Page 368 of 414 FirstFirst ... 268318358366367368369370378 ... LastLast
Results 3,671 to 3,680 of 4137

Thread: todays news

  1. #3671
    Senior Member Mellifera Crofter's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Location
    Aberdeenshire, on top of a wind-swept and exposed hill.
    Posts
    1,190

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Calluna4u View Post
    ... Must get a smaller bee suit.....looks like an wrinkly yellow elephant that's gone through a car wash in that pic!!!
    Now you've put a whole new image in my head, C4U: by combining those two images, I now only see a small yellow elephant pirouetting in the middle of a circle of beehives. I think that's preferable to the car-wash image.

    Kitta

  2. #3672
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    Orkney (it’s usually cool and windy but somehow the bees survive!)
    Posts
    284

    Default

    The last of my supers were cleared and taken home tonight and all hives bar two are now on syrup. It’s been a mixed picture for me this year. Although I made up less nucs than I planned for, their queens got mated and are now doing well. My town apiary is quite exposed and the honey crop this year was very poor. Two colonies with 14x12 brood frames stored all their honey down below and put nothing in the supers, I’m going to finish with 14x12 frames but I’ll leave that for another post. As for the rest I’ll be lucky if they average 14-18lbs per colony.
    I had moved three hives to a good clover site ten miles away and they have saved the day. They managed to nearly fill eight supers between them. As usual demand for my honey is far higher than the supply despite keeping more colonies. There is not much you can do if the bees don’t produce the goods.
    Is it safe to ask how everyone else’s honey crop has been this year or will I be met with a deafening silence?

  3. #3673

    Default

    Hi there - still got extracting to do and when it settles will get back to you on this.

  4. #3674

    Default

    I'll jump in since I'm a beginner and have done infinitely better than last year

    Started with two nucs late April, harvested about 15 lbs of lovely blossom honey last weekend. About 12 lbs of it came from one hive. A modest harvest but for year one I'm delighted!

    The hive with the tiny yield tried to swarm and got split.

    So now taking three good colonies into winter, and I've got about 50 frames of drawn comb that I didn't have 6 months ago so that alone gets me ahead for next year

    Hoping next year I can get my average production cost per jar down into double figures...

  5. #3675
    Administrator gavin's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Tayside
    Posts
    4,464
    Blog Entries
    41

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by lindsay s View Post
    Is it safe to ask how everyone else’s honey crop has been this year or will I be met with a deafening silence?
    Spring: OSR more or less failed but many of my colonies flew instead to bring in a fairly decent spring blossom crop. Sycamore, bird cherry, whatever they could find. I guess the deep roots of the trees helped in the dry spring, as did the reasonably vigorous overwintered Amm queens (and some hybrids). Overall average of 25lb/production colony.

    Summer: washout. The very strongest colonies brought in some light summer blossom (must be some clover and some RBW in the mix) or darker blossom (bramble perhaps) plus just a little lime here and there. Summer harvest was under half that from spring and pretty poor. As is usual in poorer conditions, only the strongest colonies produced honey. A bit of poorly controlled swarming didn't help either .

    Heather: probably average. Heavy, heavy brood boxes and one or two supers jam-packed.

    Balsam: Why did I bother leaving some for the balsam?! Murray always gives good advice but I don't always listen. Plenty of bee activity but only the odd half super here and there, some of it mixed with coneflower which is colonising the Tay. 'Rudbeckia-bashing' can't be far away and this time I might join in. It isn't a nice honey. However the coneflower is now over and the balsam will have a while yet to work its magic.

  6. #3676
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    Orkney (it’s usually cool and windy but somehow the bees survive!)
    Posts
    284

    Default

    Thanks for the replies so far and I’m sorry if the last sentence of my previous post seems a bit offhand. The main reason most of us keep bees is for the honey at the end of the season and I think a lot of beekeepers seem to be reluctant to share details about their harvest. Prove me wrong?

  7. #3677

    Default

    Probably not of huge interest to the Scottish beeks but I do follow your site closely..over in n ireland best season I've had in recent years. Took hives to Armagh for May apple blossom, hit a super hot month,back up to County Down ,June a bit crap, then July was just good enough temps 16-20 and did well on clover and blackberry. 8 hives ,averaged 50 lbs overall ,
    which is pretty good for this part of the world.

  8. #3678
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Location
    Exiled Scot, North of Stoke on Trent,
    Posts
    483

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by lindsay s View Post
    Is it safe to ask how everyone else’s honey crop has been this year or will I be met with a deafening silence?
    8 jumbo langs in back garden about 0.25miles from National Trust Garden (BiddulphGrange ) and assorted woods/homes/cows.
    Only 3-4 produced this year due to weakness of others (since rectified requeening).
    One used as a Queen raiser. Cloake Board - produced about 40lbs - left on hives to overwinter.Three remaining produced 170 or so pounds (some not bottled) plus about another 50 left for bees..

    Summer ended mid July and it rained and rained and...

  9. #3679
    Senior Member fatshark's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Location
    Ardnamurchan & Fife
    Posts
    1,693

    Default

    Not dissimilar to Gavin (geographically unsurprising) ... about 25lb/colony of Spring honey. Almost nothing in the summer. I've just jarred the latter. Excellent flavour, but barely worth the effort. Didn't take anything to the heather and all colonies now munching down the fondant.

    From a honey production standpoint my worst ever season since the year after I started.

    From a more general beekeeping point of view a reasonably rewarding season. Only aware of one swarm missed, almost always knew what state individual hives were in, bait hives worked, requeening via splits went well, colonies - with one exception (and likely to be united soon) - looking in very good order. Extremely low Varroa levels apparent now treatment has started.

  10. #3680
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    Orkney (it’s usually cool and windy but somehow the bees survive!)
    Posts
    284

    Default

    I’ve been feeding more syrup to the bees today and was surprised at the speed it’s being taken down. I hefted a few hives and found them to be very light, probably because they are still strong and there’s very little forage coming in. A reminder to any new or lazy beekeepers out there don’t SCRIMP on the autumn feeding, because it’s too late when you find they’ve died out.
    I spent a little time observing the front of three hives today and I wouldn’t like to be a Drone (Ranger) at the moment. The bees are throwing them out onto the landing boards with a vengeance and even Tonto wouldn’t have been able to stop the ensuing massacre. This time last year I found hundreds of dead bees outside one of my hives and I thought it might have been the result of robbing, but on closer inspection over 90% of them were drones.
    I’m taking over the airing cupboard tonight and will dehumidify and warm up my unsealed honeycombs, it works a treat if you’re careful with what you’re doing.

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •