Year end totals

[Hombre]

What sort of bee did you get from Mikethebee then HP? Most of us understand that he doesn't do AMM? Special order for you perhaps?

 

[BKF Admin]

My best hive is 120lb on a brood and a half since March.
I took 40lb of willow honey off them earlier in the year and have 4 supers to extract yet.
It would of been around 140lb plus but July made them a little hungry.

I plan to breed a few queens from that hive next year as they seem to be foraging in weather that puts most of my hives off getting out of bed.

 

[hedgerow pete]

hombre . mick not mike the bee over at kiddy

his breeding is easy enough to follow he has a couple of hives that he breeds queens from and then either suppliments the nucs with swarms normaly cut in half size not each bee!!! or he will shake some bees out of his other hives to set them going , he then adds 2 frames of food and two of eggs and brood, i must admit i have seen some of his later season nucs and i think he was struggling to get them together properly, they were a little thin, but hay what do i know he does it for a living where as i only clumsily play. he has three hives of black european bees , he reffers to them as old black english, and it is these queens that i have brought off him he does not sell them full time but to those who ask or know, i know him well mainly because i ended up making and supplying at very short notices , s****ing nuc boxs as per the videos over 25 i think we both lost count, but he pays me in other things apart from money so we both win and wallets stay firmly shut, not a bad way of working with other beeks. try asking him now whilst he is quiet and put an order in for next year

 

[hedgerow pete]

not a bad result admin thats 120lb in french is 54.5kg, and thats from a hive thats what treated with a weekly visit and sat where it sat very very impressive. i was talking to someone who works one of my old apiary sites and he is strugling to get past 35kg and has massive problems this year with swarmy stock from F1 hybrids

i would love to know how people are getting on with there F1 hybrid bees exspecialy after i had slatted them so much at the begining of the year, i have a size 12 with brown sauce on it anyone want to make me eat it

 

[BKF Admin]

Its not an average though.
I did very well from the Willow this year,then the Hawthorn was amazing.
I also got my queen rearing sorted early in the year,I had Drones flying when some members said they had no drone brood in their hives.

 

[hedgerow pete]

see this is where i gain a massive advantage over most other beeks , its because i am at the hive area every day and can see whats flying that day and glass coverboards , yes i know most hate them means i can have a quick peek , and because i have had a fair few days off this year and afternoons off for hospital visits i have realy mothered them making sure everything is as i want it, i have had four very planned breeding cycles two where a waste of time but the other two were great

 

[thurrock bees]

ive had the following, what ever is left is theirs.
last years hive 160lbs, app ( 10 supers )
from 5 swarms ( this years) 100 lbs.app ( 15 supers, not all full)

im more than happy with the amount for this year

 

[buzzy bee]

Hi Pete

I am not getting at you, so no need to deffend yourself, just a simple question?

Why are you feeding on hives during honey season, you will not have honey, you will have sugar honey?

Lastly how many hives do you opperate?

Cheers

Dave

 

[Floss]

Er...thanks for the re-direction admin!

I have 2 supers on 1 hive seemingly full of honey but hardly capped. Is there still time do you think? I would like a couple of jars but will leave for the bees if best! Was borrowing extractor this week but don't think I will need it somehow!

I have lots of old trees round me with old Ivy which the bees love. How late can you take honey off? This colony stated off really strong, still lots of bees but new queen slow to start laying it would seem.

My other hive is going well but I mean to leave them to have as many reserves as poss in the hope they will get through winter.

Anyway. My year end total is Nil !!! Been a great year though!

 

[Ando]

Hi

I'm also a year 1 beek, I got 2 nucs and a collected swarm with no queen. 1 nuc did really well and I got 50lb of honey from it, but nothing from the others, they have been slower to expand for one reason and another.

I was well chuffed as I didn;t expect to get anything from them this year, so really looking forward to getting them through the winter and seeing what I get next year.

Cheers

Mark.

 

[hedgerow pete]

buzzy bee , you have an extremly valid point about the sugar honey
heres how i work with it , please remeber what works for me might not work for you , you have to take my ideas away as i did from someone else and sit down and work out how to work it for you, also remeber my set up is the shed.

i only have two supers at anyone time on any of the shed hives, if i think they need to be feed for what ever reason, what i do is to remove the capped honey frames or mark them with a drawing pin to see which frames where capped i then feed with sugar at 500gm to 2 litres of water and then feed around 500ml at a time, with no more than 500ml per day in four day per week, the frames if any are then removed and used as nuc food suppliments, if i was to have any over or spare all i would do is set up a super of frames and then either sit a brood box over the to , bees dont like food downstairs only up stairs or i can extract the frames contents and refeed it to the bees when i winter feed or nuc feed , simple but can get complicated at times.

also floss i would not leave a super on a hive over winter, in theary they should not fill a super untill they have filled the brood box frames first, bees like my waiste line go across before going in any other direction

 

[buzzy bee]

Hi

I am glad you didn't take my post the wrong way, and apriciate your answer.

I always leave a super on my colonies over winter, the big debate is if you have the queen excluder on or off, both have merits and disadvantages.

Like you said, it works for some, not others and vice versa.

Cheers

Dave

 

[MJBee]

If you leave a super and queen excluder on over the winter you risk having the queen stranded in a cold brood box if the cluster moves into the super.
I would overwinter withoutthe QX every time.
Regards Mike

 

[buzzy bee]

Hi

That is the risk that the leads to the debate.

I apriciate your view!

Cheers

Dave