Well it's too late now, Im taking early retirement and given in my notice!

[CliffDale]

Sometimes I think what the helll have I done.

So I have great plans to expand the apiaries and spend more time building stocks.

Last year was a disastrous first year, plenty of swarmed colonies and no honey to extract. The supers were full end of July and all gone by September!

A couple of questions to help me on the way!

Can I split hives and expect to make a honey crop??

What would you do if you had loads of free time?

Cliff

 

[oliver90owner]

What would you do if you had loads of free time?

Get a job.

 

[CliffDale]

NO NO NOOOOOOOOO!

Ive had enough.

NO JOB Wanted

Free time now please.

 

[mbc]

Enjoy playing wth your bees
Raise lots of queens
Dont splitt your main colonies smaller than 'critical mass'
Dont hesitate to get shot of unsatisfactory queens

 

[hedgerow pete]

i dread becoming rich or retired, as i have so much to do i will end up working an 18 hour day to get it all in

 

[Hivemaker.]

What would you do if you had loads of free time?

Travel, and spend a lot of time fishing.

 

[chipper]

Get some good Queens from a reliable source....
Make up small nucs with New Queens before the strong colonies start to make swarming preparations.The trick is to weaken a strong colony but not to take too much....Just enough to hold them back
Weak stocks unlikely to build up can be divided to 2 or more small nucs with new Queens. Its possible to expand AND have a honey crop. This also reduces the number of colonies that will swarm....
Free time.....sit and wait for the phone to ring... to tell you of another swarm to catch...
Hopefully someone elses.....

 

[RoseCottage]

With free time...motivate to really, actually, sort out my beekeeping supplies properly.


Read read and get out to investigate my world around me.

Perhaps teach others some of what they want to know,

Sam

 

[johnandyrob]

I think that you will start to wonder how you managed to fit in work in to such a busy life

 

[SkiBee]

Be a hedgerow Pete apprentice and make some hives.

 

[peterbees]

I took early retirement from Hotpoint nine years ago. It's great. You'll have time to tidy up your shed, sort out the garden, go on long winter holidays, do some voluntary work, and prepare your bees properly for winter.
Most important is to keep active.

 

[roymichaeldean]

Not busy

Hi


Find out why this happened and make sure it doesn't happen this year...read Tim Rowe's Book ' The Rose Hive Method ' and follow his method......

' Last year was a disastrous first year, plenty of swarmed colonies and no honey to extract. The supers were full end of July and all gone by September! '


roy

 

[biggles]

Go on a bee keeping course or work on a bee farm for a few weeks.

Pete

 

[CliffDale]

Hi


Find out why this happened and make sure it doesn't happen this year...read Tim Rowe's Book ' The Rose Hive Method ' and follow his method......

' Last year was a disastrous first year, plenty of swarmed colonies and no honey to extract. The supers were full end of July and all gone by September! '


roy

I think they ate the stores as the August weather in Cornwall was so bad. Plenty of other bee keepers had the same problem.

I was surprised that they swarmed as all colonies were from 5 frame nucs in May. They had plenty of room.

Sometimes I think its the position of the apiary. Its mainly farmland and fields of grass grown for hay. I wonder if there is enough nectar to go around and the bees decided to find a better home.

Prep this year is to move to double brood box method. It will give them plenty of room and make it easier to split hives.

Cliff

 

[buzz lightyear]

Dont expect that a double brood box will in itself sort out the swarming. You may want to look at breeding less swarmy bees, this will certainly be an advantage if you have time to spare.
Queen rearing involves acurate timing of manipulations etc...When in full time work this is problematic to say the least.

Good luck, Buzz

 

[CliffDale]

Retirements starts end of July. So the idea is to build stocks this year ready to an extent it will keep me busy next year onwards.

The side line will be making cheap plywood hives and nucs.

 

[sputnam]

Quite a bit of swarming down here late in the year. I blame the bad weather - bees were unable to forage so hives were crowded.

 

[tonybloke]

Sometimes I think its the position of the apiary. Its mainly farmland and fields of grass grown for hay. I wonder if there is enough nectar to go around and the bees decided to find a better home.

if there isn't enough forage for your present amount of colonies, where do you expect any new colonies you create to find food?

 

[oliver90owner]

sputnam,

What you mean was they were brooding but not foraging? Seems like some inappropriate strains of bee to me.

Hives are crowded every night. There are not many that stay out overnight.

RAB

 

[peterbees]

Good luck with your retirement.
Why not try making something a bit unusual, as well as cheap beehives? e.g, solar wax extractors, pollen traps, tray feeders.....