Bee keeping?

[brc76]

Anyone else keep bees here?

I restarted this year, after a 5 year break. I had planned this late last year, and preordered my packages.

Personally, I just enjoy watching bees, my kids however have realized that honey now is on tap. One hive is very strong, producing almost 8 gallons so far this year.

I have two flowhive 7 frame hives, if anyone is interested I will post some pictures.

They colonies are very different in personalities, one hive does not like to follow the "rules", is pretty chilled out, but produces lots of honey. The other hive is a little more aggressive, produce very straight comb, but is much weaker colony and I'm unlikely to see honey from them, I'm still feeding them regularly.

[igor]

We have a few hives on our rural smallholding. They are my wife's thing. I prefer to stay well away from them myself.

[Deleted]

I’m interested. 😊
More photos would be good

[rattlecan]

That’s awesome, they look fascinating, never seen those type before, only ever seen the traditional ‘normal’ wooden jobies. Yes more please

[Deleted]

Mrs GN is just getting into it and has an expert teacher on hand who resides 4 doors up from us (also has really nice 72' TR6) - he's kept bees for the last 60 years so there's not a lot he doesn't know - Rhodes (has in the Greek island) also has a very good bee museum

[ballbagbagins]

I have no idea about bee keeping but am always eager to learn new stuff, please post away.

[brc76]

The whole premise of this hive is that you don't have to disturb the bees if you extract the honey. I guess it's the equivalent of not knowing what's going on behind a closed door, until you open it and say to yourself "Hey! Where's all my stuff".

It is effectively a normal brood box with this hybrid super on top. The super frames are like 90% of the comb already made and then the bees finish it off and cap with wax when full. When you want honey, you use a tool that lifts every other side of the comb, creating a zig-zag that the honey runs down and then out the back.

My kids were in awe of this and tried using the port on the back like a straw.

It's a easy get-into-beekeeping method, but not without drawbacks. You can't install your bees and forget it, you need to be on them and maintain the hive. It's easy with this to leave them be, and fool yourself into a comfortable ignorance.

I did this my first year of beekeeping and was so annoyed with myself that I quit for a bit. I'm really enjoying getting back into it however.

[brc76]

You can just make out some of the brood in the below, little grub things.



Fun fact! Bees sleep for about 8 hours a day. They look dead. It freaked me out at first.

[ballbagbagins]

Is the honey their only or emergency food source?

Can't they survive off pollen?

[brc76]

There are many thoughts on what you do, feed, handle or do with bees. I will leave the strong hive to forage and supply them water, the weak hive I am supplementing their pollen intake until they are stronger.

[georgeb]

Fascinating stuff.

I always thought that a bee was, well, a bee. Didn't realise you could have differences between colonies like this. Any idea what causes it, stroppy Queen or something?

[brc76]

I had to re-queen the angry ones early on, so maybe they just don't like me for it....

I think next year I will add a third hive, saftey in numbers and all.

It's odd, you give people 8oz of your honey and they think it's like the biggest gift. It's nice in these wierd times to make people smile for a bit. Plus I'm that eccentric guy with the bees and old car.

We came up with a name to label the honey jars, mêl fflur. The local people think it sounds exotic.

[generallee]

I find bees (and other pollinators) fascinating, and keep plenty of plants for them on the garden. I spend ages watching them, especially bumble bees.

Joined the local bee club for a bit, but work commitments meant I hardly ever showed up. It's a shame as it was a great way to learn the basics.

Inerested to see more.

[brachunky]

Funny you posted this as just last week I received my Haynes manual of bee keeping! It was recommended as a decent starter book

[teemore]

More beekeepers! Hadn't been logging in to Retro Rides for a while (Long time lurker before I registered and currently trying to avoid distractions whilst I am working from home) but a friend tagged me into this thread. I've been keeping bees for a little over 10 years so still very much a beginner. I run @30 hives. brc76 - I'm guessing from the pictures of your Langstroth hive and reference to package bees that you are somewhere in the USA?

[Frankenhealey]

Bookmarked as I have been hanging around the bee 'scene' for years promising myself some hives on retirement but COVID has screwed that up!

[brc76]

Aug 17, 2020 9:07:18 GMT teemore said:

More beekeepers! Hadn't been logging in to Retro Rides for a while (Long time lurker before I registered and currently trying to avoid distractions whilst I am working from home) but a friend tagged me into this thread. I've been keeping bees for a little over 10 years so still very much a beginner. I run @30 hives. brc76 - I'm guessing from the pictures of your Langstroth hive and reference to package bees that you are somewhere in the USA?

yes, outside Boston, Mass. I grew up here, moved to England for 20 years and then moved back.

I think I'll go up to 3 hives next year, but 30? wow.

[llwynogmon]

Do you have any Welsh connections?

The name you chose" Mel Fflur" is simply Fflur's Honey in Welsh.

Mel = Honey

Fflur = is a female name that means flowers.

I will be following this thread with interest as I've always wanted to keep bees.

[brc76]

I lived in Newport and Abergavenny for a few years. Wales was my inspiration there, also fflur is also my youngest daughter's middle name, and sounds better than the actual welsh for flower.

[llwynogmon]

Thanks for the explanation, I agree if you had used " Mel Blodyn or Mel Blodau" it would have sounded a bit odd in my native tongue. Thank you for taking a little bit of Wales with you back home. Diolch.