So happy to find my bees have managed to put honey into the supers that went on last Sarurday. Now I don't have to worry if they have enough stores. Some of it even capped. Not got a clue what nectar they are finding. Temps averaging around 10 this week with the odd fluctuation up to 14 but snow on the hills above overnight. Damn fine bees I'd say. Scottish born and bred!
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Well, I started May with a sad little Nuc and a queenless national hive and start June with a laying queen in the national, the sad little nuc starting to come along and have been busy collecting waif and stray swarms as people run out of kit. I may technically be up to 5 colonies (with another 3/4 still to come) but between the lot of them I think I could just about muster one decent colony to bring in some honey.
I"m going to get the others up to the apiary, give them all until mid June to settle down and then look to see if I can reduce them down to 2-3 nice strong colonies with maybe a couple of Nucs to take into winter. There is hope for this season yet!
Last edited by Neils; 02-06-2015 at 06:09 PM.
That reminds me of a young lad i knew who decided to spray paint his car parts black on the cream front room carpet 😀 . And he wanted to be a fighter pilot !
When I chose this place, one of the reasons was the 2 alleys of limes, 18 in all, plus others around the grounds.
Today:
DSCF4826.jpg
About 2 weeks earlier than up t'mountain
Well done Chris … I've just discovered a 'tree/woodland consultant' who appears to know of every lime tree in the county. Could prove useful
Today's news is that my first attempt with a Cloake board appears to be working well. Big fat cells that will be sealed tomorrow.
todays news
Now up to 7 hives, including two nucs. Biggest Is Currently about 5-6 frames so this weekend I'm going to look to combine 4 of them down to two to try and get some honey coming in. There are still two colonies that need moving including one for my next door neighbour who's just starting out. They have the brood side of an AS but it currently not queen right so may need a spare queen which I'll have once I've combined a couple of colonies.
After a disastrous start to the year things are looking up as I've also managed to secure two more sites including one ideal for my currently non existent queen rearing programme.
Stuck at a supplier in Vienna - with a machine that just will not run without variation of every sort.
The wife tells me that the two 3 frame nucs in the garden are bringing in pollen, so it looks like they accepted the queens i gave them on Sunday.
Thats me up to 20 colonies with laying queens - from 4 after my spring sell off.
My trainee beek is preparing apideas for the 30 queens we are sending to the breeding station....
And I am stuck 700km away until Saturday... not sure what my target of overwintered colonies should be - i guess i will run out of boxes to put them in at some point!
Here the first honey harvest is blighted with melicitose...
Good to learn that things are getting back on track Neil.
Pah! I have them all covered ..... if you're talking Fife of course .....Originally Posted by fatshark
Well done Chris … I've just discovered a 'tree/woodland consultant' who appears to know of every lime tree in the county. Could prove useful
And I'm off tonight to sort out the other site which is on 15 acres of meadow/orchard. They are so keen to have bees there they came round last night to find out when I could move some there.
I've also has another offer from an organic farm down the road, but I'm saving that one for later. Right now a couple of apiaries with s few hives on each seems to make more sense than rushing in and having to spend ages driving around to look at a hive here or there.
Moving kit around to set up the new apiary:
I think the bees will be happy here, loads of clover in the fields which aren't mown until August.
I've got a couple of hives being combined at the moment which I'll move tomorrow. I'll bring one and probably a backup nuc up to get this one going, but plenty of room to expand.
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