http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/blog.php beekeeping forum en Sat, 31 Jul 2010 00:36:41 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/images/styles/daisy/misc/rss.jpg http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/blog.php http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/blog.php?b=237 Wed, 28 Jul 2010 05:27:14 GMT hi guys , i live in nofolk uk and am looking for some one to help me lean how to rais my own queens ,ive read it up but sorry to say dont understand... hi guys , i live in nofolk uk and am looking for some one to help me lean how to rais my own queens ,ive read it up but sorry to say dont understand much of it , as im new to bee keeping,if there is any one that can help please email me on cuptophat@hotmail.com. thanks for reading my notes , my name is john,bee-smillie ]]> johnny m http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/blog.php?b=237 http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/blog.php?b=236 Tue, 27 Jul 2010 14:37:45 GMT I recently had a significant birthday and all the lovely people in my village donated money and bought me a complete beekeeping kit – what an... I recently had a significant birthday and all the lovely people in my village donated money and bought me a complete beekeeping kit – what an amazing present! The only thing I did know about beekeeping at that time was a) that I had always want to do it since I was a little girl breeding earwigs in a eggbox and b) that there must be a lot to learn before anyone would let me loose on actual living bees!

The first thing I did was phone a very nice lady at the West Sussex Beekeepers Association who told me that I would need to learn a lot about bees and get used to handling them, even before splashing out on my own beehive – oops too late for that then!

I started the beginners course at the Sussex Apiary – about an hour a week during the evening. I put on my bee suit, very flattering for the older lady, and strode into the clearing in the woods like a astronaut taking his first step onto the moon. Unfortunately, I was the only one who had kitted up and I was greeted by a crowd of amused would be beekeepers looking on at this slightly eccentric figure which was me. But what a great crowd they turned out to be – a colourful assortment of strangers from all walks of life all intent on keeping bees! One amongst the assortment was Big Jim, a smiley fellow who greeted me warmly. His enthusiasm for keeping bees was infectious! His only problem, and this was another big thing about him, was that he had nowhere to site his two hives and was about to take delivery of two nuc’s – if you are a beekeeper, you will know what I mean, if you are not, go to wikipedia

Anyway, you’ve guessed it, we both thought it would be a good idea for Jim to put his hives at my place.

The nuc’s arrived with instructions to stand well back and pull the bungs out…. which we did! Possibly one or less bees flew out of the opening we had created. Not the great buzz and flight that we had anticipated. A couple of days later we lifted the frames into the two hives. Here’s the next thing I learnt pretty quick – colonies have their own personalities. One of the hives is lovely with lots of furry bees going about their business and the other one, well they are what we call the angry ones. I’ve already been chased down the garden and stung on the leg – just for opening up the hive. More smoke next time!

So, here we are at the beginning of the great bee adventure! Look out for more blogs on the subject – bet you can’t wait to hear what Adam the wasp man had to say when he came to destroy the nest!

Wax ]]> Waxsbees http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/blog.php?b=236 http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/blog.php?b=235 Mon, 26 Jul 2010 15:22:22 GMT Just checked the second colony - all seems well.

Saw eggs and small larvae, plus lots of capped brood. Didn't see any fat larvae, but I guess that's just a timing thing.

They'd spread from the original 6 frames to 8 now and they've drawn out most of the 9th one. They have a full box of undrawn foundation below them too, but they don't seem to have done much with that yet (although I didn't check it this time).

Not as much stores as the first colony. Maybe a few frames' worth, plus a little bit over the brood area. They seem to be still focused on getting more numerous, rather than storing for the Winter. I guess when their numbers are up further, that excess collection capability will have its effect and the stores will build up?

I had a few grumpy guard bees giving me minor grief as I inspected, but nothing too annoying (maybe I'm getting used to it) and only minor 'seeing off' rather than proper following.

My record-keeping is still dire - this is really it, and we're not even doing videos now :-( I must get a system going that works well and I can actually use. At the moment we come back from the battle of an inspection and neither of us can remember what we saw in enough detail.

I also reduced the entrance with foam rubber on both sides to help them with wasp intrusions. Not sure how to block up the entrance properly on these Swienty poly Langs yet.

FG ]]> Firegazer http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/blog.php?b=235 http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/blog.php?b=234 Mon, 26 Jul 2010 12:39:57 GMT Removed top super on the 22nd. The Honey flow seems to have stopped. Right Hive. 15 frames of brood. 1st super 4/5 2nd super 1/4. Removed top super on the 22nd.
The Honey flow seems to have stopped.

Right Hive.
15 frames of brood.
1st super 4/5
2nd super 1/4. ]]> Mosquito http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/blog.php?b=234 http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/blog.php?b=233 Sun, 25 Jul 2010 17:05:27 GMT Mrs FG sacked me after last week's clumsy handling, and she did the tricky bit today whilst I puffed smoke and lifted heavy stuff :-)

The first colony is looking pretty strong - there are now LOTS of bees, covering the frames in the top box and building out the empty frames in the bottom box.

We didn't see eggs, although there were some empty cells that probably had eggs in them. We did see small and large larvae, capped brood, quite a few drones, lots of stores.

At the top, the four outside frames were almost totally stores, with half brood-rearing in the next ones in and half stores. The 4 central frames were pretty solid brood-rearing with some stores along the top.

In the bottom box, all but the outside 2 frames now have some comb built in them. The central 4 or 5 were probably half-filling the frames with beautiful white comb. These had some capped honey, lots of pollen and the some capped brood. There may have been eggs in these too but we aren't good enough to see them with a bright white comb background lit by a cloudy sky.

Some of the bottom combs were stuck together (again) so we gently prised them apart - bees weren't happy with this - and put them in the other way around. Not sure if this is a major sin, but it seemed sensible: now they don't have two bulging frame-ends next to each other and they're less likely to glue them together again. The bulges were consistently at the front, so now two of the frames have the bulges at the back.

We inspected the bottom box first today to avoid the dripped honey from separating two frames in the top box driving them mad as we inspected the bottom box - this is what happened last week.

Very few bees hurt this time. Lots of smoke needed as the inspection took a while with two boxes to go through. Still a bit of a crush trying to put the top box back on with the rebated box not allowing 'place and rotate'.

We had a couple of grumpy guards, but not as cross as last time. One bee followed for a while, but again not as badly as last time.

Well done, Mrs FG. Maybe I'll get the chance to check on Colony 2, tomorrow.

FG ]]> Firegazer http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/blog.php?b=233 http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/blog.php?b=232 Sat, 24 Jul 2010 00:26:38 GMT The bees are now on the site. Paul brought them on Tuesday 20th July, and we were given the chance to handle bees for the first time. We built the... The bees are now on the site. Paul brought them on Tuesday 20th July, and we were given the chance to handle bees for the first time. We built the temporary hive ( I think the proper one is still being modified to have an observation window for the children to look through ). Once the hive was in position, Paul opened the box of bees. I wasn't expecting the sound and amount of activity. From a quiet box with a few bees crawling on the top, to a huge buzzing cloud! I must admit, my nerve went a little.

After a minute, the bees settled down and Paul instructed us to start moving the frames over to the brood box. None of us had handled bees before, and one of the women went first. She handled them with no trouble and in they went. Then it was my turn! On the one hand, I couldn't wait, on the other, I wanted to run away. I was very conscious of the bees being near my fingers, not because I didn't want them to touch me - but because I didn't want to squash any, as there were a few squashed bees along the part where the frames rest in the nuc. Tentatively, I lifted the frame, and placed it in the hive. I couldn't believe I had done it, but after that first one - you couldn't stop me! Once the frames were all in place, I put the hive together and I remember at one point looking down and seeing 2 bees hitching a ride on my leg. With no sense of panic or fear, I gently brushed them off next to the hive. My phobia of bees completely gone.

The bees were locked up securely, and we will be going back next week to make sure things are ok. I went to have a watch of them tonight, and the signs are good. There is no noise at all. Theye are coming and going, and a small percentage are bringing in pollen. at one point I watched a worker tumble out onto the alighting board, wrestling with a drone. The drone managed to stagger back into the darkness of the hive and I couldn't see what was going on. A minute later, they tumbled out again. Again, the drone managed to stagger back in, and I didn't see them again. I spent a blissful hour, watching the hive from a safe distance. I wish I lived nearer, I would spend all day there. So, the signs are good. They seem to have found their way around, I saw a honey bee as I entered the allotments, and it is a large site. I think they are happy with their new surroundings, and can't wait to learn more about their care, and get more experience handling them. I hope the children, when they return in September, find them as fascinating as I do.

Paul took a video of us putting the bees on the site. If you would like to see me and my first experience of handling bees, you can watch it on Pauls website

http://www.paulpeacock.net/City_Cott...l_Peacock.html

Scroll down, it is the first video on the main page. ]]> kazmcc http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/blog.php?b=232 http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/blog.php?b=231 Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:44:59 GMT That was a struggle.

Moved the Cedar hive off onto a workmate. It nearly slid off again as the workmate wasn't nearly level :-( so put it on the floor instead.

Tried to make the ground and two breeze blocks level. Really tricky; still not very level but had rather a large cloud of bees telling me to get on with it cos they wanting to put their pollen somewhere . . .

Put new poly floor down, put new poly brood box full of frames with foundation (some full, some half) on the new floor. Next went the second new brood box (empty).

Now I had to move the current 'colony 2' frames into the new top brood box, in the right order and orientation. Did this very carefully, trying not to let any bees drop off the frames in case one was the queen. This went fairly well too, with the cloud of bees getting even bigger.

Although the bees were clearly unhappy about the whole process, they weren't in full attack mode, just "hurry up and then sod off" mode - I'm sure all beekeepers know what I mean.

Clear plastic sheet on, after I noticed it had another blue peel-off coating on the other side :-) Roof on, with a brick on top as I didn't want to give them more grief with the whole strap thing today. Didn't squash any bees in the whole process - I don't think :-)

Retreated, leaving the bits of the Cedar hive (floor, brood box and roof) in front of the new hive to allow some stray bees to make their way home.

Checked on them from a distance a few minutes later and a big cloud of pollen foragers were looking confused and gradually finding the new entrance, a foot or so below where it was before. A few were fanning, to help them.

The hive seems to be tilting forwards a bit too, so I'll need to sort that out.

The colony now have their original frames in the top box and a lower box with new frames for them to expand downwards into.

I didn't check the current frames well when I moved them, but there was at least one with eggs in, lots more bees than before, a few frames still to be drawn. I think the strong foraging, the warm brood boxes, and the time of year should ensure they fill out both boxes before Winter and then have a top box of stores to live on.

FG ]]> Firegazer http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/blog.php?b=231 http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/blog.php?b=230 Mon, 19 Jul 2010 12:10:52 GMT Removed top two super on the 17th and extract both supers got about 65lb. Also filtered the honey. Bottled 66 jars of honey. (Update) Had a lot... Removed top two super on the 17th and extract both supers got about 65lb.
Also filtered the honey.
Bottled 66 jars of honey. (Update)

Had a lot of rain the last week.
There seems to be fewer bees in the hive then last week.
May have lost a few in the rain.

Right Hive.
16 frames of brood.
1st super Full. Put C/B on.
2nd super 4/5.
3rd super Empty. ]]> Mosquito http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/blog.php?b=230 http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/blog.php?b=229 Sun, 18 Jul 2010 13:32:31 GMT Went through colony 1 with Mrs FG today.

There didn't seem to be as many bees there as usual, although quite a few drones. I'm hoping this is because this was the middle of the day and I normally get to inspect early evening.

Good news: I saw more eggs, there was still a lot of stores in there, no queen cups, queen cells, or funny dead stuff.

Less good news: I was expecting a lot to have changed and it hadn't. We have had some bad weather recently, but not whole days of no flying so I presumed the stores would be piling in and they'd running out of room almost by now. The bottom box (with starter strips) is now more occupied, but still only a token effort really. The new comb is mainly being used for nectar storage, although there's a little bit of brood rearing going on too.

The bottom empty frames experiment is looking OK so far: they are happy to use them, the comb they build looks beautiful, but they aren't very straight and there's some bracing across between them which I've had to part gently with the hive tool.

The top box is getting too heavy to lift on my own, so I need to get stronger.

My technique today was clumsy and tentative, resulting in needing lots of smoke, grumpy bees, a few squished ones, some stinging attempts and even a half-dropped frame :-( This wasn't my best ever performance, so I hope it doesn't put me off for tomorrow when I look at colony 2.

Video might be available at some point, but it's probably only fit for a "let's spot the mistakes" instructional film . . .

I was going to steal, sorry harvest, one of the stores frames from the top box and let them make it up before Winter. As they didn't seem to be making the progress I'd hoped for, I left them with it all for now.

I'll wait until they sort things out from this inspection, then do a sticky board check for varroa: maybe they are being held back by that?

FG ]]> Firegazer http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/blog.php?b=229 http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/blog.php?b=228 Tue, 13 Jul 2010 13:45:33 GMT Saw 3 play cups. Removed top super on the 7th and extract both supers got about 60lb. Saturday filtered the honey and added another super. Sunday... Saw 3 play cups.
Removed top super on the 7th and extract both supers got about 60lb.
Saturday filtered the honey and added another super.
Sunday I bottled 102 Jars.

Today put a clearer board under the Top two Supers.
The flow is still going strong.:hurray:
There were a few broods frames in the middle full of honey.
The bottom super I put back on Saturday is almost full.
So I added another super.


Right Hive.
17 frames of brood.
1st super Full.
2nd super Full. Put C/B on.
3rd super Full. Just a small amount to be capped.
4th super 4/5.
5th super Empty. ]]> Mosquito http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/blog.php?b=228 http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/blog.php?b=227 Mon, 12 Jul 2010 23:13:02 GMT I run a gardening club at my children's school, and in January I was approached by one of the grandparents of one of the children about bringing bees to the school. I didn't think the head would go for it, but was pleasantly suprised when they agreed. We applied for a CASH grant, and won. Then the planning started. The school is situated right next to an allotment site, and there happened to be a very overgrown plot right opposite the school fence. We took the plot over and work began. The council cleared the site, and Manchester University architect students designed the plot taken from drawings the children had done to show what they would like the site to be like. As part of their course, the Uni students designed an edible pavillion and built it. We also had volunteers from a project called Orange Rock Corps who came and helped with the finishing touches. This project gets people to do 4 hours work on a community project in return for tickets to a special gig, which included Lady GaGa and Dizzy Rascal, among other well known bands.

We did really well with the council. The plans the students came up with were well out of our budget, and were what we would have liked if money was no object. We wanted to get as close to the designs as we could but never did we think we would acheive anything near. The council took the plans and over the space of a week, they built it. We are so grateful as they have spent about £8000 more than we paid them! I think this project just ticked all the right boxes for what Man City council is trying to invest in so we are very lucky. The site is finished now, and the bees will be here soon, ready to settle into their new home. The school has been keeping a blog about the project, the photos at this link are of the site when it was half way done. I will be posting picture of the finished site this week, and when the bees come next week, I will post some pictures of that too.

I hope this explains a little about the project. I am so proud of what we have acheived. Now I can't wait to see how the children take to the bees, and I hope we will be creating the bee keepers of the future.

Thanks for taking the time to read this blog.

http://www.stjamesmanchester.co.uk/G...0/Default.aspx ]]> kazmcc http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/blog.php?b=227 http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/blog.php?b=226 Sun, 11 Jul 2010 12:56:47 GMT Checked the second colony a few hours ago.

Didn't do a carefully documented inspection (I was on my own) but I did everything I needed.

Lots of larvae and lots of eggs. I actually saw eggs for a change - hooray! Nearly the whole of one frame side seemed empty, and there they were :-)

4 frames of Langstroth, mostly brood with some stores at the top; 2 National frames cable-tied into Lang frames, both with brood, one with lots of heavy stores.

One of the tied-in frames was good - solidly wedged in and the bees building on both sides to fix everything together. The other wasn't so good - dangling from the top bar and not wedged in solidly. I guess I have to try and move this out and replace it somehow. How do I do that?

2 of the 3 new frames are being drawn and used. One is still pretty much untouched.

I shut them back in before they got too grumpy. Temperament was pretty good: 2 or 3 bees in my face suggesting I "Do one!", but nothing too exciting. I guess that's reasonable with all that brood to protect.

Hopefully the new poly Langs from Swienty will turn up this week during the bad weather we're predicted. I should be able to get this colony into a nice warm poly hive next weekend and return the Cedar hive to bait hive duties.

I must remember this - the worst problem we have is that the bees are building up beautifully and we need to get more equipment :-)

FG ]]> Firegazer http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/blog.php?b=226 http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/blog.php?b=225 Sat, 10 Jul 2010 17:22:06 GMT Mrs FG and I just went through our first colony to see how they were doing. Answer: very well - loads of capped honey and nectar in preparation... Mrs FG and I just went through our first colony to see how they were doing.

Answer: very well - loads of capped honey and nectar in preparation for more.

The top box (where the bees were) is now mostly capped stores, and very heavy. There was still some brood-rearing going on, but it seemed that nearly all available cells has nectar/honey in, including those that had larvae in the bottom.

We saw quite a few larvae, some small, some quite big. We saw lots of capped brood, although they seem to be using lots of new wax which looks very pale and hard to differentiate from capped stores. I couldn't see any eggs :-( The light wasn't great - the glade is getting well grown over at tree level and keeps the hives in the shade except in the early morning.

A few of the frames were so full and thick with honey, they were glued together. The frame on the edge was originally half foundation only and is now fully capped stores. We were very tempted to whip it out and harvest the beautiful white comb, especially the lower half that had no wires in :-)

The bees weren't very impressed with all this, and two stung my gloves :-( Smoke was needed to keep them down during the frame removals . . .

We closed up the top box (plastic cover and roof), then moved it between us off to one side. It was very heavy :-)

The bottom box is now under occupation, big time! Lots of lovely white, natural comb, just like a TBH but (mainly) within the removal frames. They are mainly using this new comb for yet more nectar storage, but there was a little patch of brood rearing going on too.

The lower box combs looked quite delicate, and I didn't try anything but properly vertical with them. I hope they get stronger as they fill the frames.

We didn't see any play cups or queen cells anywhere. Maybe we weren't looking properly and missed one or two, but there definitely weren't lots of them. There seems to be lots of drone comb, mostly capped. Do the bees use this for honey storage once they get bored with raising drones? Is the difference easy to spot between capped drone larvae and capped honey in a drone-sized cell?

Overall, they seem to be filling up lots of space with stores, whilst keeping some brood rearing going and building new space to use.

We didn't see the queen - reckon GWW and Widders gave us an invisible one :-) but there's still larvae about at small to big sizes and probably eggs if I could see them.

I think the inspection routine is a bit risky for the queen with double brood boxes: quite a few 'crunch points' when moving boxes around and putting them back. Not sure if this is something we have to live with or if there's a better way to do things.

Video didn't go well today, so I will put one up but it won't be brill.

New colony wasn't inspected today, but they've started foraging big time and we'll have a proper look at them tomorrow.

FG ]]> Firegazer http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/blog.php?b=225 http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/blog.php?b=223 Thu, 08 Jul 2010 10:12:20 GMT After a hectic day of work yesterday in London, I finally got the train back, after spending ages on Swindon station (delays due to signalling... After a hectic day of work yesterday in London, I finally got the train back, after spending ages on Swindon station (delays due to signalling failure, then single-track working!).

I only had an hour at home, though, as I had to get into the truck and drive for 2 hours to PolyHive's place to pick up a nuc :-)

I sorted the hive location out (now fairly horizontal) and left for the M5, M42, nearly up North, drive which went well.

PH seemed a nice bloke and led me on a crazy drive to his apiary along the border of a big field. Lots of poly nucs and a few poly hives (duh!) mostly gone to bed at 20.30 ish.

The nuc was full of bees! 4 Langstroth frames and a couple of National frames (cable tied into Langstroth frames after their lugs had been sawn off a bit). I struggled to carry it back to the car - note to self: go to the gym and get strong really quickly.

The bees were much darker than the ones I'd got from GWW and Widdershins in Kent. Fairly grumpy, but it was late and we'd just pulled their home apart. Hopefully they'll be calmer under normal conditions.

At the car, PH brushed off as many bees as we could to avoid too many loose in the car, but there were still a few drifting around, despite my sun-roof and back window hoovering technique as I drove. Bee suit stayed on, which caused a few looks at the services an hour later.

Finally got home at 23.30 ish, so knackered I found I hadn't been wearing a seatbelt for the last N miles (!) and used a torch to site the hive and open up the entrance for them.

This morning, a few bees were out and about from this second hive, but it was a bit early and cold for much activity. PH suggested leaving them alone for a few days to get over the move so I'll do that.

It wasn't possible to spot the queen in the transfer, but PH promised he'd provide one asap on the remote chance we'd lost or squished her in the transfer process.

One bee was still in the car this morning, despite leaving the sunroof open all night, attracted to the frames and foundation in the back.

I now have two colonies. Twice the workload, but a lot more fall-back options. How do people cope with 10+ colonies??

FG ]]> Firegazer http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/blog.php?b=223 http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/blog.php?b=222 Tue, 06 Jul 2010 16:08:06 GMT bee-smilliehi guys im new to beekeeping and need a friend who i can call for help and advice , im a bit lost any one can help me please, im john my... bee-smilliehi guys im new to beekeeping and need a friend who i can call for help and advice , im a bit lost any one can help me please, im john my email is cuptophat@hotmail.com then ill give
you my mobile or give me yours and ill call chees ]]> johnny m http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/blog.php?b=222