Starting out: Beekeepers' expectations.

[kathrynat]

no one told me bees were going to be addictive.

This is my first year. I am not a member of an association, I don't have a mentor or beek friends to talk to but I seem to managing ok. I bought a 5 frame nuc at the end of June and they have turned out to be lovely gentle bees. No honey this year, but hopefully next year. I realise that I have been so lucky to have none of the major dramas that a lot of people have experienced, but I put that down to luck rather than judgement. Any small issues I have had have been swiftly sorted out by the very clever people on here. One thing that has surprised me more than anything. Bees are addictive, seriously addictive. No more watching tv of an evening. I am either on here reading all the new threads of the day, or looking at bee pictures or reading bee books. My husband calls me a bee bore. I look forward to next year when I hope to fill my 2 empty hives.

 

[Cazza]

My husband calls me a bee bore. QUOTE]

Does he do the flashing light over his head signal, going "beebore, beebore,beebore?" Mine does.
Cazza

 

[kathrynat]

hee hee. No, but don't go giving him ideas

 

[Juststarting]

Definitely addictive - but hopefully not harmful to our health - just our sanity on occassion!

 

[bees knees]

hee hee. No, but don't go giving him ideas

My husband also calls me a bee bore. Just read your messages to him and he is now doing the flashing light on the head thing - aargh!

 

[margob99]

Hmmm, must say, all the new beeks in their first year seem to experience lovely gentle calm bees. It's in the second summer you're running for your life!

... also, one other thing that has really struck me (excuse the pun), is the fact that human networking is such a critical part of learning about bees. Those with mentors are truly lucky, as for me I seemed to spend my first summer just asking a million questions. I had to find times to log a whole lot of questions, then find my moment to ask a few, because each one stimulates so much discussion!

 

[Moggs]

Thanks everybody for such an insight. It's really interesting to hear of others' experiences in starting up. From a personal perspective, the bees have taught me that they don't have a great yearning to stick to the scientific way and that, much as I would like them to cooperate with the established wisdom contained in books and places such as these, they will do what the collective colony dictates.

They have indeed taught me a little patience. The early weeks saw a great deal of frustration, as I prodded and poked at them, in a totally unnecessary fashion, trying to get them to 'conform'. It brings a wry smile to my face when I realise that, in spite of my well-intentioned interference, they have achieved pretty well exactly what they set out to do, had I not messed them about. The little blighters have just worked it all around me!

I will look carefully at the more critical aspects of bee management (after all, I really don't want half of my bees to abscond, as thay have cost me quite a few quid and I'm sure that there will always be a need for disease prevention and control) but for most of it I have to remember that I have somewhat different motivators to theirs.

If anything, a most valuable lesson from this first season is to 'wait and see'.

Anyway, thanks for your feedback.

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Did a course last year and took the plunge in April with one colony - personally I wouldnt have felt confident enough without the course though I know many don't feel the need. Read several books, and spend most of the day (when I can get away with it) trawling the net to find out more.

Apart from destroying queen cells when I shouldnt have, dont think I've made too many major mistakes. Hoping to take two colonies - the result of an AS - through the winter, and had a reasonable amount of honey - about 30lbs.

Steep learning curve, and have spent a teensy-bit more than Bros (about £1500 but dont tell the wife) - but absolutely love it and also fear that this is a hobby for life.

 

[Moggs]

Oh yes. I have quite a good understanding of the distinction between supercedure and swarm cells. Don't ask me how I know...

 

[rae]

We started in June last year. We read every single book out there, and are members of the local association, but the meetings are on an impossible evening, so we can't go.

So we had two nucs, all we really did was hive them, give them more space as required, and torment them with frequent and clumsy inspections. We probably over fed them (they didn't complain), we treated them for varroa, and they just grew and grew. They wintered well, and exploded into action this spring, spinning off an additional 6 colonies and about 300 pounds of honey.

I suppose the biggest difference is the inspection style. When we started, we inspected everything, and we found the queen every time. A year later, I check for stores and small brood or eggs. If there are eggs, the queen is there (or was there a few days ago). Frequency of inspection is also down - outside April - July, we're on two weeks rather than weekly.

Having 8 colonies certainly helps. Well, actually we're down to 6 because I merged two of them - last year I'd have been worried sick about losing a colony, now I look at a weak one and think "you're never going to get a queen mated and raise winter bees in time, so you're best off merging with next door".

I would recommend that beginners get a proper nuc like we did - because all being equal, it will just grow and be productive, despite your best efforts. Getting a few frames with a queen cell is a lottery - some don't make it, and it isn't your fault as a beekeeper, but very demoralising. If you get a decent nuc, then you spend the first season worrying about brood and eggs....and you can not worry about artificial swarming, queen cells, mating etc until season 2.

 

[Moggs]

Thanks Rae. Our nuc arrived about a week after our first full colony (we grew tired of waiting for Mini-Bee). While we were ungainfully occupied with inspections and queen cell deliberations on Big-Bee, Mini-Bee threw a few swarm cells while our backs were turned (or so it seemed). 0 - 4 colonies in as many weeks.

 

[rae]

Yes, there is something of a decision to be made with supplying nucs. We got ours from Easy Bee, and when I opened them up, I thought they were OK, but a bit thin on brood - 2 frames of brood, 2 stores and one frame of foundation being drawn out. However, they weren't inclined to swarm at all. In contrast, I've heard of people getting nucs that were rammed with brood (and hence "good value"), but the downside is that the swarming switch had been flipped, and the bees were off over the horizon as soon as the beekeeper's back was turned.