My Beekeeping
In 2015 I took up bee keeping, having wanted to do so for the past 5 or 6 years.
I attended a beginners course with the Cleveland Beekeepers Association, and got my first hive and bees in April 2015.
It was a steep learning curve, and there have been a few scary moments along the way (a bee on the inside of my suit being one of them!), but so far so good.
The last few pictures above show my swarm control, by splitting the existing queen and flying bees into an empty hive. So I now have two smaller colonies.
I am getting slightly braver with each inspection, and hope to be losing the thick leather gloves in the not too distant future.
Looking forward to some honey in late summer :-)
I attended a beginners course with the Cleveland Beekeepers Association, and got my first hive and bees in April 2015.
It was a steep learning curve, and there have been a few scary moments along the way (a bee on the inside of my suit being one of them!), but so far so good.
The last few pictures above show my swarm control, by splitting the existing queen and flying bees into an empty hive. So I now have two smaller colonies.
I am getting slightly braver with each inspection, and hope to be losing the thick leather gloves in the not too distant future.
Looking forward to some honey in late summer :-)
And then it all went mad!!! On Saturday one hive turned aggressive, the neighbours were attacked and there were reports of a swarm leaving despite our swarm control measures (although the queen hadnt been seen for over a week, so we thought she had already left?!). As a result, the bees had to be moved! :-(
Sunday was spent clearing a plot at a farm, putting up a windbreak, and moving two hives 8 miles to a new location, hopefully temporarily until we could find somewhere back nearer to home.
Sunday was spent clearing a plot at a farm, putting up a windbreak, and moving two hives 8 miles to a new location, hopefully temporarily until we could find somewhere back nearer to home.
At 6:30am we discovered a small swarm in one of our fruit trees. Could this be the bees reported by our neighbours to have left the hive at the weekend?? So we bundled them into a box, drove them to the hives and popped them in. Simple ?! Washing up gloves as well - getting braver - although did end up with my first sting - ouch!
Two hours later that day!!! Bees everywhere - Nightmare! Bring in hive no.3!
(Unfortunately they decided that they didnt much like the reserve hive, and left!)
(Unfortunately they decided that they didnt much like the reserve hive, and left!)
Late June - my first ever honey :-)
Spun the frames from one hive and got about 14lb of honey, which, isnt particularly good, but considering that im on a vastly reduced colony of bees now, was at least something.
Id like to say that nobody was stung in the production of this honey, but unfortunately cant.
Due to the vast quantity of swarms this year, I decided to build more hives in the hope that we can get a swarm or two to house. This is the first one off the production line - two more to follow!
Spun the frames from one hive and got about 14lb of honey, which, isnt particularly good, but considering that im on a vastly reduced colony of bees now, was at least something.
Id like to say that nobody was stung in the production of this honey, but unfortunately cant.
Due to the vast quantity of swarms this year, I decided to build more hives in the hope that we can get a swarm or two to house. This is the first one off the production line - two more to follow!
Our friendly swarm catcher kindly took my 'nucleus' hive to one of his call outs and collected a swarm from a lovely couple who had noticed the bees in their hedge. These were taken to my new location, where I have very kindly been allowed to position a couple of hives. After a few days of settling into their new surroundings, I transferred them into my newly made hive. Lets hope they like it :-)
2016
Unfortunately, in the spring our bees died just as we were hoping that we had made it through our first winter. Only one thing for it, collect some swarms - oh the fun (and stings) we had .....
June 2016 - Collecting our second swarm - you wouldnt have stayed sat on that bench for long!!! (this time last year we were harvesting our first honey)
July - Thanks to a friendly neighboring farmer, we recovered this swarm from a tree, while the cows watched on slightly puzzled!
A late swarm at the end of July. Unfortunately we were just about to go for a weekend away when this one arrived, so by time we got to it it was no longer a nice calm swarm, more of an angry colony wondering what this large white glove was doing dragging it out of the wall cavity. A few people got stung with this one!
Ahh, this is more like it.... the swarms nicely settled in hives and building out new comb, albeit some unusual features that need removing so they can have another try to get it right. Full frames of brood, so plenty on baby bees on the way. Fingers crossed we get at least a few strong colonies established before the winter, so that we can start 2017 with some good, strong, healthy (and hopefully productive) bees.