A good lesson for new Beeks...

[HM Honey]

I have been down to Reading today with work. 4 hours into my 4 and a half hour drive and I get a phone call from the farmer where two of my hives are sited. One of my hives has been knocked over....

Aaaaahhhhh, I'm 180 miles away from home.....what can I do?

A couple of urgent phone calls and up steps a knight in Shining Bee Suit in the form of David Haigh from Leeds Beekeepers Association, who gladly drops everything and rushes round to the farm to sort it out for me.... What a diamond.

The moral of the story for all the new beeks is, dont be a lonely beekeeper. Network, meet other beeks, do them favours, help them out and generally be active with your other local beeks/association. You never know...someday you may need one of them to get you out of a spot....

 

[Norfolk]

Great advice

 

[Amari]

What knocked it over?

 

[HM Honey]

What knocked it over?

Dont know Amari. I have literally just got back from Reading. David said he thought it might have been a fox maybe coz the other hive was untouched and they arent really in a place where kids can easily see them or get to them.

I will take a look tomorrow.

 

[REDWOOD]

and that goes for all walks of life, I could quote something but I won't

 

[busybee53]

Your comment about networking with other beeks is so true.

It could be a fox. I went on holiday leaving carefully stacked empty brood boxes and supers outside my back door. One week later I returned to find many bees in process of moving into the stack of equipment, much to the neighbour's disapproval.

Foxes had been fighting in my garden while I was away and knocked the stack just enough to make a bee space between the boxes. I did not want a swarm of bees right by my door so I moved the boxes but that did not stop the bees all trying to get into the kitchen for the next 2 days. Lol.

 

[Itchy]

Good advice and already in progress

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

David said he thought it might have been a fox .

It could be a fox. I went on holiday leaving carefully stacked empty brood boxes and supers outside my back door. One week later I returned to find many bees in process of moving into the stack of equipment, much to the neighbour's disapproval.

Foxes had been fighting in my garden while I was away and knocked the stack just enough to make a bee space between the boxes. .

The solution may be here:

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=27230

Works for me every time - head shot with a silenced .22 in the garden, a variety of other caliblres elsewhere

 

[Smokeyred]

What knocked it over?

Could have bee a deer?

 

[Excession]

I hate being dependant on others, very isolationist

I anchor strap mine down, nothing short of a stampede of rhinos will knock my hives over!!

But it's good to have other Beeks to when you want to, as opposed to need!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Could have bee a deer?

O.K. - .243 or .308 then - but no lamping

 

[JohnF]

A beekeeping friend phoned me last summer whilst he was on holiday, a neighbour had phoned him to say his bees had swarmed into his front garden - could I go round!
I did and even gave him back his bees.
In a few weeks I'm off to Aussie for 6wks and he has volunteered to look after mine for me, it works 2 ways

 

[itma]

Absolutely agree about the value of having a few bee buddies, for mutual support.

However, the second lesson is to have a strap round out-apiary hives, isn't it?

 

[JohnF]

Absolutely agree Itma about straps round hives and not just out-apiaries!

 

[pargyle]

I hate being dependant on others, very isolationist

I anchor strap mine down, nothing short of a stampede of rhinos will knock my hives over!!

Obviously works ... haven't seen a herd of Rhinos down here for awhile !

 

[DarynWebb]

I've sat hives for people who couldn't get to them for one reason or another,It's good to have someone as a back up if you had to have an operation or had to go away on work.