Calum, thats is an interesting idea and one I have not come across before? I thought that it was the other way round, except for the cost. Also it is said by some down south, that the ladies will not winter well on heather honey. But ours here appear to thrive on it. Guess that's what makes looking after the ladies so interesting - and challenging!Originally Posted by Calum
My lot appear to be wintering on ivy, plus a bit of heather, plus some sugar but they didn't take much of that. One colony's eaten the Christmas candy and been given more; the other had half of theirs left last time I looked. Hope this wintry weather gives up soon as it would be nice if they could get out to the snowdrops!
I used to believe that business about the bees wintering on sugar/fondant better than the late season forage, especially heather. However our native bees must be used to such diets and people have told me that they think that their better colonies in the spring have often been on heather the autumn before. Maybe the pollen and protein in heather honey helps them, and our generally mild winter lets them out when they need?
Of course my rape supers were set solid. Perhaps not the best winter feed for the bees for that reason, but also difficult for me to extract!
Here is a map showing what our summer was like:
2009_7_Rainfall_Anomaly_1971-2000..jpg
(bit hard to read, but the deep blue is 2x or more the long term average rainfall for July)
- I think that might well be the case - we can have months long well into minus degrees. Then again they survived in the wild before cane sugar reached europes shores. But there were also fewer other stress factors then (apart from bears).and our generally mild winter lets them out when they need?
Kev,
It might have changed, but when I visited Maisemore last year, they told me that their starter package offered no discount over buying the items individually; it was just what they considered a reasonable bundle to get going with.
Personally I didn't like anyone's starter packs so learning that was actually a bit of a relief as it let me pick and choose the things I actually wanted rather than what someone else thought I should have.
If you can find a local supplier, I'd recommend at the very least paying them a visit. However you do it, you're about to hand over a significant amount of cash to get started so being able to try on different suits, play with the smokers and so on is well worth doing if you can in my opinion.
I've bought gear from both Maisemore and Thornes and find them a bit hit and miss in some respects. They both do shocking hive assembly instructions, fortunately the SBA has one of the best Hive assembly guides I found. Considering that once you start to bang nails in you've pretty much passed the point of no return, they could really do with sorting their assembly instructions out, they make IKEA look fantastic. I might just be bitter because I built a top beespace National brood box by mistake but I maintain it was the instructions at fault.
As a New beekeeper just going into year two, and just having taken delivery of this year's extra kit I'd say that if you can afford to do it, buy two complete hives (Floor, broodbox, roof, stand if necessary) and at least 2 supers. Also get a couple of extra frames over and above what you need to fill your initial buy. Spare kit is a godsend and while you can get away with it in the first year, extra gear to hand is very handy. You will be reacting to what the bees do rather than anticipating them so you'll need that extra brood box yesterday rather than in the 2-3 days that someone can ship it to you.
Don't buy buckets though. They are bloody handy but also really expensive. Get to your local pub or Deli and ask if they've got any spare sauce buckets (with Lids). They'll be food grade plastic and come in very handy for lugging syrup around or storing bits of old wax.
Actually that goes for anything that can be labelled "Beekeeper's...." If it isn't a hive or similar, go to B&Q and you'll get it for cheaper. I'm thinking of toolboxes, nails, blowtorches all that sort of thing (you do know that it is obligatory to have a blowtorch don't you?)
Last edited by Neils; 02-03-2010 at 12:39 AM.
I thought this might be of interest, I came across the invoice for the gear I picked up at Maisemore when I started out last year. A national hive might not necessarily be the best choice for your bees and/or location, but it might give some idea of what's potentially involved. I bought:
1 Roof
1 Open Mesh Floor
1 National Brood box
2 Supers
1 Framed Queen excluder
12 DN4 Hoffman frames
12 Sheets of DN foundation
20 SN1 Frames
20 SN Foundation
2 pairs of 10 frame castellated spacers
1 Smoker
100grams of Frame Nails
2 Hive tools
1 Uncapping fork
1 Miller type feeder
1 Push in Queen cage
1 Fencer Veil Smock
1 crown/clearer board
That lot set me back £368.54
In terms of what I've learned since then (and bearing in mind I inherited a complete hive and 4 spare supers to begin with)
12 Brood Frames isn't enough, I ended up buying another 10 later on in the season and I still have a bunch kicking around the place ready made, just needing foundation adding.
Putting Super frames with foundation in 10 frame castellated spacers isn't a good idea, you end up with some frames drawn very deeply, some not at all. Put in 11 or even 12 frames to start with, get those drawn and then start to cut the number down or move drawn frames into a super with the spacers fitted.
A spare hive or a nucleus, if your budget can stretch to it, makes life so much easier. In the first season, if you get a Nuc, swarming MIGHT not be an issue. if it is, having a complete spare floor, brood box and roof suddenly makes things an awful lot easier to manage.
A miller feeder is handy if you need to give a colony a lot of syrup and you dont mind spending some time investigating methods to stop bees drowning. I still struggle with contact feeders to not have syrup going everywhere, but I also inherited a smaller rapid type feeder and that's worked out fine for me, the syrup stays in the can and bees tend not to drown in it.
Buckets, toolboxes, nails, hammers, blowtorches and all that jazz can be bought much cheaper from B&Q than a beekeeping supplier but I definitely recommend splashing out on a Stanley toolbox, they're more than Squaddie proof and make a handy seat for watching the bees go about their business.
I think that is not a bad starting package, spare hive not withstanding, I picked up rubber gloves from my supermarket of choice for all of 30p and I've not felt particularly that I lacked anything in particular last year. Extra bags of nails etc always come in handy, I'm pretty sure I had to buy extra pins for the frames at some point and now I keep finding the bloody thing everywhere.
Last edited by Neils; 05-03-2010 at 01:40 AM.
My first kit was from Fragil Planet. It was only reclaimed pine but not expensive and included bees. I went cheap just in case it turned out to be not the hobby for me.-Three years later I am on my third hive purchase and lots of various bits. I found Thornes expensive and rather" snotty "to deal with. Paynes quality was not all that great . My favorite suppliers has to be The crew in Oakhampton- National Bee Supplies. They always answer their phone with real people . They are always fridndly anD helpful and give great advice over the phone . I now only use them. As a newby they don't make you feel a complete idiot asking what you feel are really obvious questions. Bees are a harder one...
I'll put in a good word for Thorne's (or several, given the chance). I've always found them helpful, friendly, and they work very hard to meet the demand for kit 'yesterday', which is when we usually need it, having yet again failed to anticipate the number of extra frames/supers/foundation we're going to need.
I was told the other day by a Thornes agent that they have had a 500% increase in business so are running around like headless chickens at the moment. Deliveries are consequently not going out very promptly !
I have not had a problem with any of the suppliers I have used. The Thornes BOB (Bees on a Budget) hives are fine in my opinion, I've got a couple. The correx varroa slide-out is hopeless though!
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