Beagle23
House Bee
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2017
- Messages
- 344
- Reaction score
- 39
- Location
- Chessington
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 3
With my second year as a beekeeper coming to an end I thought a brief summary may be of interest (it may not be however, in which case you have my apologies)
My bees made it through the winter with my first queen looking good and laying well in March.
In the Spring I failed to spot a number of queen cells (because they were on the underside of the frames) and the bees swarmed three times a primary and two cast swarms, all of which I caught and handed over to the local beekeeping association.
In the summer I was relieved to find that the new queen had mated successfully and was laying really well, so much so that I added a second brood box, also as her daughters emerged I found that my 'new' bees were much less aggressive than the old queen's, clearly the drone that my new queen mated with was a pretty chilled out guy and managed to get some hippie DNA into the mix.
In the Autumn I had three supers full of honey. The honey from the first and oldest super I discarded as it was bitter and barely edible, I think as a result of Apivar tabs I had left in the box for too long. The honey from the other supers however was fantastic and I'm now the proud owner of 40 jars of the good stuff.
I carried out my first varroa inspection of the season yesterday and my bees seem to be mite free, which is great.
So in summary, it's been a really good year, the bees are healthy, better tempered and producing lots of honey - and they're still bringing in lots of stores. And I learned a great deal about beekeeping, from better handling skills, to reading the bees moods more effectively, catching swarms. I'm very pleased.
Also, I want to thank the kind people on this forum who have offered sound advice throughout my first two years. I didn't go to any beekeeping classes and this forum was really the handholder I needed as a beginner. Thank you
My bees made it through the winter with my first queen looking good and laying well in March.
In the Spring I failed to spot a number of queen cells (because they were on the underside of the frames) and the bees swarmed three times a primary and two cast swarms, all of which I caught and handed over to the local beekeeping association.
In the summer I was relieved to find that the new queen had mated successfully and was laying really well, so much so that I added a second brood box, also as her daughters emerged I found that my 'new' bees were much less aggressive than the old queen's, clearly the drone that my new queen mated with was a pretty chilled out guy and managed to get some hippie DNA into the mix.
In the Autumn I had three supers full of honey. The honey from the first and oldest super I discarded as it was bitter and barely edible, I think as a result of Apivar tabs I had left in the box for too long. The honey from the other supers however was fantastic and I'm now the proud owner of 40 jars of the good stuff.
I carried out my first varroa inspection of the season yesterday and my bees seem to be mite free, which is great.
So in summary, it's been a really good year, the bees are healthy, better tempered and producing lots of honey - and they're still bringing in lots of stores. And I learned a great deal about beekeeping, from better handling skills, to reading the bees moods more effectively, catching swarms. I'm very pleased.
Also, I want to thank the kind people on this forum who have offered sound advice throughout my first two years. I didn't go to any beekeeping classes and this forum was really the handholder I needed as a beginner. Thank you