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Be very careful with that quote especially inviting folk, 99% of these forum member are good eggs but i bet the 1% holds a good number of undesirables that will be nice to meet and then all of a sudden out of the blue all your hives have gone, theres one person on here i can 100% trust near my hives the rest of the forum members are in the 99% category, i'm not discriminating all you good eggs but through out my life i have learned how too and how not too trust folk..

:(


I get stressed enough as it is trying to move one of my own hives one foot to the left on a glorious summer afternoon... let alone nabbing someone elses and bunging it in the boot of my car in the dark. And besides... I don't have a black beesuit for midnight raids.

:(
 
I foolishly volunteered to drive my wife to her Institute of Physics course at Charterhouse today.
On the plus side, I sat in on a terrific keynote presentation by Prof. Anu Ojha on Human Spaceflight.
On the negative side, my 2017 I.B. Celle queens (mated on Neuwerk) that were posted from Germany on Monday finally arrived. By the time we got home, it was too late to do anything except check the paperwork.
So, next year, I'll be testing:

Line B2-254 (daughters of 6-1-469-2015 * drones from 12 daughters of 6-1-462-2014)
6-1-508-2017
6-1-512-2017
6-1-535-2017

Line B3-077 (daughters of 6-1-95-2015 * drones from 12 daughters of 6-1-462-2014)
6-1-456-2017
6-1-1022-2017
6-1-1024-2017
6-1-1025-2017

Line B3-167 (daughters of 6-1-82-2015 * drones from 12 daughters of 6-1-462-2014)
6-1-850-2017
6-1-872-2017
6-1-884-2017

Also, I have daughters of 55-3-342-2015 mated to drones from 11-1-539-2013 (Mayen Bee Institute) due to be sent from the Netherlands as soon as they get their health certificate. These were mated on the German island of Wangerooge.

It could be a busy year!
 
Given I understand nowt about the above it sounds as though it's true. It is rocket science.
 
:(


I get stressed enough as it is trying to move one of my own hives one foot to the left on a glorious summer afternoon... let alone nabbing someone elses and bunging it in the boot of my car in the dark. And besides... I don't have a black beesuit for midnight raids.

:(
I'm not tarring you Joseph i am just trying to say be careful who you invite, i have hunting land to go on, most of which is in the winter months in the early hours of the morning,some of the land holds hives many hives in some places, with my knowledge i could lift them and clean the place out, luckily i know how it would feel to be robbed so i would not do it.
Just think ahead before you invite that is what i am trying to say..
 
Somehow I have now got 4 hives. Queens from 3 different years. A single brood with 1 super, a single brood with 3 supers, a double brood with no supers and a double brood with 4 supers.

2 hives have rhombus escapes on to clear 3 supers tomorrow for extraction as I now have no free supers left.

The records are getting confusing too but really looking forward to tasting some 2017 summer honey tomorrow. pretty sure I will get another harvest later in the year too.
 
How old are these daughters >
Also, I have daughters of 55-3-342-2015 mated to drones from 11-1-539-2013
 
How old are these daughters >
Also, I have daughters of 55-3-342-2015 mated to drones from 11-1-539-2013

The 2a "mother" queen (55-3-342-2015) was bred by Bart Barten in The Netherlands and has very good breeding values (check them on www.beebreed.eu).
The 4a "father" queen (mother of the queens that provide the drones on the island) was bred by the Mayen Bee Institute in Germany.

The last four digits give the year of the queens birth. So, the 2a queen emerged in 2015 and the 4a queen emerged in 2013. They are tested in the year following their birth so they have time to build up their own colony during the previous autumn and their breeding values are published the following February. There is usually, but not always, a year or more between the 2a and the 4a queens to ensure that they can't be both maternal and paternal partners.
The daughters of the 2a queen are sent to the Frisian islands in ewk mating boxes for mating. So, the daughter will be a 2017 queen that was mated this year. Thats why the last four digits of the daughters are always the current year (2017).
I will introduce these queens to nucs and build them up so the queen has time to lay eggs that will become her own daughter workers by autumn. She will, therefore, overwinter with her own progeny. The workers in the nuc will all be dead by then.
 
Thanks for explaining all that, it's slowly sinking in . Am I right that these too are carnica ?
 
Extracted 69lbs from 3 supers...Replaced supers.. Clearing boards on for tomorrow's task..
 
Thanks for explaining all that, it's slowly sinking in . Am I right that these too are carnica ?

Yes. All of my test stock are A.m.c.

I introduced the Celle queens this afternoon and noticed a few wasps trying to steal honey. Wasps start to become a nuisance here around mid July.
 
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Well was run off my feet today :D

-Built 40 super frames and 15 brood frames
-Collected a nuc I purchased and placed in the apiary
-Inspected all the bees all seems well, one of the nucs I purchased in June had started to swarm found several charged cells.
-Did a artificial split on that colony and now will wait 3-4 days before opening up the queenless split and pulling all the cells down and will introduce a mated queen because I do not wish to wait 21+ days for the virgin and mating process.
 
Yes. All of my test stock are A.m.c.

I introduced the Celle queens this afternoon and noticed a few wasps trying to steal honey. Wasps start to become a nuisance here around mid July.

Saw my first wasps checking out my mating nucs today. Seems early for north Wales. That said mating has been so easy here this year I don't need any more.
 
Lots of wasps in sniffing round garden and apiary, might have to invest in a wasp bane
 
Bit better than mine, I got 45lbs off 2 and a bit supers. All back on the hives tonight.


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Mine are Langstroth shallows so a big larger than National supers...
 
Mine are Langstroth shallows so a big larger than National supers...



Mine are modified national ------- hives. Short lugs on the frames and so they come close in size to langs.
I am gradually moving over to true national stuff.
The largest cropping hive had put a semi circle of pollen in the central few supers and one super, the frames had moved apart and so I got a load of brace comb between the middle two frames. One side of this was full and capped the other side was empty. Bit of a disaster that super.


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