Wont be mines Gavin...all ours are away from your area.
There is the new bee farm started up based not far from you that have a few hundred Buckfast hives however.............have seen some of them. If you think them losing their bees is the best thing you don't want honey...I have seen some of these and they are doing sensationally. One set are on their THIRD Dadant DEEP (ABOVE the broodnest..so four high) on the bell/ling in Glenshee already! 2 full Dadant deeps? That's some crop! and they are piling it in. Must confess to envious looks. They may just be some of the best outsourced stock I have seen in a long time.
I came home to a kitchen full of the wee devils. Not exactly full, but quite a few. They were on a raiding party rather than a swarming attempt. *Very* glad the weather has broken as I think I'll have to close the windows for a while. Are they really that close?
Another bee farm in the crowded territory that we use just seems .... well, not right. I have a hard enough time finding decent sites as it is away from the existing bee farmers.
Any chance you'd get envious of this near Amm stock?! The first time I've had to use a box to stand on to get supers on and off. OK, not all are like this but many have been really strong this year.
In my part of Scotland it would have been two words: 'Yah beauty!!'.
I think I now have the last Buckfast out of the house. When setting off yesterday I discovered the main reason for all the bee interest. I'd forgotten that I'd left a brood box with honey in the truck and the side windows open. Must have been about half a super's worth of bees distributed along the Carse as I stopped repeatedly to let more out. Leaving the house unguarded, they turned their attention indoors. Suspect I'll be looking out for netting and gaffer tape to get though this last extraction in the house before transferring to a new honey house.
Cracking lightning show last night - and a remarkable transition from bone dry to torrential downpour just as I pulled off the road with foam closures and hive tool beside me. Maybe I'll get them locked in and away tonight instead. That monster colony might have cleared its supers by then too. There are so many bees in there - and brood too - that I expect it will rebuild to a decent stack on the ling too. Especially with the ground now dampened to some extent.
About 10 mm of rain in Dundee last night but as much of it came down in a short space of time it felt like a lot more.
G.
PS the continuously updated SEPA site for rainfall is currently showing 31.4 mm for Gella Bridge in Glen Clova (not that I have bees in that particular glen) so that should help the forage up there.
Last edited by gavin; 28-07-2018 at 03:15 PM.
I know. They have just no shame. Himalayan balsam, Japanese knotweed, sometimes giant hogweed, certainly sycamore, coneflower (taking over parts of the Tay), just about anything in a garden or sown by a farmer. Scold them as I might they *still* proceed with their unethical foraging choices. What can a man do?!
Anyone who thinks that beekeeping is some environmentally friendly activity that benefits the environment needs their ..... oops, sorry, shouldn't go there! But bumble bees are just as bad, aren't they?
In other news I'm positive I saw drones kicked out this weekend. Murray reporting same on the other place... A bit early isn't it?
I'm still surrounded by hay fields (cut) which are white with clover, so am I wrong to be hopeful some more might come in this week as the weather improves again? In fields that haven't been cut the clover is now turning brown.
probably got home late after an afternoon down the next door hive and found their suitcases on the doorstep
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Flew past who knows how many fields on the way home and didn't even bother their abdomens to pick up some pollen.
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