ashleybee
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Everything posted by ashleybee
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Most of these chicks will not be vaccinated for salmonella at that age maybe infectious bronchitis and when a bit older for newcastles diesease but salmonella vaccines are usually jabbed at about 14 weeks give or take 2 weeks. Some strains may also be vaccinated for infectious bursal diesease. IMHO its not worth the trouble of getting them done but you may find a vet who will do them cheap enough, generally salmonella won't kill the chickens off it usually just uses them as a host, if a house of chickens on my farm tests positive for salmonella it won't show at all and all that happens then i
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Any one watch bbc4 last night Who killed the honey bee. certainly an eye opener and shows how we need all the beekeepers we can get. Hows everyones season been so far?
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I was given his book for christmas quite funny. sounds like it should be quite an interesting night let us know how you got on.
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I think your on your own there mate
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Commercial layers kept in barns will be fed somewhere around 140 - 170 grams to keep them in peak lay thats depending on the average weight of the birds so you need to make sure they are getting at least that much and make sure they arn't getting fed whole wheat as they will lose condition further as there digestion system won't be able to break the wheat down and will pass it whole however they will eventually be able to as they adjust to life out doors. A big factor to concider is the big change from indoors to outside thats alot of stress for a bird to go through which will also put them o
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i bet your well chuffed with that mate. I started out with an old 2 frame extractor it did me for a good few years, it dose get to you after a while though I wouldn't want to do 100+ supers through one now though once youv'e used an electric one you'll never look back. and yes a very sticky job however you do it I always end up plastered in the stuff
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Whats up with the traps then mate. I've never even seen one, I like cliping the queen don't go too far even if hey do swarm Well i went into them as a complete novice, they claim to gurantee one swarm a year if caught in the trap (i cant see this) A friend has lost a queen due to all the bees deserting the queen and leaving her alone in the trap, (last checked at 3pm) Have you tried clipping your queens so if you do get an unforseen swarm they shouldn't get too far. it's not failed me yet. One of my hives have started building un der the hive (i can only think this is due to
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Whats up with the traps then mate. I've never even seen one, I like cliping the queen don't go too far even if hey do swarm
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Pigeon Breast sliced and stuffed with saussage meat and a few herbs, wrap with a bit of bacon and bake for 25 - 35 mins on about 180 very nice with mash and a nice gravey.
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I think ALL forums are the same, you get the odd few people who are full of piss and importance and will try and baffle you with what they dont know! Thats a spot on statement. Don't get me wrong there is alot of science around bees but half of it just confuses new comers of the 2 hive man. To be honnest with you when I do a split I usually just wait untill the bees are producing swarm cells and take 2 frames with swarm cells on them and 2 frames of stores and pollen and put one of each in the middle of a 6 frame nuc box and 2 frames of drwan comb on each side and let the bees do t
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Some books and people seem to have this thing that making a split is quite involved, it's not at all and I too many newcomers struggle with it. By the time you to the end of this season you'll know the crack a bit more mate, things start to come naturally then you start to understand what your own bees are telling you. I'm not sure if I'm going yet but will let you know if I am. ATB Ashley
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Right this was originaly X bees that were quite angry and that hive was sold to another Beek, what i have is a queen reared from that hive last summer, when the hive arrived it was seriously pissed after the journey and followed us for some distance and time . To be fair it did calm down after i owned it for a month or two, it had calmed right down but any accidental knocks or slips and these buggers are vexed again, they dont just attack if im outside inspecting and if i go in and out with a little smoke then THEY WILL BARE IT BRIEFLY, Im based in the Black country, i have 4 hives in to
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LOL you went in well prepared mate, christ they must have been bad. I think I must be lucky with all the hives I have and swarms that I've picked up I've always been able to sort out the odd angry colony. The worst ones I've ever had was a queenless hive and they just wouldn't accept anothe queen even put in 15 queen cells in the end and they just built them into the comb and they were lost, in the end I let the colony dwindle away to about half size then combined it with anther one using the sheet of news paper method, I will say that while they were queenless they didn't half produce some
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I know what angry bees are, i picked up a swarm last summer, hived them, for the first 3 weeks they were nice as pie, then for no reason went ballistic. You couldnt do feck all with them, even if you took the crown board off the whole lot would just pile out stinging like crazy, quite scary if your not expecting it. They were queen right too! I killed the lot. and used the brood to help another colony that was struggling to produce a queen. Touch wood so far they are ok, a bit frisky but not too bad and well out of the way of people. Later learned that the swarm had come from a beekee
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Prob from pussy willow, Daffodils or forthytia Just a guess though
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That looks like its going to be a good hive mate and I wouldn't worry too much about the size of that entrance as it still gets quite cold at times, all my hives only have an entrance about 1 3/4 inches and I prob won't open them up untill the end of march. I find with alot of hives in one place opening them up too soon leaves the weaker colonys open to robbing from the stronger ones. ATB Ashley
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How angry are they, to be honnest I think it's all too easy to blame the bees. I'm not saying you don't know what angry bees are I've had a few hives where someting has happend to the queen and belive me they get really angry then. how old is the queen that you've got, It may be time to re queen anyway. Where in the midlands are because your more than welcome to come and get a queen or a couple of queen cells from me. If you've only the one hive you could get a few cells from me and maybe get 2 or 3 splits if the hive is strong enough then worry about re queening the main hive a bit later
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You don't want to get them too fat so make sure your not over feeding them, depending on what your feeding them if its pellets I'd say if there not clearing thier trough in about 10 mins cut the feed down a bit, thats twice a day. As for age I'd say no more tham 5 months I will say I've never done one for whole roasting I usually grow them for pork or bacon I keep to 5 months for pork and depending on the size / shape about a month or so longer for bacon. I don't think it matters which one you kill for roasting but make sure the abbatoir knows thats what its for otherwise it will probabl
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I'm personally not a fan of cliping queens and swarm traps just seems unnatural to me, I normally try a remove the first swarm cells ( never supersedure cells )then artificsal swarm and if I don't need the extra colony I will reunite later on in the season. Artifidal swarming is nice and easy and you know you still have all your bees and don't suffer too much loss in honey production
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Green woodpeckers will only attak hives if they were taught to by thier parents which is why some places don't have trouble at all and others like me suffer them all the time Nice and warm today so I spent the morning checking on them, in most of them the queens are alreay laying and one hive has 3 frames with young brood and sealed brood on both sides I think its going to be good hive to breed from this season.
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I lost 3 hives to woopeckers but all the rest look to be doing ok. I did combine 3 weaker nucs to some weaker hives a wise move I think ( maybe the first one I've ever had ) Just cleaned up about 100 supers and frames ready to go just a few spare hives to clean and the woodpecker damage to sort. I must admit I'm not usually this well prepared for the season feels like I'm missing someting out I'm normally running around like mad to get sorted.
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Signed. As above get the press involved to be honnest thats prob your best chance of a resolution. Name and shame mate. Christians who can't behave like christians DISGUSTING. ATB Ashley
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best post ever on THL My sister takes in my retired dogs they spend the rest of thier days in a nice comfortable house and garden, I don't have it in me to put a good dog down unless it's suffering.
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All very well but for a beginer a nuc is ideal as the queen will already be laying and have brood of all ages and stright away your up and running, not guarenteed but certainly better chances than with a swarm. JMHO Ashley