'My 2nd year plan'

[drstitson]

Mine will be kept for giving to nucs (only outer full frames).

 

[Ely]

What is an alternative as autumn varroa treatment?

 

[Pete D]

As an update I am slightly adrift of my 2nd year plan.
Staggered today to have a count up and currently have 31 'boxes' with bees in them. These are a result of my AS, splits from what I believe to be my best 2 queens and 4 swarms housed following call outs. The splits are all housed in nucs (8) either std or 14x12.
Today I extracted 234 lb of honey, 130 of this from 3 14 x 12 hives on OSR which had about 10 days of decent weather, should have put more there I guess.
Having re read some of the comments when I first posted this I have to say 'RAB' you were right on several points including the poly brood (I have a complete hive)
Update headlines, about 10 boxes of bees more than I planned and 2/3rds of my honey target in buckets.
Pete D

 

[youngyoungs]

Great to have the update - what are your plans from here?

 

[Pete D]

I will be doing some unites in the next week or so to allow me to make the most of any 'honey flow' that may come. I have planted an area of borage and phacellia and have put some unwired frames in the centre of half a dozen supers in an effort to get some comb honey.
I will probably sell a few of the splits / nucs and after harvest, treating for varroa and feeding where required take 10/12 strong hives and 3/4 nucs into the winter.
Oh and keep listening and learning from you guys and my bees.
Pete D

 

[Pete D]

An update on my ambitious 2nd year plan. I have now been keeping bees for 18 months and am still mad keen.

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.
They all came through but I was persuaded by cash to sell the 2 nuc's.
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.
Ha ha, if only. Took 4 hives, and my best swarm control plans....did 4 AS but split one into 3 (original and 2 nuc's) did this as the crop wasnt really materialising due to the weather so thought I would have the nucs instead. The nucs I took home and they flourished. 2 out of 4 of the AS were reunited to the old queen as the new ones failed. These 2 still have the original queens. 8 hives here at the moment.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. Put the boxes on top and let them work their way up, they did, she did, added QE and swapped them around and after brood emerged took the std brood away.This may stop them swarming, probably not, it didnt 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. 2 I did AS into 14 x 12s, the other 2 into nationals leaving 2 queen cells in the 14x12's. Again 2 out of 4 new queens didnt make it and I reunited them. Had quite a stack with 2 14 x 12 broods and 2 supers on at one point. To make it easier to remove the 2nd brood I made sure the queen right brood was at the bottom followed by QE, paper, 2 supers, paper, QE and brood. Probably not correct but it worked apart from a few dead drones......... oops.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.
Used these 2 as below because I sold the 2 Nucs.

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. These 2 were my smallest colonies coming out of winter but have both produced the biggest honey crop which can only be due to the amount of forage available. They both eventually wanted to swarm so I did AS, 1 failed and reunited (the highest yielder).
I also brought in 4 queens and made up 4 nuc's.
Collected and kept 4 swarms, collected and gave away 4 more.
To have 300lb of honey crop, need to set a goal so this is mine. so far 370 lb yipee
To take 10 strong hives into winter after uniting and possibly a couple of Nuc's. er that will be 19 then ! (you were right RAB)
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. Attended lots of demos, couple of courses and a week with Chris B and his commercial set up. Looking at doing my basic soon and husbandry next year.
To plan and execute good bee husbandry and disease and pest control methods. Hope so
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.
Got enough gear for now... had 32 boxes with bees in at the height of summer !
Maintain a good home life / wife / work / bees balance.
No divorce pending
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...... This was a great experience, would love to do it again

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 they didnt, then hope we get a 'normal' weather year we didntand be prepared to be flexible and adapt to whatever is thrown at me. I did
Pro-active not reactive wherever possible.
Support the forum and learn and help where ever I can. thank you all

Progress reports will be available.

Whats your plan ?
Pete D

 

[Suzi Q]

Well done, if I may say so, all that in your second year! Fantastic..

 

[domino]

Blimey ....

So I'm coming to the end of my first year and my plan next year is for them to live and hopefully end the year with one more hive

 

[Elaine]

Blimey ....

So I'm coming to the end of my first year and my plan next year is for them to live and hopefully end the year with one more hive

That was our plan for our second year too - we ended up with 5 at one stage ! One has gone to my sister near Cambridge, and still deciding if I need to combine the weakest one with another hive - but looks like we probably will go into winter this yeat with 3 or 4!

 

[domino]

That was our plan for our second year too - we ended up with 5 at one stage ! One has gone to my sister near Cambridge, and still deciding if I need to combine the weakest one with another hive - but looks like we probably will go into winter this yeat with 3 or 4!

Well part of my year 2 plan is to put a bigger shed in my garden for all the stuff. I would like to have 4 hives, so if that happened I'd not be too upset. I'm keen to build up slowly.