Good news -- anybody?

[Millet]

Oh no, don't tell me there are two types of queen now.

I'm not generally a queen, drama or otherwise but sometimes the wine gets to me

Out of all the Help and Replies, you quoted my comment..

 

[ShinySideUp]

It was the only one that wasn't Helpful; I thought it merited a repeat.

 

[SDM]

You sound like a bit of a Drama Queen,,

Fit right in round here !

 

[For want of a better word]

Beekeeping will turn you into an eternal optimist and a manic weather watcher.
You'll know you've cracked it when you some poor innocent person you have cornered with your tales of bees gets that glazed look in their eye and avoids you next time you meet

Just substitute Landrover Defender for bees.... and you would fit in at the Silver Wheal!

Good Luck

Myttin da

 

[bjosephd]

There's been plenty of good thoughts on here...

I'd say inspect on a relatively short cycle to avoid any big surprises and emergencies, you have more chance of spotting the emergencies slowly taking shape!

Always handle your hives and frames during inspections like you're disarming a bomb. Slowww and steady, there is no rush.

Practice having a well lit smoker that you rarely use (but burns for ever on standby IF you need it).

If you find something and you feel like you really need advice on what action to take, don't panic, carefully put the frames back, reassemble the hive, and post the question on this forum, you are likely to get a fair amount of answers pretty swiftly. If it's a nice day, you can go back in after a coffee and some lively chat on the forum and take action with more confidence.

I use the Tapatalk App on my phone for this forum and it lets me know when I have replies.

Have spare kit ready, always. £££

And yes, the books make you feel like you do when you are in a doctor's waiting room. The longer you are waiting, the the more likely it is that you are going to catch all those diseases directly from the 'nice' informative posters on the wall!

I keep well away from my hives if I dare turn to that page!

 

[Parsonage Bees]

I haven't even started with my first hive yet and already I'm a little disheartened. Nosema, Varroa mites, bee paralysis, deformed wing, dead colonies, aggressive bees, tainted honey, theft, vandalism, disagreements about BK-ing methods, et al.

Does anyone have anything good to say about beekeeping because so far it seems like a very depressing thing to be entering in to?

I expect things will improve when I actually get my hands on some bees this Spring so perhaps for now I should stop reading about it until I have some experience.

And they demand a commitment of your time to care for them. And they will cost a significant amount of money and can then die, abscond or attack and you will not know why. But it's cheaper than golf . . . apparently.

I took the BBKA beginners course and was disheartened but decided to go for it last year and I can agree with a lot of the points made above. I've seen the glazed look in people's eyes 20 minutes after they asked me "How are your bees?" I've had to sort out significant problems (drone laying queen), worried about ongoing significant varroa/DWV levels and made mistakes but they've made it through so far. Met some great people at my local BBKA branch. And I've spent way too much time spellbound, watching them come and go (sometimes evicting their young, the dead and crippled).

I'm enjoying it!

. . . . Ben

 

[B+.]

Beekeeping will turn you into an eternal optimist and a manic weather watcher.
You'll know you've cracked it when you some poor innocent person you have cornered with your tales of bees gets that glazed look in their eye and avoids you next time you meet

with all of the above.
Also, when you are driving around, you'll be continually reminded by your spouse to keep your eyes on the road (instead of whatever is flowering in the fields/hedgerows). All to no avail....its an addiction that you can't shake. When things go wrong, you'll pretend they don't matter. When things go well, you'll see it as divine inspiration and dive deeper and deeper into it. Beekeeping is a bug that just won't let you go!

 

[Parsonage Bees]

There is a positive bias in that anyone not enjoying their beekeeping is not on this forum.

Just saying . . .. Ben

 

[Fatbee]

Good news is that it does get easier with each year of experience. Always one less mistake learned.

 

[mintmoth]

I haven't even started with my first hive yet and already I'm a little disheartened. Nosema, Varroa mites, bee paralysis, deformed wing, dead colonies, aggressive bees, tainted honey, theft, vandalism, disagreements about BK-ing methods, et al.

Does anyone have anything good to say about beekeeping because so far it seems like a very depressing thing to be entering in to?

I expect things will improve when I actually get my hands on some bees this Spring so perhaps for now I should stop reading about it until I have some experience.

If you read up on all the infections, diseases, and problems dogs can come down with, you'd never keep a dog either

As with dogs, get your bees from a reputable source and you will start off pretty much problem free, apart from the almost ever-present varroa. Dogs get fleas - you keep animals, you try your best to keep them healthy and happy. That's part of the fun.

 

[BeeJuice]

You shouldn't be surprised if you visit a web forum and find people discussing problems. It doesn't matter whether you are discussing bees or cars - people visit forums when they need advice and that happens when they have an problem.

You shouldn't conclude from the forum that bee keeping is a problematic undertaking. That would be the wrong conclusion as you are not going to get the whole picture from here - just a long lists of questions and answers relating to bee issues. You are only getting a part of the overall picture.

If you want to know what bee keeping is about get some bees. If you don't like it then you can give them to someone else.

If you want to get a better picture of what bee keeping is about then follow the thread 'what did you do in the apiary today' in the main forum. There's 20,000+ replies and nearly 1.2 million views. You won't find many of them 'disheartening'. Cheer up!

 

[ShinySideUp]

If you read up on all the infections, diseases, and problems dogs can come down with, you'd never keep a dog either

As with dogs, get your bees from a reputable source and you will start off pretty much problem free, apart from the almost ever-present varroa. Dogs get fleas - you keep animals, you try your best to keep them healthy and happy. That's part of the fun.

As someone who has had dogs all his life, I still have two now, plus two rabbits, and three guinea pigs (down from seven), I take a lot from the above post. I have had all my previous dogs put to sleep just before their lives became intolerable and it is the worst thing to have to do, but I still have dogs and while I live I will always have them despite their moods, illnesses and ultimate deaths. Eighteen months ago we acquired a puppy and it is eminently possible that this one will see me out so we'll see how she copes when I have to be put down (well, I won't see, but you get what I mean).

Thanks for that

 

[enrico]

You shouldn't be surprised if you visit a web forum and find people discussing problems. It doesn't matter whether you are discussing bees or cars - people visit forums when they need advice and that happens when they have an problem.

You shouldn't conclude from the forum that bee keeping is a problematic undertaking. That would be the wrong conclusion as you are not going to get the whole picture from here - just a long lists of questions and answers relating to bee issues. You are only getting a part of the overall picture.

If you want to know what bee keeping is about get some bees. If you don't like it then you can give them to someone else.

If you want to get a better picture of what bee keeping is about then follow the thread 'what did you do in the apiary today' in the main forum. There's 20,000+ replies and nearly 1.2 million views. You won't find many of them 'disheartening'. Cheer up!

I couldn't have said it better..... I am thirty odd years in, I am still learning and not afraid to say I have learnt lots from this forum and maybe more from teaching others, but never once have I regretted it.
The first jar of honey will help make it all make sense!
E

 

[BeeJuice]

You'll know you've cracked it when you some poor innocent person you have cornered with your tales of bees gets that glazed look in their eye and avoids you next time you meet

- I'm making progress then

 

[Little John]

You may have noticed that many companies have Complaints Departments - but I've yet to see a single one which had a Praise Department !

People communicate when they have bad experiences, when things go wrong - and not surprisingly, other people are interested to hear about those because such events might subsequently impact upon their own future well-being. Newspapers thrive on that kind of business - death, destruction and calamities - and the more sensational, the better.

Beekeeping forums are no different - the bigger the potential negative impact upon it's members, the more 'buzz' (traffic) a topic will generate.
LJ

 

[Little John]

Ok - so you want an example of Good News ... ?

We've had a couple of glorious days during this last week which has enabled me to do the first full inspection of the year, and I was even able to perform an overdue box change (from a Divided Long Hive into a Divided National Brood Box with a pair of 5-frame Nuc Boxes over - to maintain the same number of frames in each colony).

But unlike previous years when I kept AMM-mongrels and needed to wear a full suit complete with gauntlets and wellington boots, this year I just wore the dark-coloured sweat-shirt, jeans and sandals I was already wearing in the workshop. And no gloves, although I did place a veil over my face (as belt and braces), but left it open around the neck. [BTW, I would stress that I'm not recommending this mode of dress - just flagging-up the marked difference]

The inspection went like a breeze - most hives were inspected with no smoke at all, one or two were given a slight whiff of smoke if they began to look a little restless. Just the one hive put a couple of bees into the air 'to warn me off', but on being ignored, they duly returned to what they'd been doing before this rude interruption ...
I then made a note that although re-queening of that colony wasn't justified, nevertheless it's queen shouldn't be bred from. Which gave me one helluva chuckle - as I've clearly become uber-critical regarding minor aspects of a colony's behaviour which would have been totally eclipsed by the out-and-out hostility of AMM-mongrels experienced during previous years.

Anyway, that's my contribution to 'Good News Week' ...
LJ

 

[Dadnlad]

Good news ?

We rescued 7 old crappy hives of bees from a retiring beek and moved them to our apiary over the winter

Having made all the kit needed to rehouse them over the winter, we decided to make a start moving them into new homes via Bailey comb changes with syrup
Unable to find queens in knackered old boxes, we decided to put a single drawn frame in the box of foundation above

At todays inspection the queen was in the new box laying up the drawn frame, so we caught, marked and returned her above a qx

Happy days when a plan comes together