So much to do and so little time to do it....

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Somerford

Queen Bee
***
Joined
Aug 24, 2009
Messages
2,018
Reaction score
571
Location
Wiltshire, Somerset, S Glos & S Oxfordshire
Hive Type
National
Oh the woes of being back at work again !! Apart from the fact it is great to be working again, it does mean my 3 month between work holiday has come to and end and all the things I did daily somehow have been placed on the back burner....mowing the lawn, cutting the hedges, digging the allotment and, of course, the bees.

Taking each one in turn..

Mowing the lawn - interestingly the regieme I have followed this year - less cutting, higher setting, has resulted in both lawns bursting into swathes of white clover and other yellow and purple flowers (the estate was built on an old meadow I believe 40 years ago) which I have left to flower and go over.

The hedge - well not bee forage unfortunately, but the cotoneaster has seen lots of activity, so too has the bramble that I cannout find the source of that lives within the beech hedge.

The allotment - oh dear. what an embarrassment. shoulder high parsnips in flower, ditto green manure planted last autumn (alfalfa) and old brassicas. At least my little patch at home is a little better with some fine (my best ever) broccoli just coming into season, but the lettuce has all gone to seed :-(

and finally the bees.

ok. where is the GUILTY smiley when you need it ?!

I haven't looked at them for at least 3 weeks. Not. One. Hive.

With 10 assorted nucs, full colonies and collected swarms to look through, might I suggest to all beeks with not alot of time on their hands that 10 is probably the maximum one should look to run if they want to have a full time job too . . . just my opinion, but today I will try and see how they are all doing. Not too bothered about honey this year as I still have plenty left and a fellow beek has said he will keep me topped up if my outlets sell out.

So a beekeeping I will go.......

what a lovely day - and not a vuvuzeala in earshot !! :p

S
 
Let me know if you want someone to 'adopt' a nuc for you ;-)

I still have too few (1!) to be confident of getting through winter.

FG
 
10??

I work on average 16 hours a day. More on a good one. LOL

Current count (simplified version)

24 nucs and 14 colonies. Just back from making up five Langstroth nucs. :)

PH
 
Well hats off to you PH !!! Seriously I am impressed. I had 'Petefromwilts' round (neighbour) earlier and we were both thinking 10 well managed colonies were better than 20 hap-hazard managed ones, although he said that he's keep building up until he ran out of time.....next year Pete - 4 supers on each then you'll know !!

Perhaps we'd better start a local honey co-op !

But, on with the weekend's news...

A call to a swarm at a very grand residence yesterday - a prime one and very calm they were too. Hived nicely this morning with a QX below in a borrowed national as I had run out of boxes (again)...then back to the same residence today to open up an abandoned national with the owner's grand-children eagerly in tow.

It seems a beek from the locality had bees on the land some years back but had left this one for at least 5 years. On inspection I removed a fine super of very flavoursome honey and delved into the double brood chamber.....oh dear....5 frames and the rest was wild comb in the upper one and the lower one looks solid wild comb. What I think had happened was the hive had been left as a spare and obviously populated by a swarm at some point, resulting in the wild comb. This will be a weekend cut out messy job in a week or so, but I am minded to pop a 14x12 brood below with foundation, a couple of porter escapes on a crown board between and clear the lot out then sort out the mess at home. Downsides - I probably loose the queen and the brood (but I have spare Qs), upside it clears the chambers to make the whole operation easier...

any thoughts / ideas ??

S
 
It seems a beek from the locality had bees on the land some years back but had left this one for at least 5 years. On inspection I removed a fine super of very flavoursome honey and delved into the double brood chamber.....oh dear....5 frames and the rest was wild comb in the upper one and the lower one looks solid wild comb. What I think had happened was the hive had been left as a spare and obviously populated by a swarm at some point, resulting in the wild comb. This will be a weekend cut out messy job in a week or so, but I am minded to pop a 14x12 brood below with foundation, a couple of porter escapes on a crown board between and clear the lot out then sort out the mess at home. Downsides - I probably loose the queen and the brood (but I have spare Qs), upside it clears the chambers to make the whole operation easier...

any thoughts / ideas ??

S

how about leave them be for this year, then shook swarm them into a new box early next year...?
 
PH _ I work on average 16 hours a day. More on a good one. LOL

Think you're telling fibs! You expect people to believe you get out of bed and start work, no lunch, no rest and then work all day and off to bed????? So, were is the beekeeping amongst all this????

Ummm.... we managed 17 colonies, work full-time and that's enough....I agree with Somerford 10 is a nice round amount and i'm sure we'll be uniting a few to make some strong colonies into winter and make it around 10.
 

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