The days are getting longer, yet the world is dark at 5pm. At least we're on the uphill slope now towards longer days and Spring....although that will be a couple of months away as today I woke to another heavy hoare frost and then sleet when out and about.
Out and about in Tier 3 and Tier 4 that is delivering honey to essential retailers who are anticipating a busy January.
I have been sitting thinking about what the year may have in store. Having suffered two bouts of Covid in the past 12 months I know it's not something to be enjoyed, although the second time wasn't as bad as the first. I do hope that local food outlets will continue to be supported by those able and willing to do so. Certainly it seems there has been a move to localism, and while I tend to supply trade customers I have a returning number of local retail customers too who are now regulars.
To the bees and beekeeping - I am overwintering more nucs than ever before, and have fed more fondant thus far than in previous years. I felt that the bees have been more active this Autumn and early Winter and were burning through their stores. Some that I checked on in late November hadn't even begun to cluster and some were on 9-10 seams of bees too.
The winter is again focused on building kit - frames for nucs (I always run out) rendering old super frames before the wax moth get their little burrowing bodies into them and making something of the wax, and knocking together a large batch of replacement floors and roofs to rotate some that are definitely on their last legs.
Also on the list are another batch of large hive stands. I do find I accumulate the necessary parts to make stands during the year and then 'mislay' them and end up buying another batch of 5" nails or creocote only to 'find' the container of wood preserver or the box of nails while searching for something else....anyone else suffer this ?
In many ways I feel like I'm at a crossroads with the bees. Keep at the numbers I'm at (low hundreds) and manage them accordingly with a full time job as well, decrease numbers and better manage them and further focus on honey production, keep the same numbers, sell more nucs and home raised queens, or expand further...
I've always raised my own queens, but in the past few seasons have further developed this and hope to have a good surplus of queens to sell in 2021. I've been reading the interview with Pete Little in the book of the same name (Interviews with Beekeepers, a great read I hope there will be a Vol.2) and it seems AI has to be the way for me to go forward rather than buying in a top breeder queen (although that is also an option). What's putting me off the former is the kit and training - how to during a lockdown, and the latter - well a beefarmer pal had to chase his order of a top breeder queen from Europe last year having paid a decent amount of money for it....I'll need to follow up on this and find out whether it actually arrived.
Well. Happy reading and happy kit building one and all.
Here's to 2021
Out and about in Tier 3 and Tier 4 that is delivering honey to essential retailers who are anticipating a busy January.
I have been sitting thinking about what the year may have in store. Having suffered two bouts of Covid in the past 12 months I know it's not something to be enjoyed, although the second time wasn't as bad as the first. I do hope that local food outlets will continue to be supported by those able and willing to do so. Certainly it seems there has been a move to localism, and while I tend to supply trade customers I have a returning number of local retail customers too who are now regulars.
To the bees and beekeeping - I am overwintering more nucs than ever before, and have fed more fondant thus far than in previous years. I felt that the bees have been more active this Autumn and early Winter and were burning through their stores. Some that I checked on in late November hadn't even begun to cluster and some were on 9-10 seams of bees too.
The winter is again focused on building kit - frames for nucs (I always run out) rendering old super frames before the wax moth get their little burrowing bodies into them and making something of the wax, and knocking together a large batch of replacement floors and roofs to rotate some that are definitely on their last legs.
Also on the list are another batch of large hive stands. I do find I accumulate the necessary parts to make stands during the year and then 'mislay' them and end up buying another batch of 5" nails or creocote only to 'find' the container of wood preserver or the box of nails while searching for something else....anyone else suffer this ?
In many ways I feel like I'm at a crossroads with the bees. Keep at the numbers I'm at (low hundreds) and manage them accordingly with a full time job as well, decrease numbers and better manage them and further focus on honey production, keep the same numbers, sell more nucs and home raised queens, or expand further...
I've always raised my own queens, but in the past few seasons have further developed this and hope to have a good surplus of queens to sell in 2021. I've been reading the interview with Pete Little in the book of the same name (Interviews with Beekeepers, a great read I hope there will be a Vol.2) and it seems AI has to be the way for me to go forward rather than buying in a top breeder queen (although that is also an option). What's putting me off the former is the kit and training - how to during a lockdown, and the latter - well a beefarmer pal had to chase his order of a top breeder queen from Europe last year having paid a decent amount of money for it....I'll need to follow up on this and find out whether it actually arrived.
Well. Happy reading and happy kit building one and all.
Here's to 2021
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