- Thread starter vwmark
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Do you have any horses nearby? Apparently horses & bees don't play well together!
frank horton
V twins are great but 4"s rule.........
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had 25 hives, the only problem is weight of the box's and there's just never enough time...........
join a local club or 2.........shame, gave away all my gear and books........
once ur a year or 2 in go for the advanced bee keepers cource etc..........
I loved mine but in the end it all got to much...........try to stay small for a bit say 2 hives.........hope u have a good wife.........hahaaha............
join a local club or 2.........shame, gave away all my gear and books........
once ur a year or 2 in go for the advanced bee keepers cource etc..........
I loved mine but in the end it all got to much...........try to stay small for a bit say 2 hives.........hope u have a good wife.........hahaaha............
Wendelspanswick
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I used to have a pair of hives, I kept bees for about 3 years then it dawned on me that:
1. I wasn't completely happy handling the bees.
2. It took a lot of time up when I had the least amount of spare (Summer).
3. I like honey but there is only so much one person can consume.
In the end I sold up and I trade firewood for honey with a friend of mine, a much better proposition.
1. I wasn't completely happy handling the bees.
2. It took a lot of time up when I had the least amount of spare (Summer).
3. I like honey but there is only so much one person can consume.
In the end I sold up and I trade firewood for honey with a friend of mine, a much better proposition.
addjunkie
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We trade eggs for honey, and fishing for fire wood. But are tempted to have a couple of hives. But as neither of us are go on course type people itll be interesting!
Thank god for you tube
maz0
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You would love the new poly hives, light as a feather. I can carry my whole hive floor, brood box and super with a ratchet strap in one hand. Bit heavier when full of the honey tho and they are now pretty well tested so definitely a break through in the ole' humfing and heaving requirement.
As far as downsides, I cant really think of any....other than maybe say good bye to your pocket money, if you wont be spending it on new tools, you will be spending it on frames, boxes, or honey processing tools
Eric the chicken
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I've kept bees for about 8 years. The only thing that I have noticed that was not mentioned during my introductory course was developing a sensitivity to stings (I don't mean anaphylaxis that's a serious life threatening condition). What happens to me is that if stung I come out in lumps that are itchy. Some beekeepers go the other way and become far less sensitive. I always take an anti histamine which seems to do the trick.
Really like having bees about the place, though never got huge honey harvest. But I always had quite a sensitive reaction to stings (local severe swelling lasting several days). Until collecting a swarm a couple of years ago, when four stings on one ankle sent me into full anaphylaxis. Luckily the 999 response time was good that day. Since had desensitization treatment (regular hospital appointments over weeks, months, years). Not really got back into beekeeping since.
Eric the chicken
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Sorry to hear about this Dee, when you say "Not really got back into beekeeping since" does that mean you stopped completely or still have a colony (or two)?
I had a swarm on my garden a few years ago. I phoned the local beekeepers association. No-one was interested. Then some more arrived and there seemed to be a massive fight....the sky went black....and they all disappeared....never understood what happened
maz0
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Swarming to find a new home, queen chills out somewhere away from the original hive while scouts find a suitable new home after which they head off to it.
Right thanks........I thought there had been a battle between rivalsSwarming to find a new home, queen chills out somewhere away from the original hive while scouts find a suitable new home after which they head off to it.
brightspark
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.bees aren't interested in you when they swarm and don't sting you. just looks worse than it is if a bee keeper is wanting some they call round catch the queen and scoop all the workers along with her in to a box and set them up in a new hive .some hives the bees are passive but some are quite aggressive and best got rid off u can sit on the hives and they wont bother you as long as your not in there flight path in to the hive
if a bee keeper is wanting some they call round catch the queen and scoop all the workers along with her in to a box and set them up in a new hive .some hives the bees are passive but some are quite aggressive and best got rid off u can sit on the hives and they wont bother you as long as your not in there flight path in to the hive yesterday on my trip to a local museum, there was a section of a hive inside the museum with perspex sides so you could see the bees doing what they do.....who'd have thought they could have been so interesting, but one thing that got me was this :-
now I know where the expression "busy as a bee" comes from. it sounds like hard work to me
now I know where the expression "busy as a bee" comes from. it sounds like hard work to me
Still got 2 colonies. A friend managed them into winter, and they're active now... but we're hoping to sell our smallholding... so not sure about the bees.
Eric the chicken
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A better option is to phone the local police who will have a list of local beekeepers who a willing to come and collect a swarm. Not all beekeepers are in their local association. I guess some people just don't like clubs.
maz0
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It's an interesting point as well. I have no issue with people who are self sufficient and like to do their own thing however its becoming more apparent that this needs to change in bee-keeping. I was at a talk recently by the director of virology at St Andrews university, he has had lots of government funding recently to research bee's and the losses that keepers are facing yearly. The long and short of it was that more or less every bee from every corner of the earth has deformed wing virus, however the bee's seem to have evolved the ability to live with this quite fine. The issue arises when varroa enters the picture, the varroa causes a disruption in the bee's immunity to the virus it carry's and the virus begins to take effect killing the bee and weakening the colony. Essentially his research concluded that the higher the varroa count in your hive entering winter the less chance of surviving which means varroa treatments need to be timed perfectly. The second issue here is that the varroa can become immune to the treatments, this causes a terrible problem if you have 300 hives in a 'bee keepers association' that all decide to time their varroa treatments the month before winter, but a lone-wolf keeper decides he wants to do it 3 months earlier....studies of bee colony drift show your hive can have up to 55% of surrounding colony drifters...all passing their immune varroa into your hive and messing up the treatment attempts of the hundreds of other hives.
Commercial keepers are saying they are suffering from 50% yearly losses, can you imagine if farmers faced this with their cattle? I believe there is government requirements now for how cattle are treated and the specifications of when and how it happens. I reckon the same will need to be done eventually with bee's as the hive losses are getting quite bad.
