Neonach

  1. Disappointment ... and Recovery?

    A bit of an understatement, that. Devastated? Well, not that bad. Bad news certainly. I'm now certain that all the queens that were raised and have survived this year are infertile. That leaves me where I was back in the spring, on a knife edge. I badly need disease-free Amm nucs next spring, but as yet I'm at a loss to know where to get them. The lesson I've learnt from this year is that I cannot afford to take anything for granted, whether it be the supply of nucs/queens (that never materialized), ...
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  2. An historic first!

    Today I made my first ever sale of honey. An historic first not just because it is our first sale, nor because it is almost certainly the first honey to be sold from this garden in its long 350+ year history, but it is quite possibly the first jar of honey ever produced and sold in this group of islands. Although at this stage I'm growing bees rather than producing honey, I had reason to remove a ’super’ I’d put on to allow the bees to keep their own winter supplies. I’ve no proper extracting equipment ...
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  3. BeeBase

    About a week ago I registered with the National Bee Units BeeBase website and database. Indicating location and providing information on apiary sites was easy enough, and then I made a start on recording inspections.

    By the time I reached the fourth inspection for first two and then four hives at one apiary site, I was already feeling somewhat muddled and frustrated by the database's interface.

    Not user-friendly, certainly: for examplle each colony inspection record ...
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  4. Lateness is the prerogative of royalty

    A succession of artificial and natural swarming in the course of little more than a fortnight may prove to be the turning point in my bee-keeping. Such a short while ago I had just one viable colony, plus the remains of a colony that had lost its queen but was nonetheless producing drones. Now I've three more hives with queens, though I'm not yet sure whether they are mated. The first scent of autumn is in the air, and the weather has turned much cooler and wetter: I'm now concerned that we may ...
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  5. Never was a truer word said!

    Heading home after a full day of turnarounds at our self-catering cottages and a bit of grounds maintenance for good measure (it's going to turn to rain tomorrow), I'm absolutely whacked and ready for my evening meal. But what's this, Neonachina (who went back home ahead of me) driving like mad towards me .... 'Bees swarming again!"

    I get home to find a dense ball of bees clinging to the underside of a garden bench - and not the type you can move, but with 'planted' posts, so ...

    Updated 07-08-2011 at 10:06 PM by Neonach

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