It has been so hectic lately that I have simply not had time to put any blogs together to discuss my stings, my new suits, my battles with the inevitable swarms and the fantastic weather we have been having. Therefore I thought I would play a little bit of catch up with my latest challenges dealing with a Spring honey extraction.
There was such a strong honey flow that I have almost broken several vertebrae lifting various supers off my hives (though I have to say the Omlet hives split supers have been a joy to deal with). I total I would say I have about 3 supers to extract. Read the rest of this entry »
So, having seen that the frames are being filled pretty quickly in the National Hive and having not been able to offer the Omlet the two supers I should have done (read that blog article here), I realised I needed an emergency frame building evening! I didn’t think I would need them this quickly but it seems that the bees are being pretty active.
A point to note from doing this last year when I did all the building (funny to see this written last year) was that the nails I was using were too long (it meant the nails were sticking out from wood which wasn’t great – i knew myself too well knowing that at some point during the inspections I would end up stabbing myself on the nails and……I did and mistook it for a bee sting until I did it three times in a row on the same frame!). Therefore as a point of note I have used 20mm nails for the main joints and then 15mm nails for the nails to secure the foundation to the frame. I hope this helps people as it seems to have worked this time round.
So, 12 frames built, I go to bed slightly happier than earlier this evening!
[google1] In all the reading and researching I have been doing April Beekeeping is all about swarm control. This is the case because the bee colonies will be starting to increase in size as the weather warms up and therefore space could become limited; and pretty quickly.
The interesting element for my beekeeping is that I run two completely different hives (An Omlet Beehaus and a 14*12 National Hive) and therefore they have completely different ways of dealing with swarm control.
The one thing I have realised is that should the (almost) inevitable occur and I see that the bees are looking to expand I am seriously underprepared on not just the equipment department but also mental capacity to deal with all that I need to remember! Read the rest of this entry »
The weather was perfect and I felt it was time I went for a 2nd inspection of the year. The bees were pretty active and I was having a mild case of beekeepers panic at the thought of what was going on in the hive. I had already managed to put one super on the National Hive but I hadn’t yet put anything on the Omlet hive. Now was possible the time.
I got to the Omlet hive and had prepared a game plan (I find I have to do this nowadays in preparation for what I might find!). The glory of the Omlet is that you can essentially put on half a super first unlike National when a whole super has to go on. I would like to think it was because it was planned but it was simply because I had only prepared 6 super frames. The Omlet super technique was perfect. Read the rest of this entry »
I think I experienced what is called the Beekeeping panic today. It was the hottest day of the year so far in the UK and as a result I knew that my bees would be loving it (especially as all the fruit tree blossom would be coming out any second). The problem was that I had just put a super on one of the hives (thank god I had that ready to go) but the other was not ready in the slightest. To top it all off I hadn’t removed the hive entrance blocks.
Standing outside the hive this morning (which I only did as a fluke as I wasn’t even going out to the hives today) was like watching the busiest of motorways on the worst rush hour ever. To top it all off there would be a multi-car pile up right in the middle of it. I decided there and then that I had to do something. Read the rest of this entry »
So the time has come for feeding my bees in Spring (or thereabouts anyway!) and so I had looked at the research. Appartently feeding bees with sugar syrup is a bad idea this early in the year because the syrup can freeze. Therefore Bakers Fondant was the recommended feed for bees. One slight problem however was not having the slightest clue what bakers fondant actually was.
As it turns out it is basically icing that goes on the top of cakes (as you can see from the pictures) but is appartently the best for feeding bees in Spring. So I did a little bit of research (as well as visiting various supermarkets and asking around with the response of several blank faces……fondant for bees? You’ve got to be kidding…..) and found that a great place for fondant (in the UK) was Bako which is essentially a wholesaler of baking products. Read the rest of this entry »
So, we are having a real cold snap at the moment and i am left wondering, do they bees feel the cold?
It is especially apparent as i have just been lucky enough to bring a new addition to the world, Edward, who was born earlier this week, but this has meant that i am paying attention to temperatures a little more than normal. Read the rest of this entry »
Aside from recieving four stings in 24 hours the move was relatively painless. After a 5.30am start to make sure the bees were in place I got up to the allotment and was immediately cursing as I realised some of the bees were still surrounding the hive underneath the bit of tape I had left there last night after my panicked retreat.
stings, my new suits, my battles with the inevitable swarms and the fantastic weather we have been having. Therefore I thought I would play a little bit of catch up with my latest challenges dealing with a Spring honey extraction.
