Confused?

[Werbo]

Hi all, as you may know I am very new to bee keeping. I've been reading and have two things have really baffled me.

First is people going on about different types of honey from different flowers require different ways of harvesting. How on earth do you know where your bees are going and what honey they are making?

Second is the number of bees in a hive, is this a guess by weight or is there an equation that is done?

Thanks in advance and I'm intrigued to find out the answers.


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[sherwood]

Hi all, as you may know I am very new to bee keeping. I've been reading and have two things have really baffled me.

First is people going on about different types of honey from different flowers require different ways of harvesting. How on earth do you know where your bees are going and what honey they are making?



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There are a few areas in the UK where you might expect to get mono floral honey but not many for the most part people who live in semi rural or suburban localities will have multifloral honeys. The exceptions that exist in the UK are either in farming areas which might be singularily cropped with one species for miles around (field beans for example) or where areas have been put aside for a specific crop(borage for example) or areas that at some season or other support only one or two specific plants (heather) otherwise with a few exceptions such as lime tree honey most people as I said before will have multifloral honey. Abroad is a completely different story.

 

[sherwood]

Second is the number of bees in a hive, is this a guess by weight or is there an equation that is done?

The number bees in a hive will depend on a great number of things, the time of the season, the type of bee you have, the type of hive you have, the weather, the proximity of forage and the age of a colonyand the queen.

A good colony in a, with decent forage and weather could be typically in a
wbc hive 35-40k
national 40-45k
commercial or National deep 50-65k

you have mixture like brood and a half and double brood which also vary the amount of bees present

 

[pargyle]

H
First is people going on about different types of honey from different flowers require different ways of harvesting. How on earth do you know where your bees are going and what honey they are making?

Honey from Oil seed rape crystallises very quickly .. if you see fields of rape near your bees you need to watch for the first signs of them capping it and extract it almost immediately - do the shake test to make sure it's ripe or buy or borrow a honey refractometer. If you don't get it out it will go solid in the comb and then you won't get it out.

Ivy honey is much the same but as it's an autumn forage less of a problem because you can leave it for the bees and not many people like the taste of ivy honey.

There are honeys like heather which is thixotropic and has to be pressed out of the comb and others which crystallse quicker than some ...

But ... start looking around the area where your bees are and see what's in bloom .. look at what pollens they are bringing in and start taking a little notice of where they might have been foraging - and look up the plants for their honey characteristics. You have to get to know your bees and your area - you can't just let them get on with it.... think about what they are doing ...bees are opportunists - the energy expended to the forage collected ratio is what motivates them ... look for the big sources of nectar/pollen - that's what they will be after.

 

[Nige.Coll]

Hi all, as you may know I am very new to bee keeping. I've been reading and have two things have really baffled me.

First is people going on about different types of honey from different flowers require different ways of harvesting. How on earth do you know where your bees are going and what honey they are making?

Second is the number of bees in a hive, is this a guess by weight or is there an equation that is done?

Thanks in advance and I'm intrigued to find out the answers.


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1 Where the bees are going for nectar.
Have a walk round. You will see. Drive around maybe ? Know what's going on.

2 Number of bees.
I think this is related to the amount of cells and size of the hive.
If you add boxes then it about doubles. many have studied it and the value
given is mostly accurate. Eggs - death = surplus - needed + food. Or there abouts.

 

[Werbo]

Thanks for the replies guys, honey wise I'm really looking forward to seeing what they bring. In a 2 mile radios we have a sand dune nature reserve, clover field, and about 4 allotments. On the other side we have a river that gets lined by wild flowers and a huge woodlands with 2 golf courses.


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[enrico]

Remember that a bee collects mainly from the same type of flower on each flight, therefore a honey bee, unlike a bumble bee, will prefer many of the same flowers together, the best place for that is a crop in a field or a tree. One Sycamore for example will provide much more nectar than ten gardens full of different flowers. So look for flowering trees, sycamore, horse and sweet chestnut, lime, Hawthorne. Etc. Wild flowers are good but unlikely to produce a large crop, just add flavour!
E

 

[Millet]

Thanks for the replies guys, honey wise I'm really looking forward to seeing what they bring. In a 2 mile radios we have a sand dune nature reserve, clover field, and about 4 allotments. On the other side we have a river that gets lined by wild flowers and a huge woodlands with 2 golf courses.


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If you have any willow or gorse in the area go have a look, that is what mine are on at the moment.

 

[Werbo]

If you have any willow or gorse in the area go have a look, that is what mine are on at the moment.

The allotment site is surrounded by willow trees, how close to the hive to bees pollinate? I hear they won't pollinate with in 150m of the hive.


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[Poly Hive]

For accuracy.

Ling does not "have to be pressed" as it is perfectly possible to agitate it and extract in a tangential extractor.

PH

 

[Beefriendly]

First is people going on about different types of honey from different flowers require different ways of harvesting. How on earth do you know where your bees are going and what honey they are making?

As almost all have said you need to understand what flowers are available in the area your bees fly in. I started by drawing a 2 and 3 mile circle on an OS map. You can do one on line http://obeattie.github.io/gmaps-radius/?lat=51.450534&lng=0.00015&z=11&u=mi&r=5
It's a surprisingly large area!
If you have fields of rape, as Pargyle has mentioned you need to harvest as soon as ripe not leave on the hive. The harvesting is the same, you just can't mess about.
If you want to know exactly what they have made honey from, one of the best ways is to buy a microscope and a book on pollen identification and see what they have been feeding on by taking a sample of honey and looking at it. It's not easy identifying the different pollens, and there are many surprises in store. For example I had hives near an avenue of lime trees in full blossom last year, not a single lime pollen did I find in that honey. It was mainly field bean pollen and the nearest bean fields were about a mile away!

Whatever flowers they have made the honey from, honey made by your own bees is the best tasting honey in the world.

 

[Beefriendly]

Second is the number of bees in a hive, is this a guess by weight or is there an equation that is done?

I don't think any of us know exactly how many bees we have in our hives. We usually estimate the strength of a colony by the number of frames occupied (or covered) by bees, or number of frames with brood present.
It's not perfect and different frame sizes confuse things as does peoples perception of what is and isn't a strong colony.
For example some will say 8-9 frames of brood represents a strong colony, others on double brood would suggest 16-18 frames of brood was a strong colony.

 

[Millet]

The allotment site is surrounded by willow trees, how close to the hive to bees pollinate? I hear they won't pollinate with in 150m of the hive.


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Try telling my bees that lol , they flew over 400yrds last year to get to a rape field which they filled a super with.

 

[Robbo8916]

The allotment site is surrounded by willow trees, how close to the hive to bees pollinate? I hear they won't pollinate with in 150m of the hive.


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I would say that is definitely not true. My hives are very close (10ft or less) from a HUGE sycamore tree and they are all over it when it flowers.

Same with the apple, pear and plum trees within a few feet of the hives. The bees are all over those when they flower too.

The pears were still flowering when the balsam opened around a mile away from the hives last year and the bees soon diverted to that instead. As said they will favour one large food source over scattered smaller ones. Hence when the swathes of balsam open the bees head there as they know there is loads of food there.

 

[enrico]

The only thing bees apparently will not go on is something directly in front of the hive. Presumably because that is where they sh@t when leaving!!!!!!! But close proximity is no problem if the takings are worth it.