Today, I went over to one of my apiaries at Lytchett Minster and made a walk away split from one of the very strong hives there, in order to prevent it from swarming. I was able to take away 4 brood frames and a frame of stores, still leaving the original hive in a strong … Continue reading Walk away split
I went over to my Lytchett Matravers Apiary this morning to split a double brood National hive to make two hives. This is quite straightforwards; Put a new stand and floor to one side, over a metre away from the existing hive remove the roof and crown board from the existing hive, place the roof … Continue reading Splits and Queens
I re-queened two of my hives today, as the bees in those hives were becoming more and more 'protective' of the garden, head butting and following right up to the back door. I re-queened them with Carniolan bees - the Carniolan bee is calm and non-aggressive, used to obtain honey and other bee products in populated areas, … Continue reading New Queens
I noticed over the last few days that the last over-wintered poly nuc left has had bees bearding outside, this means they are having problems with the hive temperature getting too high, probably due to overcrowding. Overcrowding is one of the main reasons why bees swarm, so I knew that I had to move them … Continue reading New hive
I set up a new out-apiary at Lytchett Minster today, I think I melted into my suit it was so warm. The bees were so placid it was amazing, despite having been closed up for almost a day, transported in a car and then moved from nucs into hives - they seem to have a … Continue reading New out-apiary
I am more and more favouring the Carniolan bee as my preferred sub species of the honey bee, and am in the process of changing all my queens to Carniolans by raising my own. Origin The Carniolan (Apis mellifera carnica) honey bee is the subspecies of the Western honey bee that has naturalized and adapted … Continue reading Carniolan Bees
I did a full inspection (first of the season) at home today. Putting the 1:1 feed and pollen patties on 10 days ago has paid off - the increase in brood is amazing. When I put the feed on, there was about half a frame of brood in the hives, today there are 7 frames … Continue reading It was worth it
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
