gavin

Exposure in the orchard

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gavin
, 29-05-2011 at 12:46 PM (3155 Views)
Another very windy day out there, so that's my plans to prepare to move a couple of colonies for rasps (a first for me) down the tubes. I tried last night, after a very fine beginners meeting elsewhere when a dozen brand new beekeepers were treated to a chorus of queen piping amongst other delights, but was beaten back. Beaten back?! Yes, I really need to requeen that one. I had split it on Friday and wanted to reunite after removing queen cells (this one isn't going to contribute queens to the next generation) but all that bending over let a few bees creep inside. A simple jacket and veil does me for 51 weeks of the year, but not this one! A bee stinging my hip, one on the loose inside my veil, one in my sleeve and one up my trouser leg didn't make for a comfortable session. If anyone was looking out the kitchen window of the castle when their favourite beekeeper dropped his trousers in the middle of the orchard, I apologise! That bee lived to sting another day.

Anyway, here are some images of one of the three northern marsh orchids to have made their home just in front of the hives, and of the two old orchard trees that were felled by the winds on Monday. On my travels yesterday there was hardly a small road which didn't have newly felled big trees at the roadside, many of them clearly had been across the road when they came down.





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Updated 29-05-2011 at 12:51 PM by gavin

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  1. Jon's Avatar
    I was filling apideas with Mervyn on Wednesday by shaking frames of bees from the cell raiser colony.
    It is the one I was given nearly a month ago which had swarmed.
    It has been getting progressively more cranky as it has been queenless for a month and I keep removing its queen cells and offering more grafts.
    I realised I was taking a few stings while filling the apideas and I also had several bees in the veil.
    When I got home I realised I had over 20 stings on the right wrist and several more under the left ear.
    There are definitely some jobs where it would be good to have more than a veil.
    I requeened it yesterday by putting a nuc with a laying queen above it via newspaper so hopefully it will calm down.
  2. gavin's Avatar
    It is a sad fact the colonies you might think of using for cell raisers (I've been considering this one as I don't want its genetics) are starting cranky and will only get worse if you make them queenless. I admire your fortitude. I need to take a few more stings this summer before they bother me less, each one still hurts too much.
  3. Jon's Avatar
    The big aggressive hybrid colonies would make excellent cell raisers due to the sheer volume of bees but the management is very difficult and the colony would really need to be in a place away from people.
    The ideal situation is a very docile cell raiser colony and the colony supplying the larvae sitting right beside it.