dismal results on welsh heather bees

[colmax21]

Hello,

Gosh here is a bloke that has made fellow beekeepers, some of who are new to beekeeping to be aware of a situation that can occur on heather and he gets slagged off.

What next, oh you are cruel to the bees because you do this and dont do the other.

Thankyou my man for your input, and thankyou also to the guy that warned us beekeepers in Cumbria that in areas things were bad, check and feed, as some of the colonies had gone from a feast to a famine in little over a week.

I dont consider myself the high and mighty as some evidently do on here, I am just a beekeeper who enjoys it as well.

Colmax.

 

[666bees]

Just a little thought, if you have bees a long distance away why not see if there is some local who is willing to check them each week for you. I only have the one hive at the moment. (newbee) and would love the chance to do more bee keeping as with one it only takes 10 mins once a week.

 

[BKF Admin]

666bees I remember that feeling well.
Nothing worse than having only a single hive and being ready to take on more,one week always seems to take forever before the next inspection comes around.

I have a funny feeling you will be expanding in the spring

 

[tonybloke]

Thanks to preyingmantos for posting this thread, it is a sobering lesson for those folk who live in the grim north and west where there are heather moors! and also for us soft southerners r.e. that the strongest colonies are often the first to run out of food.
Thanks also to Polyhive for his enlightenment and the realism of his postings.
This thread seems to have brought out the best (and worst) in some posters (some of whom have only 1 yrs experience!).

lighten up a bit, folks!

 

[rae]

some of whom have only 1 yrs experience!

Perhaps you could enlighten me as to how many years experience are required before it is OK not to check a colony for a while and let it starve? How much of a bee business do you need to be running before you have so many colonies that "I'm too busy" becomes a valid excuse?

I have absolutely no doubt that I will stuff up a colony at some stage in the future through incompetence or plain bad luck. Everyone has (or will) done it. The only bit I have trouble with is the excuses.

 

[Chris B]

I dont go on holiday from late March till late Oct- because of my bees. I still check every hive once a week, and feed as appropriate - so please don't tell me I will get sloppy. I try and keep standards high as I mentor.
I only asked how often you fed bees when hiving a distance away- not something I will do, so have no experience of this..I think still weekly- but depends on forage, weather, stores left...
I try not to slag anyone off- I realise hives can be damaged etc- but bees are livestock- and cannot be 'neglected'.
This is what worries me with all the new beekeepers this year. I just hope they dont think it is too much hassle and walk away...bees are time consuming!

I sincerely hope you never do lose a colony by starving. Never making a mistake? A noble aim and good luck to you but most of us are more realistic, likewise most won't shoot you down in flames when you confess your beekeeping sins. To err is human and we are all learning.

I'm glad you understand bees are not pets but livestock and should be managed as such. Among other things it makes it quite proper to find an economical balance where dangers are minimised rather than eliminated. Starvation of a colony is the loss of a valuable asset, but at the end of the day virtually all our bees starve - foragers on their final trip when their wings have finally worn out and obviously drones when they get evicted. That's why it's totally stupid and hypocritical to leap to moral judgements on beekeepers who lose bees to starvation, unless of course it is down to wanton disregard for welfare, thankfully an attitude that died out with the skeppists.

 

[Chris B]

There is a difference, and if you can't see it that may be a part of the problem? Drones are evicted from the hive as a natural turn of events in the hive - bees starving to death on heather moors is not, and can be avoided with a little care surely?

Yes they are different. But they are both natural in their own way. Some races are more prone to starvation due to their prolific brood rearing, and taking to the heather really exposes that weakness when it's harsh. Feral colonies from swarmy bees often starve too if they overstretch themselves by splitting too much - a natural check on swarmy genes, and as an aside this natural check is usually negated by beekeepers whose bees just get swarmier.

But the point is that ANY kind of starvation is the same according to a statement like "nobody should allow any animal to starve", and if somebody says that, they had better be consistent, especially if they show zero tolerance to others.

 

[Heather]

Never said I was perfect - people who know me will second that.. and like most bee keepers I have had small disasters and cause my bees problems with my learning curve - but I do feel starvation is a step too far in 'mistakes', so in that I am consistent.
I rest my case and move on.