I've put up the video of extracting the honey, done in my bathroom :-)
http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/video.php?do=viewdetails&videoid=88
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
Blogs
Help Support Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum:
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Filters
Show only:
Loading…
First we checked whether the two ekes would fit properly. One is super/feeder sized and the other is a couple of inches only. The two poly hives are different, so it wasn't definite either would fit, and we needed them to make some space for the Apiguard to evapourate and circulate.
Both fitted fine, so no more carpentry bodgery was required :-)
Colony 1
We lifted off the top of hive 1, onto a stand, to have a look at the frames in the bottom box. The top box was still very heavy.
The bottom frames had lots of bees in, making new comb, storing nectar and pollen. These are are starter-strip only, so they are making all the comb themselves. They have started on all but one frame now and probably have 3 or 4 frames worth of area...
10 points for naming the film that quote comes from :-)
Mrs FG and I looked through both colonies a few minutes ago and put on an Apiguard treatment for both. By the time we'd finished, we weren't very popular at all and had a small fan club each giving us the message big time.
I left my glasses on the fence, around 15m from the first hive (50m from the house). I need them off to see eggs at the bottom of cells. I didn't realise they were still there until we were back in the house, some 10 minutes later, so I went back without my bee suit on to get them.
I was 'met' by a couple of bees who weren't willing to have any more 'love and attention' today; full-on high-pitched attack mode right in the ear got me "running and screaming"...
I brought in our first honey harvest this evening :hurray:
Had to use the big trailer on the Disco to drag back the full load.
Actually, I only took 1 frame of stores from Colony 1 and replaced it with a new frame of foundation. The bees were too shocked to react much, but didn't like being brushed off the frame with some Hemp Agrimony flower heads.
I'm hoping they still have time to make up the loss; they have nearly a full Langstroth brood box of stores in the top box and I'm not sure how much in the bottom box (I haven't done a complete opening up for 10 days or so).
I plan to start treating them for varroa sometime soon (although the latest sticky board didn't seem too bad) so I wanted to get some honey off them before it gets...
hi guys , i live in nofolk uk and am looking for some one to help me lean how to rais my own queens ,ive read it up but sorry to say dont understand much of it , as im new to bee keeping,if there is any one that can help please email me on [email protected]. thanks for reading my notes , my name is john,bee-smillie
Not a lot has changed
Starting to cap the top super.
Right Hive.
13 frames of brood.
1st super 4/5
2nd super 1/3.
Funny how the mood takes you - I only started out today with the intention of bringing back a National from an out apiary and ended up removing 6 nicely heavy supers of honey from a couple of hives as well.
Perhaps it was just the weather, but being rather more time poor than of late, I decided to forego the old clearer boards in favour of a bee brush and a good 'shake' instead. The bees weren't flying strongly - a breeze and cooler than of late too, so I decided to lean the crown boards in front of the hive, and shake the bees off the combs onto the crown boards rather than into the hive - my logic being the bees would merely congregate on the unshaken combs....whereas the shaken bees outside would cluster and re-enter the hives.
It...
I recently had a significant birthday and all the lovely people in my village donated money and bought me a complete beekeeping kit – what an amazing present! The only thing I did know about beekeeping at that time was a) that I had always want to do it since I was a little girl breeding earwigs in a eggbox and b) that there must be a lot to learn before anyone would let me loose on actual living bees!
The first thing I did was phone a very nice lady at the West Sussex Beekeepers Association who told me that I would need to learn a lot about bees and get used to handling them, even before splashing out on my own beehive – oops too late for that then!
I started the beginners course at the Sussex Apiary – about an hour a week during...
Mrs FG did the whole inspection - her first!
This is very good news (useful to have a beekeeping partner), but she wasn't keen on broadcasting the video :-)
We didn't see the queen, nor eggs, nor larvae. The capped brood pattern has changed - the central portion of a few brood frames have now hatched out. I was hoping to see replacement eggs or grubs but no luck. Probably our lack of experience coupled with fairly bad light under the shade of some trees. We'll have to reverse the inspection next time and get the sunnier patch of sky behind us.
Some extra frame sides have been drawn out, but there's still lots of space left to grow into - I had thought they'd be expanding a bit faster with all this good weather.
Must be patient I...
Just checked the second colony - all seems well.
Saw eggs and small larvae, plus lots of capped brood. Didn't see any fat larvae, but I guess that's just a timing thing.
They'd spread from the original 6 frames to 8 now and they've drawn out most of the 9th one. They have a full box of undrawn foundation below them too, but they don't seem to have done much with that yet (although I didn't check it this time).
Not as much stores as the first colony. Maybe a few frames' worth, plus a little bit over the brood area. They seem to be still focused on getting more numerous, rather than storing for the Winter. I guess when their numbers are up further, that excess collection capability will have its effect and the stores will build...
Removed top super on the 22nd.
The Honey flow seems to have stopped.
Right Hive.
15 frames of brood.
1st super 4/5
2nd super 1/4.
Mrs FG sacked me after last week's clumsy handling, and she did the tricky bit today whilst I puffed smoke and lifted heavy stuff :-)
The first colony is looking pretty strong - there are now LOTS of bees, covering the frames in the top box and building out the empty frames in the bottom box.
We didn't see eggs, although there were some empty cells that probably had eggs in them. We did see small and large larvae, capped brood, quite a few drones, lots of stores.
At the top, the four outside frames were almost totally stores, with half brood-rearing in the next ones in and half stores. The 4 central frames were pretty solid brood-rearing with some stores along the top.
In the bottom box, all but the outside 2 frames now have some...
The bees are now on the site. Paul brought them on Tuesday 20th July, and we were given the chance to handle bees for the first time. We built the temporary hive ( I think the proper one is still being modified to have an observation window for the children to look through ). Once the hive was in position, Paul opened the box of bees. I wasn't expecting the sound and amount of activity. From a quiet box with a few bees crawling on the top, to a huge buzzing cloud! I must admit, my nerve went a little.
After a minute, the bees settled down and Paul instructed us to start moving the frames over to the brood box. None of us had handled bees before, and one of the women went first. She handled them with no trouble and in they went. Then it...
Removed top two super on the 17th and extract both supers got about 65lb.
Also filtered the honey.
Bottled 66 jars of honey. (Update)
Had a lot of rain the last week.
There seems to be fewer bees in the hive then last week.
May have lost a few in the rain.
Right Hive.
16 frames of brood.
1st super Full. Put C/B on.
2nd super 4/5.
3rd super Empty.
That was a struggle.
Moved the Cedar hive off onto a workmate. It nearly slid off again as the workmate wasn't nearly level :-( so put it on the floor instead.
Tried to make the ground and two breeze blocks level. Really tricky; still not very level but had rather a large cloud of bees telling me to get on with it cos they wanting to put their pollen somewhere . . .
Put new poly floor down, put new poly brood box full of frames with foundation (some full, some half) on the new floor. Next went the second new brood box (empty).
Now I had to move the current 'colony 2' frames into the new top brood box, in the right order and orientation. Did this very carefully, trying not to let any bees drop off the frames in case one was the...
Went through colony 1 with Mrs FG today.
There didn't seem to be as many bees there as usual, although quite a few drones. I'm hoping this is because this was the middle of the day and I normally get to inspect early evening.
Good news: I saw more eggs, there was still a lot of stores in there, no queen cups, queen cells, or funny dead stuff.
Less good news: I was expecting a lot to have changed and it hadn't. We have had some bad weather recently, but not whole days of no flying so I presumed the stores would be piling in and they'd running out of room almost by now. The bottom box (with starter strips) is now more occupied, but still only a token effort really. The new comb is mainly being used for nectar storage, although...
Saw 3 play cups.
Removed top super on the 7th and extract both supers got about 60lb.
Saturday filtered the honey and added another super.
Sunday I bottled 102 Jars.
Today put a clearer board under the Top two Supers.
The flow is still going strong.:hurray:
There were a few broods frames in the middle full of honey.
The bottom super I put back on Saturday is almost full.
So I added another super.
Right Hive.
17 frames of brood.
1st super Full.
2nd super Full. Put C/B on.
3rd super Full. Just a small amount to be capped.
4th super 4/5.
5th super Empty.
GWW and Widdershins hosted a fantastic day for me and Mrs FG today. Big thanks to them and their trusty cake-hound!
They have sold us a nuc colony, now in a poly Lang. I'm hoping to have more success this time - more time to build up, poly hive instead of wooden in our cold, damp micro-climate, a bit more learning, and I'm also going to leave them on two full brood boxes going into the Winter this time. Hopefully, that should help.
With the aid of a torch, I put the bees in place 30 mins ago and pulled out the foam from the entrance. A gentle hum can be heard but no one fancied a midnight flight so I guess I'll have to wait until tomorrow.
FG
The brood box and all 4 supers still full of bees.
But still No Queen Cells??
A few play cups.
Going to put another super and a clearer board on, Thursday or Friday.
Right Hive.
Saw the Queen.:)
20 frames of brood. Only 3 frames with eggs and larva.
Top super Full.
2nd super 4/5. Almost full
3rd super 3/4.
4th 1/2
Checked the second colony a few hours ago.
Didn't do a carefully documented inspection (I was on my own) but I did everything I needed.
Lots of larvae and lots of eggs. I actually saw eggs for a change - hooray! Nearly the whole of one frame side seemed empty, and there they were :-)
4 frames of Langstroth, mostly brood with some stores at the top; 2 National frames cable-tied into Lang frames, both with brood, one with lots of heavy stores.
One of the tied-in frames was good - solidly wedged in and the bees building on both sides to fix everything together. The other wasn't so good - dangling from the top bar and not wedged in solidly. I guess I have to try and move this out and replace it somehow. How do I do that?
2 of the...
