pigletwillie
New Bee
- Joined
- May 1, 2012
- Messages
- 37
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Leicester
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 6
This is my second full year of being a bee keeper. I started off with one colony and very quickly acquired two more. Ever mindful of the logic that if you only have one colony and you lose it then you are no longer a bee keeper I though, with three, even as a novice I should come through the winter with at least one colony.
Well after the wet summer and cold winter I did manage to keep one colony, in fact all three came through in rude health. Now its one thing to have three colonies, its quite another to have to accommodate the resultant splits from artificial swarms. My three hives have resulted in four new colonies giving me seven at present.
Thankfully due to youtube and Hedgerow Pete, four nucs were quickly built to accommodate them. Two of these have since been upgraded into full sized hives as they are just so prolific.
One thing a new beek just does not realise is that you need far more brood frames and accommodation than you can possibly think. I went from one national hive last year with two (unused) supers to four this year plus four nucs and eight supers. That's just to accommodate my own stuff and doesn't factor in collecting swarms.
My one word of advice to new bee keepers is to build/buy/borrow lots of extra kit as rest assured its a horrid feeling when you do a hive inspection and you see a lovely cluster of queen cells and have absolutely nowhere to go kit wise.
Well after the wet summer and cold winter I did manage to keep one colony, in fact all three came through in rude health. Now its one thing to have three colonies, its quite another to have to accommodate the resultant splits from artificial swarms. My three hives have resulted in four new colonies giving me seven at present.
Thankfully due to youtube and Hedgerow Pete, four nucs were quickly built to accommodate them. Two of these have since been upgraded into full sized hives as they are just so prolific.
One thing a new beek just does not realise is that you need far more brood frames and accommodation than you can possibly think. I went from one national hive last year with two (unused) supers to four this year plus four nucs and eight supers. That's just to accommodate my own stuff and doesn't factor in collecting swarms.
My one word of advice to new bee keepers is to build/buy/borrow lots of extra kit as rest assured its a horrid feeling when you do a hive inspection and you see a lovely cluster of queen cells and have absolutely nowhere to go kit wise.