New here!

[LGDeane]

Good day everyone! I have made a cursory view of this forum and I'm honoured and delighted to be a part of it. Thanks for accepting my request. I live in Jamaica, and have been a "curious beekeeper" for over 10 years, a hobby beekeeper for about 6 and somewhere between hobby and serious one for about 4 years. I have an apiary in the rural hills of one of our parishes. I have a label, extract and sell unadulterated honey as well as infused hone and a Honey Hot Pepper Sauce. I have a number of faithful customers and have gotten involved with a local beekeeping body that is very active. I look forward to learning and sharing what I can.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Welcome, tell us how you keep your bees

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

welcome .....

 

[enrico]

It is so great that the forum is expanding across the world, Welcome

 

[Murox]

Welcome. Look forward to hearing about your beekeeping.

 

[Paulypaul]

What are temperatures like there through the year? So we can all envy you.

 

[Ely]

Good day everyone! I have made a cursory view of this forum and I'm honoured and delighted to be a part of it. Thanks for accepting my request. I live in Jamaica, and have been a "curious beekeeper" for over 10 years, a hobby beekeeper for about 6 and somewhere between hobby and serious one for about 4 years. I have an apiary in the rural hills of one of our parishes. I have a label, extract and sell unadulterated honey as well as infused hone and a Honey Hot Pepper Sauce. I have a number of faithful customers and have gotten involved with a local beekeeping body that is very active. I look forward to learning and sharing what I can.

Hi and welcome. It will be interesting to hear about beekeeping in Jamaica

 

[ericbeaumont]

What are temperatures like there through the year? So we can all envy you.

Envy kicked in when a St Lucian I knew told me that without winter, nectar is available all year.

 

[Ely]

Envy kicked in when a St Lucian I knew told me that without winter, nectar is available all year.

It's the same in south east Asia but I think they have to be quite nomadic with the bees and travel to the nectar sources

 

[ericbeaumont]

It's the same in south east Asia but I think they have to be quite nomadic with the bees and travel to the nectar sources

Let's wait for @LGDeane to give us the lowdown.

 

[The Poot]

Welcome. I like the sound of “honey hot pepper sauce”
I look forward to reading your posts.

 

[LGDeane]

Welcome, tell us how you keep your bees

I use Langstroth Hives and have learned the hard way that you don't just have bees and collect honey. I visit at least (most times!) once every two weeks as there are numerous threats (red ants being major, wax moth, inadequate food, adverse weather conditions, birds (a new dimension to the birds and the bees), and few others. Harvesting is normally about Feb-March and Sept-Oct. What about you?

 

[LGDeane]

Envy kicked in when a St Lucian I knew told me that without winter, nectar is available all year.

Nectar is "available" year round, but not for us and the bees. Also, we do have a dearth period say May to August in some places, but there is variation according to location.

 

[LGDeane]

What are temperatures like there through the year? So we can all envy you.

Its warm... moving to hot... which is not good for the bees, as water isn't always available and they don't produce as well. I think I would prefer that to winter though. The thought of locking up bees for extended periods is scary!!!

 

[LGDeane]

welcome .....

Thanks much! I appreciate the welcome and the questions. I'm assuming that most of the group are in the UK. How is beekeeping there?

 

[LGDeane]

Welcome. I like the sound of “honey hot pepper sauce”
I look forward to reading your posts

 

[LGDeane]

Thanks. The response has been very positive. I got assistance from a government agency to develop it. I want to expand it but properly just super cautious

 

[ericbeaumont]

How is beekeeping there?

Up and down, in line with stop-go weather. Rural forage can be limiting if mono-cropped, suburbs give good variety for nine months.

 

[hemo]

Great to here of other beeks and experiences form around the world LGDeane.
Here we have typically a dormant non intervention period from late October until spring when it arrives any when usually April or May, once consistent temps of 14 -17c are here or warmer days with no wind /rain then we can breifly have an inspection to acees quickly the colony situation in the hive. We suffer though with a lot of fiddler beekeepers who then wonder why their bees suffer or don't survive.

We tend to have a June forage gap, the last main forage for our bees is the Ivy in Autumn so end of September into early December which can be a considerable winter store income for them.

 

[hemo]

Ants don't cause us any issues, though wasps can be a threat for weak colonies in summer onwards.
Varroa is the main issue with colony health and waxmoth with stored combs.
New threat for us is the incursion of the Asian Hornet/Veluntina , our National Bee Unit is trying to stop it's progress, the threat is just not to our bees but the native insect population as a whole.