Newbees don't panic!

[enrico]

If you are a newbee, especially a second year newbee then read on!
It is at this time of the year that second year newbees are beginning to panic! The first year was when we had our perfect hive, five frame nuc, Queen laying perfectly, happy bees and a pleasure to deal with. But what has happened? This year we have a hive full to bursting, The supers are heavy to lift, those beautiful brood frames are turning black and losing their pristine look, The comb is getting holes in it and they are building bits where they shouldn't, there are queen cells coming out of our ears, the drone comb is sticking out all over and the bees are getting cross. We split our hive and it all went wrong, We can't find the queen, we are getting stung and we are beginning to wonder what we have let ourselves in for.
Don't panic!!! We have all been there... Take a deep breath and a step backward.
Commercial beekeepers need to manage their hives to get the best out of them but most of us are hobby beekeepers. The worst that can happen is your bees will swarm. So what? you will still have bees in the hive! Let them all calm down for a bit, they don't like being constantly opened and messed around with, just let them settle down and get back to what bees do best! Collecting honey and getting on with their own lives!
It is too easy at this critical point in your beekeeping career to just want to pack it all in. But trust me! It will all come right in a few weeks!
Of course this may not be you at all. You may have the perfect hive and no problems and I do hope so, all I know is that sometimes nothing seems to be going right and we just need to give them a bit of space! All I am saying is if you are one of these people at the moment then you are not alone!
Keep smiling ..... the honey will be worth any heartache you may have had!
E

 

[iball]

Enrico,
Thanks for the encouragement.

After what seemed to be a perfect start last year and coming through the winter it would appear that the honeymoon is well and truly over.

We'll get through though and it would appear that the 3 colonies have about 80lbs (5 supers) of polyfloral spring honey getting close to being ready to be extracted.

Ian

 

[enrico]

I'd be proud of that Ian, well done, If everyone does as well as you then my post will be making no sense to anyone! I just know how I felt in my 2nd year back in the 197????'s
If it hadn't have been for my mentor I wouldn't still be keeping the little beauties!
E

 

[Erichalfbee]

2nd year here too.
1 small poorly colony shaken into a polynuc and being fed fumadil. Lot of chalk brood before shaking so we'll see.
I swarm ,mine, hived 3 weeks ago on 14 x 12 doing OKish
I AS
2 parent hives with queens hatched around 7th but weather has been absolutely esaitchiniatango since. I look at the sunny day on the weather forecast every day and every day it moves on a day....................
I had hopes of doing a bailey in the June gap but it's looking like we are having a May gap and I still need two queens to mate. There is masses of rain soaked hawthorn out there!
I have 4 frames of capped spring honey stashed away but weather looks like I will be feeding that back.
So looks like no honey till year three then...............

 

[Juststarting]

esaitchiniatango

Define please?

I assume "not good" - similar conditions here and I am also waiting for queen to mate!

Enrico - thanks for message. Its very exciting being in the second year, but difficult to tell if things are "normal" as there's nothing to compare with.

Hence all the questions!

 

[Erichalfbee]

oops missed out the d
S H I T

 

[Queens59]

My second year exactly. 3 hives awaiting mating fligts...and one in need of requeening! I see to remember I read that beekeeping was a relaxing hobby...

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Thanks for the encouragement - sometimes feels like its much needed. Year 2 so far certainly not the enjoyable experience year 1 was.

Confident though that the tide will soon turn

 

[margob99]

hahaha! So true Enrico. Except my misfortunes have spread from year 2 to year 3 summer also Ah well, we live and learn

 

[Juststarting]

Erichalfbee

got it lol - bit slow off the mark this morning!

 

[ElectricBlueBee]

This really helps!

I'm only in my 4th week, and it all seems to be going to perfect and the bees are calm. Nice to know this is normal, and that i can expect it to change next year!

I've always been thinking about the swarm thing. My association is full of people, and this one evil man particularly, that scream at you if you do anything that reduces honey production. I'm a beekeeper, not a honeykeeper! If they swarm and are out of my sight and reach, i'll just be glad they're reproducing and some other lucky new keeper may get them!

I'm in love with my bees... People look at me weird when i say they're cute. Nobody says hello to me, they say "how are the bees".

 

[plumberman]

One advantage possibly of your second and third years is that you probably have more than one colony:

Losing a queen with just the one colony usually means being up poop creek with no paddle. With a few colonies, you expect such events and all it becomes is a choice of management strategies, rather than the heart rending panic of the newbee......

 

[Winker]

Gee you boys fill me with great hope...not! This is my first year, and i thought this nice calm relaxing hobby was always going to be like this

 

[drex]

Thanks Enrico.

Last year indeed went well, even doing an AS, but that year the bees had read the same books as me.

This year, they are doing nothing in accord with the books. Did two AS's and they still swarmed.

Some one is complaining about the rain, and here we are moaning about the lack of it. Myself and 3 others ( all in our second year) at local assoc were complaining that nothing was going right in our second year. A member who has kept bees for 50 years reassured us, that this is the strangest year he has ever known, due to the dry the bees are doing all sorts of odd stuff.

However yesterday I did extract 60lbs of OSR honey - the first proper run of my new Giordan extractor from Agri Nova, and it worked like a dream. Well chuffed with it.

As enrico says the bees are doing what bees do - in spite of me! Lol.

 

[Queens59]

One advantage possibly of your second and third years is that you probably have more than one colony:

Plumberman - I'm finding having more than 1 colony quickly is very hard work! I went from 1-5 in 2 weeks and it's doing my head in! Yes, a trial frame is wonderful - but what about when they don't do what they should???

 

[terry jones]

Second Year

Spot on enrico. everything you have descrided is what i have been through in the last four weeks.
AS hive which looked to be OK.
Spotted my first queen yesterday in the new hive and marked (first time I have found any queen), my main hive has turned into man eaters because I think they are -Q. I will try a test frame because I cannot find the queen and have no eggs/brood.

 

[kronkie]

Nice one enrico, you are spot on,it all went pear shaped a couple of weeks ago but things are looking better now.

 

[plumberman]

One advantage possibly of your second and third years is that you probably have more than one colony:

Plumberman - I'm finding having more than 1 colony quickly is very hard work! I went from 1-5 in 2 weeks and it's doing my head in! Yes, a trial frame is wonderful - but what about when they don't do what they should???

Reading the instructions is called education.

Not reading the instructions is called experience.

You are having the latter!

 

[psafloyd]

I recognise some of this, Enrico.

My double brood hive has been up and down hazving been going great guns and then getting congested from having dodgy QEs.

Not seen the Q in a fortnight and they are really pretty upset. Not as bad as last week, but yesterday when I was in there they started going nuts at the end of the first brood box.

As I was not 100%, I closed up soon after, as I have had some kind of bug and just couldn't face doing any more.

Had a quick look in my nuc yesterday. Have drawn out about three frames of foundation and are working on number four. I've seen lots of pollen going in but I didn't get to see what was going on. As I was not feeling well, I was somewhat cack-handed in manoeuvring the first frame, forgot I'd managed to use the nuc with broken feet so i wobbled it several times and they didn't like it.

As this is on my decking at home while I see if they are healthy, I was also kneeling over them with the sun behind me, so I must have bee creating loads of shadows. It might be they are a bit aggressive, but they came out in numbers then and I realised my errors.

Definitely a weekend to draw a line under, file under experience and try not to focus on.

 

[freethorpe bees]

Enrico you summed up my first and second years perfectly! It is reassuring to know there are alot of us in the same boat and as you say, if the worst that can happen is that they swarm, well, not the end of the world ( unless they go down a neighbour's chimney I suppose!)