Waves from midland ireland!

[Ballintubberbees]

Hello all
Im a second year beekeeper in a rural spot in the heart of ireland. My first bee club was lancaster though hello carnforth! which was ace! Im finding irish beeks not very freindly and after a very swarmy early summer am still picking up the Peices, 50 members not one had a queen cell or a eggy broodframe to sell/share!
Ive nominally got three hives, but ones got a new superceedure queen not yet laying, one has a new swarm in it hooray and the third is queenless with a laying worker.
So the next month will be busy!
Im hoping my superceedure queen will begin to lay and then im going to merge the hive with the queenless one and give my new swarm some brood frames before they fill the box with comb.

Thats the plan,mfingers crossed ive got two queens next week!

Looking forwards to talking over all sorts with you all!
X ballintubberb

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Greetings, I've been to Balintubber (well, passed through) many years ago -spent a few good times at Oughterard and at Ballinrobe, loved fishing Corrib and the river Clare and actually caught a salmon in Cong in the same pool as the minister in 'The quiet man' - in fact an old shipmate of mine now lives in Balinrobe so maybe one day I'll call again

 

[deemann1]

Yep that's irish associations
Beeks are not very willing to even share information here ,very secretive bunch for some reason

 

[Erichalfbee]

Welcome.
Be careful about that LW merge.
Wait till your queenright hive has lots of brood and is nice and strong
If your swarm already has a laying queen they will be ahead of your supersedure so they might be a more likely candidate for the unite.
Good luck and nice to see you here

 

[Ballintubberbees]

Welcome.
Be careful about that LW merge.
Wait till your queenright hive has lots of brood and is nice and strong
If your swarm already has a laying queen they will be ahead of your supersedure so they might be a more likely candidate for the unite.
Good luck and nice to see you here

Hi thankyou for that, ive been wondering about it.
Ive assumed its to late to give the queenless hive some open brood ? And so they may as well just feed one of the others. Swarm it is then they seem to be powering out this morning so im hopeful.
Trying to resist checking until theyve settled a bit.
B

 

[Ballintubberbees]

Greetings, I've been to Balintubber (well, passed through) many years ago -spent a few good times at Oughterard and at Ballinrobe, loved fishing Corrib and the river Clare and actually caught a salmon in Cong in the same pool as the minister in 'The quiet man' - in fact an old shipmate of mine now lives in Balinrobe so maybe one day I'll call again

Its a fab place for fishing, if you can get the access! And someone hasnt accidentally dumped their slurry in!
Getting a salmon is pretty special!

 

[Ballintubberbees]

Yep that's irish associations
Beeks are not very willing to even share information here ,very secretive bunch for some reason

Its so odd, why be in a club if you dont want to share knowledge. Have one english lady who is new to so well muddle through the heavy jobs together , the boyos though have ten hives and not a queen cell since june! Really now! Its a shame im sure they have lots of local bee knowledge.
Bees are lovely and black though here and im 100 steps from a bog in full flower.
Swings and roundabouts!
B

 

[DaveG23]

Hi & welcome to the forum. Us beeks in West Kerry are pretty friendly.

My father is originally from carnforth, small world.

 

[katbee]

Hey there! So glad to see other people from Ireland. I hope you don't mind me piggy-backing onto your thread to say hello. I'm a total newbie in West Cork. My beginner course was cancelled part-way through (thanks so much, Covid-19), but I've been lucky enough to be able to get loads of hands-on experience with a mentor, and I've been reading like a maniac. Thankfully everyone I've met so far has been lovely & helpful & totally willing to geek out about bees.

 

[AubMar]

Hello all
Im a second year beekeeper in a rural spot in the heart of ireland. My first bee club was lancaster though hello carnforth! which was ace! Im finding irish beeks not very freindly and after a very swarmy early summer am still picking up the Peices, 50 members not one had a queen cell or a eggy broodframe to sell/share!
Ive nominally got three hives, but ones got a new superceedure queen not yet laying, one has a new swarm in it hooray and the third is queenless with a laying worker.
So the next month will be busy!
Im hoping my superceedure queen will begin to lay and then im going to merge the hive with the queenless one and give my new swarm some brood frames before they fill the box with comb.

Thats the plan,mfingers crossed ive got two queens next week!

Looking forwards to talking over all sorts with you all!
X ballintubberb

First of all welcome to Ireland and I must say I have found most to be friendly, perhaps not tell you everything but certainly friendly and helpful.
I think the issue from the beginning of 2020 was the country going into lockdown with a 2km restriction and most people afraid to meet or talk to anyone for fear of the dreaded C19. All clubs stopped with a few continuing via Zoom etc. Even the famous Gormonston Bee Week was canceled which I think is a first since its life!
I imagine as the world re-normalises (whatever that will look like) people will get back to where they were, or close to it, and show their friendly helpful side again, so don't write it off yet in these strange new times, as they say "This too will pass"

 

[Ballintubberbees]

Hey there! So glad to see other people from Ireland. I hope you don't mind me piggy-backing onto your thread to say hello. I'm a total newbie in West Cork. My beginner course was cancelled part-way through (thanks so much, Covid-19), but I've been lucky enough to be able to get loads of hands-on experience with a mentor, and I've been reading like a maniac. Thankfully everyone I've met so far has been lovely & helpful & totally willing to geek out about bees.

Hi katbee, how lovely to have a mentor and freindly people.