How did newbies this year do around the uk

[Thymallus]

Pardon a conventional bee keepers curiosity, but it seems from these posts there are serious problems handling top bar hive frames, and I guess shook swarms are out of the question.
What is the attraction for using a top bar hive?

 

[pargyle]

Pardon a conventional bee keepers curiosity, but it seems from these posts there are serious problems handling top bar hive frames, and I guess shook swarms are out of the question.
What is the attraction for using a top bar hive?

There is something very appealing about seeing bees build free comb in a TBH and the unrestricted way they develop .. I'm the first to admit that they are, at times, very challenging and can't be used in the format they were originally intended and as MDF says the top bars do need to be gently treated until the comb hardens up but ...

There's just something about them ... it's probably as near as you can get to keeping bees in their natural environment.

 

[Thymallus]

There's just something about them ... it's probably as near as you can get to keeping bees in their natural environment.

Thanks. I thought the old Germans had it right for natural beekeeping with their wild feral colonies in hollow trees and then cutting the backs out of the trees to harvest the honey.

 

[Erichalfbee]

There is something very appealing about seeing bees build free comb in a TBH and the unrestricted way they develop .. I'm the first to admit that they are, at times, very challenging

I have let my two collected swarms largely draw their own but as I run 14x12 I have "wired" the empty frames with fishing line.
They are, as Pargyle says, very challenging and I do not think they are a hive for a beginner.

 

[Cussword]

If you register with Beebase and enter the apiary location you will see how many registered apiaries are nearby.
http://www.nationalbeeunit.com/

I'm registered but I can't find out how many apiaries near me, how is it done?

 

[Swarm]

Bring up your apiary details and it tells you how many others are near.

 

[BeeJayBee]

Bring up your apiary details and it tells you how many others are near.

If you haven't entered your apiary details it's quite easy to do, using postcode for general area and then enlarging the map until you find the exact spot. Once it's saved you get given a number of registered apiaries in the area.

'Registered' might not mean they are current, because not everybody keeps their details up to day, and there's no indication of the number of colonies in each of these apiaries.

 

[Cussword]

Found it thanks, there are 59 apiarys in a 10K radius.
Phew.

 

[pargyle]

Found it thanks, there are 59 apiarys in a 10K radius.
Phew.

Yes ... It shook me when I found how many apiaries were within a few miles of me .... certainly they are not all my association members but at least they are registered which is reassuring.

 

[birdsandbees]

I joined and have uploaded an inspection report too, I did look to see how many registered Apiaries were within 10km and it said none!! Bit disapointed as I know that there are at least two within that range possibly three.
I will use the site as I like having the facility for keeping records on there for reference and it gives you updates on disease etc.

 

[popcornpie]

I joined and have uploaded an inspection report too, I did look to see how many registered Apiaries were within 10km and it said none!! Bit disapointed as I know that there are at least two within that range possibly three.
I will use the site as I like having the facility for keeping records on there for reference and it gives you updates on disease etc.

It said 'none' for me the first time but when I checked back in again a week later it gave the number.

 

[Millet]

If you haven't entered your apiary details it's quite easy to do, using postcode for general area and then enlarging the map until you find the exact spot. Once it's saved you get given a number of registered apiaries in the area.

'Registered' might not mean they are current, because not everybody keeps their details up to day, and there's no indication of the number of colonies in each of these apiaries.

That's handy to know for all the thieving scum at the moment..

 

[Millet]

This is my first hive which i set up at the back end of June.. it was five frame's of brood and food placed in a brood box and brought to it's current location.. a lot of flying bee's where lost during the procedure but they have built a good colony to this day as far as i am aware..
From around the mid to the backend of July the Nectar and Pollen flow nearly stopped.. (not what a new growing colony needed).. so i have had to feed them 2 kilo of candipollon to keep them alive.
The candipollen has gone and the pollen and nectar is back on the menu..
The brood box look's even with brood / food and empty cell's for the queen to lay... the first super on my last inspection (7 day's ago) had two frame's nearly drawn out and honey building up..
Unless these are super bee's i will guesstimate that they will need feeding mid winter.. but the thing that boggles me is they are on prime foraging land that i'm sure folk woul kill for.. lol ..
To add to that i'm getting tortured by wasp's ..
Folk say go on a coarse and do exam's.. but i'm sure a lot of what i have learned from common sense can't be taught in a classroom..
Good luck for next year fellow newbies..

 

[44Whitehall]

I took-in a swarm in early June and split the colony at the end of July to accommodate an AMM queen in a second hive. Both hives are doing well though look likely to require a bit of feeding to carry them through the winter. No harvest but plenty satisfaction and interest.

I have a sense that this year has been a warm-up for the challenges that next year will assuredly bring, and that next year will bring the satisfaction that keeps things going into the year after. And so on.

 

[BeeJayBee]

If you haven't entered your apiary details it's quite easy to do, using postcode for general area and then enlarging the map until you find the exact spot. Once it's saved you get given a number of registered apiaries in the area.

'Registered' might not mean they are current, because not everybody keeps their details up to day, and there's no indication of the number of colonies in each of these apiaries.

That's handy to know for all the thieving scum at the moment..

All you get is a number of apiaries in the area, written as a number, they are not shown on a map.

The only people who know the location of your apiary are you and the inspectorate.

Of course, you might not be very accurate or very careful pinpointing your apiary location, but it needs to be fairly accurate to make sure you get disease notification emails that might be relevant to your bees and so an SBI or RBI can find it if they need to meet you there to inspect your bees.

I joined and have uploaded an inspection report too, I did look to see how many registered Apiaries were within 10km and it said none!! Bit disapointed as I know that there are at least two within that range possibly three.

You'll only see the number if you've put your apiary on a map, but as popcornpie says, it can take a day or so to be updated.

Nearby apiaries might not be registered, sometimes it's worth letting the inspectorate know these apiaries exist.

 

[birdsandbees]

Just checked and you are right, it's updated alright! 176!!!!

 

[44Whitehall]

Suburban Surrey is looking popular - my nearby apiaries count is 283!

 

[linoleum bonypart]

48 on the East Yorkshire Wolds that's not many is it

 

[8ace]

Further to starting this thread they have capped a load this week so I took out 4 frames giving me just over 6lb could have taken a bit more off the brood and a half but felt I was being greedy.

So off 8 frames of bees this year I got.... 6lb , and two hives with 2 New queens raised of their own both now on brood and a half and both still have about 30lb and 20lb of stores each. Now both have the apiguard on now I've robbed some room off them.

Now capping run off nearly 7lb

 

[Obee1]

Technically I'm in my second year of beeking. However this feels like my first year as I had practically nothing to do last year. I bough a 5 frame nuc in July 2014 which arrived boxed up into a national hive. Over the course of the summer they grew to a 2nd brood box. There were no supercedure attempts and they made no excess honey. I fed em, treated em with apiguard and packed the boxes out with insulation. Very uneventful. Then 2015 arrived. A baptism of fire! The hive grew to massive proportions by mid April and I did a walk away split. Those two hives both turned mean, got split into 4 hives and made me a load of delicious tasting honey. They also stung my family friends and neighbours! They now reside on caerphilly mountain in disgrace. They have all been requeened - but during the course of requeening 3 bought in queens were killed or failed, at a cost of £130. Meanwhile I bought another nuc of buckfasts this year that have grown huge and made lots of honey and I caught a swarm which has grown well but made no excess honey. All in all a very steep learning curve but it hasn't put me off. So from 2 bought in nucs and one caught swarm I now have 6 full size colonies and I have harvested 75lbs of honey with probably another 50lbs awaiting extraction. I darent add up how much I have spent on equipment.