Year end totals

[hedgerow pete]

when i was suffering with the down sides of being prodded and poked by every flippin quack going they are my santurary, there is only so much dumping on the wife poor girl and son they can only feel pity for so long with out it starting to effect them so off the the allotment i go. they help as many of us know by just being thier, my children as the wife calls them. with an out apairy this year i would not exspect much more than say 30 kilos per hive with this wet weather badly effecting everyone, as for the wax how many of you do or have tried to harvest all year long when i started the wax harvest was from the cappings or from the old frames we stripped off, i was turned on to this way by a polish bee keeper i spoke to years ago by letter, rember them?

 

[Onge]

Yea that wax harvesting idea dose sound interesting. Something else to consider for the future.

 

[hedgerow pete]

see this is where i go down a differant route beliving that if they are to be used for queen rearing i dont expect much else off them but some times they surprise me,
as from this years lot i have already decided which two hives to breed from with one hive and queen being the prefered choice and one of the nucs i have look very up for being used to break the hedgerow harvest record , i have just started trying to get a new out apairy on a canal bank where they will have massive amounts of trees and flower very close to them and as with most of my area i have very little competition, thats why i am also not to keen on there being a massive influx of new bees they shorten my supplies of necture. there are many other varibles i have not added in yet but i will be going through my diary over the winter and comparring it against what i have found out over the last couple of years here in brum to see if i can improve,
one classic was last year i sited a hive i what i thought was the greatest ever spot and they almost died of stavation, classic muppet mistake

 

[hedgerow pete]

there is another reason for the 5 shorter frames in the brood box and that is i can adjust the amount of drones being produced. work out when you need them allow for there egg to finished state and when i have enough going i just start to cut them out every time i have a look

 

[hedgerow pete]

onge thats a total so far of 36kilos so far a still more to come thats above what i would have got by my cals so your doing better than me.

heres a question i would like to ask, all these new bees everyone seamed to rave on about earlier this year that i poo pooed about these new super duper bees that were able to fill a brood chamber in a fornight with eggs how are you lot doing anyone out there what to shoot me down??, put your totals up and make me eat my words or have they all just over produced and have not collected well???? i would love to know how they got on

 

[Bcrazy]

Come on Pete this is not a competition mate.

You have displayed your years work with your pre set aims, and by all accounts have done well.

Don't spoil it by statements like;

heres a question i would like to ask, all these new bees everyone seamed to rave on about earlier this year that i poo pooed about these new super duper bees that were able to fill a brood chamber in a fornight with eggs how are you lot doing anyone out there what to shoot me down??, put your totals up and make me eat my words or have they all just over produced and have not collected well???? i would love to know how they got on

Many beekeepers have different thoughts concerning what they wish to achieve during the season, so really we don't need a competition of who's the 'top dog'.

Regards;

 

[bobandbec]

I really don't understand at all this need to "publish" totals for honey collected. It is difficult to compare anyway. Some people spend on sugar for stores, others leave honey on. For some 20lb a colony is enough with the pleasure of the hobby. Locality also plays a big part, and many other factors.

If you're happy with what you get surely there's no need to do a Sun Newspaper job on it.

Peter

 

[tonybloke]

So, every time you have bad weather, you feed them with sugar syrup? is your bumper honey harvest from flowers, or sugar beet?
As a newbie, this is an interesting thread, can we all just feed our hives with sugar syrup and get loads of honey and wax?, do we need flowers at all?

 

[Onge]

Have you ever tasted sugar honey

Not nice.

I only feed mine when I changed hive type to build comb.

Did a shook swarm this year and left them to it, no feeding and they did fine.

I must have a good area

 

[Bcrazy]

Hi tonybloke

I find this comment really fascinating;

So, every time you have bad weather, you feed them with sugar syrup? is your bumper honey harvest from flowers, or sugar beet?
As a newbie, this is an interesting thread, can we all just feed our hives with sugar syrup and get loads of honey and wax?, do we need flowers at all?

We seem to be getting a bit mixed up here.
re bad weather, we do not feed the bees sugar syrup if there is bad weather, as the bees will find a day when they can get out for collecting nectar.
We feed syrup to promote the egg laying of the queen at the beginning of the season and also when we hive a swarm. Of course there are other times when a quick feed may be necessary.

do we need flowers at all?

Where do you think pollen comes from?

May I suggest that being a newbee you do some reading about bees and their behaviour, find out as much as you can from association members, ask questions on here.

Regards;

 

[Hawklord]

my shed season only started in january ...

Then surely Pete, as with any business, your year end will be in January 2010?

Good luck with the shed and keep those videos coming.

 

[jimbeekeeper]

once they are up and running what i have also done is never allowed the queen to slow the lay so every time we have had more than one wet day i have added/filled/inserted/used a frame feeder so evan if we have had several days of wet the hives had always syrup if needed to prevent the slowing down of the work force, once they get going flat out dont let them stop because of the weather,

BCrazy

I Think Tonybloke is refering the the above quote by HP, that he in effect feeds his bees ANY time there is a wet day.

So is it honey he has made or as Onge states just Sugar Honey the bees have made?

I see nothing wrong with HP posting figures, but how many people post figures of their bad times? We all have good times.

 

[hedgerow pete]

to bobandbec and bcrazy, there are seceral reason to why i posted my years end results.
i wanted this thread to be a list of everyone else's harvests not a thread about me, but it seams as only one other person has done that, shame i like to here how other people have done and why, but apparently no on else does.
i have for far spent this whole thread either defending my self or explaining my self which is getting triesome.
at the early part of this year there was many conversations about me using an older type of bee that comes with many many faults against people who were buying or breeding the newer hybrid type of bee's we then stopped when the chanlange of year end results would answer where i was using the better bee or not,
from when we were getting messages from people who had never had or owned a hive stating that thier queens were doing so many eggs per day three times mine laying rate . what i want to see is these people of owners of hybrids to state thier results i want to see where my older type of bee in a very good area can out produce the super duper bees every one seemed to have this spring

 

[GingerNut]

i wanted this thread to be a list of everyone else's harvests not a thread about me, but it seams as only one other person has done that, shame i like to here how other people have done and why, but apparently no on else does.
i have for far spent this whole thread either defending my self or explaining my self which is getting triesome.

Hi Pete,

I for one have found this thread invaluable

I have learnt so much about different ways at looking at yield of different products and how to do it

I'm sorry you feel that the thread has been hijacked (that's what happens in forums), but I think most people are like me and are intrigued by how much you have managed to harvest, rather than critisising you.

I'll stand up and post my yield - one hive - no yield of anything except lots of bees

Thanx again for explaining how you have done things in this thread, it's been great

Yours Roy

 

[hedgerow pete]

congratulations gingernut you have done what i asked for once someone listens, altho the honey crop was none at least you have a full hive to start next year with so , with next year being the new and next barbque summer if i was you i would go out and order several hundred honey jars before the rush.

i would also like to complement you on using a wbc they are so beautifull and i still use two myself.

 

[foxden]

Hi Pete, got to agree with GingerNut , i enjoyed reading your thread and found it interesting and informative. My first season and i really enjoy reading all the threads. I think its great to get the different veiws and advice .Good luck with your venture.

 

[oliver90owner]

HP,

Don't worry about what others think. Do your own thing. Bee type, hive type, product type - you will probably get the 'naturals' or the 'vegans' moaning about your methods, but will it change your system - I doubt it.

We all know that the National hive is the absolute best, don't we?......Yeah, right. So why have WBCs (too small and fiddly) not been banned? Why has anyone been allowed to makes hive in plastics?....Sheer heresy! Importing foreign queens? I have my own views on that, and might not be too poular with some if I were to push forward my thoughts on the practice too hard.

'Good on yer' weighing all your products of the hive so accurately. You are obviously working hard at it. I can see why - if you are going to make money at it, you require an accurate balance sheet for both seeing the state of the finances and to recognise the profitable parts of the business.

Me? I just do it as one of my several hobbies. I accept that increase in colony numbers is counter to honey collection. I already have enough honey for my needs for the next couple of years, so any extra will either be a bonus to me, or more natural stores for the bees. They have earned it. Saves me buying sugar and 'force feeding' them.

Next year will perhaps see a larger surplus of honey. Depends on how the ladies cope with the winter, the diseases, the mites and any of the other variables.

Oh, and keep the vids coming. I find they are are so basic, down to earth (mostly), some funny and all useful in some way, especially for those who are starting out and being told 'this is the kit you need to buy from the catalogue'.

They say a picture speaks a thousand words. A vid is another step along from that. There should be nobody on this forum who could not make a good proportion of their hardware, cheaply and effectively. You are doing everyone a huge service.

Regards, RAB

 

[marklaverda]

Pete, This information will become an invaluable comparison resource in years to come, and not just at this moment, in the short term when it has been of great interest to me and many others.
With potential climate change we need this kind of inforation to use as benchmarks for production into the future.
Ignore detractors Pete. This is all good stuff, and will be refererred to for many years to come when memories and people fade.
Please keep up the videos also.

 

[RoofTops]

HP, I think you are being a bit disingenuous saying you didn't want this thread to be about you because you must know your published results are exceptional - about ten times the National average. My best hive managed about 60 kg but most of the others much less, primarily down to bad beekeeping on my part.

I assume you are using an AMM type bee and having seen pictures of Michael MacGiolla Coda's skyscraper hives you have confirmed it can be a very productive creature. If you have queens to spare next year put me down for some please.

I am impressed by your record keeping and daily attention to the bees but just to silence the doubters, you do use a contact feeder for the stimulative feeding don't you? I only ask because the one thing missing from your list of expenses was the cost of any sugar.

 

[jezd]

not year end yet, most of my hives are on the heather to either build up stores or may try and get a samll crop, most of my hives are still laying well too, also looking to a flow with the ivy later - due to my setup my results will mean nothing for 2009 in terms of comparison to others