tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20419096801324376762024-03-13T16:08:46.995+00:00Starting BeeKeepingHow I managed when I tryed Beekeepingdmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10487080788185097861noreply@blogger.comBlogger122125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041909680132437676.post-49265802253651697482017-08-23T20:18:00.001+01:002017-08-27T17:59:24.573+01:00harvestI took off 4 boxes on the 16th aug 2017, the dewpoint was 16.5. I tried a small dehumidifier to reduce the water content but was not impressed, so every day or so I blew warm conservatory air through the boxes. After a week I got the dewpoint down to 14.5. It went down to 11 on a lot of occasions ( left with the top sealed over night). There were four supers with frames in and I got 84lbs of honey which had a moisture level of 18%. Nicki used Mike's manual extractor, which worked a lot better than i thought.dmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10487080788185097861noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041909680132437676.post-56736443490311522232015-09-18T17:53:00.000+01:002015-09-18T17:53:30.353+01:00winter prepWeighed the hives yesterday from 1 to 5<br />
17<br />
22<br />
19<br />
17<br />
16 kg<br />
fed the 4 light ones todaydmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10487080788185097861noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041909680132437676.post-49063354906698241112014-09-13T17:22:00.002+01:002014-09-13T17:22:39.308+01:00summer endI've removed and jarred 116lb of honey then added the apigaurd. Number 3 has a very high incidence of varroa. I need to give them all some feed as none are very heavy.<br />
Number 4 has been very slow to build but it had a bad season start. |I removed some frames for starting queens, it then swarmed, then lost it's queen.dmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10487080788185097861noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041909680132437676.post-4062834169823802002014-05-24T21:45:00.001+01:002014-05-26T19:28:42.617+01:00they don't behaveMy first colony was split 8 days ago when I found queen cells. The queen and flying bees below. Check today and the queen has gone and left several QC.<br />
My second has a new queen laying in the bottom, I could not find. I took the qc's from the top box and made 4 small nucs. All failed.<br />
The third was a bit lively but I added another super.<br />
The forth had my best queen in, but she has now left making a small colony smaller. This is the colony I've been taking frames of eggs from for queen rearing. The queen has also absconded before the qc's were sealed! I've split this into 2 colonies on the same site with QC's in both<br />
The fifth has a good queen in the bottom and I saw a queen hatch in the top so I took down all the other qc's.dmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10487080788185097861noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041909680132437676.post-91498269579366913312014-05-16T20:43:00.001+01:002014-05-16T20:43:25.095+01:00Things move quick<p dir="ltr">Wednesday night found all qc destroyed, had missed 2 other qc which had emerged. Shook all bees into box and placed comb under excluder, added fresh eggs to bottom box. Now switched boxes and added splitter board.. tonight seen new qc being built. 2 other colonies have qc so made splits with each.</p>
dmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10487080788185097861noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041909680132437676.post-31348958225834815422014-05-08T20:26:00.001+01:002014-05-08T20:26:36.659+01:00Starting QueensCheck my new QC last night, will try to split into 6 nucs next wed/thur.<br />
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dmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10487080788185097861noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041909680132437676.post-18005186530140151252014-04-13T16:31:00.002+01:002014-04-13T16:31:44.670+01:00First Shook SwarmColony 5 had drawn a lot of the foundation out, so I removed all the old brood and gave it to colony 4 in preparation for queen rearing. Colony 5 now has a queen excluder underneath the brood box which I will remove after our break in Majorca. It has a couple of frames of old stores and I have given a little syrup. Tomorrow I will treat with "Hive Clean" and then add a super when we return from our hols.<br />
Hive 3 seems a little slow to build up, that was the colony I shook swarmed in July and then overwintered in a poly hive!<br />
In 10 days I'll remove the brood from colony 1, moving it too colony 4, as above.dmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10487080788185097861noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041909680132437676.post-13927492845822513072014-04-12T08:15:00.001+01:002014-04-12T08:15:07.720+01:002 queensQuick check to see if they are building on the new foundation when colony on position 4 had a surprise. It superseded last September and still has both queens, nick suggested getting a photo, will try !dmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10487080788185097861noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041909680132437676.post-89727665084140908832014-03-31T18:47:00.000+01:002014-03-31T18:47:47.652+01:00New FoundationI left all brood and one stores frame each side in the bottom box, while adding frames of stores from below and frames with fresh foundation into the top box. Given a feed of light syrup, 1 to 1.dmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10487080788185097861noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041909680132437676.post-26024501173757612832014-03-29T15:49:00.001+00:002014-03-29T15:50:28.352+00:00end of MarchFirst full inspection today, all look good. The colony in the poly hive only occupies half the box, there were lots of slugs in the other half. Two colonies have a little sealed drone cells, this seems far too early.dmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10487080788185097861noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041909680132437676.post-77594952137142288722014-03-17T18:22:00.001+00:002014-03-17T18:22:55.709+00:00spring 2014Bees have had several flights this year so far. On the monitoring boards there is a pattern on each of the 4, an area of dark wax droppings and an area of light wax droppings. The dark is the brood area and the light is the stores area. I checked tonight that they all have some stores and could tell from the wax bits around areas of empty cells that they are using stores at the moment and not storing nectar. This tells me to be careful they don't starve. In a couple of weeks I need to consider shook swarming 3 of the hives.dmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10487080788185097861noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041909680132437676.post-79684254375240556042013-10-06T19:32:00.001+01:002013-10-06T19:32:32.545+01:00End of yearIt was a late start for the bees this year, April was freezing. Then Jul and August were lovely.<br />
My strongest nuc from the year before never got going, so after the bee inspector had checked for AFB in July I disposed of it. Thought I would wait until the bees swarmed to get me back up to 5 colonies, of course they never did!<br />
Came back from our great hols with Gill & Tim at the end of August and one colony had sealed QC's. I destroyed them without thinking, so a week later there were more. Quick check today in colony 4, saw the new queen and sealed worker cells. For the previous 3 weeks it has had the old marked queen and the new queen as well as sealed drone cells, so I guess the old one was failing. I did not see the old queen today but I did not go through the whole hive. There was still drones in the colony, very late!<br />
I've taken 60lb of honey this year mostly from one hive, the 5th position.<br />
All 4 colonies have been fed and seem to have plenty of stores.<br />
Colony 3 was treaded to a shook swarm after the inspectors (to help clear out chalk and bald brood) visit and is now going into winter in a poly hive. I need to shook swarm the other 3 colonies early next year and raise a fifth.dmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10487080788185097861noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041909680132437676.post-73737382177728465022013-04-19T17:44:00.001+01:002013-04-19T17:44:26.609+01:00concernLifted crown boards today, suprised how small the first 3 colonies were, put some weak syrup on.dmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10487080788185097861noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041909680132437676.post-22814151253829156222013-04-12T16:09:00.000+01:002013-04-12T16:09:09.001+01:00First checkWhat a cold spring, March seemed never to go above zero, Only lifted the crown boards off today, 4 and 5 were very strong. Number 2 was dead, so now I'll keep the nuc from last year I was going to sell. Need to start syrup feeding and frame replacement soon!dmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10487080788185097861noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041909680132437676.post-90174308635613732822012-08-29T19:31:00.000+01:002012-08-29T20:29:46.204+01:00End of August, 2012Very poor year, cold and wet, LOngsdon Apiary has produced no Honey, I have taken 55lb. All colonies will get some syrup when they have finished drying the supers.
Sold 4 nucs this year, Pete S, Stephan K, Steve F, Alyson F.dmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10487080788185097861noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041909680132437676.post-9594472068654058932012-05-08T20:49:00.000+01:002012-05-08T20:49:30.968+01:00April/MayI gave all five a little weak syrup to stimulate.dmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10487080788185097861noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041909680132437676.post-35415466704005589412012-04-25T19:45:00.000+01:002012-04-25T19:45:00.685+01:00April 2012The weather has turned wet for the last fortnight, checked their stores on Monday. Given colonies 3 and 4 around 1kg suger, with water. The others still had stores.dmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10487080788185097861noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041909680132437676.post-80223538784387132022012-03-24T19:38:00.002+00:002012-03-24T19:41:09.161+00:00March 2012<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB-IIW8ztlY_APXRmZyDaI3n64uu4slLM8cBW0sf3koKhHo2z7lm6NuDJ6hn6-uClcDm7zCEjcvY07k7dzyPaqM2iN9pjVF0KeKXJyeH-G721k1aoJjV8fkbNWiWgPkI7fdOIJsNhVHgZX/s1600/P1080466.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 212px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB-IIW8ztlY_APXRmZyDaI3n64uu4slLM8cBW0sf3koKhHo2z7lm6NuDJ6hn6-uClcDm7zCEjcvY07k7dzyPaqM2iN9pjVF0KeKXJyeH-G721k1aoJjV8fkbNWiWgPkI7fdOIJsNhVHgZX/s320/P1080466.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5723550998476208018" /></a><br />Some hot weather, 17 degrees today. All hive have stores. Need to reduce number 5 onto 1 brood, remove rubbish comb.dmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10487080788185097861noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041909680132437676.post-22837037366494957772012-02-26T15:31:00.002+00:002012-02-26T15:35:55.229+00:00Happy New Year12.5 degrees today, all but one of the main colonies were out flying. I checked the floor for dead bees in number 2, not sure there was enough to block the entrance but still there was quite a few, cleared floor.<br />The small nuc I have had a lot of bees around the entrance. So I moved it's frames to another nuc box. There was a lot of dead bees in the box. It does not have a lot of bees now but it is alive.dmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10487080788185097861noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041909680132437676.post-83644664605997661212011-09-17T17:06:00.002+01:002011-09-17T17:24:12.124+01:00Second treatmentHad a look at the colonies today, the first colony had no varroa drop so did not put cond sachet on. Gave them a couple of frames of stores. Added a apigaurd sachet to the other four colonies, The monitoring floor on the fifth colony had a lot of varroa on. Colonies 3 & 5 were the largest colonies over summer, 5 is on 2 brood boxes and has enough stores, numer 3 is light, both were lively.<br />I could not see any brood in the nuc but saw the queen (looking good), there was virtually no brood in any of the colonies, presume it's the time of year but it seems earky. It means the bees alive now will bring it on in spring.dmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10487080788185097861noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041909680132437676.post-55991343919111824562011-09-03T14:43:00.001+01:002011-09-03T14:45:18.673+01:00Varroa treatmentAll main hive now treated. Small nuc on 3 frames not treated, will try to get it through winter. Will look at colont stores after apigaurd treatment but expect they have plenty.dmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10487080788185097861noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041909680132437676.post-81581938127976883492011-08-26T16:31:00.002+01:002011-08-26T16:39:27.044+01:00ExtractionI took all supers off earlier this week and had 4 supers with sealed honey, extracted yesterday and it loks around 70 pound. Would have been a lot more if I had not have had 2 colonies on 2 brood boxes. The supers with sealed stores were stacked outside but bees kept finding holes and started to rob. So yesterday I placed on top of crown boards onto the colonies for cleaning. I have one more colony to consolidate onto a single brood box, that will leave me with 20 brood frames of stores which will go into the colonies as there is room.
<br />When the supers are clean I need to remove and start varroa treatment.dmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10487080788185097861noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041909680132437676.post-31071860287562098242011-07-21T20:42:00.002+01:002011-07-21T20:49:10.039+01:00Heavy MistakeI changed the queens by adding a second brood box above paper. I consolidated one colony into one box after a few days. The other was left on two brood, it's now full of brood and stores, and too heavy to lift off. The fifth colony was very strong so I put another brood onto that. A brood box full of stores is too heavy to move.<br />I MUST NOT DO IT AGAIN. Going to leave for 5 wekks now, when we come back they should be ready to take honey off.dmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10487080788185097861noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041909680132437676.post-42364887519319475122011-06-26T17:31:00.002+01:002011-06-26T17:34:35.551+01:00Good weather<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHb5u7RmFjrzbcl6RQfokxpJqeJ9UVcyH88MfNOx99G1ojD0tUIM_j6QrLoXyu8hCnVZSmRlP71GqUAJgLHAkaZRAGGIMx0Vr6eZ3T7PvoK_S49WDrpz6aVUT2yM0zQIBN2_1vT4I1nPm7/s1600/P1070726.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 206px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHb5u7RmFjrzbcl6RQfokxpJqeJ9UVcyH88MfNOx99G1ojD0tUIM_j6QrLoXyu8hCnVZSmRlP71GqUAJgLHAkaZRAGGIMx0Vr6eZ3T7PvoK_S49WDrpz6aVUT2yM0zQIBN2_1vT4I1nPm7/s320/P1070726.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5622567743274670754" /></a><br />At last the weather has turned nice 27degrees outside and sunny. The lime tree at the side of the house was buzzing this morning. The one in the middle of lawn has yet to blossom. Bees very busy.dmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10487080788185097861noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041909680132437676.post-41799326276989398382011-06-19T17:05:00.002+01:002011-06-19T17:13:39.405+01:00Re unitedI let John have my original queen from the colony I purchased at Lincoln yesterday. I then placed the frames from the strongest nuc into a brood box on it's same location. At 7pm all the bees had found their way into their new box so I sealed the entrance took down to colony 4, put some pin holed newspaper between and left them to unite. This morning the bees in the colony were not running all around the enteance so I presume they have found their new queen. There was also a couple of dozen bees flying around their old location, not sure how you can stop that?<br />I'll check the colony soon and try to put back into one brood box, then I'll get myself organised to do the same with my next oldest queen (green).dmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10487080788185097861noreply@blogger.com0