Animals Bees

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Ahh. Takes me back to getting chased when we removed the Combs to extract the honey. They were not too peacful then.
One of my oldest memories was when my grandparents hooked up their trailer full of hives to their old Rover 90 in the middle of the night and took them up into the hills for the Heather honey season. I used to sell the jars and Combs at the side of the road for about 50 pence a shot which was a load of dosh in the late 60s early 70s. My father and grandparents also had an apiery of about 20 hives in their plum and apple orchards, so getting stung was commonplace as you were always in the flight path. One got inside my veil one-time walking around an inch or so in front of my nose .that put me right off. Very fond memories though.
 
Congrats, you start with a complete hive, a package or?What type of boxes you have? Over here we usually make 10- frame langstroths, which is what I have had for the last 20 or so odd years, but I also have a top bar which I enjoy at my sisters place. I just sort of let it do its own thing honestly. Also what strain of honey bee? any specific? and how many hives do you have?
 
Bob M. said:
Congrats, you start with a complete hive, a package or?What type of boxes you have? Over here we usually make 10- frame langstroths,...
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Langstroths not so popular in UK

Nationals or Smith's are most common. I've used both and prefer Nationals as they are square not rectangular so you can orient them any way you want

I've also tried top bar including Warre-style. I don't have bees now, but I hope a recent decision to drop my working hours will allow enough free time to bees back into the family

Be(e) careful @Pete Thomas, beekeeping can become a bit of an obsession
 
ya I keep hearing mostly folks go with nationals there, but then everyone says they want to use langstroths also. I myself like wood and not poly, because I make them myself for cheap really, and I like building stuff as a excuse for buying all my tools and equipment, but I'd like to try poly I think. I might build some nationals and give them a try too.
Its interesting to see how different areas do things differently due to possibly different challenges and/or resources.
 
OK, had a practical day today out with John the bee farmer. All his apiaries are at secret locations.

Great experience as he was doing something new to him which was moving imported bees from Italy from little transport boxes into new hives. Then we added a queen to each new hive. Didn't get stung.

Then we went another secret location and added supers to newly started brood boxes (ooh, see, I'm getting the tech terms). Didn't get stung.

Then on to another secret location where we did some more supers and checked the new colonies for emerging queens..

And of course no practical bee keeping experience is complete without getting stung, and sure enough, the bees obliged. Well only one obliged thankfully.
 
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Its a good thing you are doing. Its sad how many bees have been killed off by pesticides. We are busy killing ourselves. Its gotten so bad in the US that many states have to rent hives to pollinate fruit. They are literally trucked in from across the country at considerable risk to the bee colony Enjoy the buzz
 
Phil said:
Its gotten so bad in the US that many states have to rent hives to pollinate fruit. They are literally trucked in from across the country at considerable risk to the bee colony Enjoy the buzz
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Indeed they are...however, it is debatable on if they 'have to' or not, the truth is growers want them to be for increased productions of course. Bees have been around for literally millions of years, and I have no doubt at all that for various reasons things happened during that time to lessen and harm one population in a area here and there throughout that time. We do not 'know' at least to my knowledge, that it is or has been the insecticides...many of us believe so, and it is without a doubt a truth insecticides can and will kill them. It is what insecticides do after all....but we are not sure it is the cause of colony collapse disorder I do not believe, specifically. It would seem to make sense as a theory though. Unfortunately, the transporting hives all over the country could also very well be part of the problem too. down south for instance, we all know the varroa destructor mite is very serious. a lot of hives get transported from the north here down south for the winters, then back up again. in spring as well as to other states/etc. even with preventative e measures which everyone pretty much takes, ow many accidental tourists are coming up in the spring with those hives?
We also have a lot of sellers who get their hives from the south to sell in other states, because they are more established from starting off warmer...but are these hives genetically prepared really for our climate as well as our/others agriculture really? if you take a eskimo and plunk them into the Mississippi heat /environment, they are not going to comfortable usually, nor are they going to be familiar with the environment or how to survive in it. good luck finding a polar bear to hunt in missippi like you were used to, or even use the same fishing techniques.
 
My main interest in bees (and other insects) is photographing them.
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