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Goran, wonderful story, love listening to your love of the countryside and the bees and then I feel so sorry for you when your honey won't sell. I could sell it ten times over here......
Chin up as we say in England!
All the best for this year
E

+1
 
Eric, how long have you had bees on the roof of The Gun? Until I moved to Ireland I lived just around the corner, I never did get round to getting a hive on our little roof terrace, wish I had.

How well do the bees do there? I suppose the 2 large parks nearby must be of benefit.

A couple of years, Dave, but it feels like twice that because access is up the pub back stairs and through the upper bar; on the top landing is a ladder bolted to the wall that leans slightly towards the climber. Hatch weighs a ton. Spare gear is in the kitchen store-room; all I can say is that the chef and I have different styles: he goes in and finds what he wants by throwing everything around, and I go in and climb over it to get what I need. Mice tiptoe around us.

Shouldn't complain, as it's a contract that pays well and the view across London is worth the sweat. Well Street is one of the few areas in Hackney to escape the predatory gentrifier, and thankfully still retains the run-down flavour of 1975; my day is richer for hearing many of the 55 languages spoken in the borough.

Bees do fine (in Abelo poly) though crop reliant on lime. Honey is sold in the pub and local shops and was extracted in the pub last summer. Had a couple of volunteers to help with manhandling supers down the hatch, though it's not much fun throwing beer down the personal hatch: pub is hipster and it's acidic micro-brewery pale ale all the way.
 
A couple of years, Dave, but it feels like twice that because access is up the pub back stairs and through the upper bar; on the top landing is a ladder bolted to the wall that leans slightly towards the climber. Hatch weighs a ton. Spare gear is in the kitchen store-room; all I can say is that the chef and I have different styles: he goes in and finds what he wants by throwing everything around, and I go in and climb over it to get what I need. Mice tiptoe around us.

Shouldn't complain, as it's a contract that pays well and the view across London is worth the sweat. Well Street is one of the few areas in Hackney to escape the predatory gentrifier, and thankfully still retains the run-down flavour of 1975; my day is richer for hearing many of the 55 languages spoken in the borough.

Bees do fine (in Abelo poly) though crop reliant on lime. Honey is sold in the pub and local shops and was extracted in the pub last summer. Had a couple of volunteers to help with manhandling supers down the hatch, though it's not much fun throwing beer down the personal hatch: pub is hipster and it's acidic micro-brewery pale ale all the way.


lovely colour post .. top works folks
 
Great picture Eric. ........ and I though access to some of my sites was difficult :icon_204-2::icon_204-2:
 
Eric, sounds like hard rewarding work. Shame you don't like hipster beer, or it could be perfect!



I will look out for your honey next time I visit well street
 
spent the last two days planting some trees in the garden, red oak, silver birch, alder, rowan, bird cherry & a native viburnum. The colder weather arrived yesterday, today also came with hail showers and strong winds. Planting the bedding flowers last week looks like a mistake.

The nucs in the garden are quite sensibly staying indoors, the other hive are game enough during the interludes from the hail.
 
Back to the real world:
Bees didn't manage to sell, no one want to buy.. No people.. Seems again I am punished to extract honey which will hardly sell.. when at same time all other work will fall on me.. the more the merrier..
I sold mine $1.3/kg. I lost the moment when the price was almost $2 in autumn. This economy is unpredictable in Ukraine, and not only the economy but life in general. It may be interesting sometimes.
Where are your people? Many our fools toil in Poland while Polish are in London. The positive thing: we are not attractive for migrants.
Croatia is a well known tourist destination. I assume honey should been sold in retail for tourists.
All exploded.. The bees, the flowers, the pollen, the nectar.. All the mountain is white... in flowers not the snow..
Our spring is not so fast. First fruit trees - apricots - are going to bloom in a couple of weeks. Another early tree is "kizyl" which in English is dog-tree, according to Google. It is near to flower.
My bees bring some yellow pollen. The weather is cool but sunny, 10-12 degrees.
 
I sold mine $1.3/kg. I lost the moment when the price was almost $2 in autumn. This economy is unpredictable in Ukraine, and not only the economy but life in general. It may be interesting sometimes.
Where are your people? Many our fools toil in Poland while Polish are in London. The positive thing: we are not attractive for migrants.
Croatia is a well known tourist destination. I assume honey should been sold in retail for tourists.

Our spring is not so fast. First fruit trees - apricots - are going to bloom in a couple of weeks. Another early tree is "kizyl" which in English is dog-tree, according to Google. It is near to flower.
My bees bring some yellow pollen. The weather is cool but sunny, 10-12 degrees.

At that price.. I have no honey.. My spine cost a lot more..
Not the whole Croatia is coast.. Not all the tourists eat the honey.. I am in inland.. I manage to sell some black locust relative recently, last year spring honey a lot less. Shared honey more, returned to bees.. I feel better than to give it to middlemen to laugh at my ......
Will see.. I have barrels, will stuff them with honey and write on a lid not to open untill 4euros/kg..
 
Bugger all! Its been freezing here all day! Rain, hailstones and sun, I don't think its got above 5C, yesterday was so hot and sunny I did loads.
 
I am doing sod all today apart from fretting about my colony. Snow, sleet and really cold. I dithered about the other day whether to add Fondant or syrup. judging by the weather here at the moment, I think Fondant was the right choice.
I hate this freaky weather. :(
 
I am doing sod all today apart from fretting about my colony. Snow, sleet and really cold. I dithered about the other day whether to add Fondant or syrup. judging by the weather here at the moment, I think Fondant was the right choice.
I hate this freaky weather. :(

I remember snow on 26th April (Chernobyl 1986).

Weather is not freaky: it's normally erratic.
 
Very true. TBF we have had a really mild winter this year compared to last year. It's a blip for sure but as a new Beek, I am naturally anxious about everything. :(
 
I remember snow on 26th April (Chernobyl 1986).


Not in Rutland (on the following day?). It was raining radioactive iodine and caesium over us at Empingham Reservoir (now called Rutland Water). Many got soaked to the skin as there was something going on that day - a family day of some sort! Rain was ‘warm’ - well not near freezing - but not heated by the radioactivity! But I suppose it was snowing somewhere on that day. It usually does.
 
Thanks - I've been able to obtain a hive full of bees. The owner wants to keep the kit but not the bees so I'll do a shook swarm, and unite them with what's left of my failed colony.

Sent from my Mi A2 Lite using Tapatalk
 
Thanks - I've been able to obtain a hive full of bees. The owner wants to keep the kit but not the bees so I'll do a shook swarm, and unite them with what's left of my failed colony.

Sent from my Mi A2 Lite using Tapatalk

Why don't you buy some new frames and foundation and swap them for the frames with bees on them..that would save doing a shook swarm and losing brood and all the hard work they have done drawing them frames.
 
Why don't you buy some new frames and foundation and swap them for the frames with bees on them..that would save doing a shook swarm and losing brood and all the hard work they have done drawing them frames.
Isn't that a shook swarm?

Anyway, this is how the owner of my new bees wants to deal with it, and I have brood boxes and frames all ready, so it's fine with me.

Sent from my Mi A2 Lite using Tapatalk
 
Just took the eke's and fondant off the hives Sunday because they looked busy enough to add supers and now the weather is crap since ....
Looks like I'll have to feed now with this bad weather
How many frames of stores in a single BB is adequate to keep bees going for a week ?
 
Last year April was almost summer like with temperatures 20c and more. All fruits lost in prices, as usual. For example apples cost $0.03/kg wholesale for juice production. At the local markets the price is $0.3. Many gardeners threw them away. Polish apples cost much more, so our people work there instead of developing their own country. Our small farmers don't receive any financial aid from the government though we know that European farmers get a lot of subsidy from their governments. But our government also helps farmers. 90% of the last year grants received the giant agro-company of president's friend.
I don't remember 1986 as I was a kid then. We lived in Lithuania. But my sister got a dose of radiation when she and my grandma visited grandma's village not far from that power station. People knew nothing. Sister had some health problems after that.
Now the so-called Zone is relatively safe except some dirty places. Nature has been healing the wounds. Actually the Zone is healthier than big cities. Animals, birds, insects, plants, some of them are unique - all are thriving there. You can visit the Zone and the abandoned city of Pripiat' (not sure I write it correctly) and see how post-apocalypse looks like.
Some yaers ago I watched a documentary film about a men living as a hermit in the Zone. Ha had many hives and log hives in the forests. He said bees were able to avoid radioactive spots. Unfortunately I can't find that film in the Internet.
 
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