After extracting the first batches of honey last week, I gave up waiting for my jar order to arrive, and bottled what honey I could with the jars I still had in stock. When my jars (finally) arrive, I will decant the honey from the storage buckets into the jars and put my "Honey for … Continue reading 2018 Vintage
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Good all round
I inspected the hives at my out apiaries today, all in good order and the new queens are laying well. I found a new queen in one of the hives at Friars Green and marked her. One of the new queens that I placed into a hive two weeks ago is laying up a storm, … Continue reading Good all round
New Batch of Queens
My latest batch of queens are emerging today - I must've got the timings spot on, as they are emerging within minutes of each other. Some nice lookers in this batch too. They'll all be going into nucs for overwintering.
Wet Supers & Jars of Honey
I went around 9 hives today, carrying out inspections and placing wet supers back on the hives for the bees to clean, and hopefully refill with honey. A wet super is the term used for a super full of frames that have had the honey extracted from them, and have remnants of the honey still … Continue reading Wet Supers & Jars of Honey
Extraction Day
It was another hot day, but slightly cooler than of late - 'only' 26° C, and as I have all but run out of supers, I had to do some extracting so I had some supers I could put back on the hives. Extracting is a hot, sticky process however much you prepare. I donned … Continue reading Extraction Day
Another Busy Few Days
I've had a couple of busy days again, nipping round all my apiaries to put clearer boards on hives so that I could remove some honey supers. I took supers off from two sites today, and put the clearer boards on at a third. I will be taking the supers off from the third site … Continue reading Another Busy Few Days
Harvesting Honey
How to Harvest Honey Ethically? I do not favour taking all the honey from the bees. Harvesting honey from a beehive should only be done when the bees have surplus. Beekeepers do not normally get a harvest of honey from new hives their first season, but there are exceptional colonies and exceptional nectar flow years … Continue reading Harvesting Honey
Introducing Queens
Whenever a new queen is introduced to an existing colony, there is always a chance your worker bees will not accept her, and the result of this could be the death of your new queen - no matter which method of introduction you use. The main things you need to be sure of when introducing … Continue reading Introducing Queens
BBKA 2017 Winter Loss Survey Results
English honeybees suffered badly this winter The annual survey carried out by the British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) to measure winter survival of honeybees shows that losses almost doubled from the 13% reported in 2016/7 to 25% or a quarter of colonies being lost in 2017/8. A significant cause of the increased losses was the more … Continue reading BBKA 2017 Winter Loss Survey Results
More Grafting
As well as checking all my out apiaries today, I did the first grafts since my incubator packed up and killed all my queen cells. I brought a frame of young brood home, wrapped in a damp tea towel to keep it from drying out, and chose day old larvae to graft into cell cups. … Continue reading More Grafting
