Finding The Queen Generally this poses a problem for beginners, as indeed for some of the more seasoned beekeepers, who are not accustomed to examining their colonies on a regular basis. Perhaps the ability to spot the queen may be described as a gift, which comes with experience in the routine handling of bees. The best … Continue reading Queen Marking
New Incubator
Royal Mail have just delivered my new incubator, I've removed the egg turning mechanism (like most beekeepers incubators, they are actually for chickens eggs) and it looks like I could get 100 queen cells/cages in there, easily. Now to plug it in and test it......
Incubator disaster!
I checked my incubator last night, like I always do before I go to bed, and was horrified to see that the temperature was only 24°C when it should be 35°C. I checked to see if the temp setting had been inadvertently changed, but it hadn't. I opened the door, and found the fan constantly … Continue reading Incubator disaster!
Castles on a rainy day
It's a rainy day here in Dorset today, so I set about taking care of a few jobs I'd been putting off. The first task was to change out the metal runners in my honey supers for 10 frame castellated spacers. This means I need one frame less per super, and the extra space between … Continue reading Castles on a rainy day
Protecting my investment
Beekeeping is not a cheap hobby, with a standard BS National hive costing in the region of £325.00 before you add bees, frames or wax foundation, and a nuc of bees currently selling for ~£200.00. So called "honey rustling" or hive theft appears to be on the increase. As the majority of my hives are … Continue reading Protecting my investment
Garden space
I was kindly offered space in somebody's garden for a couple of beehives - they sent me this picture of the area prepped with slabs and a nice double hive stand they built for the hives to go on. Pretty smart hey
New Equipment
Winter is a busy time for beekeepers, all spare kit has to be cleaned and disinfected ready for the new season, broken and damaged equipment needs repairing, and all the new kit for the coming year has to be made.
Queen Rearing
Some photos from 2017's Queen rearing attempts - kit used etc.
New Roof
We've got the Grandkids today, as usual for a Sunday, so just a quick job this morning. I finished putting the metal roof covers on the new nucs.
Brownie points…
I started today topping up the brownie points bank, by building a set of bunk beds ready for when the grandkids stay over. I'm now working my way through a pile of 150 frames adding wax foundation to them. I still have one complete hive to build and paint, along with 4 supers. The only … Continue reading Brownie points…
