strongly suggested an "out apiary" rather than a garden, somewhere out on a farm. At first this sounds hard to find, but after a couple of conversations I've already been offered two sites without any real effort.

Oh yes, and I'd also recommend a beginners course run by your local beekeepers association. Some have extended practical sessions which let you see if you really do enjoy it, and one I've heard even lets you keep your hive in their apiary for the first year (with someone there to give guidance each Saturday). Book early though, places are in high demand.

David

 

[Muddydisco]

Same here +1 for a more experianced view but again I have mine in a large garden that dont bother me. I haven't had much luck in finding a out apairy yet. Only option I have is go find a farmer and not get shot first.
Local Beekeeping Asscoations will give you everything you need to learn how to handle the bees, and what to do with the honey once bottled and the great thing is there's always someone willing to give a phone number out so if in doubt you can ask.

 

[battwave]

Thanks wmfd and muddydisco. Will look for local apiary group.

After responding to your posts i spent the rest of the evening on bee keeping websites. It appears that I'm looking for a sheltered location that gets early morning sunlight and supports a flight path. I seem to have such a location, which has an 8 metre run of lawn in front of it, followed by shrubs, trees etc. Is this the sort of "large garden' environment you both refer to?

I found a beekeeping website that is visually very similar to HBF (maybe Wes is a closet beekeeper?) and I saw a thread of a guy who was asking where to buy a hive, equipment, bees etc. A Couple of posts later he advised that he'd captured a swarm and was up and running - talk about in at the deep end!

 

[Muddydisco]

Sounds about right to me. Is there any traffic past the hive in the Garden, children, path etc?? The outbound bees are not to much of a problem it's the ones blinded by pollen and drunk on nectar that get pissed off when you get in the way coming back in.
I had a swarm dropped on me before I had even been to the apariy training events. But nothing better than the deep end. :thumb:
the Swarm I collected came from a very small 30ft x 20ft semi detatched garden in leicester not where I expected it to come from!

 

[dennisking]

Keep getting a picture in my head off that silly advert for Magners cider.

 

[phettebs]

Nick, do you make mead at all? You should. :-)

 

[Muddydisco]

I'd Be silly Not to Barry! that is the plan for next years harvests when I'll have more available.

 

[screamlead]

Thats some thing i would love to do out here. The cost of honey here is stupid prices - about 12 quid a kg. But the other problem i have is both my kids are allergic to wasp and bees - both have autojet injectors.
I have never had a problem with them as i was stung hundreds of times as a nipper after getting stuck between a wall and a tree housing an ultra upset swarm which stung me loads!!

But on a better note - i did a mead with 3kg of honey and its a beautiful amber/brownish colour and clear as a bell after only one racking, need to rerack again soon. Cant wait for xmas to sample it. :

 

[screamlead]

Just thought i would bring this to the fore again - mainly for the attention of the resident bee keepers on here.
Any of you any links to sites i could read up on please?
Also i have a friend up in the hills near me has a few hives and has just harvested her honey but is having problems seperating it from the comb.
Thanks in advance :clap:

 

[Muddydisco]

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/

Sounds like it's granulating in the comb, need to warm it slightly to make it runny again, may be a case of cut the comb out and warm the honey out of the wax, or just put it back in the hive for winter stores

 

[wmfd]

Sounds like it's granulating in the comb, need to warm it slightly to make it runny again, may be a case of cut the comb out and warm the honey out of the wax, or just put it back in the hive for winter stores

Certainly sounds that way (unless the friend in the hills is near a load of heather and it is heather honey - in which case there are a couple of other methods of extracting).

Just wrestling with some thick honey in the comb myself which I tried to extract this evening. Am now making use of the fermentation fridge to warm the comb to 35C in the hope that unsticks it for another go tomorrow!

David

 

[screamlead]

Thanks for the replies, no heather here though. I would think its either from flowers or pine as they are near a pine forest here.

 

[Muddydisco]

If can cope with out it I'd put it back for winter stores, if not its going to need 35-40c to get it to run, if that fails it'll be down to cutting out the comb and melting wax and honey at 90c and separating once cooled again (wax floats on honey) But this process will destroy all enzyme's that allows honey to be honey and could only be used as cooking honey and not sold as real honey under EU laws that is.