All the Gear No Idea - A Beginners Journey

[NickB]

yep, all bees love the sound of a lawnmower!!

( I only cut the grass immediately in front of my hives after dusk, but then the hives are in my back garden )

This is what I'd have thought,but....bees being bees...we found in our apiary that they were fine with the petrol strimmer,fine with the hedgecutter (also petrol-driven) but the (hand) scythe drove them mental...perhaps the rapid movement of the blade angered them?

 

[Suzi Q]

Bee suit and garden shears? Although it looks a very large area! That's how I trim the grass around my two, it works.

 

[kevrhcfag]

Tuesday was a decent day so went down to get the pins out that were stopping the frames moving during transportation and put some new frames with foundation.

It was planned to have a full day on the Hives and get some experience when we picked them up, but as previously stated the weather was simply too cold, so it was a lot of apprehension I put my new beesuit on and went into the apiary.

It was a case of quickly in and out and my first couple of mistakes. Its a very strange feeling opening up a beehive for the 1st time still thinking trying to swat them away.

I forgot the smoker as very calm when picked them up, as it turned out they were very calm despite my fumblings like a 14 yo teenager.

I couldn't believe the crown board was already stuck, put the new frames in and a dummy board and got them back together as quickly as I could. I didn't take out all teh frames or really look for the queen. On our course the photgraphs the queen was quite hard to spot as there wasn't that much difference in size, however when we picked them up the queen was easy to spot in these as quite a significant size difference. I must admit to my first case of beeicide as my inexperience fingers got a couple inbetween box and crown board.

I was very pleasantly surprised how quickly I settled with them and became less nervous.

I spent a good while watching them busily bringing back pollen, orange, yellow and cream and put some sticks in nearby large puddle where they were getting water and a few drowning. (How do you give a bee mouth to mouth)

Hoping for better weather so can have a good look / inspection.

 

[kevrhcfag]

what on earth has happened to the soil in your apiary? it looks like a battlefield!!

I'd get some heavy duty landscape membrane down around the hives before the weeds start to grow

A 13 ton excavator tends to have that effect.

We were going to find a temporary home for the hives until we got more done on the site, but thought better of it, so had a digger in as water table was high and needed breaking up. Will move the apairy in the winter when bees are not flying to somewhere else on the site with better security.

 

[kevrhcfag]

The weather was awful and forecast not much better another mistake in all the equipment didn't buy any feeders, so madly ordered from T's 4 x Gallon contact feeders filled them with 1:1 syrup and got them on last night with a brood box below roof. (will put pic up later)

Then spent the rest of the time wondering whether should of ordered different feeder such as Rapid, choices again.

Registered on Beebase (is that allowed on here) and inspector is coming to have a look as bees are from outside local area.

Just in case anyone asks we do have 1 complete spare hive for emergencies.

 

[tkwinston4]

(How do you give a bee mouth to mouth)

Carefully!

 

[Beanwood]

The weather was awful and forecast not much better another mistake in all the equipment didn't buy any feeders, so madly ordered from T's 4 x Gallon contact feeders filled them with 1:1 syrup and got them on last night with a brood box below roof. (will put pic up later)

Then spent the rest of the time wondering whether should of ordered different feeder such as Rapid, choices again.

I'm enjoying this - thanks for sharing. Getting my first Nuc soon, and wondering exactly the same - Having done extensive investigation I've settled on a 4 pint feeder, but NOT the bucket type. IMMEDIATELY after I'd ordered it, I found some OTHER advice that said I SHOULD go for the bucket type....

This could be a long and expensive learning experience....

 

[Cazza]

I'm enjoying this - thanks for sharing. Getting my first Nuc soon, and wondering exactly the same - Having done extensive investigation I've settled on a 4 pint feeder, but NOT the bucket type. IMMEDIATELY after I'd ordered it, I found some OTHER advice that said I SHOULD go for the bucket type....

This could be a long and expensive learning experience....

Early lesson in beekeeping - beekeepers rarely agree - ask a question, receive several different answers. Best thing to do is to go with your own gut feeling.
Cazza

 

[kevrhcfag]

I'm enjoying this - thanks for sharing. Getting my first Nuc soon, and wondering exactly the same - Having done extensive investigation I've settled on a 4 pint feeder, but NOT the bucket type. IMMEDIATELY after I'd ordered it, I found some OTHER advice that said I SHOULD go for the bucket type....

This could be a long and expensive learning experience....

Its great isn't it.

We've come to the conclusion asking beekeepers questions is like asking a room of accountants what does 2 + 2 make.

The only true answer being - What do you want it to be.

Someone somewhere will always be able to say "I told you so" for going a different way to what was suggested. However once we have the basics down we will have time and enough hives to try different things to see what works best for us.

 

[itma]

It may be a good idea to site the hives so that when inspecting you are not directly in front of another hive where the guard bees can see. ...

Yes, for purely practical (rather than aesthetic) reasons, I think the hive positions/orientations could do with improvement.
When working a hive, you're better not to be standing directly in front of a hive, or on a flight-line to/from one.

You should get off with a 30° rotation or a 3 foot move as being enough at one time. Little by little!

Also it would be helpful to the bees to be able to readily distinguish their hive from its neighbours. Some discrete but individual colouring pattern at the entrance (on the alighting board?) is helpful. Bees don't see red. But they do see uv, so maybe some (human) invisible patterning with one of those security-marking pens would do the job, while maintaining smartness?

The roofs. Yes, they do look very nice. But they aren't the best for practicality. Something you could try would be making a cradle to support the upturned roof and hold it level. The sort of things boat-owners have to store their boats on land. A couple of boards with a shallow 'V' cutout matching the roof angle, and a couple of supports to hold the V-boards upright ... not too hard to make?

I take it you will have seen the plural recent threads about not filling the box with foundation all in one go? Its a big jump from a nuc box!

/ADDED - while there can be many ways of doing things that work, there are also some that don't. When getting conflicting advice, ask folk 'why' they do things that particular way, and consider which of the reasons might be valid for you.

 

[kevrhcfag]

It may be a good idea to site the hives so that when inspecting you are not directly in front of another hive where the guard bees can see. Just an idea... thanks for posting the pics, i never get tired of looking at photos of bees/hives/apiaries.

Thanks for that there is a decent ditance between them and a couple of busy apiarys I have seen have them a bit closer, we were trying to keep them away from perimeter fence, plenty of room to rotate a bit.

As for foundation, different advice again, or a misunderstanding on our behalf, however the Nucs are strong (or were before we got our hands on them) one being particularly strong and heavy, so we have a nervous wait to see whats happening when we get a chance.

 

[thorn]

And all of this is being done by committee! So you will study all our posts and discuss/debate whose advice should be followed. My admiration knows no bounds, but I fear for your sanity.

 

[kevrhcfag]

And all of this is being done by committee! So you will study all our posts and discuss/debate whose advice should be followed. My admiration knows no bounds, but I fear for your sanity.

Aye, then probably ignore it and do our own thing anyway, what sanity that went years ago , your concern is noted and greatly appreciated.

 

[Swarm]

Perfectly good feeders can be made using litter trays with straw in them, placed directly over the queen excluder and an empty super placed over it. You know when they've taken the feed, you can hear the straw rustling or pieces being dragged out of the entrance.

 

[Les]

Starting off with 4 hives is certainly going in at the deep end – I like your style and welcome to beekeeping

 

[Rich0909]

Just a word of warning - I got a strong 4 frame nuc last year at the end of April and 6 weeks later they had drawn all the frames in a commercial brood box, filled it with brood and produced charged queen cells ready to swarm. You may need more than one spare hive....if we get some decent weather!

 

[kevrhcfag]

Starting off with 4 hives is certainly going in at the deep end – I like your style and welcome to beekeeping

Since there are 3 of us and will be more later it only works out at 1.3 hives each, so not so bad as it looks, but in for a penny.

 

[kevrhcfag]

Just a word of warning - I got a strong 4 frame nuc last year at the end of April and 6 weeks later they had drawn all the frames in a commercial brood box, filled it with brood and produced charged queen cells ready to swarm. You may need more than one spare hive....if we get some decent weather!

Well we got double brood boxes so shoulsd have space, if we need to spilt we have 2 spare Brood Boxes so will only need another roof, but that should give us the breathing space to organise something else. Hopefully we have decent weather so inspections are regular and we can stop the problem before it arises.

 

[rustic-Crafts]

What a great thread

I await the next instalment, after reading lots of threads this week I nearly dismissed beekeeping but this has got my apprehension calmed.
No matter what hobby you take up there is always more than one opinion, We know we do carriage driving trials with a pony.

 

[REDWOOD]

Hi and welcome to the forum, you should start with 2 colonies and have 2 brood boxes, floors, crown boards roofs and stands spare, 3 supers per hive for the first year, flat roofs for placing supers on when doing hive inspections, and a honey extractor, honey strainers, settling tank/buckets jars labels lids. Strong advice, I know you have all done a theory coarse but a practical is a must or a mentor to take you through a hive inspection at leased.