2020 - is the consensus that its a bad year for beeks ?

[B+.]

Of 14 fullyloaded swibine/apidea not a single queen mated... plenty of swallows it seems at that site!
Had far much better joy with the double BS boxes... more bees but at a different mating location.

Not a super year for honey... but must say my native near native bee stocks have doubly out performed the Italians.... who seem to have eaten the little they did bring in!!
Obviously 10,000 years of adaptation to our Cornish climate shines through!

It has been nice and quiet on the roads.... what's the chances of a second lockdown during harvest?

Chons da

I hate to say it, but, it's looking increasingly likely IMHO

wrt queens, my carnica are doing pretty well too - a couple even found their way north to ITLD. IMHO, it doesn't take 10,000 years when the weather conditions are so similar. It's performance, health and - at the end of the day - profitability, that counts.

 

[Curly green finger's]

We've had 100% Mating with our 26 queen's this year.. I count my self lucky that I don't get problems with swift and swallows..

I've only really noticed them flying over the last month up here on the Clee.

This has been the first year for me to try queen rearing with the Miller frame method and using apidea and I'm very pleased.

I think I was lucky with the spring weather.
Next year might be different.


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[For want of a better word]

I hate to say it, but, it's looking increasingly likely IMHO

wrt queens, my carnica are doing pretty well too - a couple even found their way north to ITLD. IMHO, it doesn't take 10,000 years when the weather conditions are so similar. It's performance, health and - at the end of the day - profitability, that counts.

The last hundred years of introgression must have had an impact, however we must move on whatever skeppists north of the boarders want!!

 

[B+.]

The last hundred years of introgression must have had an impact, however we must move on whatever skeppists north of the boarders want!!

If you'd had the courage of your convictions, you'd have taken him up on his challenge to send stock to him for testing 2 or 3 years ago. I did..and he came back for more. The bees must be good to prove themselves in his operation - and derogatory comments like that are hardly warranted when he operates on a scale most of us couldn't even begin to comprehend.

 

[The Poot in Somerset]

So far taken 25 lbs of honey from four colonies.
Currently have four unfinished supers which may get to completion as brambles appear to be having a second flush.
Well down on last year partly because of more hives in the village but less forage owing to odd weather.
Started with four colonies and will end with four I think. One currently superseding a poor performing queen; one, which was my biggest colony, determined to die out - not raising a queen from donated brood and eggs and having killed an introduced queen.
An altogether odd year for me but a lot less swarming than last year.

 

[GuyNir]

We had good spring here, some supers filled nicely. Then autumn came.
We didn’t go above 17c since May, with very few sunny days.

Oh, also had to shook swarm 5 hives due to EFB.
I anticipate ~50% of what I had last year.
No complaints though, honey is an added bonus. I learned a lot this year.

 

[DaveG23]

Not looking good here. I might get 1 super each from 5 hives, but some are eating their honey. I would just like a few weeks of sun and the fuschia might allow them to add some honey. Its been a cool damp summer.

 

[whizzwheels]

My best year in a long time, I've taken 160lbs of honey from three hives, the same three hives only managed 30lbs last year. Also split one hive and collect a swarm from a neighbours garden which came from another neighbours roof. Very dry and hot May, but had heavy rain at the beginning of June.
I'm assuming lack of traffic/pollution has help and I've had more time for them with the lock down

 

[Hebeegeebee]

Nothing special for me this year - probably behind last year by a little bit - but the final count has not yet happened.

 

[madasafish]

Of 14 fullyloaded swibine/apidea not a single queen mated... plenty of swallows it seems at that site!
Had far much better joy with the double BS boxes... more bees but at a different mating location.
?

Chons da

I found pain with rainbows,apideas and BE mating nucs- all failed.
WHilst Kielers did well.

We had days with 12C highs, 6C at nights for weeks in June .. probably blame them..No swallows/swifts here

 

[Popparand]

Strange year here in South Suffolk. Started off well but swarming difficult/impossible to control. Lots of call outs too in early May so not just me. Another call out yesterday, but thankfully 20 feet up an apple tree so had a good excuse to decline!

The spring flow was poor, but all colonies built up slowly and steadily. However I've noticed that all supers putting on weight over the last week or so, so maybe there's going to be a late surge.

With swarms I have gone from two to eight active colonies this year plus a cast in a nuc. So huge learning curve. I also had a go at bare super frames - no starter strip, no nothing, and these have worked out really well.

Maybe looking at 2/3 hundred pounds crop? We'll see.

 

[Goodwood]

Very poor year. Possibly worst for me in ten.
Some great colonies but very poor yield on the estuary.
Lovely Spring honey but only 120 pounds from ten hives.
300 last year.
Preselis Hills doing better at 1000 ft elevation. Maybe due to being about two weeks behind in flora.
Started taking some ‘summer’ crop off today on the estuary and not good
Current impression is 25% of last years yield.

 

[user 3509]

Got strong colonies but next to no honey.

 

[Worldsend]

Good spring crop
Very poor summer crop

 

[gregior]

Not great here took about a super per hive of spring honey ,the returned supers are very slowly being worked but i'd be surprised if they're filled by the end of the season. The balsam is being worked well now and the weather looks better next week so there's still hope.

 

[thedozzer]

We've had 77kg of our two garden hives so far, with a bit of lime in the second 25kg extraction.
Have 4 supers on one and three on the other, 2 nearly full capped on one and 1 1/2 on the other, should have 5 more fully capped supers to extract by end of month so with a bit of luck we should get about 120kg in total from 2 hives.
Had 3 new queens successfully mated, and 2 strong colonies given away to friends (yes we give them away!)
Only our second full year, and definitely our best
The dearth seems to be very area dependant!

 

[jeff33]

Poor year honey wise down my way but the early warm weather has allowed me to increase to where I wanted to be and bees are healthy so I am happy with that. Queen rearing hasn't been great, few poorly mated that needed replacing and around 20% overall success from grafting to fully mated. Interesting to see that my Welsh bees are the only ones that filled a few supers with the more further afield queens and a couple of buckfast not even filling 1 super... 100% success rate on queen introduction so that's also a positive.

 

[protheroe]

Bees came through winter in poor shape after all the rain over winter,they just wouldn't build up early on so they couldn't take advantage of the good spring weather.The good weather at my location didn't run with the nectar flows.raining or dreary all through blackberry flowering period and a lot of swarming this year.all in all it was a bad season for me.

 

[Spadger]

55 lb from 2 hives and more to come so not too bad for a 2nd year. However, honey stores often depleted when the cold and rainy periods came, just as they were nearly ready.
The other hives (splits and swarms) don't seem to want to build up numbers enough to store honey.
However, hardly seen a wasp yet! Big hives still on full entrances.

 

[Colin B]

Looks like a very poor year for me as well. Good early 1st spring crop ( OSR) then average for the second spring crop.
Summer crop is going to be a disaster, up until a week ago most of the little that had been brought in was being taken down and eaten. Some coming in now but too little too late. Will be lucky to get 250lbs from 15 hives and likely no frames fully capped for cut comb at all.
I too have had a problem this year with queens not mating properly. I suspect it's spells of bad weather just at the wrong times clashing with mating flights.

Hey-ho. Some you win, some you lose. Better luck next year!