Large numbers of colonies

[ShinySideUp]

I was just reading a thread about Maisemore Bees and the possibility of flooding so had a look at the website to see if they said anything -- they haven't.

However in their 'about us' section I noticed that they have 1000 colonies of bees. Now that's a lot.

I have trouble keeping five colonies from swarming in the Spring/Summer, how on Earth do they manage to control a thousand colonies?

Also, if you have that many colonies where do they get their forage?

Is the countryside around the company's apiaries rife with bees making for an efffective no-go area for people and animals?

Just a few questions that I'd previously never considered regarding large numbers of hives.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I was just reading a thread about Maisemore Bees and the possibility of flooding so had a look at the website to see if they said anything -- they haven't.

However in their 'about us' section I noticed that they have 1000 colonies of bees. Now that's a lot.

I have trouble keeping five colonies from swarming in the Spring/Summer, how on Earth do they manage to control a thousand colonies?

Also, if you have that many colonies where do they get their forage?

Is the countryside around the company's apiaries rife with bees making for an efffective no-go area for people and animals?

Just a few questions that I'd previously never considered regarding large numbers of hives.

The bees are spread over a wide area, not all packed into one field, they also take quite a lot to the OSR and pollination contracts further south and into Herefordshire (or they used to)

 

[For want of a better word]

The bees are spread over a wide area, not all packed into one field, they also take quite a lot to the OSR and pollination contracts further south and into Herefordshire (or they used to)

Quite so

We have over 100 now spread around and along the Lynher Valley.... plenty of forage in a mainly beef rearing area..... and a few more elsewhere!

Back gardens ... unless 2 to 3 acres ... do not make for good locations for bees!

Yeghes da

 

[madasafish]

Back gardens ... unless 2 to 3 acres ... do not make for good locations for bees!

Yeghes da

Lots of people keep bees very successfully in less than two acres of a backgarden..

(I have 7 full hives and 6 nucs in just over 0.25acres (at the rear) with neighbours opposite and to one side - and flleds and National Trust Gardens at the rear.)

 

[For want of a better word]

Lots of people keep bees very successfully in less than two acres of a backgarden..

(I have 7 full hives and 6 nucs in just over 0.25acres (at the rear) with neighbours opposite and to one side - and flleds and National Trust Gardens at the rear.)

Then you are an exceptionally talented beekeeper with nice calm non swarmy bees.

BUT even with my own nice calm non swarmy bees, my preference
is to keep people as far away as possible from them, but then with neighbors on every boundary the bees are not subject to tampering!

Chons da!

 

[ShinySideUp]

I keep mine in my garden although the way the gardens are laid out it is nearly 100 yds to the nearest house from the hive entrances. The neighbours behind the hives are less than 10 feet from the bees but are rarely bothered by them (the bees, not the neighbours) although there is an eight-foot fence so the bees would have to go straight up and come straight back down again to interact with the neighbours.

It's true, it's not ideal especially as my bees can be quite swarmy: Hence the part of my original post that asks how commercial beekeepers with a thousand hives prevent their colonies from swarming.

 

[enrico]

Having assisted a large scale beekeeper once, I was surprised that he didn't really worry too much about swarming. He was on double brood throughout, he simply split the two brood boxes and looked under the upper one. If he saw queen cells he split the hive into two parts and put the queen in the lower section. The upper section he reduced the queen cells to two. That is all he did. Took minutes.
E

 

[Erichalfbee]

Hence the part of my original post that asks how commercial beekeepers with a thousand hives prevent their colonies from swarming.

New queens every spring?

 

[Tim.S]

Good management although everyone will have their own idea of what it constitutes! For me new q every year, selected from my own stocks that have a low swarming index among other things. My out apiary is some way away so I visit only once a fortnight, so far so good fingers crossed!
For me grafting my own queens was key. It's not perfect because I am relying on unknown drones to mate my queens but it is better than relying on increases naturally which favour the swarmy types, all you end up with is lots of hives all intent on doing their own thing just when you don't want them too!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Hence the part of my original post that asks how commercial beekeepers with a thousand hives prevent their colonies from swarming.

New queens every spring?

Changing queens going into their second season is the norm, a lot clip their queens so it gives them ten days to get around them all.
Maisemores is not a one man band, quite a few working there, I suppose having the hive making business as part of it helps, the lads you see at the conventions then go on to beekeeping in the summer, then back to the workshops in the winter building up stocks of kit for the next spring conventions

 

[ericbeaumont]

Don't know about a thousand, but: clipped queens will give fourteen days between inspections (though you're likely to have lost the original queen, unless she's back in or under the floor); young queens help, but queens are at their best in their second year; absence of QXs reduces swarming markedly, as does space in advance; pre-emptive walkaway splits an option.

I like Tim Rowe's method of management: double-brood, then when strong, put another box between; repeat until the main flow; from that point, add any further boxes on top; works with one size of box throughout. Bait hives saves some swarms but it must be accepted that a percentage will be lost; in fact, it's a percentage game: most will produce, some will swarm, a few will not perform. Management will mitigate risk but the benefits must be balanced against the cost of time (yours) or money (if you pay someone) and the fuel for both.

Still end up chasing your tail.

 

[Michael Palmer]

Hence the part of my original post that asks how commercial beekeepers with a thousand hives prevent their colonies from swarming.

Management and breeding. Now, if you have an hour to talk....