Happy New year fellow beekeepers. What are your aspirations?

[Nannysbees]

Happy New year to everybody. What are your aspirations for this year with your girls? I'm going to aim on keeping my hives down to 4. We helped out with swarm collections last year, so hopefully we can do more of that but pass the new colony on, im not keeping any!!!! Are you increasing or decreasing the amount of hives you have etc?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Getting rid of all my Swienty Broods, replacing with Abelo .....treated myself to two pinks ones for Christmas
Looking around for new blood. I've vowed to be more ruthless and keep only the good colonies rather than pampering the duds....something I still do after 15 years keeping bees.
Do a little more for the local BKA

 

[Redcap]

Happy New Year! Starting with an inventory of current spare kit; throw out old stuff that I know I'll not use (making space and being better organised... and then possibly looking to treat myself to a few poly BBs. Would like to increase to 6 (ish) colonies, up from the current 3; definitely want to have a go at queen rearing (I say this every year, but actually put a plan in place and do it this year!)...and of course not repeat mistakes/errors/miscalculations of the past .

 

[enrico]

Happy New Year.
start discarding old frames instead of cleaning them and buy in new ones all of the same type!

 

[Antipodes]

and of course not repeat mistakes/errors/miscalculations of the past .

Ha ha. Mine every year.

 

[Amari]

My resolution: read beekeeping adverts more carefully.....

 

[madasafish]

Try to keep my colonies below 15.

 

[Erichalfbee]

My resolution: read beekeeping adverts more carefully.....

Caused quite a kerfuffle that one

 

[Sutty]

Reduce colonies by at least half early spring (assuming few losses).
Be more effective at swarm prevention!

 

[user 11159]

going to mod some paynes nucs to 8 frame and use them as 8 frame.brood.supers.see if its better on my back...go from 3 .to 5.if all gos well ..

 

[BeeBird]

Happy New Year.
This year i am hoping to get all my colonies onto double brood. I have 6 hive’s but only 1 is double brood. Also aim to replace 3 yellow Queens this year. Having read posts on forum about varroa problems, I am also going to do a OAV series before supering.

 

[steve1958]

Keep to 5 colonies. (A lot of varroa treatment comes in packs to treat 5 hives).
Pass on any swarms to new beekeepers.
Trade in the box of wax that I have accumulated these past 10 years.
Definitely have a tidy up of beekeeping equipment, and get rid of stuff I am never going to use.
Try not to spend any money on more bee equipment.

 

[Newbeeneil]

Aims for this year?
To try to keep my own colonies down to 50 although I’ll still maintain 25ish for paying clients.
I’m going to use OAV as my standard varroa treatment throughout the year.
I will still mop up swarms in bait hives and by collecting as I see that as a public service to stop them setting up home in chimneys and roofs where they are a nuisance and expense.
I’ll pass the swarms on to fellow keepers after assessment in my isolation apiary.

 

[The Poot]

If I still have five colonies in the Spring, sell one and keep to four.
Be ruthless in requeening defensive colonies - if any of these, currently well behaved 2023 queens, turn out to be bad girls.
Replace last remaining wood boxes with poly and get a couple of new floors as extras.
Renew the batteries in my killer badminton racquet in case of hornet attack.
Like @enrico, discard grotty frames as I hate cleaning them and I recently bought loads of seconds.
Concentrate on swarm control this year and make sure I DO shake the bees off the frames….

 

[BeeKeyPlayer]

Start cleaning old frames and reuse them (I've discarded them all in the past). 45 gln oil drum and kit at the ready
Not lose any bees to swarms if at all possible
Get better at queen rearing and queen selection
Cull drone brood in defensive colonies
Focus and efficiency during inspections!

 

[Nannysbees]

Happy New Year.
This year i am hoping to get all my colonies onto double brood. I have 6 hive’s but only 1 is double brood. Also aim to replace 3 yellow Queens this year. Having read posts on forum about varroa problems, I am also going to do a OAV series before supering.

Two out of five are on double brood, first time we've overwintered, will be interesting how the two come through winter compared to the other three

 

[John Cruickshank]

Happy New year to everybody. What are your aspirations for this year with your girls? I'm going to aim on keeping my hives down to 4. We helped out with swarm collections last year, so hopefully we can do more of that but pass the new colony on, im not keeping any!!!! Are you increasing or decreasing the amount of hives you have etc?

I have six colonies which I hope will survive and my New Year aim is to look after them well and not to let other pressures on my time detract me from this. I tend not to be an interferer and probably get more swarms. If I was a younger man I would try to be more proactive in swarm prevention Specifically,this year,I want to help a neighbour who is a novice with one hive to become a confident beekeeper.
PS I caught two swarms in the summer and when counting Varroa drop after Apivar in the Autumn found that both swarms had no drop whatsoever in spite of the fact that both had loads of brood.The othe hives had significant drops.I asked about this and the answer seems to be that because of the gap in laying, the mites die off. maybe swarming is not such a bad thing after all.

 

[The Poot]

Two out of five are on double brood, first time we've overwintered, will be interesting how the two come through winter compared to the other three

I generally overwinter on double brood and they do fine! If I overfeed, in September, the queen will still have plenty of space to lay and any unused food is removed and does for nucs. The lower brood acts a baffle against the wind I suffer from. No sorry, I meant the wind the garden suffers from.

 

[Vanterrier]

Modest aspirations for me... get my colony through winter. Aim to have two or possibly three colonies by the end of the year. To learn more about this wonderful hobby (for me). Hopefully smooth out the roller coaster ride I've had in 2023.
Happy New year all
K

 

[markb2603]

Going to try get my other 3 single broods onto double (plan to try 2 Demeree and just adding a second brood box to the other early in the new season). I have 8 queens ordered for the 25th of May so going to try get a number of 2 frame splits done up to cater for these and get my hive count up to 12.