What did you do in the Apiary today?

[EdNewman]

Too much honey! I've only got 3 super for each of my hives and I've already had to extract all of them 3 times and now they need doing again. I have no idea how I'm going to sell this much, I normally only sell to friends but I already have far to much for that.

 

[Swarm]

Too much honey! I've only got 3 super for each of my hives and I've already had to extract all of them 3 times and now they need doing again. I have no idea how I'm going to sell this much, I normally only sell to friends but I already have far to much for that.

You store it in buckets.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Too much honey! I've only got 3 super for each of my hives and I've already had to extract all of them 3 times and now they need doing again. I have no idea how I'm going to sell this much, I normally only sell to friends but I already have far to much for that.

It will keep
How many times have you sold out in previous years ?
This year has been remarkable. Doesn’t often happen.

 

[Beefriendly]

Too much honey! I normally only sell to friends but I already have far to much for that.

Then you have a problem that 95% (give or take a few percentage points) of beekeepers would love to have.
Have words with your local deli's/farm shops.
But be careful if OSR honey; don't be selling as "runny"....or your customers probably won't be returning. Or will be asking you to straighten their knives.

Ohhhh..in case anyone is short I have around 500lbs of surplus spring honey I'd like to sell.

 

[user 6228]

It will keep
How many times have you sold out in previous years ?
This year has been remarkable. Doesn’t often happen.

if the bucket is airtight the shelf life is lifetime of the bucket. So put it seal-able buckets and you have at least a few decades to sort out you route to market

 

[Hachi]

Where do people store their honey? I mean location when put in the aforementioned buckets.

 

[Eyeman]

Where do people store their honey? I mean location when put in the aforementioned buckets.

A Honey cellar?
or two!

 

[user 6228]

Where do people store their honey? I mean location when put in the aforementioned buckets.

somewhere vermin proof, dry and dark so that the container doesn't perish and isn't attacked by vermin. e.g. in a tomb in a pyramid has been shown to work
but we use a metal cupboard.

 

[madasafish]

Where do people store their honey? I mean location when put in the aforementioned buckets.

Surely in the wine cellar? After all, it's cool, dark and designed to keep vintage champagne for centuries..
I assume all beekeepers have one.. even if small.

Our butler looks after the stock control...

 

[Zante]

Checked the test frame for queen cells and found... eggs on a few frames.
So now I know I do have a queen.

Wondering why there was that laying gap, but thinking how badly they came out of winter and how they struggled to build up even during the acacia flow I'm thinking the queen was damaged and at some point must have died. One of those really large drone cells I spotted must have been an emergency queen cell. In some places the wax is really deep, fortunately I'm removing those frames as soon as I can.

 

[colinc]

Surely in the wine cellar? After all, it's cool, dark and designed to keep vintage champagne for centuries..
I assume all beekeepers have one.. even if small.

Our butler looks after the stock control...

Can you not afford a sommelier?


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[madasafish]

Can you not afford a sommelier?


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Times are hard. I've sold the yacht and am down to 5 mistresses and £20 million...

 

[Millet]

I went through three Nuc's today too make sure no more Queen cell's had been made, one look's like it has a mated Queen (good to see) and put into a full brood box.
Spotted a 2nd hidden Queen cell in another Nuc which i removed only to see a Virgin queen run out of, i had damaged her wing removing it so i splatted her leaving one other plump Q cell, checked the third and removed all Q cells (hopelessly Queenless now) and waiting for a frame of brood and egg's from good bees thank's to BF.

Checked the Romanian buckfast hive and she is hell bent on swarming even though i have made three nuc's from that colony and left them with only a hand full of nurse bees and fliers, she is slimmed right down and stopped laying, she is clipped so wont go far and also will not see the year out or even this week, really calm bees but such a shame with the swarming urge from a 2017 Buckfast is no good to me .

 

[Beefriendly]

Checked the Romanian buckfast hive and she is hell bent on swarming even .

Those Romanian Buckfast have turned out to be a mixed bunch of below average queens. I've got the full monty from aggressive but productive, to swarmy, to gentle but no honey. They are not typical of decent Buckfast.
They are changing their queen supplier as no-one is happy with those duds.

 

[Millet]

Those Romanian Buckfast have turned out to be a mixed bunch of below average queens. I've got the full monty from aggressive but productive, to swarmy, to gentle but no honey. They are not typical of decent Buckfast.
They are changing their queen supplier as no-one is happy with those duds.

Swarmy wise i thought i had seen it all with my last mongrels but this is a different level, i can't stop them it may be supercedure but i will never know as she is going, these are really gentle and as you say very little honey, i will however keep a new Queen back from these and see how she performs.

 

[B+.]

Collected 20 queen cells for the incubator. Grafted 30 more.
A nasty yellow strain had swarmed into a spare hive. I got quite a stinging when I opened it up.

 

[Bosleeu]

Swarmy wise i thought i had seen it all with my last mongrels but this is a different level, i can't stop them it may be supercedure but i will never know as she is going, these are really gentle and as you say very little honey, i will however keep a new Queen back from these and see how she performs.

Totally agree, I bought one Romanian queen, very angry bees and tried to swarm early March. Worth waiting for the German girls.

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[SDM]

Worth waiting for the German girls.

Now there's a statement you won't hear every day!

 

[linoleum bonypart]

Swarmy wise i thought i had seen it all with my last mongrels but this is a different level, i can't stop them it may be supercedure but i will never know as she is going, these are really gentle and as you say very little honey, i will however keep a new Queen back from these and see how she performs.

Where did you purchase your Romanian queen
I wouldn't use company queens good chaps on here breed super quality

 

[Millet]

Where did you purchase your Romanian queen
I wouldn't use company queens good chaps on here breed super quality

I will not bad mouth the company where i purchased the Queen as the blame is not on their heads, the Romanian breeder takes the blame for that.