Did you have any projects or goals completed in 2008

[grizzly]

My Project at the beginning of 2008 was to get an Apiary, bees were a distant dream at this point, when i finally was offered a site, i went to look and my heart sank, however, i wanted bees badly, so no Pigsty, tree, or rusty metal object was going to defeat me.

You can see in the pics how daunting it looked before i began work, but gradually the dream became clearer.

Tried to grow veg up there but theres too much shade from the Oak trees, so next year i will have some hives outside the shelter as well, facing into the garden centre container unit.

(the files say 07, but that was just me getting the year wrong when i changed the file name)

 

[mikeyspikey]

That is quite a transformation.... but why have you go the bees flightpath right over your veg... or have I got that wrong?

 

[Frisbee]

Interesting site and a lot of work has gone into changing it - well done

Frisbee

 

[grizzly]

why have you go the bees flightpath right over your veg... or have I got that wrong?

The veg is to the right of the hives, they do whizz over my head, but i managed to work without any collisions, however next spring summer, those raised beds will come out, and i will possibly add more hives, just stick to Bees i think.

 

[artibaton]

thats an impressive transformation

what is the forage around you likely to be next year?

 

[Finman]

.
I had but weather changed them.

 

[BKF Admin]

What was your (plan A) Finman that the weather stopped you doing ?

My plan was to keep bees,I started at the time when everyone and his dog needed Nucs due to winter losses,so I had to wait and wait for a swarm.

I was very lucky to have a kind female friend who allowed me to manipulate her bees for her to get some hands on experience.

I will always remember that day I managed to get my first bees (a swarm) that was about 1 mile away from me.

I had read all the books and seen the videos so it was now my turn to become a beekeeper.
After collecting the swarm my daughter that was with me asked how many swarms I had colected to date,my answer (None) she burst out laughing in the car on the way home.

I had my hive all setup in the garden ready for them,used a QE below the entrance for 48 hours then put a feed of syrup on for them.
I could not believe the speed that they took the syrup down and started to draw comb out onto my wired foundation.

A few pictures of my first bees within the first couple of weeks: