Any Beekeepers?

[MrsBertBibby]

Are there any beekeepers on here? I start a theory course next week, and wondered if anyone on here has bees.

Very happy to see lots of bees flying this morning - they're tough little things!

Today, we are starting the massive garage clear out, so that we can put up shelves and make space for bee crap.

Out of interest, how many hives do people run, and how much space do you need to store everything? I reckon the spare supers etc should just stack on the floor, but himself thinks they should go on shelves. Obviously we will need some shelf space for the burner, tools, and supplies of candy and treatments.

my dad keeps 4 hives.
enough to get honey for family and to sell on to finance the hobby and enough to account for one or two hives not making it over winter.

space wise he has an outhouse, about 2x2 meters.
as he sells honey it needs to be suitable for food prep, so the floor and walls are tiled.
spare frames,tools etc only get stored in there after being disinfected.
before honey harvest the room is cleared and jetwashed. good time fir an inventory as well.

We have one hive in the garden and another ready to go as we'd like two. The new hive is built, with our supers on, in the spare bedroom, along with various frame parts, waiting to go out at swarm/split time. Then we have 4 nuc boxes in the garage, plus eke, smoker, tools, queen marking kit.... The boxes stack nicely but there is a lot of assorted clutter which has rather overcrowded my potting bench! In the kitchen we have two food buckets, uncapping knife, a random box of wax bits and recovered wax, and an accumulation of glass jars. We plan to borrow honey extraction kit from the association so haven't got that yet. I fear this is just the beginning.... So in answer to your question, it will take lots of space but probably not huge amounts of cupboard.

How's the course going MrsBert? Any progress with getting a hive and bees? There has been lots of activity at our hive today, loads and loads of pollen going in - lovely to see them out and about again after the latest cold snap. Crocus pollen definitely, and what I think is hellebore. (Next on my list: a pollen identification book!) I also saw lots of bees busy on the pulmonaria but I think that's mostly nectar. Lots of our neighbours have cherries/almonds/camellias in bloom so hopefully they're having a good feed from those too.

Fab thanks, last session next week, then the practical course starts after the Easter holidays.

I saw someone's honey bee (almost certainly my teachers' as their main apiary is only half a mile away) working the pulmonaria, which is going great guns ( which I am pleased about as it had an emergency relocate last summer when I found it engulfing my partner's dwarf rose).

We've got pussy willow too which is a magnet for bees of all kinds, I really noticed the bumble bees getting going today. And 2 butterflies!

Hoping I will get himself to get hive parts ordered this weekend, (or accept I will do it alone). Bees expected in May, apparently.

The hive has been ordered! Massively cheaper than I feared as they had some reductions and seconds. Still need to order frames, foundation, and bee suits, and some other bits and pieces, but we are on our way!

Exciting times! What sort of hive did you go for in the end?

National cedar. Going to run brood and a half if they need it. Got lots of the boxes as seconds, so we've saved a bomb! Himself wanted a gable roof but they are out of stock so we have a flat roof (reduced) at a third of the price. Hurrah!

Can I ask you all a question....this isn't to do with honey bees. Why am I seeing so many big bumble bees on the ground and obviously poorly??? In the summer I always give them some sugar water but I don't think I've ever noticed this many out so early. Feel v sorry for them-is there anything I can do for them? The ones I see I move into the bushes in the hope it's warmer and drier

I'm no expert, but I think the bumble bee queens that overwintered (unlike honey bees, with bumbles and wasps only the queens survive winter) are all out trying to set up new nests but are getting rogered by the very heavy rain. A lot of them are ground nesters, but the grass is so wet I think they're getting waterlogged.

It is pretty shit weather this year, for bees.

Thank you for that Mrsbert, I had no idea they were new queens. I just thought they were bumblebees that had been somewhere hot on holiday
I've had a Google and you are correct. Now I know who they are I will do the sugar water on a spoon and hopefully that will perk them up to find a new home
I'm petrified of wasps and can't be anywhere near them but bees esp bumbles I love

We've had a bit of a worrying time lately as we found our queen dead on the landing board in early April - it appears our bees decided to go for supersedure and with the cold weather we weren't sure if the virgin queen would be able to mate successfully. But all is well and the new queen is marked and laying now.

Any more news on your bees MrsBert?

Phew Una!

We are just prepping the hive site. Bees should be ready late May. Very excited, the practical classes are fantastic, really getting confident about handling the frames etc.

Exciting! Glad you're finding the course useful. We never managed to do a course and I sort of wish we had as they do sound like great learning opportunities. We couldn't do the course last year, were given our bees in the summer when there weren't courses happening, and by the time this year's course came around it felt like it would just cover what we'd already learned in the previous months of looking after our colony.

Our plans for the year are a bit in disarray due to the supersedure but I hope we can still manage to get or make another colony as just having one with a problem does feel very vulnerable and reduces your options.

I can't imagine starting keeping without doing a course! I'm lucky as the apiary is literally 10 minutes walk from us, though. People are coming from a fair distance, travel would make it a much bigger time commitment.

We had some hands on practice with the people who gave us our bees, plus have done lots of reading and have been to various apiary demonstrations. We've made a few mistakes but would probably have done the same had we been on a course, and managed to diagnose and fix without too much difficulty.

So I have bees! Need to get them out of the nuc and into the hive this morning, and get them their syrup.

Sooooo excited!

Congratulations! Hope they are lovely to handle and give you lots of delicious honey.

Well they are in their new abode now, and flying in great numbers. Very undramatic transfer into the hive, so all looking good so far!

Undramatic is definitely a good aspiration. Have fun watching them fly in and out! I'm surprised how much I miss ours (we're on holiday) but they were inspected at the weekend so we know they're fine.

Congratulations on your bees! DD & I have just artificial swarmed ours - they were laying very early and strongly this year despite the bad weather, and we didn't get in there quite early enough to split the colony. Fingers crossed though all will be well :)

One of the great things about classes is that we are setting up a group, and everyone is up for some mutual holiday cover. Otherwise I would have to train my long-suffering dad or something! Or see if the bee farm apprentices would do it for a cash incentive (in their copious free time)

They are fab. I keep nipping up to watch them coming and going.

Oh fingers crossed Sadik!

Good luck Sadik! What age did your DD start beekeeping? DS would love to get involved but at 3 he's way too young.