Newbie mistakes made which I'll never make again!

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meidel

House Bee
Joined
Jul 18, 2011
Messages
493
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0
Location
London
Hive Type
14x12
Number of Hives
3
Ok then hands up, what did you do to test the resilience of your bees? (Finman look away now or you may read on smugly in confirmation of your belief that 2 hive owners are to bees worse than the arctic weather)

1. Made a split too early in the season when not enough drones for mating about - result DLQ

2. Left too many QCs in after prime swarm had left resulting in cast swarms - only one open one with plenty of RJ will do, but must come back and do a second check for further QCs made

3. (this one wasn't one I made as I have poly nucs but someone else in the apiary) Used a ply nuc in spring when nights were still cold without enough frames of bees in and without raising the nuc box on bricks resulting in chilled brood.

4. Left varroa tray in for 3 weeks without checking (!! - pure laziness- inexcusable really) resulting in wax moth larvae build up!

5. Attempted to do demaree using a snelgrove board without ever inspecting the lower brood box which contained the queen on one frame of brood, all other brood and QCs above the snelgrove board - resulting in lower box swarming with the queen after building 20 of their own QCs down below.

6. Not placing a QEx between brood and feeder when doing a split as swarm control measure - the queen had been starved by workers in preparation for swarming so she went up and drowned in the feeder :angelsad2:

edited to add:

7. introducing a queen without a test frame confirmation of queenlessness! I have learnt this one now after £42 out of pocket!

I'm personally amazed that I managed to get a honey harvest this year and will be bringing 3 colonies through the winter after all the disasters above.
 
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I'll own up....believed my bee book when it said that if a virgin isn't mated within 10 days forget it because it'll never happen. Then came on here and found out that was utter codswallop. Am finding this site hugely informative and supportive.
 
1. Moved nucs to hives too quickly
2. Added supers too quickly
3. Failed to get my smoker going properly, then failed to keep it going.
4. That a lovely looking queen would lay continuously.
5. That I knew what I was doing.
 
3. Failed to get my smoker going properly, then failed to keep it going.
4. That a lovely looking queen would lay continuously.
5. That I knew what I was doing.

Ditto.

Never say "never" though, I'm sure I'll make 3. & 5. again before the year's out :)
 
This is my third year and these were my big ones so far:

1. When installing my first nuc into hive and feeding I got syrup all over the place and around the hive.

2. 1st autumn treated with twice the amount of thymol as I should have (note to self: read instructions) causing the workers to rip the caps off brood and get rid of larva and queen to stop laying. I thought it was AFB at first.

3. 1st winter lost a colony through starvation. I had fed them but a spring solution not autumn (note to self: really must read instructions).

4. This year lost a swarm. Cant see how I missed swarm cells. Didn't see any before or after and I check thoroughly every week in swarm season.

5. Expect to take off tons of honey each seasnon.

6. That'll be a nice, inexpensive past time.
 
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