Author: scbka

It has been a real pleasure sharing this beekeeping season with you all. Between us we have taken eight colonies at the start of the year to what I think is probably a numerical high of twenty two. We have deposed two rather nasty queens replacing them with calm home grown queens and harvested almost a quarter of a tonne of honey from about 30 supers. Quite an achievement I think.

Please do continue to attend the apiary inspections next year, working with a larger number of colonies and a group of beekeepers improves our skills, confidence and is great fun too.

In addition to the Basic Exam, I would encourage you to volunteer for the mentoring program next year. Pairing up with a beginner is a great way to consolidate what you have learned this year, and you do know much more than you might think.

The apiary is being used for another Cheshire section Basic examination on Saturday, therefore there will not be another inspection this year. There’s not really much to do or see from now on anyway, treatments and feeding is about all.

If there is anything that you’d like to see or try in the apiary next year let us know and we’ll try to accommodate. We’re planning to repeat queen rearing again hopefully with a bit more success.

I hope to see you at the monthly meetings and if you have any queries ask on here or give us a call.

See you soon
Neil

Thanks to everyone that was able to come today. We checked all colonies for a laying queen ample stores especially the smaller hives and fed/added frames where applicable. We put clearer boards on all of the colonies that have supers, ready for the extraction day next Sunday. David and Nathan provoked a normally placid colony to attack, what they did I have no idea but they received just punishment. Kyle had his first apiary sting today in an unrelated incident, this hasn’t dented his enthusiasm though. We were able to welcome Alan and Sue back to the apiary after Alan’s illness. Hope to see you on Tuesday.

A big thanks to the team today. Spending more than a few minutes in a bee suit in this weather isn’t pleasant. Bob’s suggestion to start early was definitely a good call. It was good to welcome Faz back to the team too!

Beekeeping wise, the session was quite uneventful. One colony was found to be a drone layer, we stole one of its brood boxes with good frames for a colony building up and divided the four supers and bees between two colonies, uniting over newspaper.

Hive 38 was much better behaved this week although #35 ?? Has been tetchy for the last two or three weeks. It was this colony I believe that came out to wave us off when we left.

Now I have a confession to make. I do have a rather warped sense of humour. I genuinely do not take any great delight in another’s misfortune, but ……. for example: many years ago I was helping (learning from) another more experienced beekeeper who had drone layers in one of his hives. He had told me to stay by his hives whilst he took the colony some 100yards into the meadow and dealt with them. Watching him shake frames, retreat in a prancing movement as the bees counter attacked, grasping for his smoker in the long grass, disappearing in a cloud of smoke and repeating until the hive was empty I found more than a little amusing. I admit to performed a similar dance on many occasions myself. It’s not something you really want an audience for!

Anyway, to continue with my confession, I had a giggle today at the end of our session, sat in the car boot removing my wellies, I had the perfect view of Faz darting back and forth, arms flailing and being chased by half a dozen bees. Chuckling to myself I shouted some encouragement to Faz. Am I really not a nice person? Maybe not: karma struck back instantly: a bee came from nowhere and stung me good and proper just below my right eye. I now have a swollen eye, the worst reaction to a sting for years! I am sorry Faz, please don’t judge me too harshly.

I hope to see many of you next time.

Every week there’s some drama at the apiary and this week was no different.
A shortfall of nine QCs to complete our mating nucs meant some drastic action was required: QCs were parachuted in from David’s apiary, colonies were combined with newspaper, a virgin queen was used by introducing her using a cage and fondant and queen cells on brood frames from a donor colony were employed.

We ended with a surplus of QCs, all colonies were inspected, a swarming colony was dealt with and John’ team even found time to mark at least two new queens using Bob’s marking cage.

Thanks to all for your efforts today.

Another good day. Not as dramatic as last week. We made up 9 nucs from the queen cells. Tim got his hammer out to make up some brood frames. Thanks to everyone. A great team effort.