To avoid confusion in my mind (or what of it still functions) is this something completely different to the bees feeding off the secretions of aphids etc. ?
To avoid confusion in my mind (or what of it still functions) is this something completely different to the bees feeding off the secretions of aphids etc. ?
BBKA Module 2 asks about such things. Beans and Cherry Laurel are two of the plants. Plum and Cherry are two others. there are not many that exhibit this characteristic.Originally Posted by alancooper
Last edited by Adam; 02-07-2015 at 02:25 PM. Reason: typo
A quick search has educated me. Found this site interesting
http://www.wbrc.org.uk/WORCRECD/32/W...a-floral_.html
[QUOTE=chris;30698]A quick search has educated me. Found this site interesting
/QUOTE]
Very interesting indeed
Most of them are Ok but 2 for some reason are horrible.
They are on the requeening list.
I 'borrowed' one of Jon's queens from a friend I think she is expecting it back.
Really nice bees
I holding on to her
Last edited by The Drone Ranger; 04-07-2015 at 07:36 PM.
Hi all because I’ve been very busy for the last six weeks this forum has taken a back seat, but I’m still out there trying to keep on top of my beekeeping. The weather in June was worse than Mays with twice the average rainfall and well below average temperatures and sunshine. Orkneys colonies are now reaching their peak but up until the weekend there was very little forage coming in. The warm weather in the last few days has improved things greatly. The clover, although late, is now coming out and if we get a nice July and August all might not be lost.
Swarming has just started up here and on Thursday while paying a quick visit to my friend’s apiary I came across this prime swarm about midday. I knew she was away till late and I had to deal with it so I rushed home and came back about 40 minutes later with a nuc plus all the other paraphernalia needed to deal with the swarm.
Now here’s where I should be bragging about my textbook swarm collection and impressing all you beginners out there but things didn’t go quite to plan. Firstly I managed to brush about 90% of the bees off the tree trunk and into a cardboard box which I then dumped on the sheet in front of the nuc. The idea was for the bees to happily trundle into the nuc but they were having none of it and after about 10 minutes a cluster started to gather on a shrub nearby. I left them for about half an hour to settle before dumping them in front of the nuc for a second time. This time the bees decided to enter the nuc with a little bit of help from me and by the time I came back with some syrup nearly all of the bees were inside( I lifted the crown board to check). Before I left about 4 pm I contacted my friend and told her how pleased I was with the way things worked out.
The next morning my friend was contacted by a neighbour who said a swarm had arrived in their garden about teatime the previous day. Basically the swarm scoffed all the syrup I fed them and then left the nuc to spend all night on a shrub in the pouring rain. They have since been rehoused in another hive and moved to a slightly different location. With hindsight I think the nuc was a bit too small for the size of swarm but everything’s worked out fine in the end.
Last edited by lindsay s; 04-07-2015 at 11:54 PM.
RIP Queen Whitebeam (2011-2015). When I saw her last week I reluctantly followed advice and stopped trying to save her. I found her this afternoon dead in front of the hive. I think a new queen has just started laying - a few eggs are placed a bit skew-whiff.
IMG_6124.JPG
Apart from that, is anybody else also bothered by midgies while checking your colonies? If I'm not complaining about the wind here on my hill, it's the midgies. I think I'll have to get a bee suit with with midgie netting rather than bee netting.
Kitta
Last edited by Mellifera Crofter; 11-07-2015 at 06:52 PM. Reason: Corrected 'midge' to 'midgie'. Wikipedia says that is the Scottish term.
That's a pretty good innings these days … I 'retired' an old girl today who had also provided excellent service but was very clearly failing. I don't name mine (numbering the colonies is as personal as it gets) … why was she called 'Whitebeam'?
I choose a name to remind me of where they emerged, or something else specific to that queen. I have a queen Bell (from Belfast), a Queen Joan ( Jon) and a Queen Ranger.
I'm standing in my bee house about to start an inspection. One hive is very full of bees so need to add another super. It's very quiet in here except for the sound of thousands of bees working their little socks off. Sounds like the patter of tiny raindrops. However these bees are a bit fierce and intimidating so it's double if not treble layers all over and one hive today and another tomorrow. With the thick gloves I was finding it really hard to get a grip on the frames so last time tried a hinged frame holder which meant I could be a lot gentler and quicker. Was hoping to try Gavin's BB lift but my frames are not the right way for that and being inside I can't get at them from the sides.
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