Topic: Will there be honey for tea?

[bombus]

  No need to worry by the looks of things. I have 3 hives that have filled the first super of drawn comb, and the second super which was foundation has been drawn and just about filled! what a cracking start to the season. The Bees are tucked in at the side of a shelter belt of Sycamore and field maple, with field beans and oilseed rape either side.
  With all this forage close to hand its interesting to see some Horse chesnut pollen ( Brick Red ) stored, and they must have flown some distance to collect it. I find it facinating to watch the different colours of pollen coming in to the hive at any one time.

[alan42]

wow you are early mine are just starting to fill the first supper. watching the bees bring in the pollen is fascinating to watch i can sit for hours watching them come and go, i have just been to a friends hives and his bees are still building themselves up no honey gathered as yet funny how just a few miles can make a big difference.
best of luck
alan

[Robert_Brenchley]

Mine are still building up.

[triffid]

We've taken off 60lb+ so far, and that's being immensely cautious (windy, unsettled weather coming in and the 'June gap' yet to come) our four colonies are still laden with stores. And this is the best spring honey we've had yet, too.  :P

In fact, it's been the bees that have kept me off A4A these past couple of weeks. Not just harvesting the honey; also managing artificial swarms and separating a batch of queen cells off to 'grow on' as mini-nucs... what with that and the allotment, I've been in need of an extra day or two in the week.  ::) :)

[Robert_Brenchley]

That's one reason for keeping what are basically heather bees, very little changed despite raising several generations of queens locally. They're very frugal, wintering in minute clusters, so no autumn feeding, and they build up slowly in spring, with fewer swarms. But they'll still make plenty of honey once they do get moving.

[bombus]

Thats a brilliant take of Honey for so early Trif. :o As a matter of interest what mini nucs do you use? Mine are Apidea but when i have time i aim to make a few from ply. On the subject of artificial swarms, the hive of mine that swarmed on the7th April still has no sign of a laying Q,i'm giving it till the weekend then i'll put some day old eggs in from another Hive and see what happens. Happy days

[triffid]

Bombus, I know -- we've never taken off honey in such quantity, or so early. And it's fab-tasting stuff: really thick, almost apple-y in flavour. Yum!



The mini-nucs are ones we've knocked together ourselves from ply. They're an evolving project: we began using Apidea but found they were just too small and fiddly. I'll post a picture when we make up another (which will have to be soon!) -- don't really want to disturb the ones in use.  ;D

Robert, it'd be lovely for us to be able to keep native-type bees but there's an overwhelming local population of Carniolan / Carniolan-crossbreed bees round our neck of the woods. I think I've said this before on another bees-y thread, so apologies if I'm repeating myself!
The extra work re queen cells etc isn't because ours are particularly swarmy bees; it's largely so that we have some small colonies spare (so many of our association have lost bees that it seemed a good idea to have some to offer them).

[triffid]

...  funny how just a few miles can make a big difference.

Alan, I have two hives that stand next to one another, about six feet apart. And the honey from them has never been the same! It's like two neighbouring houses -- they may look the same from the outside, but the contents of their fridges and storecupboards may have almost nothing in common: it all depends on where they go to shop. Like you, I love watching the comings and goings of our foraging bees. :)

[Robert_Brenchley]

I thought at one time that it would be difficult to keep native bees here as well, as so many Italian queens were introduced round here in times past that the local bees are well and truly hybridised. Yet it works. The key is apiary vicinity mating; the queens have a habit of nipping out on a ten-minute mating flight rather than going further. Mostly they probably mate with my own drones. Either that or they're extremely selective.

My big problem is poor mating, probably due to a shortage of drones. It was the same with the strain of hybrids I used to have, but now I think I've pinned it down, I'm hoping the odd frame of drone comb will sort it.