Well I have an evening to myself and even though I live and breathe my beekeeping I can't switch off and to my blog I turn. Apologies for the radio silence since 13th April but life is busy. I guess that's a good thing really and I shouldn't complain.
So what's new ?
Well on the honey front 20+ new customers and some very good ones as well. Had to have a special meeting with my accountant who was fast to admit I was the only client who has beekeeping as a declared income. Interestingly we had a discussion about buying assets that actually came true (well possibly for the buyer not me personally) where a business buys a very expensive asset to cut down on tax, then the asset is depreciated and the business sells the asset in a number of years time to the owner at the prevailing rate.....yet the asset is actually worth a lot more. Dubious yes...ethical maybe not, legal....well any tax lawyers here ? A County tractor sold for £196,000 at the weekend.......I've always wanted a steam engine ha ha
With luck on my side, I decided not to start April queen rearing as the weather had been inclement and cold and then May was warmer but wet, and left it to late May to start this year.
I think I've raised the fewest number for a long time - only 50 or so but have use them in older colonies and also made up 20 early summer nucs followed by another 15 only last weekend.
The spring honey crop was looking patchy until the last week and I decided to leave half the colonies I'd taken to the OSR on a couple more weeks and thankfully I did so...half a super per colony turned into 3-4 in some cases, but it was far from OSR honey. A good blend of hawthorn, bean and osr too averaging 35lb per colony so far.
I've yet to remove much more of the June crop as yet but they seem to be bringing in far more than they are consuming.
Is the crystal ball working....I wonder whether the weather will be good for the Heather this year. A crop that needs plenty of moisture to yield and warm August days too. We've got the moisture as the grass crops are bumper according to the local farmers.
A few issues arose this season - my steam wax spinner lost it's drive belt which was a bugger to replace and the apimelter split it's front weld which needed a speedy repair. And I need to fabricate a hive tool holder for the truck to securely locate hive tools (without rattling) so I can find them at every site...
So to the second half of the year. I'm trying to locate a grower of buckwheat locally, and need to buy more syrup as well as the yearly varroa treatment. I've come away from vaping and trickling OA as I'm not impressed with the levels (too low or too high) where as glycerine strips with OA in them appear to do a lot better (not my own creation I might add but freely available from one of the large suppliers) mixed with Apistan for the nucs.
Let us pray for warm wet nights and long hot days until the end of September !
Fingers crossed anyway
KR
S
So what's new ?
Well on the honey front 20+ new customers and some very good ones as well. Had to have a special meeting with my accountant who was fast to admit I was the only client who has beekeeping as a declared income. Interestingly we had a discussion about buying assets that actually came true (well possibly for the buyer not me personally) where a business buys a very expensive asset to cut down on tax, then the asset is depreciated and the business sells the asset in a number of years time to the owner at the prevailing rate.....yet the asset is actually worth a lot more. Dubious yes...ethical maybe not, legal....well any tax lawyers here ? A County tractor sold for £196,000 at the weekend.......I've always wanted a steam engine ha ha
With luck on my side, I decided not to start April queen rearing as the weather had been inclement and cold and then May was warmer but wet, and left it to late May to start this year.
I think I've raised the fewest number for a long time - only 50 or so but have use them in older colonies and also made up 20 early summer nucs followed by another 15 only last weekend.
The spring honey crop was looking patchy until the last week and I decided to leave half the colonies I'd taken to the OSR on a couple more weeks and thankfully I did so...half a super per colony turned into 3-4 in some cases, but it was far from OSR honey. A good blend of hawthorn, bean and osr too averaging 35lb per colony so far.
I've yet to remove much more of the June crop as yet but they seem to be bringing in far more than they are consuming.
Is the crystal ball working....I wonder whether the weather will be good for the Heather this year. A crop that needs plenty of moisture to yield and warm August days too. We've got the moisture as the grass crops are bumper according to the local farmers.
A few issues arose this season - my steam wax spinner lost it's drive belt which was a bugger to replace and the apimelter split it's front weld which needed a speedy repair. And I need to fabricate a hive tool holder for the truck to securely locate hive tools (without rattling) so I can find them at every site...
So to the second half of the year. I'm trying to locate a grower of buckwheat locally, and need to buy more syrup as well as the yearly varroa treatment. I've come away from vaping and trickling OA as I'm not impressed with the levels (too low or too high) where as glycerine strips with OA in them appear to do a lot better (not my own creation I might add but freely available from one of the large suppliers) mixed with Apistan for the nucs.
Let us pray for warm wet nights and long hot days until the end of September !
Fingers crossed anyway
KR
S
.
