Newbees don't panic!

[MAZ]

My first year, started with a colony. All going well, took off 22lb of honey 2 weeks ago. All seemed to be going so well, then no sign of queen, no brood etc. Two queen cells present, luckily i was given a year old queen by my mentor so fingers crossed.

 

[Biddly]

Thank you sooooo much for this thread. My first year was a ' love ' affair with a 1st year beginner perfect gentle docile Italian colony. Sat by the hive and watched and photographed them for hours, little or no smoke needed when inspecting...all good, happy and peaceful. Came through winter ( i worried for months ...) they started the spring at a cracking pace. Took off a capped super of spring blossom honey and extracted in the first week of April. All going wonderfully...until i had to go away for 3 weeks......to cut a long story short...bee sitters encountered a few scratchy head moments.....came back to swarmed hive, no queen, no eggs, no larvae and the bee kids remaining needing to be slapped with an ASBO. Chasing me around the garden , into the house and making a pin cushion out of my gloves when i inspected. Strike squad armed and dangerous as soon as i left the house or drove up. ! Looked like i was in training for the 100m dash when i ran from the car to the back door before the girls got ' 10 points ' for hitting a moving target ! Got depressed about losing the ' lovely queen and co.' Got anxious, scared and lost confidence to go into the apiary with the ASBO home alone kids.

Reading this thread has really helped and although this 2nd year is different and difficult at times i know others are having ' 2nd year experiences ' and this Forum is so wonderful as you know you're not alone and help is at hand from the wise.

They have ' calmed ' down somewhat now..so..fingers crossed a virgin or mated royal in residence and a maternity ward in the process of being filled.

 

[victor meldrew]

We all had to start somewhere

I've just found my first bee records and scanned them !! for your amusement

I did get over it but the fever hasn't abated

John Wilkinson

 

[louiseww]

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

Too right - the first year was a doddle compared with this one (three years beekeeping and two with my own bees!
Louise

 

[sawdstmakr]

I'm on my second year also. 1st year started out really bad, Defective queen in a NUC,defective wings,never had a chance to mate, second NUc turned out to have only 2 frames of honey, the other 3 were very old drawn comb, wondered why the seller grabbed 2 frames at once to install in my hive and then the other 3 all at once. I lost the first hive completely to beatle larve, seller replaced it with a 2 deep complete hive that produced over 60 pounds of honey and is still going strong after I moved her and 2 frames this year to a new hive. The second hive produced about 50 pounds but did not make it through the winter. Made a total of 5 hives from the 2 joined hives this spring. The 2 older (first hives split) are producing honey and the other 3 are starting to grow stronger and look like they will make it.
So far I'm not feeling bad, I'm hooked.
Jim

 

[pipewrench36]

We all had to start somewhere

I've just found my first bee records and scanned them !! for your amusement

I did get over it but the fever hasn't abated

John Wilkinson

What lovely handwriting, a dying art.

 

[enrico]

Ok, Time for secrets. In my second year back in the 1970's I was wearing just a hat and veil, Didn't have bomb proof bee suits then. I vividly remember my wife spraying me with the garden hose to get the bees off my head and face where they crawled up under my veil and started stinging..... I think I may have shed a tear.... But my mentor, bless him, took me by the hand and we 'showed the bees who was boss' and I have never looked back since... However bad it seems now it WILL get better. I urge you not to give up ... but if you are then can I have your hives!!
E

 

[Willow]

This is so reassuring to read these posts. I received my 5 frame nuc last July (after a false start with losing the 1st queen) Now I'm finding swarm cells and supercedure cells in same colony - some beeks say not possible and some "Oh I've had that" on paper its nearly a year gone but take away the winter months of non handling. There is so much to learn, when will my head stop spinning arghhhhhhhhh ....."Is it Me"?

 

[greatbritishhoney]

when will my head stop spinning arghhhhhhhhh ....."Is it Me"?

No, it's not just you willow. I still wake up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night worrying about whether I did the right/wrong thing with whatever I did with the bees that day.

 

[jimthebee]

Great thread for us newbees. I have read this whole tread and will certainly keep coming back for reference.

 

[Ellem]

only just starting (picked up the nuc on Saturday) desparately trying to hope I haven't just done this all too soon (despite reading about it all for 10 years and doing beginner course and being member of local(ish) group)!

 

[JC Bees]

2nd year as well. The first year was I gues pure old beginners luck. The second year, yep it's panic as we're trying to put into practice what we've read and heard - wow like going back to school. Really interesting though. We've got 3 colonies which we've nicknamed as the "Goodies" who are Buckfast breed, the "Baddies" who are really mean little black critters, and the "Lazy Ones" who don't seem to be doing much of anything.
Apart from a few stings, it's still magic for us, and being part of the forum helps to answer some of questions (and creates more then we initially had !!).

 

[pellis]

Addicted

Very useful thread - thanks.

I started with hive 1 last May using a collected swarm in my area. They swarmed in July so I split the hive with half the queen cells in each and so hive 2 was born. Only harvested 7 or 8 jars of honey in the autumn due to the late start. Both came through the winter ok but went crazy in the early spring with rapid growth. I split hive 1 to try and prevent swarming and hive 3 was born. However, hive 1 swarmed anyway mid-May when I was sitting in the garden so I dashed out and bought another hive and collected the swarm - hive 4 was born!

I'm completely addicted and loving it!

 

[justme]

Well 2nd year newbee here too. interesting year so far, luckily I'm not one to give doing something that I want to do:.)

Lost 1st colony due to demise of queen in the late autumnish and unmated queen in situ = stress.
Daughter colony now eaten most of honey/stores. = Italian!
Carni swarm I collected last year, A/SEd then found original queen dead. That colony became bees from hell as I awaited them to make a new queen and her hopefully to mate. Seems likley this has now happened:.) The queen in the other half took forever to start laying but she is now:.)
I missed a QC and retrieved a ? cast? swarm who now appears to have lost their queen, luckily it was already arranged to take some droneless, q- splits to a mating apiary and have nativeish qc's put in, so thats now been done:.)
In between I was given a swarm by another beek who ran out of room, that seems fine at mo, fingers crossed:.)
So, lots of bees, no honey and feeding almost all, but wouldn't it be boring if all went the way we wanted?

Great thread BTW:.)

 

[enrico]

So pleased you all found this thread worthwhile. I posted another one some time ago about smokers .... just in case you think you are the only one who can't get the damn things to stay alight!!!
http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=10274
I will try and post more hints in the future. I think the discussion makes us realise 'we are not the only ones!!' Keep it going Ellen...never too early.
Best of luck to all of you...by now, Nearly June, you should find they are all beginning to settle but be aware, if they haven't already swarmed this new spell of hot weather could be what they are waiting for!!!!
E