Spruce's honey bees

a great plant is Winter flowering cherry. Prunus subhirtella autumnalis (Nov – Mar)

 

@hans I have read a little about open mesh floors helping with ventilation and removal of unwanted items. This does make sense. Do you add a slide in board underneath for any part of the winter or mesh always open.

Hi
Yes I put a slide board in just after boxing day when I am treating for varroa and I can monitor what the might drop is , as I put a sheet of card in smeared in oil so when they fall they are trapped, I tend to leave in till 1st May as it keeps the brood box slightly warmer just as the queen is coming back into lay.

 

4th April (for my records)

All the bees out and about collecting pollen , enjoying the late sunshine and warmth , making the most of all the gorse in the area plus the blackthorn slowly coming into flower .

So its all looking good ..... for now

 

* "M" sneaks a peek into Spruces record book and thinks: oh how wonderful that the bees are out and about and have some sunshine and pollen to luxuriate in. "M" then shuts record books and dusts off any finger prints so no one will know *

 

@hans I notice it says 10 deep frames and 1 blank in some readings. Is this common practice. thanks

I have 11 frames and I replace one with a dummy board , which is the same dimensions as a frame , just makes it easier when inspecting as this is kept next to the back wall and easily slips out with out crushing any bees in the process and then you have more room to manipulate the frames with bees on with the xtra space it creates , it wasnt 15 years ago as far as I know I was the only one that was using this method and had to have them especially made and everyone in my club thought it odd , but I would say more common now .

 

Spruce - the Master keeper of GC's BEES,
Jenny

 

Spruce, I have just finished reading all 34 pages and I have to say most of my questions have been answered. As I get older, some/most new, things take a bit of time to sink in but once in the ol grey matter it will be there for ever. A lot of information and very good questions from the readers and that in itself is so important. Varroa mite, treatment of, queen excluder, mesh bottom now understood. Supers for the honey harvest, removed for the winter so the bees live in the deep brood box.
A good solid article do keep it going
Bees wax usage by beekeeper not yet understood.

 

Hi Hans ,

The guy I mentor , questions what he has read with what I do occasionally , and I tell him the bees haven't read the books .

Everything is weather dependent and if nice and warm and lots of pollen and nectar coming in they are happy and not that bothered with me opening up and having a look around.
Some beekeepers are opening hives at this time of year but its still another 3 weeks with me as I have no drones (males) flying yet and if I kill or damage the queen with a early check , yes they will try and replace asap but I have little or no chance of her getting mated.

All I do at the moment is check the weight of the hive by hefting each side and I now know roughly if they have enough stores to last them through , if not I will feed a 1 to 1 with sugar syrup, but at the same time I dont want to over feed as they can fill the brood frames out with syrup and then the queen has very little space to lay.

Bees wax yes a good question of what I do with all thats left over.

@hans let us know how you get on , also a lot of the Society do a taster day .

Spruce

 

Thanks Jen

and not forgetting all the likes also

 

If I do go ahead and I would love to. I intend to make the boxes but buy the frames with foundation, bit more reading there. These seem quite reasonable £2 or so each.
Very warm here today lots of bees and wasps around Peaches in full flower, Victorias just starting to open but lots of other flowers in full bloom.

 

**** 26th April **** 1st inspection of the year Laying Queens in both, Hive 1 covering 9 frames Hive 2 10 frames both superrd

Hi All,

Just got back from checking the bees , 1st Inspection inside the hives this year , they are doing amazing and this warm dry weather has helped them build up really well and they have plenty of pollen and honey stores, so if the weather turns nasty for a week or two they will be fine , I have put on the Queen excluders which keeps the Queen in the brood box area , and have put a super on top of that and that's the bit that that collects the honey for me and also will give the bees more space. the temp was 15c so I was amazed as this morning at 11am I would never of thought the sun was coming out and the temperature would follow as well.
Spruce

 

Been a relatively kind Winter and Spring's pretty good so far. Glad they are all well and here's to her majesty the Queen Bee

hope the hive's up to her exacting standards Spruce,
Jenny

 

The islands bees have been in the news recently Spruce. I thought this might be of interest to you.

http://www.iomtoday.co.im/search?query=bees&p=header

 

At least they have stopped importing bees and Queen Bees , thanks a good read