|
So I'm really keen on keeping bees in my garden next year so Im getting as much info as I can, one thing I can't find out is how high do bees fly? I live in a satellite town in Scotland, within 2 miles is a country park, fields and gardens obviously, the country park especially has lots of flowering trees in it. So im happy in that respect. The problem is in my back garden. There's a 3 story building making a rectangular back green (50m by 35m) and that's where my garden is, bang in the centre of the court, 8m from the nearest building. Would bees fly out of the back court quite happily or would the height of the buildings around them prevent them from doing so?
|
#
¿
Sep 30, 2014 16:33
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 16, 2024 01:55 |
|
|
Spookydonut posted:They fly level from the hive until they run into something then they fly straight up to their cruising altitude like 20-100 meters until they get to their destination. Cool that's good to hear. Im having real trouble contacting the local beekeeping society here as they have essentially no meaningful online presence. Don't suppose anyone here keeps Bees in Scotland do they?
|
|
#
¿
Oct 3, 2014 12:30
|
|
|
After events conspired against me this year I'm starting to prepare for Bee Keeping next year. The only way I've got to communicate with my local Bee Keeping society is to write them a letter then turn up to a random house somewhere so I guess that's what I'll be doing. I think I'll be going for a polystyrene hive as they seem to be the best for this area in terms of insulation.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 10, 2015 11:00
|
|
|
emanonii posted:Congrats on getting into beekeeping! What area are you in? Very few places need that level of insulation. It's not the cold that kills the hive, it's moisture. Make sure you have a top entrance so there is air circulation throughout the hive. Central/East Scotland, so not too cold in general but not too warm either. A Bee Keeper from Dumfries really recommended the polystyrene hives which is why I was looking at them.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 10, 2015 15:03
|
|
|
I've signed up for my local beekeeping course, 8 theory lessons followed by a few weeks of practical instruction. I'm really looking forward to it now. Hopefully I'll be able to get some local bees who don't mind living here.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 2, 2016 16:13
|
|
|
I had a hive position related question. I live in a flat with a back garden, it has 3 storey buildings on 2 sides and lower buildings on the other sides. My garden is spot in the middle of this and where I was thinking was 15-16m (~50ft) away from the closest building  A bit like that. Just over the building to the north about 250m is a massive country park and a river 150m away to the west. Because I live in Scotland I'm really concerned about this being too shaded and sheltered for the bees to get enough sun. They won't get hit with sun first thing in the morning, it's usually more like mid morning right through to the even that sun hits that spot in the garden. Should I reconsider my hive location and move it somewhere it's going to get sun earlier in the day? Tomorrow is my 2nd week of my 7 week introduction to beekeeping course, I'm looking forward to it.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 12, 2016 16:39
|
|
|
Sinister_Beekeeper posted:Aramoro, I'd ask the beekeeping group instead of me at least since you got some climate considerations that I just don't have in the Southern U.S. I'd guess that the buildings being a windblock might help, but I'm totally guessing there. Oh yeah I will be, just cuirous about how shaded people keep their hives generally, especially here were our average temperature May to September is 10-16C. I guess pretty much all of the Beekeepers here are american though which doesn't help.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 12, 2016 17:28
|
|
|
Got my beehive from a local beekeeper around here. It's a paradise poly, top beespace National but I've got it setup as a Smith just now. Going to build a stand for it on Monday
|
|
#
¿
May 28, 2016 12:31
|
|
|
So I finally got my hive installed and bee's setup inside. As I said I'm using a Paradise Poly Hive (BeeBox), I installed a 6 Frame Nuc into the box with 4 foundation DN4 frames and a super with 10 SN4 frames with a Rapid Feeder (1:1 solution just now)  The were a bit desperate for water so I constructed them a small rock pool to help them stop drowning themselves  The weather has been pretty poor for the last 2 weeks sadly and they've so far only drawn out 1/2 of 1 of the frames that I added. But the Queen is still laying and there's plenty of food in the frames that are there so hopefully the weather will improve and they'll get a bit of a flow on.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 30, 2016 10:30
|
|
|
BrianBoitano posted:How do you convince a stressed hive to draw out more comb? Do they have any frames which are all stores? If they do then you could try inserting an empty frame between that frame and the brood. That should encourage them to draw out that frame. Mine are only drawing out one side of the frames so I'm turning them around and rotating their positions to try and get them to draw them out well.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 30, 2016 15:11
|
|
|
We've been having some really strange weather here. So I got a nuc at the start of June but weather has been pretty poor so not too much activity, they've been taking down a lot of feed. Except when I did my inspection last week with only 8 frames drawn out I find a bunch of queen cells. Naughty Bees. I cut them out to buy me a few days then split the hive, moving the queen and a couple of frames into an empty nuc and choosing a queen cell to be my new queen in the old hive. I'll check again on Monday to see how they're getting on and confirm my queen selection. My plan is to reunite them at the end of summer choosing the best looking queen and moving to the double deep system for over winter hopefully. That said my last plan did not survive contact with the bees. This exact thing has happened to 2 other bee keepers in my area, hives preparing to swarm when they've got plenty of space. Weird.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 15, 2016 11:31
|
|
|
Sinister_Beekeeper posted:Sounds like they know something we don't is about to go down. The guy I got them off has been keeping bees 20 years and it's the first time he's seen it. He thinks it's been weather related. I'll check them tomorrow and see what the bad bees are up to
|
|
#
¿
Jul 16, 2016 16:04
|
|
|
I'm still anxiously awaiting the results or requeening my hive. The old queen is in the nuc and seems to be doing ok, all the FEDSS are right as far as I can see although I'm very bad at spotting eggs, there were at least fresh larva. Still drawing out frames very slowly though. Next week I'll open the main hive and see if they've got a queen or not. Both hives are still drawing down a lot of syrup. My plan is now if the Nuc manages to draw out the remaining 3 frames before the end of August and the new Hive has a queen then kill the old queen and reunite the hives using the double deep system. If the Nuc doesn't draw out more frames then I won't have enough frames to do it so I'll just see if the nuc will over winter itself.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 2, 2016 15:03
|
|
|
Suspect Bucket posted:So, north Florida here. What kind of schedule should I be looking at for next year installing a brand new hive? I'm thinking of pre-seeding an area of field with clover and a nice pansy bed in January, in the area I have picked for a hive, and fencing off the flowers and hive area from the horses. We get sporadic cold snaps and even soft freezes (ie, holy poo poo there's frost somewhere keep the air conditioning off!) until early march. Can bees tolerate a bit of cool weather when first installed, or should I wait until the threat of cool has completed passed? Baring in mind I live in Scotland and our bees will tolerate a bit more cold than some others. When they get first installed you want them to get out as much as possible which means temperatures > 10C, ideally more like >16C so they can get out and build stocks. That's why we don't have Nuc's available until June generally. They can tolerate cool weather, they just won't go outside so you will have to feed them, should probably feed them anyway to give them a leg up. In terms of flowers for Bees look at flowering trees, they have masses of flowers in a relatively small space.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 2, 2016 16:28
|
|
|
Sinister_Beekeeper posted:Out of curiosity, do you have any Buckfast bees? I don't no, I've got Scottish Black Bees, but I do know people with Buckfast Bees.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 2, 2016 23:50
|
|
|
Sinister_Beekeeper posted:Oh, that is very cool. I almost got Buckfast Bee's but they had trouble producing a Nuc so I just got local Apis Mellifera Mellifera, they're European Dark Bees but generally they get called Scottish Black Bees here as although they're essentially the same Bees as elsewhere ones bred here tend to not mind colder temperatures, normally European Dark Bees will go on a mating flight at 20C whilst Scottish Black Bees will go out on a mating flight down to 16C. Most commercial honey farmers use Italian Bees (Apis mellifera ligustica) so you do get a bit of cross breeding between the Scottish Bees and Italian Bees so you do get some of the qualities of Buckfast Bees in some colonies sometimes.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 3, 2016 15:07
|
|
|
My bees are really placid which is good. We've got a guy in the association here who is incredibly knowledgeable and he helps out with any aggressive colonies, requeening them for people etc. It's kinda policy here for hobby keepers to try to maintain black bees if you can (less productive than Italians but hardier) and not to make nucs out of aggressive colonies so I think most people who get bees through the association have a pretty good time. My bees are quite black, here are some.   I've not been on the swarm list for this year, maybe next year. I've joined the national association now which insures my hive against theft and foul brood etc which is good.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 4, 2016 10:43
|
|
|
Sinister_Beekeeper posted:What we have in Tennessee is mandatory registration (they can destroy your hives if they're unregistered) and the state will cover your losses on foulbrood if you're registered. Registration here isn't mandatory but advised, but I think we have less AFB here. AFB and EFB are still mandatory to report of course. Sinister_Beekeeper posted:And yeah, I had to decline catching a swarm last weekend because I'm still not able to carry all my gear for a few more weeks. I only started catching swarms this year, but free bees are free bees. I kind of think everyone should do it at least once so they can say they did and it's just a neat thing to do. We've had lots of swarms here this year for some reason which no one can quite determine. I have 2 Poly Nuc's now so I'll definitely put my name down for it next year. Your idea seems entirely reasonable, I mean the alternative is no veil your baby and that just seems irresponsible to me, I'm sure your wife doesn't want to be irresponsible with your baby.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 4, 2016 16:21
|
|
|
Sunber posted:I did wonder how well bees would fair here with the cold (in Scotland) as I've been tempted to get a hive once I move into a house with a garden rather than a flat, from the sounds of things they manage ok though which is good They should be fine really. There's a guy keeping bees on Shetland but he has to artificially inseminate his bees. If you're south of there then it's fine I think, this year the weather has been particularly odd which hasn't helped. I would contact your local association for guidance, I did the course through the Edinburgh and Midlothian Beekeepers Association, it was £65 for 7 weeks of classroom lessons and 4 or 5 Apiary visits. Well worth it as I would not have had the experience to do half the things I've done this year without them.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 16, 2016 13:33
|
|
|
Sinister_Beekeeper posted:Out of curiosity, since I saw the black bees tended to be bigger does Scotland/Great Britain have all the weirdness about foundation cell size? There's a bunch of old wive's tales here about using small/"natural" size cells for varroa control. I've not idea really, everyone here just uses standard gauge foundation as far as I know. Some people use Drone Foundation occasionally for doing Varroa removal with Drone frames.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 16, 2016 13:33
|
|
|
Sinister_Beekeeper posted:Actually, I'm guessing it's weather related since the queens won't do mating flights outside of certain weather conditions. Its the weather! The queens won't go out dor mating flights so he has to artificially inseminate them. Also hes probably weird.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 20, 2016 17:43
|
|
|
I use a j-tool as described above. My bees love building brace comb at the top if the frame but that little bit doesn't really matter that much so you can just lever the frame apart. My process is use the j tool to lift out the end frame and put it on a hive stand. That gives you a bit more space to work with levering apart and lifting out the other frames. I clean off the brace comb with my tool to stop it getting out of control.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 28, 2016 15:13
|
|
|
Fog Tripper posted:As I understand it, folks getting stung is a good thing over time. Builds up a tolerance and lets the bees teach you when you are loving up. Actually the opposite is true the more you get stung the more likely to become allergic. Don't get stung by bees if you can avoid it. Once you are sensitive to bee stings you can then try to desensitise you to bee stings by getting stung. Imagine you're playing Buckaroo but stead of plastic saddlebags it's Bee stings and instead of bucking it's anaphylaxis.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 20, 2017 10:12
|
|
|
stealie72 posted:n=1, but I'm now mostly taking care of my wife's hive because of this. We just got it last summer, and she's always been a bit sensitive to stings, but they went from welt the size of a quarter that went down in a coupe days" to "welt the size of a saucer that was around for a week" over the course of getting stung a 2-3 times over the summer. For whatever reason, stinging/biting bugs don't give me much of a reaction, but I still am newbie-level cautious because I'd like to keep it this way. I've been stung a bunch of times, you won't stop them all but just avoid unnecessary stings. At very least always use a veil as getting stung on the face is no joke.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 20, 2017 15:24
|
|
|
Is it just a thing in the US to not wear veils?
|
|
#
¿
Feb 21, 2017 14:08
|
|
|
Melicious posted:What the gently caress are my girls finding to stuff their pollen baskets to the brim in Februrary? They're super happy that it's so warm out, but I have no idea what on earth they're foraging. My daffodils and tulips are indeed sprouting a month early, but I sure don't see any actual flowers around. Where do you live?
|
|
#
¿
Feb 22, 2017 14:44
|
|
|
Catberry posted:How do you bee-prep wood? You tend to just use wood which is naturally weather proof, like Red Cedar.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 5, 2017 12:03
|
|
|
Catberry posted:Edit: I want to get bees but I live in the suburbs Get bees anyway!* As long as you've got a medium sized garden, nearby water and a tall fence no one will ever know you have bees. *Unless your local ordinaces prevent you from keeping livestock
|
|
#
¿
Mar 13, 2017 10:04
|
|
|
Catberry posted:What happens when it's harvest time and you have stuff mixed like this? Do you get brood in the honey or do the bees spread out more later on? You don't harvest from the brood chamber generally. You use a Queen Excluder to separate the brood from the excess honey. Here we call the brood boxes and supers, with a queen excluder in between so you only get honey in the supers.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 28, 2017 10:37
|
|
|
Fog Tripper posted:Honestly I plan to leave them to do what they will. No plans to disrupt via inspections. Will you not be checking them for FEDSS (Food, Eggs, Disease, Space and Swarming?). Not inspecting seems like a high risk way to go, will you be doing checks on your varroa drop rate and treating for that if not opening the brood?
|
|
#
¿
Jun 2, 2017 13:22
|
|
|
POOL IS CLOSED posted:The thing I dislike about the treatment free approach is that these diseases are contagious. Infected colonies can spread parasites, bacteria, and viruses. And not treating disease doesn't really fly with any other kind of livestock. Yeah Varroa will destroy a hive, spread Deformed wing virus and the drones will head out and spread that infection to other hives. I've seen some information about increased resistance in Apis Mellifera Mellifera to varroa by not treating but nothing concrete yet. If there's varroa in your area there's a very high chance that your colony will fail if you do not treat for it.I can see if you have 200 hives and you lose 75% of them then build back up from that stock and repeat then you can try to build resistance. But if you have 1 hive? Aramoro fucked around with this message at 14:32 on Jun 2, 2017 |
|
#
¿
Jun 2, 2017 14:30
|
|
|
Melicious posted:Is there a particular reason to do it this way rather than just combining the two with newspaper between? When you've got a queenless hive that's gone some time queenless you've got the risk of laying workers etc. Doing it this way the useful workers will take honey from the hive and beg their way into the new hive and become accepted quickly. It's a useful way to combine hives where you only really want the useful bees from it.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 27, 2017 11:27
|
|
|
POOL IS CLOSED posted:Nope! You can also merge a queenless hive with a queenright hive by plopping a layer of newspaper between their respective box queendoms. By the time the beediots chew through, they're accustomed to each other's scent and the queenless hive will know their new liege lady's pheromones. Bee society is pretty interesting. Yup this works also but just make sure you put the weaker colony (The queenless one) on top (Assuming you've got a bottom entrance). The only reason not to do it this way is if you hives are different sizes so you can't stack them or you've got laying workers which will fight pretty hard. Make sure you put some holes in the newspaper, not big ones but a few.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 28, 2017 09:34
|
|
|
Drone laying like that is usually a sign of a queen gone bad.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 18, 2017 17:51
|
|
|
Ghostnuke posted:Supposed to be picking up a nuc today to combine with my queenless package. Hope they don't kill her again... Going to combine them with newspaper? That usually works just fine.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 29, 2019 19:18
|
|
|
Jesus when are my bees going to learn to loving read. A couple of weeks ago they decided to swarm after I inspected them 4 days before hand and found no queen cells. Then today they threw out a cast but just to right in front of them, I regathered it but it is way too small, going to have to go through it and see if there's a queen in there and recombine them.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 30, 2020 16:04
|
|
|
I've done an artificial swarm and then recombined them later, though that was not the intention when I split them I have to say.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 5, 2020 10:11
|
|
|
Pulled off 11 frames to harvest just the very end of the season here, gotten about 40 jars this year which is not bad considering the weather we've had. Also got 5 times as many colonies as the start of the year. Time to treat for varroa and see how many make it through winter.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 1, 2020 14:42
|
|
|
Top bar defender has logged on ....
|
|
#
¿
Dec 3, 2020 11:41
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 16, 2024 01:55 |
|
|
Took 5 hives into winter, all splits from a single mother hive because of 'reasons'. 4 of them have made it through so far and lost the smallest of the splits after a month of snow. Snowdrops, Crocuses and Willow are all out now so feeling hopeful if they weather stays warm.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 25, 2021 19:31
|
|