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HELL TRAPPERRMAN ,

 

I CAN SEE A GLUT OF HONEY COMING SOON ....... I THOUGHT I WAS THE ONLY ODD BALL ON HERE THAT WOULD LIKE TO KEEP A FEW HIVES .......... SEEMS NOT ! :clapper:

 

KEEP US POSTED MATE ON THE PROGRESS

 

 

ALL THE BEST

 

 

DUCKWING

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First inspection of the “Cas” bees today, they’ve been in the hive for two weeks now, they were very gentle and stopped on the comb throughout, plenty of capped brood ... couldn’t be better.

Nice set up you ( and the wife) have there  ??. I managed to pick up a swarm last week, can’t beat free bees ??

Got me wife a hive for Xmas now we have 2 hives and a nuke box ( collected a swarm today) , its way to complicated for me just hope she gets me some honey ha 

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HELL TRAPPERRMAN ,

 

I CAN SEE A GLUT OF HONEY COMING SOON ....... I THOUGHT I WAS THE ONLY ODD BALL ON HERE THAT WOULD LIKE TO KEEP A FEW HIVES .......... SEEMS NOT ! :clapper:

 

KEEP US POSTED MATE ON THE PROGRESS

 

 

ALL THE BEST

 

 

DUCKWING

will do mate, should be picking them up end of month ish, weather depending.

 

i will try and take some pics when i put them in the hive :thumbs:

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  • 4 weeks later...

well, looks like Ive now got the bug, or should I say bee, went out yesterday with chris bee to collect a swarm, and then relocate into one of his hives, very interesting to watch, Ive got a couple of video clips of the collection which Ill post up later.

 

am now trying to get rentokil interested in the idea of swarm removal, would be good for their public image, plus get them to pay for my training, hive/s etc :whistling:

 

was shocked when chris told me the swarm inc the queen, could technically be sold for around £150, there was around 15000 bee's

 

although its seems most keepers rely on farmers land for their hives, is bottom of the garden good enough, we have a 135yd garden, lots of gardens with nice flowers nearby etc,

 

IVE REMOVED A FEW POSTS, THAT HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE POST ON BEE'S, please keep the banter to private mail, rather than spoiling a very good post

Edited by stubby
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first clip is just after chris had tapped the swarm from inside the hedge into the transport box

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-NfTvbY9cM

 

 

 

the next clip is putting the swarm into a hive, there were thousands of bee's and I wasent wearing a suit, so excuse the camera shake, one bee was hell bent on stinging me

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRsA-sIPQ3g

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I collected my nucleus of bees on sunday morning :boogie:

 

i was a little side tracked whilst putting them in their new home so only took a couple of pics but will put more up as they expand :thumbs:

 

bees001.jpg

 

bees002.jpg

 

I got a second hive for my birthday which was sunday but i was given it before so i could get it assembled and it is now out in the back garden as a bait hive to try and catch a swarm, i also have the nucleus box with 5 frames in my dads back garden as a bait hive so am hoping i will get lucky.

 

bees019.jpg

 

bees018.jpg

 

the new bees went in with no trouble at all and were so calm i could`nt believe it, i put a feeder on the crown board with sugar syrup in but they didnt seem interested in it, so i talked to a beekeeper i know and he said to add a little honey dissolved in water to the mix so they can smell it and this worked a treat they are now getting stuck in.

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If anyone is interested I have a friend who imports 'plastic' hives from Europe.

They look the dogs.

Not sure of the spec etc but he has 'loaned' some to our local society for testing and they seem to like em.

 

www.apimaye.com

Edited by masmiffy
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If anyone is interested I have a friend who imports 'plastic' hives from Europe.

They look the dogs.

Not sure of the spec etc but he has 'loaned' some to our local society for testing and they seem to like em.

 

www.apimaye.com

 

 

very fancy looking, looks like something from tomb raiders, a price would be good, although have to say, still prefer wooden

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I went through the hive thismorning and i couldnt see the queen :icon_eek: but there are eggs so shes there somewhere.

 

They have only started to draw the comb on the 2 frames on each side of the nuc frames, but they have taken down a couple of litres of syrup and they look pretty busy with lots of flying and i can see the pollen on the leg baskets so hopefully the brood will grow over the next couple of weeks.

 

i`m hoping they will be strong enough by july to put a super on and try to get a little honey but dont know if thats possible in the first year.

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Thats good, you started with 5, and there onto the 4 more already!!!

 

How many frames have eggs?

i could only see eggs on 2 frames they seem to be storing the syrup on the other 3, the breeder i got them off said i could feed them untill they have filled 10 frames but i dont know if this would be at the expense of brood.

 

they are very busy, would you stop feeding now and leave them to it?

 

This is all a learning curve for me.

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  • 2 weeks later...

well i went through them again today after stopping feeding them on monday because i found a queen cell :icon_eek: i think that even tho they hadnt filled the brood area all the feed i gave them made them think there was a honey flow on and so were preparing to swarm :icon_eek: .

 

i actually found the queen today :toast: and they have started work on more comb, all in all looking good :thumbs: .

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  • 1 month later...

Well the bees are doing very well and are quite strong now, i have put a super on and they are starting to store some honey up there so hopefully will at least get a taste this year :toast:

 

I didnt get any luck with my two bait hives so am glad that i did invest in a nuc.

 

I have been doing alot of research into bees as its quite addictive and got very interested in "top bar hives" you get less honey per hive but more wax as they build their own comb and it seems much more natural plus if you build your own hives its cheap as chips.

 

this is my effort over a couple of rainy days when i didnt have much on, a few hours in the garage and about £20 quid for the top bar timber and some other bits and bobs the main structure is 1" ply and some old decking boards that i had down the farm.

 

IMG]http://i706.photobucket.com/albums/ww64/trapperman1/Bees/bees009.jpg[/img]

 

bees008.jpg

 

bees007.jpg

 

bees006.jpg

 

bees005.jpg

 

bees004.jpg

 

bees003.jpg

 

bees002-1.jpg

 

bees001-1.jpg

 

the top bars have a moulded strip glued and tacked to it in the middle coated with bees wax from my bees to help encourage straight comb building, the solid division is called a follower board which you use to increase or decrease the size of the hive, smaller for winter, larger with more top bars for honey storage in spring and summer.

 

just thought some of you might find this interesting as a cheaper and more natural way of keeping bees as a hobby :thumbs: .

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