Plans for the season?

[Poly Hive]

Been reading? Planning? Pondering on swarm control? Making increase?

So it's fess up time, what are your plans for the forthcoming season?

PH

 

[BMH]

Starting off the year with 14 x colonies and 42 x nucs (some on doubles/trebles).

Plan is to move nucs over into full hives to take it up 50 x colonies and sell any left over nucs.

Colonies will spend time in different locations. Maybe some rape, maybe some heather, maybe just left where they are. Hopefully some nice spring flows, which do tend to be decent around here.

Come June once the spring flow is over, I will remove all supers for extraction and I will be taking 1 frame of brood (with the existing queen) and 1 frame of stores from each colony and populating a nuc.

To each queenless colony (with no supers) I will be adding a second brood box and a mated 2019 queen. I will then feed to get the foundation drawn.

These will then go to an apiary that has good late season flows to try and get all the foundation drawn and hopefully fill another super or two (but Ill be happy if they just draw the double brood box out ready for winter).

The nucs will get fed and the aim is to bring them up to at least a double by close of the season.

Ill then make a decision next year as to whether to sell all the nucs and stay at 50 hives or double up for the final time..

Ill report back later in the season when none of the above goes to plan and I am chasing swarms around the garden!

 

[BeeSpace]

Well, it'll only be my first full year so...

Continue learning & practicing
Take my Basic Assessment
Try some queen rearing
Go into winter with 4 strong hives + 2 nucs
Help my eldest son get set up with his own bees
Help my eldest son take his Junior Assessment
Introduce my youngest son to bees
Support my husband with his beginner's course
See if my sons' school wants to get involved learning about bees

If I manage some of that, I'll be happy.

 

[simonforeman]

My plans for this season are to increase from 4 hives to hopefully 6 or 7....

Put 3 of these into the out apary that I was offered and see how they do. See if I can improve my stock of bees so in a good place to do some queen rearing next year.

Have a good harvest of Honey as I didn't get that much in my first year but could of sold lbs of the stuff.....

Try to over winter a couple of poly nucs

 

[MartinL]

Want to experiment with exotic imports.

 

[B+.]

Been reading? Planning? Pondering on swarm control? Making increase?

So it's fess up time, what are your plans for the forthcoming season?

PH

I have been trying to get a local breeding group going for some time. Last year, my local association voted in favour of setting one up and testing queens according to the Coloss methodology (https://coloss.org/standard-methods-for-rearing-and-selection-of-apis-mellifera-queens/ ).
As usually happens with beekeepers, there is lots of support for something but very little follow up. I arranged an open-apiary last July and about a dozen people attended (some from neighbouring counties). After discussion with the breeding group supervisor, I agreed to mentor two new testers. This is the first step towards recognition as a breeder so they will test instrumentally inseminated daughters of my stock next year.
I bought 100 Langstroth polynucs last summer (https://beekeepingforum.co.uk/album.php?albumid=751&pictureid=3910) and received 50 extension boxes a couple of weeks ago (https://beekeepingforum.co.uk/album.php?albumid=751&pictureid=3955) for a breeding project. It would be nice to think I could fill them all with II queens, but, thats a lot of work on top of my usual testing work.

 

[Walrus]

Starting off the year with 14 x colonies and 42 x nucs (some on doubles/trebles).

Plan is to move nucs over into full hives to take it up 50 x colonies and sell any left over nucs.

Colonies will spend time in different locations. Maybe some rape, maybe some heather, maybe just left where they are. Hopefully some nice spring flows, which do tend to be decent around here.

Come June once the spring flow is over, I will remove all supers for extraction and I will be taking 1 frame of brood (with the existing queen) and 1 frame of stores from each colony and populating a nuc.

To each queenless colony (with no supers) I will be adding a second brood box and a mated 2019 queen. I will then feed to get the foundation drawn.

These will then go to an apiary that has good late season flows to try and get all the foundation drawn and hopefully fill another super or two (but Ill be happy if they just draw the double brood box out ready for winter).

The nucs will get fed and the aim is to bring them up to at least a double by close of the season.

Ill then make a decision next year as to whether to sell all the nucs and stay at 50 hives or double up for the final time..

That sounds like an awesome plan to me. I'm looking to expand too but the option of nuc sales is limited because I'm on Langstroth. My honey is usually in by end of July so plenty of time to make up nucs for over-wintering, although wasps are a problem for me.

Will the x50 new queens be made by you? If so how many lines will you be using? Any concerns with inbreeding/loss of vigour?

 

[For want of a better word]

To continue to access the Cornish variety of Native Dark Honeybees raised last year and previous year and raise at least another hundred or so queens with a pedigree to match any other line of exotic bees...... Bee improvement without the need to import!

 

[Hivemaker.]

Ultimately produce as much honey as possible.

 

[BMH]

That sounds like an awesome plan to me. I'm looking to expand too but the option of nuc sales is limited because I'm on Langstroth. My honey is usually in by end of July so plenty of time to make up nucs for over-wintering, although wasps are a problem for me.



Will the x50 new queens be made by you? If so how many lines will you be using? Any concerns with inbreeding/loss of vigour?

Think I'll definitely graft some of the better Buckfast F1s after I see what their temperament and honey gathering capabilities are like, but to be honest, I'll probably just buy 50 x buckfast F1 as they will become next years production colonies.

If I do decide to double up to 100 colonies next year, I'm definitely going for fully assembled frames. It was a killer this year.

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[Beefriendly]

Bee improvement without the need to import!

In what way are they improved?
Gentler? More fecund? Increased Honey? Or just bred for being a purer local Amm variant?

 

[B+.]

To continue to access the Cornish variety of Native Dark Honeybees raised last year and previous year and raise at least another hundred or so queens with a pedigree to match any other line of exotic bees...... Bee improvement without the need to import!

Good luck. You'll need it

 

[Stiffy]

Ultimately produce as much honey as possible.

With as little effort and as few hives as I can to improve on last years excellent crop
S

 

[Millet]

Upto now i have six full colonies and one nuc all have 2018 Queens...if all is well and they get through winter.. the nuc will go into a full size hive when the time is right..and one of the big colonies which is on double brood and very angry with a F3 Buckfast queen is going to get the Queen splatted and i will make as many nucs up as possible with bought in reliable Queens..my aim is to have ten colonies going into winter for next year..but i have the equipment to go to Twelve if the need arises..all this is in the balance at the moment until my lady friend decides whether she is going to stay where she lives now or moves back into her own house in a town where i have nowhere to keep the bees..i can move them elsewhere but it will throw a spanner in the works..we will see..
Good luck everyone else with your plans..

 

[B+.]

my aim is to have ten colonies going into winter for next year..but i have the equipment to go to Twelve if the need arises..

It's always wise to have more equipment than you think you'll need...you can never have too much

 

[Millet]

It's always wise to have more equipment than you think you'll need...you can never have too much

That is exactly what i have done this year..i need a few more Nucs but hive wise i have gone a little over the top.... i have space to store the equipment and like you say or i will say it is better of looking at it than looking for it..mind you i bet i end up running out of something..

 

[BMH]

It's always wise to have more equipment than you think you'll need...you can never have too much

I thought this... But I have issues with leaving kit empty! Last year's spares turn into next year's kit. Does it ever end?

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[B+.]

I thought this... But I have issues with leaving kit empty! Last year's spares turn into next year's kit. Does it ever end?

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No.
The one thing I am short of is time.

 

[B+.]

it is better of looking at it than looking for it.

Never heard that expression before. I like that

 

[simonforeman]

One thing I didn't add to my plans was...I have a 12x10 shed ordered to go on my home allotment to store all my spare equipment....