My first newby mistake

[RobKing]

I left both queen-excluders in for most of the winter not thinking, or knowing that I should have removed them prior to the onset of Winter. I removed them both a couple of weeks ago on a nice, warm Sunday. Fortunately, all seems to be OK with lots of bees in both hives, and they are bringing in a load of pollen so assume that that means that the queens are laying and weren't left alone as all the bees moved into the supers to consume their fondant. You live and learn! Have other fellow beginners made mistakes that they would willingly share?

 

[enrico]

You were blessed with a warm winter.......oh you lucky person. If I had done that it would have been snow for six months!
E

 

[Dishmop]

Have other fellow beginners made mistakes that they would willingly share?

yeh.
Getting into beekeeping.

 

[jd101k2000]

As my flying instructor said, just after I had nearly caught him off-guard and rammed the aircraft into the ground, 'you only really learn from your mistakes.'
So, splitting the brood to encourage foundation building while over-feeding so that the queen goes off lay, buying deep foundation when I should have bought 14x12, using MAQS when I only had a light infestation of varroa, tipping out waste syrup in the apiary.

... but I won't make any of those mistakes again. I'm sure I will find a set of new ones.

 

[Dishmop]

but I won't make any of those mistakes again

but you'll be able to offer advice to new beeks about what not to do becaue you know it doesnt work and not because you read it in a book.

 

[jd101k2000]

but you'll be able to offer advice to new beeks about what not to do becaue you know it doesnt work and not because you read it in a book.

Yeah, that!

 

[Midland Beek]

I left both queen-excluders in for most of the winter not thinking, or knowing that I should have removed them prior to the onset of Winter.

I knowingly left my excluders in during the winter this year.

 

[enrico]

I knowingly left my excluders in during the winter this year.

Now we all want to know why!
E

 

[Tom Bick]

I left both queen-excluders in for most of the winter not thinking, or knowing that I should have removed them prior to the onset of Winter. I removed them both a couple of weeks ago on a nice, warm Sunday. Fortunately, all seems to be OK with lots of bees in both hives, and they are bringing in a load of pollen so assume that that means that the queens are laying and weren't left alone as all the bees moved into the supers to consume their fondant. You live and learn! Have other fellow beginners made mistakes that they would willingly share?

A mistake yes but one that is not always bad news for the queen. Having left the queen excluder on over winter I would have been inclined to leave them on especially if you don't intend to run your bees brood and a half as the queen will love laying your super up with lovely brood.

 

[itma]

My big beginner mistake was to believe the advice of senior beeks that "the bees won't swarm if they have space - leave them with that super and don't worry, they'll use it if they need it, they will not swarm if they have space to expand into - they may think about it, but they won't do it" ...


I now know that
- only empty but drawn comb counts as "space"
- on seeing 'charged' (wet) Queen Cells, an Artificial Swarm is called for - without delay. As a beginner, that is your only real option.
- bees can be unreasonably reluctant to expand up into a brand new box, with brand new frames and foundation. Sometimes imaginative tricks need to played on them in that situation.
- most old beeks have forgotten what it was like to be a one-hive beginner with no spare drawn comb whatsoever.
- years of experience does not necessarily indicate wisdom.

 

[Tomo]

What tricks would they be ITMA?

 

[Erichalfbee]

I have put the box under for a week then moved it up, put one old brood frame from the bottom up, put in a drawn wet super frame,from the last season.

 

[itma]

What tricks would they be ITMA?

As Erica indicates, going without the QX for a week or two barely scratches the surface of what is possible.
Then how about putting a super frame into the brood box to get it drawn, before moving it into the super?
Or even temporarily moving a frame with brood (or perhaps two adjacent ones) up into the super (hanging down into the brood box) - yes you'll expect some drone comb on the bottom of those frames, but the bees should quickly start to draw comb on the adjacent shallows. It does help to start with SN4s (or 5s ) ie hoffman frames in that first super - you can get temporary plastic "hoffman converter clips" cheaply to attach to some frame's sidebars so you can play hoffman tricks more easily.

When the bees refuse to read the books, you have to go outside the books too!

 

[Walrus]

My newb mistakes:

- hiving a swarm without putting queen excluder on the floor (they left)

- buying a ridiculously expensive queen from Denmark and letting it out of the cage too early (they killed her)

- buying a too small smoker which kept going out (now I have a big one which stays smokin' much better)

These will not be repeated, but I expect to make some different ones

 

[BeeFarmer]

As my flying instructor said, just after I had nearly caught him off-guard and rammed the aircraft into the ground, 'you only really learn from your mistakes.'

My flying instructor used to say, "any landing that you can taxi back and walk away from is a safe landing". I can think of a few times that I might have put the nose wheel down a little heavy!

Remember the old saying, "It's better to be down here wishing you was up there than up there wishing you was down here!".

 

[Tomo]

I made my first newbie mistake last weekend.....
Always remember, when removing a miller feeder to put a lid onto it as it will quickly fill up with flying/drowning/returning bees.... boo hoo.