Blog Comments

  1. Greengage's Avatar
    This is Ireland all friendly beekeepers here, No chance unless you can get by the security and climb 15ft wall.
  2. busybeephilip's Avatar
    Lesson - from reading this too many beekeepers (Posse of beeks ?) know where you keep your bees, like your swarm your bees and hives might just disappear some evening.
  3. Greengage's Avatar
    Ok tks for the info, you seem to know what your talking about . There is so much to know and learn, i have been a regular here mostly reading old posts and there is a huge amount of info on here. well done to everyone who contributes irrespective of your view point.
    Ps Thanks for the vote of confidence.
    Updated 08-09-2015 at 01:08 PM by Greengage
  4. gavin's Avatar
    You can still feed syrup for a few weeks, then either commercial syrups (which don't ferment) in a warm top feeder or fondant. Some colonies need two 15l lots of syrup to get them up to a wintering weight. As Calum says, keep your bees alive and make sure they are sited for good forage. And control swarming. Then you are guaranteed a decent honey crop in 2016 .
  5. gavin's Avatar
    I have a feeling that you are going to make a good beekeeper . Two more 'helpful' suggestions from an uncalled-for mentor:

    - get those queens marked *and* clipped somehow. A warm spring day is a good time.
    - be alert for even several eggs in queen cups and act then.

    OK, here's another. Remember that colonies will continue to make queen cells after your intervention. Go back and remove the extra ones 3-4 days later in the queen-right part (unless it is really weak, ie just a frame or two with the old queen split off from the old site and so without many fliers) and 5-7 days in the queenless part (unless the queen cells were closer to emergence than that - ideally leave open cells only). The standard methods often ignore the risk of continuing queen cell production (up to 5 days after moving on the old queen) and so fail to stop swarming.
  6. Greengage's Avatar
    So far I have fed one hive two lots of syrup mixed 2:1 total 2 litres and three bags of Apiinvert at 2.5 kgs per bag all gone, will i be feeding this until December??????????? or should i switch to fondant
  7. Calum's Avatar
    Sounds like you have learnt alot in your first season. Thats more valuable than a few kilos of honey.
    Rule 1. keep your bees alive.
    Rule 2. see rule one

    The honey will come from well sited colonies that emerge strongly in the spring!
    Good luck have fun, and dont forget you probably already have more kit than you really need!
  8. busybeephilip's Avatar
    Welcome to the world of beekeeping ! There will be more bad years than good that's guaranteed. The only to make money out of bees is to sell equipment plus queens and nucs to beginners who often buy lots of useless bee gadgets, the rest of us are in it for fun and a way of using up all that spare time.