Blog Comments

I couldn't see a video earlier - they may not do an online version of their news programme. They might even not have used the interview.

Have you got a link to the interview?

The scalp -- boy that hurts doesn't it

Good stuff.
I can see you are en route to becoming an apidea geek.
I love the arithmetic. One mated queen means the apidea has paid for itself.

Maybe unfavourable weather gives apiary vicinity mating and good weather gives wide-ranging queens and drones?

As his bees remain reasonably Amm (I think) in an area with lots of imports then maybe there is something in AVM.

You can also cross your fingers that apiary vicinity mating is not an old wives tale with regard to AMM.
I am pretty sure I have had queens mated in very unfavourable weather.

Forgot to say that there was one virgin on the loose (don't know where she ended up), but the other queen cells were fine. So yes, very much in the nick of time. Probably the workers were protecting them. I have high hopes for these bees. The weatherman was just talking about continuing unsettled weather tonight.

Good job. Sound like you rescued the virgins in the nick of time. Cross your fingers for some decent mating weather. I have 11 apideas set out with virgins at the moment and most of them hatched 9 days ago so now is the time for a good day or two.

Interesting question. Where these boxes are destined has mice that chewed the bottom bars off frames! There were also rats gnawing the entrance of wooden Thornes hive, but since the site owner's chickens were given away the place look less likely to attract them. I'll ask when I next see Murray. The narrow entrance stops them getting in I think, so maybe out in the open they just don't see the hives as a target. I might worry more about mice in the storage shed, but there will be foundation and all sorts of things in there for them to play with, so some kind of rodent control is a must.

If they have to be varnished to protect against chewing and hive tools, how long will it take the average mouse to get in? Someone I know had all his plastic screwdriver handles reduced to powder by the wee beasties!

Yesterday I think I arrived as it was really warming up and there was a cloud of orientating bees, maybe young ones. In the 10 min or so it took me to offload the latest bee equipment purchases from the car to the shed the orientation flights had calmed down and there was a rush of bees on foraging duties. Maybe these bees you see returning were on their first forays. I was wrong to say this was the first excited foraging I've seen - when the willow was out there was something similar.

When I had the camera in my hand I was thinking of Calum's excellent photos earlier, so that is where the inspiration came from. Wide angle, short focus, flash on, rotate and crop them later to take account of the funny angles and the unwanted areas on the shots.

Nice pictures. It is amazing how quickly they reorientate. You can see some bees bringing in pollen within an hour or two of a move.

I have sold quite a few nucs myself and have no problem with that. I am still a long way from break even as I treat beekeeping as a hobby and as long as the expense is not ridiculous I am happy to lose money at a sustainable rate.
We are charging a tenner a head to join our queen rearing group which will cover the cost of cell cups and other grafting equipment.
One of our members has bulk bought Apideas and can provide them for £18.50 which is a good price. Thorne had them at £30 at the stall at the UBKA conference.
All kicks off next Monday so hopefully we will make all of the mistakes this year and have everything fine tuned for 2012.

Last season the cooperation was freely-given advice on one hand, and the later offering of casts on the other (gratefully received as I'd had heavy winter losses). Clearly the advice wasn't good enough otherwise they would not have had the casts! Also, their bees were in the first place a kind gift from a man who has been selling bees to others. Wendy is clearly very persuasive!

This year things are a little different. The Claverhouse Group are looking to make income from the bees and wanted to keep their stocks for that. I have a grant to create the association apiary so money quite rightly changed hands, as they were willing to part with a full colony which they really wanted to keep.

There are some locally who sell a few nuclei every year at roughly the price you mention. I'm quite comfortable with that, as there are significant costs running the colonies from which the nucs come, and it seems right that there is recompense for that. The bees are generally of good quality and healthy. So our beginners are mostly paying someone for their bees. Other associations try to raise bees to give away free of charge for their beginners. That was possibly viable when associations had one or two beginners a year, but with classes of 30 or so it is too much of a burden. I think that it is best that money changes hands. I'm hoping to run the association apiary like that. Not-for-profit but enough to cover the costs and upgrade the equipment some years.

Forida has graduated from Marigolds to thin vinyl gloves. That picture was taken last summer. She's the only beekeeper I know with two veils.

It's great to see the cooperation between bee groups and bee enthusiasts.
There are quite a few, who have the pound signs in their eyes about the possibility of shifting nucs at £120 a pop.

I am really pleased to see the work accomplished in preparation for the Association's site. Well done those who have worked hard. Looking forward to seeing the bees later on in the season.

Play your cards right, Phil, and you might even get a VIP invitation to the official opening, whenever that may be. I suspect that the honey might just be a bit of an embarrassment - I'd settle for a good crop of bees every year for our beginners. And a decent crop of fruit for D given that our apiary is in her orchard!

Congratulations guys.
Trust that all goes smoothly and that the foundations you lay now will see fruit (ok honey) for many years.
Look forward to seeing the finished site with bees flying freely.
Best Wishes,
Phil McAnespie

LOL!! I felt bad even when taking the pictures. I could see that you were leaning on your spade, but you were working hard most of the afternoon while I was the one taking it easy (my excuse being a dodgy shoulder .... ).

Two pictures of me doing nothing! My wife isn't surprised!