How are your bees?

[Storm]

I know that there are a few bee keepers on here. How are your bees doing up and down the land?

I just went to see my bees today to give them their oxalic acid and was amazed at how vigorous and numerous they were. I was expecting them to be still sluggish with the cold. I'm so relieved that they made it through so far.

They've still got tonnes of honey left in the brood box too I didn't have the hives open for long cos of the temperature but in one there are at least 4 whole frames still capped

[Mrs Dobby]

Hi Storm, we did our winter inspections and Oxalyic Acid treatments yesterday on our 6 hives, all seemed very full of bees (much more than this time last year), plenty of bees flying (with temp up to 12C) and plenty of stores still in the hives (we left them all with a brood box and a super of honey, its looking like we may even have the supers to extract come the spring!) so everything is looking good for our girls so far this year!

[Storm]

Glad your girls are doing well Mrs D! I did brood and a half last year with my first colony (as much by accident as design) and it worked well. Have you left the queen excluder off? I was warned to do that else as the stores run low in the brood box the workers can get through the excluder to the super but the queen can't.

Is the honey good to extract after the winter? did you feed them or is it honey from real forage?

PS was sorry to read about the theft of your stuff too - what a bummer!

I keep all the nice tools at home and just leave cheap stuff from WIlko up there after the other local allotments near us were cleaned out last spring.

[Snadger]

Just a question from a beekeeper wannabe? If you leave some honey in the comb over winter does it solidify from its liquid state and can the bees still utilise it this way?

[northmaid]

Snadge, it's not a question of 'if' you leave honey on a comb over winter, as you have to do so as food for the hive over winter. The honey in the cells is capped with wax by the bees to use as food stores. Most beekeepers will have not only the stored honey in the brood box but also in a 'super' left as further stores. And yes bees can access solids. Some beekeepers provide additional food in the form of 'candy' which is similar to roll out cake icing (note I said similar, as the stuff you buy in the shops is not suitable), this is laid on top of the frames and can used by the bees.
I'm also a beekeeper wannabe, I don't keep bees yet but have been doing a beekeeping course in preparation for this year. I can recommend a weekend course if your interested although it's a bit pricey. I'm presently trying to convince the allotment committee that I do fulfil all the council's requirements. So fingers crossed everybody.

[Snadger]

Snadge, it's not a question of 'if' you leave honey on a comb over winter, as you have to do so as food for the hive over winter. The honey in the cells is capped with wax by the bees to use as food stores. Most beekeepers will have not only the stored honey in the brood box but also in a 'super' left as further stores. And yes bees can access solids. Some beekeepers provide additional food in the form of 'candy' which is similar to roll out cake icing (note I said similar, as the stuff you buy in the shops is not suitable), this is laid on top of the frames and can used by the bees.
I'm also a beekeeper wannabe, I don't keep bees yet but have been doing a beekeeping course in preparation for this year. I can recommend a weekend course if your interested although it's a bit pricey. I'm presently trying to convince the allotment committee that I do fulfil all the council's requirements. So fingers crossed everybody.

I know that when the honey is robbed a sugary syrup is left in its place for to feed the bees during winter. (Imagine it would be harder for the bees to process if it had solidified)
I'm hoping my employer will put me on a course soon (said they would) if the companies comittment to the environment doesn't wane. Hope to be getting control of some hives in March.
Our allotment association is actively encouraging beekeeping and as long as you have done a recognised course they would look favourably upon you keeping bees.

PS Would be interested in course details if you could PM them to me!

[Mrs Dobby]

Most of the time honey will only solidify if it gets too cold, the bees keep the temperature in the hive at quite a nice level, so although some solidification will occur, they will generally be able to use it, they mix it with water to make a weaker solution for them to eat.

Your local BBKA group will be running courses, usually reasonably priced, but it will be theory first then apiary based afterwards, they usually fill up quickly tho!

TBH, although the courses are good, we got a much better intro to beekeeping by finding a mentor, a friend of ours who keeps bees and spent untold hours with us in both his apiary and our own, Dave has been a godsend, really teaching us what we are doing, and the reasons behind why we do things.

And yes, we moved the queen excluder above the super, just in case! lol!

[Storm]

HOney only becomes hard to extract when the liquid sugars get crystalised. The greater the glucose content the quicker and harder it solidifies. heating will "melt" it again.

Oil seed rape honey is notorious for this as it has a high glucose content relative to fructose and it is this ratio that counts.

I did a local BBKA course which was very good. it was free as a member so I got the whole course for barely £20!

It can be advantageous as you get to see lots of bee related stuff and meet lots of different bee keepers and see lots of different things and ways of doing things. However this latter point can also be a bit of a down point too. Each bee keeper has their own way of doing things and sometimes these can be incompatible with the methods of another bee keeper. I remember watching a talk on how to prepare honey and the second speaker basically saying that the first speaker was totally wrong in his approach! all us newbies went away very confused!

So i tended to stick with the same tutor so I just learned one set of compatible methods well rather than just a little bit of the methods of everyone. I bough Ted Hooper's book too. not a light read but he knows his stuff and it's good for reference and you get the consistency too.

The other advantage of the "group" approach is that there was always more than one person that I could call on if i needed help.