smallbee
New Bee
- Joined
- Jun 20, 2024
- Messages
- 22
- Reaction score
- 25
- Location
- Ireland
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 3
Hello,
Have lurked here for a while reading (and learned a lot); seems like overdue to say hello. I'm a new beekeeper with 3 hives, no previous beekeeping experience prior to the beginner course I did with my local association through the spring.
I had an eventful first year. Long post incoming, but feels worth telling the story. Be gentle, I know I wasn't perfect at certain points
I bought a full colony of bees in a National hive at the start of May, on quite short notice, so unfortunately I was on the back foot for having equipment to do swarm prevention. I had originally thought I'd get bees the following spring, so I hadn't bought any kit other than suit and hive tool for visiting the association apiary.
The hive I bought swarmed 5 days after I took them to my apiary, the very day I was putting Cuprinol Clear on my newly assembled second hive! In retrospect, should not have bothered with the Cuprinol and should have split them the moment I had put the box together. I thought I was OK for a few more days as the conditions had been poor, the hive had little in the way of stores other than a food frame that the sellers included, and while full of bees, it hadn't had any charged queen cells the day after I got it, when I did the first inspection (unless I missed some, but I don't think I did). Turns out the bees don't read the books; off they went, leaving several uncapped queen cells.
At that point, still having quite a lot of bees and tons of capped brood, I split the remaining hive, with queen cells in both parts. My thought was to reduce risk of cast swarms and to give more chance of at least one side of the split successfully mating a queen. In retrospect, I ought to have deferred splitting until the cells were capped, which they weren't at that point, so they they could have more nurse bees to feed them.
Four weeks of nail-biting passed, while the new queens emerged, matured, and flew. It was immensely challenging as a brand new beekeeper not to look in the hives! I did look after the third and fourth week, no eggs yet in either case, but the bees' temperament seemed calmer and cells were polished. I had a 2 week holiday at that point (booked before I thought I'd have bees!) so I headed off, hopeful of finding brood on my return.
Got back home to find that one colony had indeed got a little bit of brood (around half of each side of 3 National frames), but it was all capped except for a couple of large drone larvae, and there were capped queen cells. Didn't seem enough brood to have swarmed again, and the hive was not congested at all, so I concluded they may not have thought the new queen was much good, and committed regicide. The weather had been very poor during the time she would have been out to mate, late May to mid June. I decided to leave them to it to raise a new queen. No sign of brood in the second colony.
I put one frame of brood into the second hive, in hopes of staving off laying worker, and managed to source a queen for it within a couple of days from a local queen breeder. Introduction was nerve-wracking but smooth, and second hive had eggs and larvae a week after she was released. That side of the split was now smaller, as bees were dying and not being replaced, and I downsized them into a poly nuc to help them build up. In retrospect, I should also have fed them, I think, as there wasn't much flow at that point and they were struggling to both forage and rear brood to build up.
Two weeks later, I looked into the first hive and was delighted to find eggs and open larvae at last. That queen laid great slabs of brood for the rest of the season, which was good after 2 months of very little brood.
So, from mid-July I found myself with two smallish queenright colonies, hoping that they would build up before winter. I did some reading and as a result started to daily feed them with smallish quantities of 1:1 syrup to stimulate brooding, which seemed to help. Now that brood was finally present, I also began to notice signs of varroa infestation: pinprick holes in the brood cappings, bees failing to fully emerge. I had fairly naively assumed that the swarming plus lengthy brood breaks would have meant that varroa levels should not have been too bad. Wrong: I put Apivar strips in and saw hundreds of mites drop from my fairly small colonies. I was pretty shocked. I suppose I should have been doing tests (alcohol wash) but I hadn't the kit yet (I do now), and I'd spent most of my beekeeping career at that point trying to be minimally invasive in hives that were requeening.
However, between feeding and the treatment, they both built up really well after that point, and I moved the nuc back into a full hive, on 9 National frames and a double dummy. I kept doing inspections as much for my own learning about what was going on in the hives as much as for their benefit, I will admit - seemed a reasonable tradeoff as I do need to develop my skills. It was good to watch them build up into decent colonies, although it did involve a couple of interesting learning experiences when I opened them during overcast days. I know now...
I received a third set of bees in mid-August which was a swarm that had built up to fill a National. They hadn't been treated for mites, and nor had my association's bees (I had started to do some work in the apiary there). I had a long think at that point about varroa treatment; and I've invested in an InstantVap as oxalic vapour really seems to be the way to go. It's a fantastic piece of equipment, seems quite foolproof. I will feel daft if my bees don't make it through the winter so I can justify the investment though
So I treated the third hive with oxalic (as well as my association hives), managed to get a small September honey harvest from it too. I wrapped up feeding all three hives with 2:1 a couple of weeks back, and fitted perspex crownboards, roof insulation, and mouseguards all round. All three are finally looking well; low mite counts, plenty of stores, decent populations. All the hives were strong enough to fend off the wasps; and robbing did not seem to be an issue. It is reassuring to be able to check on them occasionally through the perspex CBs without disturbing them too much. They will get an OAV blast in midwinter, and I will be hefting the hives. The perspex CBs I put in are reversible to allow the feeding of fondant if necessary.
Crossing my fingers now and making plans for spring. I didn't get much chance to do swarm prevention this year, but for 2025 I will have spare equipment ready to go in good time, so hopefully that will go better! I am planning to use mostly vertical split methods; I would like to get plenty of new comb drawn out and to rear a few new queens for splits. Planning to try my hand at building a few nucs myself over winter (including insulation). I really need to get better at finding queens; I have 2 unmarked queens I have not yet been able to spot, so that will be one of the jobs for spring.
Besides all the above, I spent plenty of time fretting and reading. The Haynes Bee Manual, The Apiarist's blog, Scientific Beekeeping, and here. All very helpful, in their different ways, and filled in an awful lot of the gaps left on the beginner course. Plus, access to best practices like top insulation and OAV, which don't seem to be widespread here currently. Hurrah for the Internet.
I also think the received advice to start off with a nuc as a beginner is probably for the best. It was ... a tough introduction to solo beekeeping. The advice about having 2-3 hives is also smart; being queenless with only one hive is not a great feeling: very tough to tear down excess QCs in that position even though it is likely the right thing to do. Hopefully won't find myself there again.
Have lurked here for a while reading (and learned a lot); seems like overdue to say hello. I'm a new beekeeper with 3 hives, no previous beekeeping experience prior to the beginner course I did with my local association through the spring.
I had an eventful first year. Long post incoming, but feels worth telling the story. Be gentle, I know I wasn't perfect at certain points
I bought a full colony of bees in a National hive at the start of May, on quite short notice, so unfortunately I was on the back foot for having equipment to do swarm prevention. I had originally thought I'd get bees the following spring, so I hadn't bought any kit other than suit and hive tool for visiting the association apiary.
The hive I bought swarmed 5 days after I took them to my apiary, the very day I was putting Cuprinol Clear on my newly assembled second hive! In retrospect, should not have bothered with the Cuprinol and should have split them the moment I had put the box together. I thought I was OK for a few more days as the conditions had been poor, the hive had little in the way of stores other than a food frame that the sellers included, and while full of bees, it hadn't had any charged queen cells the day after I got it, when I did the first inspection (unless I missed some, but I don't think I did). Turns out the bees don't read the books; off they went, leaving several uncapped queen cells.
At that point, still having quite a lot of bees and tons of capped brood, I split the remaining hive, with queen cells in both parts. My thought was to reduce risk of cast swarms and to give more chance of at least one side of the split successfully mating a queen. In retrospect, I ought to have deferred splitting until the cells were capped, which they weren't at that point, so they they could have more nurse bees to feed them.
Four weeks of nail-biting passed, while the new queens emerged, matured, and flew. It was immensely challenging as a brand new beekeeper not to look in the hives! I did look after the third and fourth week, no eggs yet in either case, but the bees' temperament seemed calmer and cells were polished. I had a 2 week holiday at that point (booked before I thought I'd have bees!) so I headed off, hopeful of finding brood on my return.
Got back home to find that one colony had indeed got a little bit of brood (around half of each side of 3 National frames), but it was all capped except for a couple of large drone larvae, and there were capped queen cells. Didn't seem enough brood to have swarmed again, and the hive was not congested at all, so I concluded they may not have thought the new queen was much good, and committed regicide. The weather had been very poor during the time she would have been out to mate, late May to mid June. I decided to leave them to it to raise a new queen. No sign of brood in the second colony.
I put one frame of brood into the second hive, in hopes of staving off laying worker, and managed to source a queen for it within a couple of days from a local queen breeder. Introduction was nerve-wracking but smooth, and second hive had eggs and larvae a week after she was released. That side of the split was now smaller, as bees were dying and not being replaced, and I downsized them into a poly nuc to help them build up. In retrospect, I should also have fed them, I think, as there wasn't much flow at that point and they were struggling to both forage and rear brood to build up.
Two weeks later, I looked into the first hive and was delighted to find eggs and open larvae at last. That queen laid great slabs of brood for the rest of the season, which was good after 2 months of very little brood.
So, from mid-July I found myself with two smallish queenright colonies, hoping that they would build up before winter. I did some reading and as a result started to daily feed them with smallish quantities of 1:1 syrup to stimulate brooding, which seemed to help. Now that brood was finally present, I also began to notice signs of varroa infestation: pinprick holes in the brood cappings, bees failing to fully emerge. I had fairly naively assumed that the swarming plus lengthy brood breaks would have meant that varroa levels should not have been too bad. Wrong: I put Apivar strips in and saw hundreds of mites drop from my fairly small colonies. I was pretty shocked. I suppose I should have been doing tests (alcohol wash) but I hadn't the kit yet (I do now), and I'd spent most of my beekeeping career at that point trying to be minimally invasive in hives that were requeening.
However, between feeding and the treatment, they both built up really well after that point, and I moved the nuc back into a full hive, on 9 National frames and a double dummy. I kept doing inspections as much for my own learning about what was going on in the hives as much as for their benefit, I will admit - seemed a reasonable tradeoff as I do need to develop my skills. It was good to watch them build up into decent colonies, although it did involve a couple of interesting learning experiences when I opened them during overcast days. I know now...
I received a third set of bees in mid-August which was a swarm that had built up to fill a National. They hadn't been treated for mites, and nor had my association's bees (I had started to do some work in the apiary there). I had a long think at that point about varroa treatment; and I've invested in an InstantVap as oxalic vapour really seems to be the way to go. It's a fantastic piece of equipment, seems quite foolproof. I will feel daft if my bees don't make it through the winter so I can justify the investment though
So I treated the third hive with oxalic (as well as my association hives), managed to get a small September honey harvest from it too. I wrapped up feeding all three hives with 2:1 a couple of weeks back, and fitted perspex crownboards, roof insulation, and mouseguards all round. All three are finally looking well; low mite counts, plenty of stores, decent populations. All the hives were strong enough to fend off the wasps; and robbing did not seem to be an issue. It is reassuring to be able to check on them occasionally through the perspex CBs without disturbing them too much. They will get an OAV blast in midwinter, and I will be hefting the hives. The perspex CBs I put in are reversible to allow the feeding of fondant if necessary.
Crossing my fingers now and making plans for spring. I didn't get much chance to do swarm prevention this year, but for 2025 I will have spare equipment ready to go in good time, so hopefully that will go better! I am planning to use mostly vertical split methods; I would like to get plenty of new comb drawn out and to rear a few new queens for splits. Planning to try my hand at building a few nucs myself over winter (including insulation). I really need to get better at finding queens; I have 2 unmarked queens I have not yet been able to spot, so that will be one of the jobs for spring.
Besides all the above, I spent plenty of time fretting and reading. The Haynes Bee Manual, The Apiarist's blog, Scientific Beekeeping, and here. All very helpful, in their different ways, and filled in an awful lot of the gaps left on the beginner course. Plus, access to best practices like top insulation and OAV, which don't seem to be widespread here currently. Hurrah for the Internet.
I also think the received advice to start off with a nuc as a beginner is probably for the best. It was ... a tough introduction to solo beekeeping. The advice about having 2-3 hives is also smart; being queenless with only one hive is not a great feeling: very tough to tear down excess QCs in that position even though it is likely the right thing to do. Hopefully won't find myself there again.
