2018 Beekeeping Aims.

[JWF]

My aims for 2018 :

End the year with no more hives than I started with.
Requeen any colonies which have older queens as early in the year as possible (to hopefully minimise swarming and to give strong colonies).
Don't piss the neighbours off too much
Find an out apiary - preferably one with interesting flora close by.

 

[Newbeebeekeeper]

My plan is to take my 1 hive and make it 2 hives and get some honey this year and everyone lives to next year

 

[For want of a better word]

May I ask why you both want to raise so many Queens, are they for spares or to re-Queen with, or to Queen new hives, ie: through splits or nucs?

Oh, and here's a Link (I think) for the book that you referenced,
http://www.ebooksdownloads.xyz/load/read.php?id=KOBFAAAAYAAJ
hope it helps any members interested.

To increase my own Cornish Black native Amm colonies and flood a larger area, some to help other groups to establish Native bees... most will go into nucs.

Will also need to produce more of the NZ line to requeen some that have gone a bit lairy and replace old queens in some colonies that did not produce much honey last season... and set up a new apiary site for honey production in England... over the Tamar into Devon... but not too far!

Nos da

 

[Swarm]

To expand our Native Honey Bee group and increase the Amm colonies in the apiary.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Not saying - in case the wife finds out.

 

[olriley]

My aims are:

• Detect and prevent uncontrolled swarming

• Build up one or two strong hives up specifically for summer honey production

• Make some spring splits to increase hive numbers

• Try a couple of Buckfast F1 queens

• Run a hives with a QX (I use Rose OSB and don't usually have one) as an experiment

But you know what they say about best laid plans!

 

[jeff33]

To expand our Native Honey Bee group and increase the Amm colonies in the apiary.

Let me know how you get on, wouldn't mind starting something similar here.

 

[Tom Jay]

One aim for now, more to come:

To assist a great Spring start for my bestest ever colony of last season for the Queen's second full season - she emerged August 2016. All last year it was a mega size by my standards, and gave me 80 pounds surplus honey. Double what I have achieved from any other colony in my four years beekeeping.

So, good start, Find and mark the Queen! - her colony was always so teeming that I never saw her yet! Replace a frame or three if necessary, give supers early, watch for swarm fever and artificially swarm if necessary. That about it?

btw they are on 14 by 12 national and I found that good to work with for last year's inspections.

 

[linoleum bonypart]

One aim for now, more to come:

To assist a great Spring start for my bestest ever colony of last season for the Queen's second full season - she emerged August 2016. All last year it was a mega size by my standards, and gave me 80 pounds surplus honey. Double what I have achieved from any other colony in my four years beekeeping.

So, good start, Find and mark the Queen! - her colony was always so teeming that I never saw her yet! Replace a frame or three if necessary, give supers early, watch for swarm fever and artificially swarm if necessary. That about it?

btw they are on 14 by 12 national and I found that good to work with for last year's inspections.

Maybe you should make queens from this colony ... imho

 

[jeff33]

Yes indeed but you leave to chance with mating unless you can have a certain control.
My aim(s) for this year is increase by 3 hives, invest in a couple of good queens with a view of improving stock from 2019.
I would also like to set up a group of beeks to work towards stock improvement.
With my current hives I would like to try and achieve 0 swarm or AS to see what yield I can get.

 

[Jessgoesnorth]

Coming into our first full year so:

- get the colony through winter and the spring buildup
- avoid uncontrolled swarming
- harvest our first honey
- finish the year with 2 healthy colonies
- start using latex gloves (my small hands are too clumsy in thick ones!)
- learn from our inevitable mistakes

Anything else we should be aiming for?

 

[Swarm]

Coming into our first full year so:

- get the colony through winter and the spring buildup
- avoid uncontrolled swarming
- harvest our first honey
- finish the year with 2 healthy colonies
- start using latex gloves (my small hands are too clumsy in thick ones!)
- learn from our inevitable mistakes

Anything else we should be aiming for?

Enjoying it

 

[Beefriendly]

Enjoying it

Spot on.
When it stops becoming enjoyable it's time to quit.

 

[mbc]

Enjoying it

That's the main thing

 

[mbc]

My aim is to keep as many of my colonies as possible in tip top condition from April to September, these past few years the flows have been anything but predictable in these parts and I'd like my bees to be ready if we do happen to get a good flow ( fingers crossed, please, please, please )

 

[justsmith]

My frist goal is to hide the boxes which are coming in the post on tue, If i live past that then i hope to get better at raising my own queens

 

[colinc]

My frist goal is to hide the boxes which are coming in the post on tue, If i live past that then i hope to get better at raising my own queens

Just watch, pallets of jars will be on sale next week


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Millet]

Enjoying it

That is so true and i can not understand why anyone can not enjoy it, i started the hobby with horrible really defensive and aggressive bees but it did not bother me it just give me more of a challenge that i would not let beat me.

In my second season i broke my arm during swarming season with the angry bees which was hard work and really stressful at times trying to do manipulations one handed but i still enjoyed the bees.

My third season started of ok with the angry bees but when swarming time arrived all hell broke loose..lol ..i had a small swarm after i missed a hidden Queen cell, then i found a paralyzed virgin on the landing strip , after that the Virgin Queen failed to get mated which left me with my second laying worker colony, i was at my whits end but help arrived through this forum and i now have the amount of hives i had planned for, with very gentle bees which i enjoy even more.
So like Steve says enjoy and keep plugging away because there is certainly light at the end of the tunnel in many ways.

 

[peterbees]

Enjoying it

Re beekeeping gloves, please see our website notes here https://tinyurl.com/y9azepl6

 

[B+.]

Re beekeeping gloves, please see our website notes here https://tinyurl.com/y9azepl6

These are cheaper
https://www.theglovestore.co.uk/col...-examination-gloves-gl891?variant=45113077444