What did you do in the Apiary today?

[cjhart2]

I don't know .... with the cost of beekeeping across the channel about half what it is over here perhaps us beeks on the Southern shores should consider a combined booze and bees cruise to stock up on essentials in France ? Portsmouth to Cherbourg ?

Hi it is less than half , nearer a third . This link has been put up before , http://fort.apiculture.free.fr/cat.php?menu=ruches you get a complete hive including frames for £65 . Looked at the quality to day and it is very good for £65 , all you need is wax and bees .

After reading the Forum at dinner time , went there this afternoon as a treat ( 200 mile round trip ) , ended up with 2kg of wax sheets , 8 clear crown boards , 8 mouse guards , 7 queen excluders , 30 base to brood box fixing springs , bee escape , and a tangential extractor ( hand operated ) £170 the lot . Wife with me and prompted me to buy the extractor . Had the benefit of a really nice Frenchmen who served us , yes there are some nice ones out there .

 

[victor meldrew]

You're being stung by leaf cutter bees? Now that is strange, they have to be about the least aggressive of even the solitary bee species.

Here they make their "nests" between the sides of my hive lids and the hives or supers, fantastic structures.

Chris

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=24220

Are you sure they are what you think and not these blighters?
VM

 

[WelshPaul]

Oh god no, use of photos and gardeners world mag we identified them.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Another day at the Royal Welsh went to see my honey again and took a photo to show the bees (did I mention we got first prize? ) Had a long chat with a very friendly lady beekeeper from Finland, with a sense of humour! over here studying our beekeeping methods as part of her university course (didn't realsie that Finns smiled ) she has thirt hives thought two hive owners were great used a queen excluder, though winter heating was a ridiculous idea and harvested over 200 kilos per hive (poly langstroth)
Not sure but she thinks she may have heard of our Finman! all in all an enjoyable morning talking bees (and all agreeing - including the RBI for Wales - that the Abbé Émil Warré was a looonatic monk who knew bu**er all about how bees worked, and trying to find an alternative use for his comedy hive)
Bought some more hive straps from the ratchet man ( a post on here last night got me thinking that another five will always come in handy! and a present of some lovely Welsh produced food for SWMBO - some great pork pies (tolouse style, traditional and pork with black pudding!) and a selection of scotch eggs (Onion bahjee, black pudding and spicy coated) And what gratitude?! - she doesn't want them so I'll have them, but I think i shall consume them the traditional way by stuffing them in my mouth and not where she told me to put them

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Well done JBM!

I sat and looked up the beeline, against a sky backdrop. Blooming marvellous.

 

[Chris Luck]

Congratulations JMB...

....and I tend to agree about Warré boxes of which I have as they say "a shed load"....

Chris

 

[pargyle]

Hi it is less than half , nearer a third . This link has been put up before , http://fort.apiculture.free.fr/cat.php?menu=ruches you get a complete hive including frames for £65 . Looked at the quality to day and it is very good for £65 , all you need is wax and bees .

After reading the Forum at dinner time , went there this afternoon as a treat ( 200 mile round trip ) , ended up with 2kg of wax sheets , 8 clear crown boards , 8 mouse guards , 7 queen excluders , 30 base to brood box fixing springs , bee escape , and a tangential extractor ( hand operated ) £170 the lot . Wife with me and prompted me to buy the extractor . Had the benefit of a really nice Frenchmen who served us , yes there are some nice ones out there .

Its 340 mile round trip from Le Havre + ferry fare ... would just about make financial sense for a communal trip with a decent sized van. Heck of a difference in prices - you are right, nearly a third of UK prices.

 

[pargyle]

Another day at the Royal Welsh went to see my honey again and took a photo to show the bees (did I mention we got first prize? ) Had a long chat with a very friendly lady beekeeper from Finland, with a sense of humour! over here studying our beekeeping methods as part of her university course (didn't realsie that Finns smiled ) she has thirt hives thought two hive owners were great used a queen excluder, though winter heating was a ridiculous idea and harvested over 200 kilos per hive (poly langstroth)

Well done JBM - great result at the Royal Welsh.

As for your new found Finnish friend ... must have mixed the gene pool up somewhere in the past !! Couple of rogue drones got in there a couple of generations back I reckon

 

[BeeJayBee]

Thanks for the info Chris.

@ JBM - Llongyfarchiadau!

 

[cjhart2]

Well Done JMB ,as all good google translators say ,


gwneud yn dda

 

[Paulf]

Hi it is less than half , nearer a third . This link has been put up before , http://fort.apiculture.free.fr/cat.php?menu=ruches you get a complete hive including frames for £65 . Looked at the quality to day and it is very good for £65 , all you need is wax and bees .

After reading the Forum at dinner time , went there this afternoon as a treat ( 200 mile round trip ) , ended up with 2kg of wax sheets , 8 clear crown boards , 8 mouse guards , 7 queen excluders , 30 base to brood box fixing springs , bee escape , and a tangential extractor ( hand operated ) £170 the lot . Wife with me and prompted me to buy the extractor . Had the benefit of a really nice Frenchmen who served us , yes there are some nice ones out there .

Does that equipment fit our national

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

would just about make financial sense for a communal trip with a decent sized van.

Maybe a fleet of buses/vans could be organised country wide, just like in the old days of Sunday School trips we could have an annual beekeeping forum weekend trip (what are equipment prices like in Poland? )

 

[user 6228]

Another day at the Royal Welsh went to see my honey again and took a photo to show the bees (did I mention we got first prize? )...

You will need to widen all the hive entrances if you do that

 

[pargyle]

Maybe a fleet of buses/vans could be organised country wide, just like in the old days of Sunday School trips we could have an annual beekeeping forum weekend trip (what are equipment prices like in Poland? )

Sounds like a plan to me ...

We used to have Sunday school trips from where I lived in Yorkshire to Cleethorpes ... it was just about the seaside as it's on the Humber estuary ... the tide went out so far that it was only once every four years we actually saw any sea. If you walked out to meet the tide coming in and met it the odds were that you would drown trying to get back !!

 

[VEG]

Well done JBM

 

[Hivemaker.]

I don't know .... with the cost of beekeeping across the channel about half what it is over here perhaps us beeks on the Southern shores should consider a combined booze and bees cruise to stock up on essentials in France ? Portsmouth to Cherbourg ?

Good idea, could also stock up on bees to go with the equipment, they are much cheaper in France.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Good idea, could also stock up on bees to go with the equipment, they are much cheaper in France.

oooh hush you mouth - you'll be saying next that everyone should have Buckfast queens!

 

[Chris Luck]

Plenty of lorries going back empty from here after delivering the UK on-line supermarket shopping.

Chris

 

[cjhart2]

What did i start !!!
Some of the answers to peoples comments .
As far as i am aware the outside diameters for a national are 437mm x 437 mm some one will correct me if i am wrong so the French kit will probably not fit .
Eurotunnel £46 day return much quicker and still cheaper for me to travel from Sussex to France , rather than using the western channel , also you can get it all done in 1 day . Still would be cheaper than buying just 1 complete English hive .
When it comes to buying bees in France . My view is pretty strong , I object strongly over the import and export of bees and queens from and to different countries . Put your own local bees into the French equipment , they would love it .
Myself , I made a mistake when i came to France and brought over English Langstroth , different size of course to the rest of Europe but i did not know that at the time .

Outside again to day making yet another super , in 33 degree heat . Should have bought French Dadant and saved my self a fortune in time and effort . Still what else am I am going to do , ah yes ,finish the house !!!!!!!

 

[Hivemaker.]

My view is pretty strong , I object strongly over the import and export of bees and queens from and to different countries .

I feel much the same about people moving around as well, they should stay in the area they were born in.