[Guzzik]

Hello to one and all.  Well, here it is, a piccy of the new hive.  When I am putting the Veoa treatment in next week, I will take some images of the inside and the "girls"

Hope the image loads!!!!

John

[Trillium]

Nice one. Hope it all works out for you.

[darren64]

Is this your first year?

[Guzzik]

Is this your first year?

Hello.  Yes, it is   I got the Nuc and hive about three weeks ago.  So, no Honey for me this year as I will be leaving any made in the upper super for the girls to eat as well as giving them a suger solution from end of September.

[Kate and her Ducks]

Congratulations.

I love my bees. Also my first year, I got my first colony in May and a nuc a bit later on.

[Guzzik]

Thank you Kate.............I am getting stick from folks for calling them my "girls"......Then I kindova peed of some blokes when I explained about the drones being dumped from the hive by the girls for being lazy gits at this time of year

[Kate and her Ducks]

I call mine the girls too. The only time I got stack was from my (male) boss who tried convincing me that the males must do some of the work in the hive. He was also a little shocked to hear the fate of the boys!

It's amazing how gender alters our perceptions. Apparently one of the great old beekeepers used to insist theat the queen must be male as it was the head of the colony despite documenting that the queen laid hundreds of eggs a day!

[Guzzik]

Apparently one of the great old beekeepers used to insist theat the queen must be male as it was the head of the colony despite documenting that the queen laid hundreds of eggs a day!

Yes, quite............What can one say

[kevinp]

Here are some videos of my Ladies busy working I have four hives only two on the videos One we make at work and the green one is a warré hive.

http://www.youtube.com/user/MrKevinjp

As to what the males do in the hive is open to debate, as they are bigger we believe that they help control the temperature of the hive as well as mate queens. If you think about it if they were only to mate there would not be a requirement for so many drones in the hive. There are some good books on the subject

the honey bee democracy. Thomas D Seeley
the buzz about bees. Jürgen Tautz

I went to the first Natural beekeeping conference in August and it was fantastic and really opened up new ways of keeping bees for the bees sake rather than for what we can take from them.
Kev

[Guzzik]

Wonder why the workers throw the drones out at this time of year then?  Other than they are lazy gits who do nothing but eat the honey:)  I realise they are there for mating at the start of the season and I understood about them maybe being used to fan the hive to keep it cool as well.  This I was taught when I did my last bee keeping course in 1975 which was part of my gardening  apprenticeship.