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Thread: What I learned in my second year...

  1. #11

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    Enjoyed reading this post being 2 years into beekeeping myself now. After 2 years of beekeeping Ive learnt four important things 1) It costs a lot of money in the beginning 2) Stings are still bloody sore 3) Ive yet to get a single jar of honey from my lot so it isnt as easy as it looks and 4) Swarm control gets in the way of holidays. But I love working with my bees and Im confident that when the honey comes it will be well worth the wait. And the excitement of things like seeing your first homebred queen starting to lay beats holidays anyway.

  2. #12
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    Ive yet to get a single jar of honey from my lot so it isnt as easy as it looks
    Hi queenB, can I just ask an honest question (bearing in mind Bristol is a little bit more than "just" south of Aberdeen)? Why do you think you didn't get any honey in your second season?

    Was it circumstance? Choice of hive? Making sure the bees had enough of the honey they made to see them through? A rotten summer where you were?

    I agree with 1,2 and 4 and absolutely about seeing your first homebred queen [laying].

  3. #13

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    Hi Nellie
    I think I didnt get any honey yet mainly because of the reasons you suggest. Ive started from scratch in 2009 summer and been concentrating on increasing my bee numbers. Started with just one small colony in a brand new hive (my hives are nationals). In year 2 I split it to make two colonies but the weather wasnt kind and the bees had a lot of work to do...drawing comb in all that brand new frames. The new queen didnt start laying until mid August so that colony was very slow to take off. I bought a third colony last year but again it was small and I got it on a few frames only. The little honey my bees did make, I left with them deciding they needed it more than me. In addition to their own supplies, each colony took about 25kilos of abrosia late last summer so they obviously didnt have enough honey to do themselves let alone me. But they all went into the winter strong and with a full super of food above the brood boxes (Im working brood and a half over winter). Perhaps Im overfeeding them but better to have to much than too little I thought. This summer....Im confident there will be some to spare and I cant wait!!!! Mead recipe ready!!!

  4. #14
    Senior Member Adam's Avatar
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    With regard to home-bred queens, my first was in my first year after I lost a swarm and I was left with a colony with queencells. The relief and pleasure when I opened up the hive after weeks and weeks to see several frames of brood and a young queen was immense.

    I'm not convinced about mead though. The only mead I've tried I didn't like!


    Adam

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    I quite like it, but I wouldn't want more than a small glass in any given session.

    Queenb, sounds like were in a very similar stage at the moment. Wonder if perhaps the weather is the main difference between our fortunes?

    I started 2010 with one colony and split three ways during the AS as I'd also made up a small Nuc as insurance. I hived that into a 14x12 in late July. I got no honey from that one but did get around 80 jars from the other two. The brood side of the AS ended up producing the mist honey despite me accidentally losing the queen in that one. The queen side ended up swarming again and I misread that as supersedure so might have had abit more from them if I hadnt messed up.

    We had pretty much a heat wave from late April to mid July and they've lots of forage here so they roared off in the spring.

  6. #16

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    Biggest lesson? The smell of a hive on a heather moor when you have morning sickness is truely appalling. Also, bee-phobic husbands CAN do the heavy lifting of supers if they really need to.

  7. #17

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    80 jars of honey...wow!! That is exciting. We have plenty of forage so that shouldnt be a problem (I keep hives on grazing land which borders peatlands so they have clover on one side of them and heather on the other. Also lots of willow, hawthorn and gorse on their doorstep. We planted a lot of borage around the hives last summer which went down well (I really hope it has survived the cold winter and makes a come-back this summer). I think the weather probably did play a part - we had a lot of rain and definately no heat waves!! We will have better luck this year I hope. Luckily my partner isnt bee-phobic...infact he has become nearly as keen as me and we often fight over who gets to do the bee tasks.

  8. #18
    Senior Member EmsE's Avatar
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    I wasn't lucky enough to get any honey last year either which I think was for a couple of reasons. I also started the year with 1 colony and carried out an artificial swarm when I found the first queen cells. The bees however intended this to be supercedure, kicked the old queen out (a 2009 one) & proceeded to raise a new one. Both hives took a good couple of months to build up after this. Whilst I think that was the reason for no honey, the weather didn't help matters either. Whilst we had excellent weather to the end of June, it was far too dry the lack of rain caused a problem with the nectar flow in June & July was the usual washout (the usual really for school hols).

    However, how would I judge the year? I think it was an excellent one. I doubled my stock and quadrupled the number of bee-keeping quandaries flying through my head, although I I wouldn't say no to having honey as well.

    Adam, Mead is one of the most fulfilling wines to make. It clears so easily and the good thing is that you can make it to suit your taste. It's lovely made with rosehips and you can experiment with whatever edible forage you have in your area for a bit of variety.

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    I have to add something new to my list that I learned today.

    Treat all your colonies in the same apiary for varroa at the same time. (and get as many beekeepers around you to do so too if you can).

    Was looking at some figures, and I'll try and get some links sorted out, relating to the rate of re-infestation of Varroa into a colony at the end of its treatment. The short version is it's fast and in quantity, to the point that in some studies they mistook it for signs of resistance to the treatments being applied.

  10. #20
    Administrator gavin's Avatar
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    That would be very interesting, thanks Neil.

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