1st proper season

[Troutnabout]

Hi, I have just joined the forum. This is my 1st real season keeping bees. Until now I have helped out my father and his father before him. unfortunately my dad is no longer well enough to get out of the house, so me and my son have taken over the running of the hives. We had 4 at the end of last season but 2 died early this year, the winter was too long and too cold.

Of the two survivors one is exceptionally strong. Both are set up as 1 (National) brood chamber with the 1st super opened up as a brood, so we have two hives each with 1.5 brood chambers and a super for honey each. The strong hive (No 1) swarmed on the 1st of June, a nice big swarm

[gavin]

Many thanks for introducing yourself - great to see you here! *Four* generations of beekeepers in one family is quite a feat!

Don't worry (too much) about all that foulbrood stuff - it is a hot topic for those of us in EC Scotland at the moment.

Gavin

[Troutnabout]

Its actually 5 generations Gavin. The lineage is:

Old Davie, Andra, Old Dave, Dave (me), Adam

[gavin]

One day I'll find a beekeeper in my ancestors. There must have been a few as many were country dwellers in the parts I now inhabit) but nobody living has been able to tell me and there wasn't a BeeBase in the 1800s and 1700s.

[Troutnabout]

here is a picture of the swarm taken by my son before we bashed a way through the nettles, brambles and thistles.

[Jimbo]

Anybody got any ideas?
Last night I got a call about a swarm. I went out and collected it. It was easy as the swarm had attached itself to a trampoline. The method used was my classic method,spray the cluster with water, swept into a cardboard box and leave until its just getting dark. When sweeping into the box I saw the marked queen (I have to admit it was one of mine)
I set up a brood box at my apairy site and dumpted them in with a few frames in the brood box.
This morning I got a call from the person who had the garden who informed me the swarm was back. So back again, sprayed the bees, swept into a nuc box. This time I could not see the queen. So back up to my site to check what was going on. There was the queen and all the bees still clustered in the box with no flying bees. I thought it may then be a cast so I checked the original box (I had chopped all the queen cells out during the week to buy me some time). There were new queen cells at all stages with one just sealed with a good amount of bees. I have heard that swarms can leave a scent and that swarms will go to the same site year after year. Is it possible this is different swarm that has picked the same site. What are the odds on that? When I get it removed I will report back if there is a queen in there

[Jon]

Its actually 5 generations Gavin. The lineage is:

Old Davie, Andra, Old Dave, Dave (me), Adam

I don't know if I can claim five but I know for sure we go back 4.
This chap is my paternal grandfather who died in 1964 and his father kept bees as well.
My father inherited his bees and equipment after he died and I got my first bees from my father so there may well be a wee bit of continuous genetics in there. (LOL I mean the bees rather than the Gettys) My father has never lost all his colonies in the 50 odd years he has kept bees. I think he was down to two or three colonies in the 1970s when acarine was a big problem.

getty 4.jpg

[gavin]

He looks a bit more carnivorous than the current generation. Are you sure that the Getty's genetics is continuous?! Mine were fishermen (on the paternal side) for many generations and I'm keeping up the tradition with last night's catch in the oven now.

I'm hoping to graft sometime soon but haven't yet taken the plunge (trying to get back to something resembling the topic).

[Jon]

He looks a bit more carnivorous than the current generation.

Farmer and Police reserve so I doubt if he would have had much time for pinko leftie vegetarians.
I blame the Scottish genes.

When you are grafting, they key thing to remember is preparation of the colony which is going to receive the grafts. (assuming that the big issue is not your hangover leading to a shaky hand)