[SnooziSuzi]

Hi Guys,

I've been away from the forum for such a long time... I hadn't realised how long it had been until I recommended it to a friend of mine who has just started a small veg patch in his back garden!

I've been busy with the allotment but also with my new bees...

The next two pics were taken a few weeks after I hived them in July 2010





This one shows how many bees there were at the start of the year - a mere fraction of the number there are now!



And finaly a pic of the hive entrance with entrance reducer shown.  This was actually taken back in late January / early february, hence why the reducer is upside down; if it is the right way round any dead bees that fall over winter could block the entrance and the live bees wouldn't be able to get out! 



I've really enjoyed having the bees this last year, and after my initial "Oh crikey, what have I let myself in for!?" panic, I found that they are really gentle and forgiving of my ineptness at times. 

I'll post some more pics if I have any bees left at the weekend; I stupidly didn't check on them last weekend and they started swarming preparation, so I may have none left soon! 

[GrannieAnnie]

Hi Suzi, lovely to 'see' you again!

Boy, you have been busy with yur bees.  That comb looks wonderful!  How much honey have you had so far?

[SnooziSuzi]

Hi Ann

none so far, because I got them in early July I didn't take any honey off them last year and fed them really well to get them through winter which clearly worked seeing as I thought they were all dead when I opened them for the first time in February and there were bazillions of them!!

If they swarm this year (which they might do - major newbie error made on my part; I didn't check them last week and they had laid queen eggs that were capped over and ready to hatch so queenie might decide it's time to go  ) then I won't get much but if I can tempt them to stay then it looks promising!  :happy:

Of course, the one downside to having bees is that the first response you get from ANYONE when you tell them is "OOh, I love honey!" and then you feel obliged to offer them some come harvest time!  I might sell them some - it's an expensive hobby to start up with 

[darren64]

you say you had sealed queen cells and the queen was still in the hive,have you carried out an artificial swarm yet?,you are very brave handling those frames without gloves

[Paul Plots]

Thanks for sharing the photos... I'm completely fascinated. 

[SnooziSuzi]

you say you had sealed queen cells and the queen was still in the hive,have you carried out an artificial swarm yet?,you are very brave handling those frames without gloves

I find it easier to work without gloves - that way I can feel if there is a bee under the frame bit I am trying to pick up etc and (touch wood) I have not been stung by a honey bee yet...  wasps, yes, bumblebees yes, but not honey bees!

I did what I thought was an artificial swarm, but it turned out to be just a nuc with two queen cells - the queen is still resident in her original hive, which is why it wasn't an artificial swarm.

I've ordered more equipment from Thornes yesterday, hopefully they will arrive very quickly and I can get a new brood chamber and another super on to keep them going for a little longer, but perhaps not.

if worst comes to worst and they do swarm and I have received the new equipment I will try to entice them back with a new empty hive and will feed them vigorously.  I could extract the honey that they have brought in and capped so that they are working on completely new and clean comb and it's an early bonus for me (and the millions of people that have expressed an interest in some honey!).

Learner;  I'll post more pics as I get them, but I'm doing this on my own mostly so can't take many photo's as I'm going along

[Paul Plots]

you say you had sealed queen cells and the queen was still in the hive,have you carried out an artificial swarm yet?,you are very brave handling those frames without gloves

Learner;  I'll post more pics as I get them, but I'm doing this on my own mostly so can't take many photo's as I'm going along

I hadn't thought about that!  Difficult to say the least.  :blink:

[Kate and her Ducks]

Great to see your pics, I can't wait to get my own.

[Debz]

I don't like honey but would love to have my own bee hive.  At the moment we live in rented accomodation so it isn't really an option but one day.....   Well you've got to have a dream don't you.

[darren64]

you say you had sealed queen cells and the queen was still in the hive,have you carried out an artificial swarm yet?,you are very brave handling those frames without gloves

Learner;  I'll post more pics as I get them, but I'm doing this on my own mostly so can't take many photo's as I'm going along

I hadn't thought about that!  Difficult to say the least.  :blink:

If you remove all the queen cells,sealed and unsealed,you will gain another week before you need your spare hive,if you let them swarm they could fly while you are not around and it could be a long way so will lose them,destroying queen cells is no real problem they will just build some more and they will try and swarm again if you don't do an atificial swarm,if you join the bee keeping forum there are a lot of experienced beekeepers who will give you any information you need,I do hope you can stop your bees from swarming because I can imagine you will be gutted if they do I know I would be.

[SnooziSuzi]

Thanks Darren,

I have destroyed all of the queen cells (some of them were within days of emerging  ) and life seems to be quiet around the hive although I haven't opened it up again yet as it was only Sunday or so when I did the inspection, so either queenie is happy again, or she's taken flight already and left me with some bees, but the latter is less likely because they don't seem restless or tetchy.

As soon as the new equipment comes I'll be building it to put on the hive straight away but seeing as she won't have produced any eggs recently I'm unlikely to have any new queens emerging as the workers won't have had an egg young enough to emergency feed.

if worst comes to worst I'll go back to the guy that sold me the nuc and buy another queen and introduce her and hopefully I won't have lost too much honey making time with it being so early in the season, but I've certainly learned my lesson for next year