NE Scotland noob

[Big Al]

Hi, the name is Al, from Aberdeenshire.

Currently entering the world of beekeeping completely incorrectly .

A wee bit of background; my wife and live in rural Aberdeenshire, and share a bit of fondness for these fascinating beasties. Always wanting to learn beekeeping at some stage in later life, I couldn’t resist picking up a couple of very cheap/tatty hives at an agricultural auction, and storing them away for a future hobby/project.

This was last spring, and after two weeks of the hives sitting with a few tatty old used frames inside, we started getting daily visits by an increasing number of bees.

Managed to get a bit of advice from someone in the know, and was advised that there’s a chance I could expect a swarm to arrive.

Seeing the cost of a box of bees, I hurriedly set about googling how to sterilise, place in a good spot etc, and with already being a decent diyer, repaired the hives, put in fresh frames and so on.

Low and behold, the finished hives were in place a couple of days when I was out having a morning coffee enjoying the sun, and was lucky enough to watch the sky go black, and our new family members move in!

Until the weekend just passed, we’ve really not done anything other than have a peek in now and again, and enjoy them flying in and out, hard at work. We didn’t do anything over winter either.

Anyways, all we really only wanted is to keep some pollinators. Not majorly bothered about honey, but I think after last weekend it might be a necessity.

Last weekend I was about to start cutting the grass, and found a swarm gathering at the bottom of the garden, which was coming from our original hive.

Googling again, I got a small cardboard box, and scooped the swarm into cardboard box. With having an already second hive all ready to go, I stripped and checked all was well, then placed the swarm in, box upside down them left them to it.

It now seems to be an active hive I think, so looks like I’ve now got two full hives I know nothing about .

First hive (wbc with one brood and 3 supers) looks full of honey, and the second hive National I think) has the same setup.

Anyways, that’s my backstory. Not ideal by any stretch, but now it’s time start learning some bee management, and harvesting honey!

Thanks for listening. Al

 

[Murox]

Welcome to the wonderful world of bees. Sounds as though you will be needing to buy/make some more equipment shortly. There will a "local" beekeeping association somewhere, probably a good idea to make contact, good source of help/advice etc.

 

[enrico]

Welcome Al,
Oh how your beginning sounded like mine 40 odd years ago!
Buy an easy to read book that explains the basic principles, ' Bees at the bottom of the garden' was my Bible then and is still relevant.
You can keep bees for many reasons but honestly, in this day and age, you would do more service to them by actually learning how to keep them desease free and increasing their life span. Don't feel bad about taking their honey, their one failing is that in good years they will make too much and can afford to give us some.
It sounds as though you are on the right path to a wonderful future of beekeeping for whatever reason so enjoy the learning curve.......it does have ups and downs but hey, the golden honey as worth it even if it just a jar a year!
E

 

[Ollyrutts]

Welcome

 

[madasafish]

I was brought up in nearby Macduff.. Aberdeenshire is lovely (in the summer)