A lot has happened in the past 7 days.
While I've finally finished building frames for 25 new colonies and a number of my hive stands, as well as sorting a new out apiary and 'charging' a number of nucs with swarm lures as I sense the season is rapidly getting ahead of itself, I still find I've yet to open a number of colonies and that needs to be rectified in the next 7-14 days.
This includes an out apiary of 14x12's that I am trying to decide whether to keep in that format or plan to change them to National and do away with the larger format, and also the Hotel Apiary that has a large National I am waiting to prepare swarming so I can split it.
But the big development was my successful purchase of 3/4 of an acre of land I've had my eye on for a few weeks - the original purchaser fell through and I had to move quickly.
I'm beside myself with delight - I have not only acquired a fabulous south facing apiary location that rises about 25 feet from the base to the top of a small valley, but it also came with a 2 berth caravan installed, a huge cultivated patch ready to go this year, a 2 year old poly tunnel, and the piece de resistance - a nearly new double garage on hard standing already kitted out with electrics and subdivided inside.
While I have so many ideas in my head for the site, I can't get run away with myself - I need to carefully consider the location of the hives so as to maximise the use of the paddock - probably the likely location will be at the top of the valley for the nucs and hives, to allow me to (hopefully) use the veg patch in-hindered by bees. I also need to think about my kids as they will want to roam around the site, and there is an old army pillbox that, while it needs a roof on it (another project I fear) I'm sure they will claim it for themselves for their 'war games' !
The paddock is surrounded by mature hedges on 2 sides, both of which need gapping up and laying, and wire fencing on the other two.
Eventual plans will be to establish at least one 'edible hedgerow', relocate a number of existing fruit trees that haven't yet established themselves into some semblance of an orchard and add to this too.
Also, I have plans to build a composting lavatory and also try and go more 'off grid' with solar panels and a battery complex to remove or minimise the need for a generator.
I can also see a need for a new open sided shed for spare bee boxes - this I might add on to the garage with an additional concrete slab and roof.
The main motivation for the purchase is to use it as a base for my growing beekeeping operation - I've long outgrown my garage and bee-shed and I also realise I'm totally reliant on the goodwill of other landowners with my out apiaries , and need a base to be able to bring artificial swarms back to, over winter and also, in time, develop my queen rearing operation on a site I can control and manage.
All in all a momentous week !!
KR
Somerford
While I've finally finished building frames for 25 new colonies and a number of my hive stands, as well as sorting a new out apiary and 'charging' a number of nucs with swarm lures as I sense the season is rapidly getting ahead of itself, I still find I've yet to open a number of colonies and that needs to be rectified in the next 7-14 days.
This includes an out apiary of 14x12's that I am trying to decide whether to keep in that format or plan to change them to National and do away with the larger format, and also the Hotel Apiary that has a large National I am waiting to prepare swarming so I can split it.
But the big development was my successful purchase of 3/4 of an acre of land I've had my eye on for a few weeks - the original purchaser fell through and I had to move quickly.
I'm beside myself with delight - I have not only acquired a fabulous south facing apiary location that rises about 25 feet from the base to the top of a small valley, but it also came with a 2 berth caravan installed, a huge cultivated patch ready to go this year, a 2 year old poly tunnel, and the piece de resistance - a nearly new double garage on hard standing already kitted out with electrics and subdivided inside.
While I have so many ideas in my head for the site, I can't get run away with myself - I need to carefully consider the location of the hives so as to maximise the use of the paddock - probably the likely location will be at the top of the valley for the nucs and hives, to allow me to (hopefully) use the veg patch in-hindered by bees. I also need to think about my kids as they will want to roam around the site, and there is an old army pillbox that, while it needs a roof on it (another project I fear) I'm sure they will claim it for themselves for their 'war games' !
The paddock is surrounded by mature hedges on 2 sides, both of which need gapping up and laying, and wire fencing on the other two.
Eventual plans will be to establish at least one 'edible hedgerow', relocate a number of existing fruit trees that haven't yet established themselves into some semblance of an orchard and add to this too.
Also, I have plans to build a composting lavatory and also try and go more 'off grid' with solar panels and a battery complex to remove or minimise the need for a generator.
I can also see a need for a new open sided shed for spare bee boxes - this I might add on to the garage with an additional concrete slab and roof.
The main motivation for the purchase is to use it as a base for my growing beekeeping operation - I've long outgrown my garage and bee-shed and I also realise I'm totally reliant on the goodwill of other landowners with my out apiaries , and need a base to be able to bring artificial swarms back to, over winter and also, in time, develop my queen rearing operation on a site I can control and manage.
All in all a momentous week !!
KR
Somerford
