'My 2nd year plan'

[Pete D]

Having nearly completed my first years bee keeping I thought it best to have a 'plan' for this year.........
I completed my beginners course and got bees in April 2011 and have spent the last 10 months learning and experiencing beekeeping. Phew and WOW .

So here is my rough 2012 plan

I currently have 6 Nationals, 4 x 14x12's and 2 x 14x12 Nuc's. My plan is based on them all coming through, if they dont the numbers will change but the plan will still be my goal, and I will want to understand why they didnt make it so I can be more successful in following winters.

I have an out apiary site on a wild flower seed growing farm (140 acres) 3 miles from me who have agreed to let me put hives on site, they have flowers from March through to September including some Borage. I plan to take 4 x 14 x 12 hives there late March / April. These I will do AS or NUC swarm control on and reunite them asap to maximise the crop. This Apiary site is on my way to / from work so routine maintenance should be achievable.

Out of the 6 Nationals I will convert 4 over to 14 x 12, by either just putting the box on top and letting them work it untill the queen is upstairs or I put her up and then change the boxes over and put a QE in. This may stop them swarming, probably not, so plan B will be to AS swarm them into the 14 x 12's and unite them (into the 14 x 12) once new queen is established, hey might do 2 of each for the experience.

The other 2 Nationals I want to split to try to achieve 6 x NUC's, (probably 3 Nationals and 3 14 x 12) either for potential income or for my own queens.

The 2 over wintering 14 x 12 Nuc's will be housed in full brood boxes and one sited at my Mum's house and one at my brothers. I dont want them to swarm so hopefully they wont ( but will be ready if they make preparations) and will build up nicely and give a honey crop. I will of course be doing regular inspections on these and can re site them at my home or out Apiary if they are problematic.

To have 300lb of honey crop, need to set a goal so this is mine.
To take 10 strong hives into winter after uniting and possibly a couple of Nuc's.
To attend the courses and demo's that I have booked on to and learn as much as possible from others, from books and from my bees, my instincts and my mistakes.
To plan and execute good bee husbandry and disease and pest control methods.

I currently have 10 spare 14 x 12 brood boxes, 2 nationals, 8 floors, 7 roofs and 52 supers. I have frames for all the boxes, About 30 of the supers and 6 of the broods require wax foundation, the rest have drawn comb. I also have 4 14 x 12 Nuc's and 3 Nationals Nuc's, most of these have frames.
I will be doing a bit of shopping at the spring convention, mostly for foundation and some roofs and floors) I have recently took over the garage at home (wife has a new shed) and my equipment is all ready to go bar a few boxes and frames I still need to make on my newly constructed work bench.

Maintain a good home life / wife / work / bees balance.

At the end of April I have a weeks work experience with a bee farmer and am hoping to gain a lot of bee handling experience and practice lots of methods and techniques......

So thats my rough plan as it stands, obviously I need to print this off and stick a copy in each hive for the bees to read, then hope we get a 'normal' weather year and be prepared to be flexible and adapt to whatever is thrown at me.
Pro-active not reactive wherever possible.
Support the forum and learn and help where ever I can.

Progress reports will be available.

Whats your plan ?
Pete D

 

[busybee53]

Flippin 'ek Pete D. You gave me a headache reading all of your plan. You sure you are a beginner? I must double check. Good luck with everything you plan. Hope you enjoy the time with the breeder. My plan is to hope to get my only hive through the winter and then breed two queens from it. One because I need to replace the original queen and a second because I want to get back to two hives after getting one nicked. BTW I got 100lb honey from my one productive hive last season and that was a bad year so you should well achieve 300lb from all of yours. (I am glad the hive they left has my best queen in it though.)

 

[oliver90owner]

Pete D,

Comments and the odd observation...

You will need 4 ekes ready to convert those deeps to extra deeps. Not urgent, with all your spares.

You will return after your week of experience and immediately need boxes for getting queens reared. You will find that having new laying queens around will be a better option than relying on the young A/S'd queen to come good.

You will likely take a few more nucs, with good queens, through next winter.

Can't see you managing to keep down to ten colonies, what with all those spare boxes laying around!

If you have time and the inclination, make your own floors (cost is mainly the OMF screen) and perhaps consider attacking roofs as well? I already much prefer my home made roofs than the standard Th8rne variety. Lighter, better insulated, deeper and a lot cheaper I will likely have some spare second hand roofs later in the year after I knock up another batch (hopefully).

Be ready to try out a poly brood, at least.

Might be a few more ideas as the thread progresses.

Regards, RAB

 

[Pete D]

Hi Busybee,
yes just a beginner but well hooked now, enjoying the experience and after my rapid start looking to consolidate this year. Hope your bees come through and you get your second colony back up and running. 100lb per hive sounds good, my new 10 frame extractor needs a good work out !

Hi RAB, thanks for your comments, I have some ekes (didnt put them on my stock list) that I used for varroa treatment which will do the job. I am well capable of making roofs and floors and will have a go, probably floors first as I am ok with wood but not sure about the metal work. I have my garage set up now so will have a play, after all I have some flat packs so it cant be hard to copy them.
Really looking forward to my work experience with Chris B, met him earlier this week and I am sure I will learn alot, I aim to put as much in as possible to enable me to get the most out. Not sure I will jump to queen rearing this year, a few splits yes but not full scale queen rearing. Plenty of time for that when the goverment lets me retire in 20 years ! 10 good colonies is where I would like to be going into the winter, I may as you say have a few more NUC's along side them.
Poly brood.......... now there's a thought, maybe try a couple going in to next winter !
Whoaa!
Pete

 

[drstitson]

"I have some ekes (didnt put them on my stock list) that I used for varroa treatment which will do the job"

normal apiguard ekes aren't suitable - you need 9cm ones!

 

[Pete D]

Ah yes, thank you Doctor,
hmm...... ekes to small, supers too big, out with the tools then......
add that to my 'to do' list from my 'gap analysis' of where I am and where I want to be.
It grows.....
Pete

 

[Poly Hive]

Having been in your situation at about the same stage of knowledge I would most seriously suggest this to you.

From your "work experience" learn to find queens. Of the utmost importance so when you open that hive up and see QC's you have both the plan and the ability to put it into action.

Good luck.

PH

 

[scuttlefish]

Heck Pete, I'd be happy to be where you are with bees after five years!

My fourth year plan:
- buy in (at least) two more nucs of black bees and practice better swarm management this year to try and get some increase with an AS or two out of my existing colonies.
- Build up equipment stocks so that I've got five (or more, if I'm lucky enough to need them) physical hives complete with OMFs, ashforths & clearer boards.
- Make enough double hive stands to have one hive to each, and tidy up the seriourly overgrown apiary before the bees start flying in earnest for the spring.
- Ramp up my pest & disease control seeing as I'm going to have more colonies, especially with regards to IPM for varroa.

 

[Skyhook]

'My 2nd year plan'
Having nearly completed my first years bee keeping I thought it best to have a 'plan' for this year.........
Pete D

I had one of those....

Seriously, it sounds as if you're on your way. I was working from one hive, and the plan was seriously upset by the death of one bee...

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Your plan: Impressive

My plan: Assuming all 3 survive, go into next winter with the same, and hopefully pick up some honey on the way this time.

 

[Pete D]

Thanks for the comments and tips, I feel like a big sponge at the moment soaking up all this wise advice, keep it coming and eventually with experience and learning I will know which bits work for my bees and me.

PH after meeting with Chris the other day and finding out more about what we will be doing (best made plans) I think queens will feature heavily during my week. I am looking at it as a great learning opportunity and a way of gaining experience. I figure if I look in 40 hives in a day for 5 days It will be the same as looking in my own 10, 20 times each which is probably a years worth of beekeeping in a week. I also figured doing 40 AS or splits or queen introduction or......... during the week can only help when I get back to mine and do 2 or 3 !
Its my plan, I work best when I have one, but just like the FA I appreciate the need for flexibility and that my team may have their own plans !
Cheers

 

[Erichalfbee]

I had one of those....

I was working from one hive, and the plan was seriously upset by the death of one bee...

Thanks,Skyhook for making me laugh so much on this dismal icy day.
This year will be a great year.......I can feel it.

 

[Bob Bee]

Having nearly completed my first years bee keeping I thought it best to have a 'plan' for this year.........
I completed my beginners course and got bees in April 2011 and have spent the last 10 months learning and experiencing beekeeping. Phew and WOW .

So here is my rough 2012 plan

I currently have 6 Nationals, 4 x 14x12's and 2 x 14x12 Nuc's. My plan is based on them all coming through, if they dont the numbers will change but the plan will still be my goal, and I will want to understand why they didnt make it so I can be more successful in following winters.

I have an out apiary site on a wild flower seed growing farm (140 acres) 3 miles from me who have agreed to let me put hives on site, they have flowers from March through to September including some Borage. I plan to take 4 x 14 x 12 hives there late March / April. These I will do AS or NUC swarm control on and reunite them asap to maximise the crop. This Apiary site is on my way to / from work so routine maintenance should be achievable.

Out of the 6 Nationals I will convert 4 over to 14 x 12, by either just putting the box on top and letting them work it untill the queen is upstairs or I put her up and then change the boxes over and put a QE in. This may stop them swarming, probably not, so plan B will be to AS swarm them into the 14 x 12's and unite them (into the 14 x 12) once new queen is established, hey might do 2 of each for the experience.

The other 2 Nationals I want to split to try to achieve 6 x NUC's, (probably 3 Nationals and 3 14 x 12) either for potential income or for my own queens.

The 2 over wintering 14 x 12 Nuc's will be housed in full brood boxes and one sited at my Mum's house and one at my brothers. I dont want them to swarm so hopefully they wont ( but will be ready if they make preparations) and will build up nicely and give a honey crop. I will of course be doing regular inspections on these and can re site them at my home or out Apiary if they are problematic.

To have 300lb of honey crop, need to set a goal so this is mine.
To take 10 strong hives into winter after uniting and possibly a couple of Nuc's.
To attend the courses and demo's that I have booked on to and learn as much as possible from others, from books and from my bees, my instincts and my mistakes.
To plan and execute good bee husbandry and disease and pest control methods.

I currently have 10 spare 14 x 12 brood boxes, 2 nationals, 8 floors, 7 roofs and 52 supers. I have frames for all the boxes, About 30 of the supers and 6 of the broods require wax foundation, the rest have drawn comb. I also have 4 14 x 12 Nuc's and 3 Nationals Nuc's, most of these have frames.
I will be doing a bit of shopping at the spring convention, mostly for foundation and some roofs and floors) I have recently took over the garage at home (wife has a new shed) and my equipment is all ready to go bar a few boxes and frames I still need to make on my newly constructed work bench.

Maintain a good home life / wife / work / bees balance.

At the end of April I have a weeks work experience with a bee farmer and am hoping to gain a lot of bee handling experience and practice lots of methods and techniques......

So thats my rough plan as it stands, obviously I need to print this off and stick a copy in each hive for the bees to read, then hope we get a 'normal' weather year and be prepared to be flexible and adapt to whatever is thrown at me.
Pro-active not reactive wherever possible.
Support the forum and learn and help where ever I can.

Progress reports will be available.

Whats your plan ?
Pete D

 

[Pete D]

If thats a beer Bob, thanks I will have a pint of IPA
Cheers
Pete D

 

[drstitson]

"I will have a pint of IPA"

i know you have big plans for year two BUT i don't think you'll need to make up quite that much of Hivemakers' thymol master mix to need a whole pint. Not this year at least.

 

[Pete D]

No you are right, 1 pint of IPA is never enough !

At the risk of dragging it further off topic and being 'post moved' do the bees not store the thymol mix and then if there is any left in spring move it up to the supers, would this not taint the honey or am I showing my 'new ness' now with a daft question.

Maybe stick to the beer.
Pete D

 

[the naked beekeeper]

No you are right, 1 pint of IPA is never enough !

At the risk of dragging it further off topic and being 'post moved' do the bees not store the thymol mix and then if there is any left in spring move it up to the supers, would this not taint the honey or am I showing my 'new ness' now with a daft question.

Maybe stick to the beer.
Pete D

One reason why I don't feed thymolated syrup.
I don't want thymol being stored in my hive, contaminating future honey.
If it's stored, it will sit in the cells and stink them out.

 

[For want of a better word]

One reason why I don't feed thymolated syrup.
I don't want thymol being stored in my hive, contaminating future honey.
If it's stored, it will sit in the cells and stink them out.

Not found thymolated stores to be a problem.... then I put a brood box with drawn comb on top of the bees... removing bottom box and transferring brood and stores to new box... before I start supering for honey.

Over to Hivemaker... anyone noticed a thymol taint?

I have a part drawn comb of stored thymolated honey in deepfreese, no aroma but tastes ...

 

[Poly Hive]

This is part of the reason for working the brood box.

It also applies to stored syrup and and or stored fondant neither of which should be allowed contact with supers.

The fact that people are mentioning this demos that there is a mind set of supering too early.

On a nat single brood box I super on 8 frames of brood, not bees, brood and only if well covered with bees. The other three I would want to be either empty or pollen combs, NOT stores, and nor do I want stores in the brood frames.

Risk of starvation? Possibly, but there is no risk of contamination to the supers.

Just some food for thought.

PH

 

[For want of a better word]

Agree with PH.....
Make sure the bees have enough (comb) room when they get brooding and before rushing to get supers on. I run standard National Broods and hope to get better honey crops by doubling up on the brood boxes and hopefully on the number of little ladies out foraging!
Never noticed bees moving stores UP to supers?
I do not extract honey from brood frames... do not even know if they would fit in my extractor!