Dedicated forum for bee keepers aiming for least intrusive approaches

[Charlottecoleman]

With 15 years of keeping bees under his belt I would hope that the OP has learned something and may have some interesting comments about how he manages to keep his bees ..So, it's in the treatment free section of the forum, although he does not say that he keeps his bees without treatment. Looking at the location County Clare is about as far West as you can get in Ireland and I suspect that it may be a very rural location where he keeps his bees..

So, let's give him some space and see what else he has to say before the usual suspects start to tear him limb from limb. There's room on here for all sorts of beekeeping ..

Philip

Well said!

 

[Rory Fields]

Not sure if it's still active but Phil Chandler used to run such a forum. Think it was under the bio bees banner, but not looked in for a long time so it may possibly be defunct now. Worth a look.

He used to do a podcast too which was decent - I followed him but he's gone all tin hat conspiracy theorist - think he's basically David Icke these days...

 

[Moobee]

Or inferring that this forum is not well moderated - I think, as mods, we are very tolerant and very often just quietly edit out the comments that could be construed as unhelpful - rather than (on some forums) removing members and their posts.

 

[WalnutTreeBees]

I don't know of a forum, but I follow the @oxnatbees blog which often has some interesting insights.

https://oxnatbees.wordpress.com/

 

[rolande]

He used to do a podcast too which was decent - I followed him but he's gone all tin hat conspiracy theorist - think he's basically David Icke these days...

Yes, some of the podcast material was very good.

 

[triscleeire]

Thanks a lot for all the comments. Either the moderators worked very hard or most people are fair enough to allow space.
First of all: I life very rural with mile upon mile of forestry and fields with relatively few neighbours.
I believe that even the most experiences bee keeper only knows a tiny fraction about this amazing animal. Mankind goes to great length trying to solve problems with bees that we created in the first place.
Let in Bee is not a bad approach given that this animal survived for more than 2 million years without us.
Yet I am not totally ignorant or irresponsible and like to assist the bee where I can, hence exchanging experiences and ideas can be very helpful without spending energy on justifying fractions (or lacking same).
I did take about 20 lbs of honey from 2 hives this year in late spring and the two hives have swarmed populating two more empty spaces resulting in there being 4 colonies on site now.
2 of these still have Queen excluders as this was how the hives arrived but I would love to remove them and wonder when is the best time to do that.

 

[Wilco]

Thanks a lot for all the comments. Either the moderators worked very hard or most people are fair enough to allow space.
First of all: I life very rural with mile upon mile of forestry and fields with relatively few neighbours.
I believe that even the most experiences bee keeper only knows a tiny fraction about this amazing animal. Mankind goes to great length trying to solve problems with bees that we created in the first place.
Let in Bee is not a bad approach given that this animal survived for more than 2 million years without us.
Yet I am not totally ignorant or irresponsible and like to assist the bee where I can, hence exchanging experiences and ideas can be very helpful without spending energy on justifying fractions (or lacking same).
I did take about 20 lbs of honey from 2 hives this year in late spring and the two hives have swarmed populating two more empty spaces resulting in there being 4 colonies on site now.
2 of these still have Queen excluders as this was how the hives arrived but I would love to remove them and wonder when is the best time to do that.

If you're set on not having QEs then might as well just remove them now IMO. However, as previously that's not the course I would take. Removing the QEs should give them more laying space until things are backfilled so theoretically could reduce swarming although bees will be bees...

Presumably you reduce dead space in the hive over winter by removing some boxes and consolidating down? I'd recommend considering this if not. Likewise, if you're not using insulation I would recommend looking into it at least for overwintering.