My bee set up

jimcrowch · Jan 19, 2023

£ hives, mix of National and Rose , all on my own garden, which covers nearly 2 acres so there is no shortage of food for them. Sorry I do not do photos and tech stuff is beyond me. The queens are all black native irish and seem very weather resilient which is essential in this part of the world.

enrico · Jan 20, 2023

Hi, welcome,
You would be surprised that 2 acres if garden is only an hors d'oeuvre for bees! Even if full to the gunnels of flowers! But... Every little helps. You will find that they are bringing in pollen and nectar from at least a couple of miles away. If there are no mono crops then trees will be the favourite.
How long have you been keeping them and what are your honey crops like?
E

jimcrowch · Jan 20, 2023

Had a lot of initial problems as I sited my hives on top of a sceptic tank and it killed all the hives placed there so these current hives havent produced honey yet. The garden planting is more to give the bees that variety that is usually lacking in rural areas so this year will be a good test of how strong they get and how much they can produce, but do take into account that the temperatures in summer here are much lower than in most other areas of GB and RoI.

Ian123 · Jan 20, 2023

jimcrowch said:
Had a lot of initial problems as I sited my hives on top of a sceptic tank and it killed all the hives placed there so these current hives havent produced honey yet. The garden planting is more to give the bees that variety that is usually lacking in rural areas so this year will be a good test of how strong they get and how much they can produce, but do take into account that the temperatures in summer here are much lower than in most other areas of GB and RoI.

Why did the bees die on the sceptic tank?