Work Experience as a Bee Farmer (23 to 27 April)

[Erichalfbee]

Is it the Park one ...PBS 3 in 1?
I have one. It has castellations which I found a nuisance as you cant move the frames without rolling bees so I cut them out. Comes with a useful feeder on top.

Oh and thanks for the diary.....fascinating

 

[mbc]

Is it the Park one ...PBS 3 in 1?
I have one. It has castellations which I found a nuisance as you cant move the frames without rolling bees so I cut them out. Comes with a useful feeder on top.

Oh and thanks for the diary.....fascinating

Thanks E,
£40.85 + vat
is it worth the money ?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Not in my opinion.
p a y n e s much better

 

[Pete D]

Day 5......

Yep you guessed it, pick up at 8.15 on the Friday and final morning and back to base for cup of tea and go through the days tasks.
You also guessed it, sunshine and showers although current shower lasted all morning........ wot no sun.
First job was to check our grafting sucess hive by hive and introduce each frame into the finishing hive (top box) and put the frames and bees from the starter hives back in to them too. The idea being that the top box is a long way from the queen and her pheremones and they will keep on raising the cells with their ample resources.
So queen cell grafting sucess rate out of 20 attempts (10 for Emyr)
Me 25%
Brian 28%
Chris 66%
Emyr 90%

Well it was my first attempt, wont be my last though.
I may have said earlier in the week that Emyr wasnt good with the ladies.......just shows what I know

All added to the finishing hives and bees combined back so hopefull some weather for them to mate in a couple of weeks time !

Off to the apiaries and first one had 35 hives which all needed the usual health check, queen right, healthy brood, space to lay, sufficent stores, swarm control as appropiate. We tried a bit of 1 person smoke and open and remove first frame, next person check through, next person replace frame and close up. Chris on notes and any remedial actions..... ie feed, add supers etc. Feed required on 10 out of 35.
Next apiary 16 hives, same brief, 4 needed feeding and 2 were broodless.
Back to base for cup of tea and lunch. Early finish today as long trips home all round so extra tea and cake followed by an in depth tour of the Honey shed............ drool............
uncapping machine, api melter, 20 and 44 frame extractors............
100 supers in a standardish working day throughput.......... if only.
Then that was it, week over, lots of good byes and a couple of parting gifts from Chris for me and Brian (sorry Emyr if you dont ask you dont get)

Learnings from today
Handled lots of bees in inclement weather again
Feed your bees to keep them healthy
Queen rearing part 2
Emyr is a royal babe magnet (move over Mike Tindall)
Chris works damn hard but makes time for all the important stuff too, hats off to him.
Will follow this with a short (honest) summary of my week and in the meantime thank Chris, Bill, Ian, Brian and Emyr for a great week packed with learnings and experience that otherwise would of took me several years, some I will apply and some I will consider as time goes by.
Thanks also to Mrs B for copious amounts of tea and packed lunches behind the scene.
Pete D

 

[Bee-Key-Pur]

Thanks also to Mrs B for copious amounts of tea and packed lunches behind the scene.
Pete D

I would like to second that, thank you Mrs B....

 

[Tom Bick]

Thanks again guys for sharing this and thanks to you Pete for the write ups also Chris who without the offer would it would not have happened.

Me thinks all the write ups should be bundled together and then a perfect candidate for a sticky

 

[drstitson]

"The idea being that the top box is a long way from the queen and her pheremones and they will keep on raising the cells with their ample resources.
"

from what i've read about queen right finishers the bees accept the logic that colleagues have expressed by making cells - ie they know something i don't so i'll play along with the process even though queen seems ok to me.

 

[VEG]

Can I just say many thanks for taking the time to post about your experience I have enjoyed reading it.

 

[Pete D]

Couple of photos that I thought I would share with you......

First one shows just what the bees think of our lovely mesh floors

Second one shows a 'snap in' frame which works for Chris well on OSR especially when its set !

Cheers

 

[wightbees]

Can you explain a bit more on the frame please .

 

[ebee]

Excellent series and very interesting to learn a little of how it should be done. I’ve often thought a spell with a bee farmer would either kill or cure me and teach me to speed up a bit. Thanks for posting.

 

[Chris B]

Can you explain a bit more on the frame please .

It's plastic foundation coated with beeswax. So if you can't extract before your rape honey sets hard, you can at least just scrape it off and give the frame back to the bees without having to remake the frame.
I've tried these snap ins and the one-piece black plastic frame. Only available in Langstroth/Dadant as far as I know.

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

I've enjoyed this saga. Just like the Archers! ("Gosh, Phil! Look over there.......!" Dum de dum, de dum de dum, dum de dum de da da)

But....

.....who, drank the most ale......

and what brand?

D

 

[Pete D]

Hmm that may be me....... but more like a draw........ unless we are talking the very local honey beer then that probably was me, other than that it was another local brand called HPA
Brian and Emyr mostly had 'Amnesia' another local ale.
Or maybe I cant remember !

 

[wightbees]

Thanks for explaining a little more Chris B

 

[johnandyrob]

It's plastic foundation coated with beeswax. So if you can't extract before your rape honey sets hard, you can at least just scrape it off and give the frame back to the bees without having to remake the frame.
I've tried these snap ins and the one-piece black plastic frame. Only available in Langstroth/Dadant as far as I know.[/QU

How do you rate them is one better than the other? I have got some one piece black plastic super frames but haven't tried them yet. Have you tried or will you be trying plastic brood frames?

 

[Hombre]

The History of hive 333. I believe that as both Bill and Chris did the marking of the numbers on the hives last year that it was coincidental - read kismet! The significance was not lost upon us however.

333 lived in a corner of an enclosed apiary. Think holly, bramble and fireweed. The hive had been located in it's corner for at least three years and a holly bush had sprung up in front of it. The apiary was a natural sun trap and so quite hot to work in and over the previous two years 333 had become akin to inspecting a colony in a phone box, whilst being tugged at by twigs and bramble.

The fact that the colony had become a bit edgy just didn't help matters again and it became obvious that Chris relied upon my forgetting or ensuring that I was often just available when the last one needed inspecting. That might be a bit of a myth, but I did seem to draw the short straw disproportionately.

The cut and run comment wasn't really warranted, except for late last season when they were particularly fiesy and sealed their reputation in stone. On a good day however they were not bad. The physical constraints of inspecting in keyhole conditions tended to make them the last colony in the apiary to get our attention and so it is perhaps a bit unfair to them, as the apiary was always very busy by the time their turn to be opened up came around. If you were always last on the list, I'm sure that you would get pretty miffed too

 

[Hombre]

I'm not sure how many miles of hedges have been laid in the last couple of years, but as you say Emyr, it's extensive and looks very impressive. Even more so now that there is some growth in it.

 

[Hombre]

Chris has lots of black plastic brood frames, from Anel.gr

I don't think that the brood frames were in use last year, but I#m sure that Chris will give them a bit of a write up later in the season. With the wax and a heater in a box within a heated water bath and Bill on the roller, the rate at which they can be turned out fully waxed is truly astounding.

 

[johnandyrob]

Thanks Hombre I was considering them because of the price I pay for foundation I can get plastic frames and use my own wax.