Mid Bucks Beekeepers Association Blog

I would like to take a meter reading

August 30, 2011

Over the weekend we took a call from a person who during the summer had a swarm take up residence in his electricity meter box.

The electricity company owed him some money so he needed to take a reading but as you can see the meter was covered in comb.

Although late in the season we removed the colony, housed it in make shift frames in a Nuc box and currently it is located next to another nucleus so that once established on proper frames the two colonies will be united before winter sets in.

The size of the colony is much smaller than the amount of comb indicates it should be, the assumption is that the swarm had swarmed again once it became too big for the box, leaving this small but friendly colony.

Posted in Swarms | 1 Comment »

Hive stacked too high?

August 22, 2011

The attached photo shows a hive stacked too high for a normal beekeepers back. The top super weighed in at over 40 lb, was propolised and brace combed to the super below, so working at eye level was hard enough for a pair of beekeepers.

At the Association apiary our stands are at a variety of heights so as to give new beekeepers different experiences as part of their own apiary planning, however the rule of thumb is that the height of the stand should be such that the top of the brood box is at knuckle height. If we had followed this rule for this hive life would have been easier!

Posted in Apiary Visits | Leave a Comment »

Tonight’s session 21st June

July 21, 2011

We have just had a heavy rain storm at the apiary which means the track is very muddy so please park on the road and walk in.

The rain is easing off so we will go ahead with the session.

Regards

Sean

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

Training Session 16th June

June 17, 2011

We had a great session last night with 14 members turning up for the Basic Assessment and Beginner sessions. This year has been a funny year particularly with new queens. Last week one of our hives showed classic supersedure status, single sealed queen cell in middle of brood frame and queen present and laying, so the colony was left to get on with it. In the middle of our session last night the colony tried to swarm, the swarm was found hanging from the underside of the hive stand!

Several members this season have reported new queens not successfully mating, resulting in drone laying queens, this was evident for the second time this season in one of our colonies. The variable weather and early build up seem to be contributing factors.

There still seems to be little flow coming in causing some colonies to be a little defensive, but on the whole the colonies are well behaved and surviving well. However we could do with some prolonged good weather.