Your 1st year

[CB008]

Thanks CB008, I owndered whether the hive is cedar or not? Can anyone tell? Will ask my mentor next time he is here

yes - this looks like their premium quality cedar hive. The sloping stand and legs are definitely Thornes as well

 

[Nose Ma]

yes - this looks like their premium quality cedar hive. The sloping stand and legs are definitely Th**nes as well

I agree. Mine looks very similar, roof, legs and all. Just less weathered. The wood "greys" as it sits in the sun and whatever. Mine's only a couple of seasons old, and I treated it with linseed oil before putting it out. There's no need to treat them, my better half just preferred the finish.

The roof being flat or gabled makes a couple of differences:

1) you can't put it on the ground and use it as a stand for supers etc. when you are inspecting.
2) IMHO it looks much more appealing, if that matters to you
3) it seems to throw the rain a bit better than a flat one. I have no idea if that matters to the bees or not. I doubt it.

NM

 

[Winker]

Well its my first year too! I feel like a seasoned beekeeper, but know I have just started on a long long road of learning.

Started with 1 Nuc in April from WPF. I now have 5 strong hives to take through the winter.

So far this year I have had to deal with: Killing my first queen, Swarming, Re-Queening a hive, Bees from Hell, chalk brood, supersedure and angry neighbours, ohh and the bee inspector..Thanks William!

I have extracted 23lb of golden runny honey from the WPF hive, Thanks William!

Looking forward to expanding to 12-15 hives next year.

I started off with two national hives, moved one onto a 14X12 and then popped the next 2 straight into 14X12 and still have one lot in a national 6 frame poly Nuc to over winter

 

[gingerbees]

Our first year too.

Started off with a five frame nuc up at our allotment

http://www.landshare.net/users/guy-and-tracey/blog/

You can see the pictures and the like on the blog above.

All great, productive and even had a super on them, then they filled the brood box, so we went to brood and a half, then the Queen vanished and Queen cells appeared. Then they swarmed, we caught the swarm and put in new hive at same allotment. We now have two hives, the swarm hive has a Queent that Tracey marked a week ago, and eggs and grubs, so its been fed and is filling up well.
The orginal hive may or may not have a queen, we are going to inspect this weekend to see. If it does then great, will over winter, if not then we will unite the two.
Steep but fun learning curve and the help from our local BKA has been just great. So glad we spent a year before getting the bees going on the courses and reading the books and getting the equipment ready, we really needed it this year

 

[AndreaW]

Can I ask the newbies - did you go for 14x12 or something else? From what im reading it seems it probably is the best choice if starting a fresh, but everybody will have their own opionions. Most of the local people from the HBKA use national's on brood and a half.

Also did you get a nuc hive's for AS or another hive sitting by?

I went for a commercial hive only because one of the tutors on our course gave good reasons to me why she used them, can't remember but it convinced me I am going to get another hive for an AS as want to have two in end anyway and only have one at present. I presume that will mean I then need to by another 2 brood boxes to do AS for those..... oh dear

 

[Skyhook]

Not sure this is the case in the UK (unless you are somewhere rather extreme). Our lot survived the -13 nights just fine on OMF and all came through the winter. Bees can deal with cold - it is the damp they can't cope with. I would suggest that a sealed, well insulated roof + OMF is better for the bees that a vented roof and solid floor.

 

[Blue Spinnaker]

Can I ask the newbies - did you go for 14x12 or something else? From what im reading it seems it probably is the best choice if starting a fresh, but everybody will have their own opionions.


I read and read and read everything I could lay my hands on before choosing the 14x12. I have a friend who had a nuc at the same time from the same source, both queens emerged at the same time, hers were ready for collection before mine as they were on standard frames, mine were slightly behind as they had more work to do.

I saw hers recently and I must have twice as many bees in mine.

 

[Luminos]

It seems I've had a very dull first season compared with everybody else - no disease, varroa, swarms, thieves, bees behaving badly, or swindling suppliers.
Started with a WBC; have also recently bought another, this time with 14 x 12. So I have some spare equipment.

I have a feeling that my second season will be very different...
Very grateful for the forum.

 

[Black Comb]

It was also the last time I bought 'first quality' boxes and frames from Th*rne (or from anyone else for that matter)

RAB

Didn't you buy a new Beehaus last year?

 

[oliver90owner]

Didn't you buy a new Beehaus last year?

Not exactly and I did qualify as 'first quality'!

RAB

 

[alynewbee]

Seems like a long time on reflection but I only started in April.

Did my course in February / March. Got a swarm in April and housed it in a national that I borrowed from my BKA. The swarm did very well. Caught and marked my queen - very proud moment. Got some queen cells so did an AS (part of it into a 14x12). New queen mated and did very well, masses of brood. Took one full super off and extracted it - yum yum. I've just combined my two hives and done the dirty deed with the old queen as she'd definitely slowed right down in her laying. So, I'm back down to one 14 x 12 which is bursting with bees. I've loved every minute but could not have done it without this forum.

A massive, huge THANK YOU to everyone.

Aly

 

[busybee53]

I got my bees 10th August 2010 so I've just finished my first year. Did the course where there was a great deal of discussion over what type of hive to buy and although I felt the National was probably a bit small for prolific bees I also felt it would be heavy enough to lift. I got national and its plenty heavy enough. There was a delay in delivery which is why I got my bees so late in the season. I had the pleasure of waving bye bye to the honey they made in 2010 as I had only bought the bees and they took 4 gallons of strong syrup before they were happy.

They over wintered with an OMF with the super under the brood box and I worried for them in all that snow but they made it through. They had a bit of lesser wax moth, a bit of bald brood and fairly low varoa levels. Above all they were strong and feisty. Had to do an AS and make up nuc to make sure they had space for HM to lay. They gave me 101 pounds of honey from 5 supers and I think there may be a few more frames still to extract or possibly put in the show. We still have HB flow so I will not know till tomorrows inspection.

Now have 2 colonies to overwinter which is what I want to keep it at. I still need equipment to be able to do AS on both next year. Did not lose/catch any swarms. So though Ive got a heap of equipment and books and have learned a heck of a lot in my first year I still know I need more stuff and don't know half as much as I need to. Whatever you read is not a patch on experience. I never knew there were so many ways to do things wrong and so many ways to do things right. I have learned that whatever I do the bees will be my judge. This is what makes beekeeping so interesting. I am told that I am obsessed.

Good luck to all in your first year.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Decided to use bottom beespace nationals, acquired a 5 frame nuc in May with a 2011 Buckfast queen which I keep at the top of my (very big) garden. where they've thrived, found some queen cells a month ago and decided (as the hive was bursting with bees) to split three ways, but they still swarmed which I managed to retrieve 16 feet up one of my apple trees, so at the last count (I haven't been at home for over a week) I have a 6 frame nuc with a mated queen starting to lay, my original colony, and another brood box with hopefully a queen newly mated. I didn't expect to get any honey this year, was just happy to get to know my bees. At the moment I've got over a super and a half of capped honey so now I have to find an extractor sharpish!
Made some mistakes, met some great people at my local BKA and learnt a heck of a lot (and had a lot of reassurance) off this site .
If this is my first year what will year two be like!!

 

[TOBY-3652]

Started with 3 colonies now up to 14/ out of the 14. 13 are 2011 queens got a couple to unite hope to go into winter with 10ish the 3 colonies produced 250lb of honey so realy pleased with first year

 

[Illo]

We are in our first year. Collected two swarms in June; one in our garden, one in our friends'. Both doing really well. The learning curve has been huge. The first colony in in a standard national BB and has two supers. We will likely take one and leave one. The second colony was smaller from the outset, and is in a 14x12 and we haven't put any supers on this year...just want to get them through the winter.

Both have done really well. The varroa infestation in the second had to be seen to be believed. Yuk! But oxalic acid seemed to work well, and we hope that now all is well, and we are in a good position to go into the winter.

Biggest learning...not to panic and not to go into the hive when the weather is grotty, or to suffer the wrath of grumpy bees...

We gain such pleasure from just watching them and learning.
Also, we film them and post our adventures in beekeeping on t'internet (Mr Illo is a film maker...so it would be rude not to) and so we have a great record of what has been before.

I don't think there is any substitute for reading around the subject and gaining then knowledge so that you will be prepared for what will happen next year. W know that we will have to be prepared to avert swarming behaviour and all sorts of other things next year...so busy doing homework!

LJ

 

[Davelin]

First year for me too.

Started with two 6 frame nucs in May, screwed home made extensions on the bottom and put them into 14x12.
Lots of bees in both hives, 50lb of honey taken off so far and possibly a bit more this week; still waiting for it to all go wrong!

 

[Busybee123]

My first year....

Did a course in the early spring, read all the books I could get my hands on and bought 2 nucs in early May.

One of them has yielded 30+ pounds of the best honey I have ever tasted .

I lost the queen out of the other one a couple of weeks after I bought it. They reared a new queen, but because of poor weather she did not mate properly and quickly became a drone layer. Eventually managed to requeen the colony, but they are still recovering and building up. Just goes to show how easily it can all go pear shaped!

I bought another nuc at the end of June - they were doing really well until they started building queen cells around the end of July. I was not sure if they were going to swarm or supercede. The queen was not marked, so I decided to mark her and ended up damaging her in the process. They are now rearing a new queen......

Leasons learned:

Experience will teach you much more than any course or book

Bees are pretty good at managing the colony themselves. As a newbee beekeeper it is sometimes better to let them get on with it......

Thanks to all on here who have taken the time to answer my (often silly) questions and given me good advice when things have gone wrong.

 

[Catrin]

I did a course which finished in early July and got a 5-frame nuc just after.

I was quite relieved not to have to worry about swarming and so on this year (I have been checking but no QCs have been made). The queen is laying like mad. They are so gentle and calm that I only really have the smoker for show (I thought yeah, right, when the person who sold them to me told me not to bother with smoke, but he was right). Unfortunately there is a little bit of chalk brood (about 10 cells over 5 frames of brood today) so I'll keep an open mind about re-queening next year.

I'm a little bit worried about getting them through the winter (we had 18 inches of snow here for 6 weeks last winter - the joy of the North East) but they seem to have quite a bit of honey laid down. I think I will have to get a "proper expert" to have a look in September. I won't take anything off them this year - they're just on a brood box now.

Glad that everyone else seems to have had a good year too and I'm really looking forward to the spring.

 

[pamela1603]

Hi everyone.
This is my first year in beekeeping and after the numerous mistakes, lack of equipment and bad weather situations, I am wandering who else is in their first year and how have you got on.

I now have two hives, not as many bees as I would like and no honey to remove, however am looking forward to next year and any harvest I can get then.

I am also planning a winter of building more equipment.

To the 1st year beginers, What experience have you had and how much have you harvested?

Dave.

Hi

This is our first season we started off with a colony in April but later in the season split it as it was so strong had a few problems with this one but its ok now.

The original colony has been amazing we've had 8 supers of honey off it (Approx 140lbs)
The bees themselves have been a delight to work with so gentle & calm we can actually go into the hive without protective clothing. My husband does all the handling & he is extremely gentle with.

We bought our colony from a rep breeder they were not cheap but you do get what you pay for

 

[tonybloke]

welcome to the forum, pamela