Days like this where one is laid up feeling pretty awful (had all the symptoms of C-19 since Friday but no +ve result) means I delve into the library of books and periodicals I've amassed over the years and start re-reading and re-visiting articles that caught my eye and thinking about the coming season.
I always return to the old favourites like Honey Farming but also others on splits and queen rearing and management techniques. I'm considering using some different spring patties for build up from the Vita range to see if their claims are true...
To make life easier I'm giving up a few apiary sites as they are either physically a PITA to lift and transport kit to and from the truck or too small to hold the 20 hives I prefer to aim for peak season which helps make inspections quicker overall. I'm also taking on a couple more in some key locations which will allow for some easy access and space to expand into in time.
One thing that's been bugging me for a while is getting in front of farmers and growers to influence them to grow more nectar-rich cover flowering cover crops in fallow areas or headlands/margins. There seems to be a huge push to have 'wild flower' margins but so many fail and need to be re-sown. I think people forget that alot of natural meadows were very nutrient poor and when sown after arable, or with modern grasses, the grasses overtake the flowers by year two and they never get the effect they want (of a sea of mixed meadow flowers).
I really think our profession ought to be more joined at the hip with farmers and growers to help influence them and also seize the opportunity to put hives nearby to benefit from the forage, especially for the beekeeper with larger hive numbers.
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It made me laugh to see an advert from Greenpeace jumping on the 'Save the Bees' bandwagon with pointers to the reader to sign their petition about 'bee-killing pesticides'...Why do these groups virtue-signal like this ? Bumble bees , let alone honey bees, don't even forage Sugar Beet...! When will people realise that to get sufficient yields, modern farming methods requires the use of applications of necessary chemicals to control blights, rots, rusts, weeds and pests. Else we'll all go to hell in a hand cart and starve.
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Speaking of which with the rumblings of conflict in Eastern Europe all over the news, I suspect this will have a knock-on effect on fuel costs, raw material costs and food prices too. I wonder if they could avert disaster by placing a few hundred beehives in the path of the tanks and then get people to 'sign some petitions' to save the bees ?? Maybe the world would sit up and take notice an bit more then about the impending threat from that lunatic in the Kremlin...?
There you go. Never a dull thought from me !
KR
Somerford
I always return to the old favourites like Honey Farming but also others on splits and queen rearing and management techniques. I'm considering using some different spring patties for build up from the Vita range to see if their claims are true...
To make life easier I'm giving up a few apiary sites as they are either physically a PITA to lift and transport kit to and from the truck or too small to hold the 20 hives I prefer to aim for peak season which helps make inspections quicker overall. I'm also taking on a couple more in some key locations which will allow for some easy access and space to expand into in time.
One thing that's been bugging me for a while is getting in front of farmers and growers to influence them to grow more nectar-rich cover flowering cover crops in fallow areas or headlands/margins. There seems to be a huge push to have 'wild flower' margins but so many fail and need to be re-sown. I think people forget that alot of natural meadows were very nutrient poor and when sown after arable, or with modern grasses, the grasses overtake the flowers by year two and they never get the effect they want (of a sea of mixed meadow flowers).
I really think our profession ought to be more joined at the hip with farmers and growers to help influence them and also seize the opportunity to put hives nearby to benefit from the forage, especially for the beekeeper with larger hive numbers.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It made me laugh to see an advert from Greenpeace jumping on the 'Save the Bees' bandwagon with pointers to the reader to sign their petition about 'bee-killing pesticides'...Why do these groups virtue-signal like this ? Bumble bees , let alone honey bees, don't even forage Sugar Beet...! When will people realise that to get sufficient yields, modern farming methods requires the use of applications of necessary chemicals to control blights, rots, rusts, weeds and pests. Else we'll all go to hell in a hand cart and starve.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Speaking of which with the rumblings of conflict in Eastern Europe all over the news, I suspect this will have a knock-on effect on fuel costs, raw material costs and food prices too. I wonder if they could avert disaster by placing a few hundred beehives in the path of the tanks and then get people to 'sign some petitions' to save the bees ?? Maybe the world would sit up and take notice an bit more then about the impending threat from that lunatic in the Kremlin...?
There you go. Never a dull thought from me !
KR
Somerford
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