Comb replacement

[Hedgerow Honey]

I am expanding hive numbers every year, make up three frame nuc's end of August from production hives with new queens and replace the frames with foundation in the middle of brood nest and feed, seems to have worked well up to now and have not binned a frame unless broken for four years.
Bought in packages go on one drawn frame and ten foundation at the rape, I still get an average of two full supers from each and most of the brood drawn out.

 

[Heather]

No rape around me and have had 4 supers from each of these colonies. Don't sound like 'poor bees' to me.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

had six to eight on most of mine - no OSR in the county

 

[Beefriendly]

This was an exceptional summer for many.
I couldn't tell you how many supers per hive.
At one point it was extracting honey put supers back on. Go back and remove and extract them again the following week.
Records tell me I extracted over 1500lbs of honey in six weeks from mid-June to the beginning of Aug from around 12 production hives. They also did well on the spring OSR and on the heather. Okay, I know small beer compared to the commercials..but hey it looked good to me.
Expect final average to be well over 200lbs/production hive.
Not a shook swarm was seen or done.

 

[For want of a better word]

Shook swarm onto new comb every two years when you replace the old buckfast queen........ if they need it or not.
Burn the old frames and wax.

Yeghes da

I was being ironic !


Nos da

 

[Beefriendly]

I was being ironic !

You need at least a smiley face to avoid Poe's law.
Poe's law is an adage of Internet culture stating that, without a clear indicator of the author's intent, it is impossible to create a parody of extreme views so obviously exaggerated that it cannot be mistaken by some readers for a sincere expression of the parodied views.
Simplified it means without a smiley we cannot tell whether you are being serious or ironic.

 

[For want of a better word]

You need at least a smiley face to avoid Poe's law.
Poe's law is an adage of Internet culture stating that, without a clear indicator of the author's intent, it is impossible to create a parody of extreme views so obviously exaggerated that it cannot be mistaken by some readers for a sincere expression of the parodied views.
Simplified it means without a smiley we cannot tell whether you are being serious or ironic.

Ironic it is!

Nos da

 

[Finman]

Ironic it is!

Nos da

Spending quality time!
.

 

[For want of a better word]

Spending quality time!
.

Making up 1500+ new frames and waxing them up!!

 

[Hedgerow Honey]

Packages gave two supers at the rape plus another three each taken off last Sunday, first time I have used them but the cost per colony vs honey produced is on the right side, works well for quick expansion but how they winter we will see next march, have ordered another twenty for next year.

 

[For want of a better word]

Packages gave two supers at the rape plus another three each taken off last Sunday, first time I have used them but the cost per colony vs honey produced is on the right side, works well for quick expansion but how they winter we will see next march, have ordered another twenty for next year.

I struggle with the sustainability of importing packages of bees, noting that you use 14 x 12 frames makes me think you buy in very prolific bees.. do you feed and try to take the package bees through the winter or just accept the inevitable losses?

Yeghes da

 

[Stiffy]

Packages gave two supers at the rape plus another three each taken off last Sunday, first time I have used them but the cost per colony vs honey produced is on the right side, works well for quick expansion but how they winter we will see next march, have ordered another twenty for next year.

I have thought about going this way but wondered if it was cost effective, are these the packages advertised in BF mag? That's a good endorsement and cant see why they wouldn't over winter and continue to produce a good crop the following year?
S

 

[SDM]

I struggle with the sustainability of importing packages of bees, noting that you use 14 x 12 frames makes me think you buy in very prolific bees.. do you feed and try to take the package bees through the winter or just accept the inevitable losses?

Yeghes da

When they're headed by queens bred in the UK and mated in warmer climes the need for feeding is no greater than other colonies.
The maths for why honey producers tend towards more prolific bees is pretty simple.

 

[Ian123]

Yes there are many myths regarding imported bees and have to say there will be good and bad in regard to imports and local bees and that mainly depends on the breeder. I would say in my area the average import from a reputable supplier far out preforms the average local mongrels in many aspects..Also forgotten is the fact that most large scale breeders are using breeder queens from many parts of the world the fact they are mated in warmer climes makes diddly squat difference to the heritage/characteristics of the final product...My parents are English mongrels and i was born abroad does that mean i am less adaptable to a uk winter!!!!now accepted if you are up a bleak hillside you may wish a hardy maybe less prolific type bee but there are plenty of those to be found with many breeders abroad so the buyer should be doing some reseach..And then you have Finsky and his Italians in 6ft of snow..lol

 

[For want of a better word]

When they're headed by queens bred in the UK and mated in warmer climes the need for feeding is no greater than other colonies.
The maths for why honey producers tend towards more prolific bees is pretty simple.

I have done the maths.
Majority of bee keeping people*** ( including Beefarmers) would charge a lot more for their quality UK honey... instead of being led by world market forces that are dictated by bulk Asian Triangle producers......
***If they also did the maths.

My preference is to use sustainable beekeeping methods that do not involve importation of bees, queens or "packages"... and mostly with the Cornish dark bee (Amm) ... I may need more colonies of bees to match the annual output of some, but that may be the "cost" of sustainability and working with the environment, rather than against it!

Yeghes da

Yeghes da

 

[Hedgerow Honey]

I need to get to at least 200 stocks quite quickly, then probably 300 the way things are.
I would never have envisioned purchasing imports due to the horror stories that are put about by the local associations, but that for myself has been proved up to now a misconception, they passed a complete check over by my RBI including floor debris analysis two weeks after hiving, have been a pleasure to work and no hint of swarming. They have to be worked as a farmed animal, ie given the best possible conditions to thrive and they will perform but put them in a small hive they will swarm same as if they have no work to do, and probably if left to produce their own replacement queen could become aggressive but I have had experience of local bred becoming totally unmanageable. All my queens get replaced going into their third winter regardless with queens from the same breeder.
I have been livestock farming almost all my working life and imports of beasts and semen to improve the uk stocks have always been encouraged, why can't this be the same with bees, why the negativity, farming is farming.
Back to the original post comb gets used till it falls apart, hive to nuc to bait hive then melted down into candles.

 

[Swarm]

Yes there are many myths regarding imported bees and have to say there will be good and bad in regard to imports and local bees and that mainly depends on the breeder. I would say in my area the average import from a reputable supplier far out preforms the average local mongrels in many aspects..Also forgotten is the fact that most large scale breeders are using breeder queens from many parts of the world the fact they are mated in warmer climes makes diddly squat difference to the heritage/characteristics of the final product...My parents are English mongrels and i was born abroad does that mean i am less adaptable to a uk winter!!!!now accepted if you are up a bleak hillside you may wish a hardy maybe less prolific type bee but there are plenty of those to be found with many breeders abroad so the buyer should be doing some reseach..And then you have Finsky and his Italians in 6ft of snow..lol

Not quite the same but it could mean that you brought in some incurable disease when you returned.

 

[For want of a better word]

I need to get to at least 200 stocks quite quickly, then probably 300 the way things are.
I would never have envisioned purchasing imports due to the horror stories that are put about by the local associations, but that for myself has been proved up to now a misconception, they passed a complete check over by my RBI including floor debris analysis two weeks after hiving, have been a pleasure to work and no hint of swarming. They have to be worked as a farmed animal, ie given the best possible conditions to thrive and they will perform but put them in a small hive they will swarm same as if they have no work to do, and probably if left to produce their own replacement queen could become aggressive but I have had experience of local bred becoming totally unmanageable. All my queens get replaced going into their third winter regardless with queens from the same breeder.
I have been livestock farming almost all my working life and imports of beasts and semen to improve the uk stocks have always been encouraged, why can't this be the same with bees, why the negativity, farming is farming.
Back to the original post comb gets used till it falls apart, hive to nuc to bait hive then melted down into candles.

RBIs et al do not have the facilities to check bees for novel virus and importation is in all probability the rout which new virus get into our bee population.... eg the Danish Pastry Virus ( for want of a better name) that is sweeping the South West and removing 10% of the colonies workforce of workers before they are even hatched!!
There are plenty of beebreeders in the UK who do not import and provide very good bees that are fit for the purposes of honey farmers.

 

[Hedgerow Honey]

Samples were taken from all stages of brood and bees and sent away for in-depth analysis at my request for peace of mind, that was the reason for a visit from full time inspector not SBI. I also purchase queens from a uk breeder but in April even nuc's are only just getting going where the imports are just wanting to get to work.
This is not something that I will personally continue to do for more than the next two years as I should have the numbers that I require, but would not discourage anyone else to give them a try.

 

[Into the lions den]

There are plenty of beebreeders in the UK who do not import and provide very good bees that are fit for the purposes of honey farmers.

Name them.
Then try to order 1000.
Then try to get them in time for a crop first year.
Then try to get a competitive price.

When you DO name them ask where their breeder queens are from.....many are imported and just grafted from here. BTW this is not knocking the quality. its normally excellent, just disputing that the country has abundant queen suppliers who never import, and they would HAVE to be abundant to supply the bee farmers demand.

Never ever found reliable enough UK supply for my needs, and when you do buy, some of the bees supplied...allegedly perfect adapted bees....have been really erratic in quality and often vile.

My last large scale order to a UK based producer for queen in late May, for which I prepared all the splits, had then being delivered in very small weekly batches and they tried to co0mplete the order in 3rd week of September. How on earth can you plan on that basis for real bee farming?

I think the true level of demand (forget the figures on the NBU site) would shock you.