Apiary location

[Nige.Coll]

Coming to the end of my first 12 months with bees and I have noticed a huge difference between the 3 sites I have.

At Home in a medium sized village.
A swarm caught this summer expanded well and even now are pulling pollen in by the truck load. Regularly get a cloud of excited bees around the hive and watch them fly off to their new found forage. Very busy bringing in a variety of colours of pollen from brilliant white to dark purple almost black.

Farm site 1
This is an area next to some grazing land and farmland on the outskirts of a small village. The bees here have done well, healthy colonies that built up well and have been steadily bringing in forage through the summer. All the splits worked well and all queens mated quickly.
A couple got a little fiery but have calmed down now.
Now they seem to be a little low on forage and have needed light feeding.
The honey on the frames was pale yellow to dark brown in colour.
Generally happy with this site.

Farm site 2 ( bees i only look after)
These bees are in the front garden of a large farm a mile or so from the nearest village. Parent colony and AS from that.
Did great on the OSR but as soon as that finished wow.
These bees have been the worst for health problems and forage but have been exposed to the most sprays.
They have been slow to build up and generally very poor but they have always been nice to work with.
No summer crop at all and have had to be fed for about 3 weeks now.
After feeding thymolated syrup they have both picked up nicely and now have a decent chance of building up for winter imho.
Waiting to see if when the ivy flowers they fill the box with stores as they have a lot of ivy not too far away.

The difference between the sites is huge.
By far the worst site is the ones exposed to crop sprays and monoculture of modern farming. Without help both these colonies would have died out, they may still but fingers crossed.


Has anyone else noticed a dramatic difference in their apiary sites ?

 

[BrianO]

Very Interesting.

Stands to reason though,

The monoculture of ever increasing areas of intensive farming, and associated poison sprays that go with this practice, coupled with the resulting lack of diverse forage = Disaster for bees.

The oasis that is mature Urban gardens with the vast array of wonderful and diverse planting of all sorts of forage that is in constant bloom throughout the year, and the general ( and ever increasing ) lack of herbicide/pseticide useage = Heaven for Bees

 

[alanf]

There was/is research at LASI ( Sussex University) by Margaret Couvillon's group which demostrated the effect. Most agricultural crops (OSR, field beans and a few others) are great for the few weeks they flower. The rest of the year it's not much better than a desert, older practices of leaving weedy field margins and hedge bottoms have passed unless you are lucky with an individual farmer. For all but a few weeks, there is more varied and long lasting forage in gardens and nature reserves.

 

[Fatbee]

Before you bash farmers too much remember they offer plenty of beekeepers apiary locations and it's rather difficult to grow commercial crops and make a living without sprays. Unfortunately the modern consumer wants cheap food so its the only way to compete by having clean crops. We as beekeepers are also a user of chemicals (Apiguard, oxacylic acid) so we're shouldn't be two-faced. Yes a lot of farmers plough right up to field edges but a lot don't and thanks to the European tax-payer there is a lot more field margins etc than there used to be. Yes chemicals - both pesticides and herbicides do damage to bees and forage; but they are essential if we want to eat.
So, moan over (you might guess that I am involved in farming!) and speak to your local farmers about the crops they grow, the rough patches they have full of brambles and willowherb; or move to a better location. Nige.Coll is spot on about the variance in forage availability feeding in to honey yields so as a beekeeper if you want big honey yields you may have to switch your apiaries and learn the local forage which will be changeable year on year. Adapt like the bees do!

 

[Hachi]

I'm leaving my farm out apiary, despite 3 years of talking and educating I have spent a weekend of each year chasing my butt trying to save my bees from one hours notice of spraying. I understand all the pressures but all I wanted was a better way for us both to approach the challenge.

Sadly it wasn't to be and my bees and I are off to pastures new.

 

[Fatbee]

In situations like that I can't blame you. Sadly too many like him despite me sticking up for us. It saddens me. There are some good ones out there. Hope your new pastures yield well.

 

[Nige.Coll]

Site 2 may be better for them next year as they are planning increasing headlands and talking about planting flowers in the hedgerows.

I was only making an observation on what i had found. Sprays and other farming practises are needed unfortunately. You can't let 200 acres of crops rot for the sake of 2 hives.
The pesticide didn't do anything to the bees it was herbicide and fungicide that seemed to make them ill.
I didn't expect those chemicals to bother them but a week or two after spraying the bees were terrible, not doing anything and walking around like zombees. I didn't test for nosema but looked up the chemicals used and found it can cause nosema in bees so treated with thymolated syrup.

I can't complain about the farmer as he is really helpful and he owns those bees anyway.
I feel lucky to have his support, certainly made my life easier having 2500 acres to use even though a lot is crop based and has a short forage cycle.
He has offered me another site on the outskirts of a little village that enters the flower competitions, He has put an access track in for me and it is behind a locked gate with cctv even provided the materials to make the hive stands.

I've been comparing the bees and sites to see what happens i'm also seeing if double brood winters better than single and how well some 8 frame poly nucs i made winter.

 

[Hachi]

In situations like that I can't blame you. Sadly too many like him despite me sticking up for us. It saddens me. There are some good ones out there. Hope your new pastures yield well.

Thanks

I think I have it sussed, pasture land all round and my new landlord is delighted I'm there. There is arable but its at the last third of their range

Nice and sheltered too.......... happy days

 

[dpearce4]

Thanks

I think I have it sussed, pasture land all round and my new landlord is delighted I'm there. There is arable but its at the last third of their range

Nice and sheltered too.......... happy days

is that like the site you saw of mine?

 

[Hachi]

Yes Bud

 

[dpearce4]

sounds good then. that site has produced 930lb from 12hives this year.

 

[iand]

Did great on the OSR but as soon as that finished wow.

Has anyone else noticed a dramatic difference in their apiary sites ?

Yes indeed but in this case over time, after osr we then we had spring beans flowering, (not the usual winter sown, a better spread of flowering) and then onto some borage. Making it a hectic season to get honey off and bees moved overnight to the heather. In addition to this we have access to wild flower patches sown specifically for pollenating insects, with pollen/nectar producing plants and still the usual suspects of hawthorn, bramble, rose bay and ivy to go at. All my farms have these type areas mostly funded by the EU. Biggest problem always seems to be a lack of rain to keep the nectar flowing. That I suppose is the price of living in an eastern county.
How farming practices change, when I first started beekeeping the season consisted of osr & heather. Not many other combine able break crops were grown (before the EU homegrown protein initiative & now SFP). So with only a few hundred acre of grassland available to forage in the summer months, (some minimally grazed by sheep,) our summer honey yield amounted to about a 1lb average.
Yes things have improved in our area since those early days, much to the benefit of the bees.
The only other improvement we could make would be to grow less wheat (who needs bread to eat!), get rid of the tractors and go for horse power. Then we can grow more grass and have hay meadows, to feed the horses and flowers for bees to pollinate. I believe it was the Governments own "War Ag committees" that ordered the ploughing up of these meadows, in order to feed the population during the war, with only minimal food imports available, and to-day an ever increasing population again so who needs food?
OK rant over.

 

[Amari]

Coming to the end of my first 12 months with bees and I have noticed a huge difference between the 3 sites I have.
The difference between the sites is huge.
By far the worst site is the ones exposed to crop sprays and monoculture of modern farming. Without help both these colonies would have died out, they may still but fingers crossed.
Has anyone else noticed a dramatic difference in their apiary sites ?

There is a danger of jumping to conclusions based on a small number of samples (colonies). There are so many variables which are difficult to control. In particular you would need to check the colonies on each site for varroa and nosema - we all know there can be huge variation in disease and productivity of colonies within a single apiary

 

[Nige.Coll]

There is a danger of jumping to conclusions based on a small number of samples (colonies). There are so many variables which are difficult to control. In particular you would need to check the colonies on each site for varroa and nosema - we all know there can be huge variation in disease and productivity of colonies within a single apiary

I've never seen DWV but they do have some varroa. Not seen much when uncapping drone brood.
I checked some hives and had a drop of 20 over a week. mainly the parent colonies from which any splits were taken. They kept most of the drone brood so I guessed that would be the worst count.

I haven't the knowledge or equipment to check for nosema properly so i went on the total change in behaviour after sprays were used and the information on the chemicals and the effect they had on bees during testing.

Every other colony that was split around the same time has managed to fill 2 or 3 supers easily and built up quicker and better.
After the thymolated syrup they have become more active and brood has increased so i suspect nosema was an issue but cannot be 100% sure. They actually fly around now not just walk up my hands.

I'm trying not to jump to conclusions but i can only make a judgement on the info i have and that clearly shows that has been the worst site for me this year.

 

[REDWOOD]

Unfortunately the modern consumer wants cheap food

Not me