Is burnout common?

[Parsonage Bees]

Ruling out any general malaise, maybe having gone through a couple of complete annual cycles you feel you have this hobby sussed? Thoughts of "Is that it?" "I can do this?"

Keep moving forwards. Plan to raise some queens next year so that you're apiary is sustainable. Organise for an out-apiary by putting a box in a friend's garden. Set up a swarm catching box. I like making stuff so planning to modify some standard boxes into nucs and queen castles. Last winter made underfloor entrances.

Saying all that, I will be feeling a bit 'flat' and after some hibernation will be impatient to get going next April. When you think you've got it sussed they are going to surprise you.

. . . . Ben

 

[drex]

I spend winter getting ready for next season, cleaning up all the gear and my bee shed and honey house, making stuff and renewing foundation. Reading is important too, as the more I know about the bees, the better beek I shall become.
Made a queen castle and did not get on with it, so switched to making lots of nucs.

 

[Finsbury]

This one. Bit of a beast not started to use it yet apart from a couple of trial cuts as pondering on the dust extractor.

https://www.charnwood.net/products/product/p8-cast-iron-table-saw-w619/category_pathway-122


PH

Thanks for the tip. I think I’m going to also go large (as in cost) and buy something reputable rather than a cheapo. DeWalt 745 looks like the one and possible a better blade for cross cuts.

 

[thedozzer]

To the OP,
Its our second year as well, and there is a bit of an anticlimax as the bees wind down and prepare for the winter, especially after the energy of a mad swarm season early in the year, doing splits and creating nucs. meeting other beeks and watching the colony grow, all the different pollen coming in and the excitement of using our own extractor on the first spring honey with the bonus of the amazing taste of the first crop of the year.

I don't feel like its a lack of motivation! but i do miss them, yes it sounds odd, but i miss the ebb and flow of the hive, sitting with a cup of tea watching them coming and going.

I miss inspections looking in the hive and seeing the eggs and larvae with the joy of seeing a healthy queen, and watching the colony grow.

I miss the smell and hum of a busy hive on a warm summers evening and pressing my ear against the hive and hearing the rice crispy sound of 50,000 bees going about their work.

Seeing the hives with frost on the roof and a few dead bees on the landing board its all a bit empty, i know that there is lots of bees humming away inside huddled up keeping warm but they very rarely venture out.
Its like waiting for an old friend to return,