Who Keeps Bees?

alternative-energy · Post by **alternative-energy** » 23 Oct 2011, 15:48

There may well be a thread on this subject but I'll start another one.

I recently started bee keeping this year having shadowed a mate who keeps three hives on my smallholding. I have started by collecting two wild swarms and then uniting them in a national hive, they were not strong colonies. All seems to be going well so far though I have yet to take any honey.
(though I do collect an amount of honey as rent!)

I have also now got two Warre hives which as present remain unpopulated but I hope to either collect more swarms next year or artifically swarm to fill these hives.
I decided on the Warres because I really didn't like the process of constant inspection and break up of the hive which is integral to more 'traditional methods'. Coupled with the fact that most of the honey is left for the bees to use over the winter rather than the supplimentry sugar syrup normally fed to bees after all of the usable honey has been stolen by the beekeeper! The honey is also fairly easy to extract by mashing the comb and straining.
These three hives should give me plenty of honey and maybe a little to sell / exchange / give away.

So anyone keeping or hoping to keep these little creatures?

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 23 Oct 2011, 16:40

Not that I know a lot about beekeeping but a BIL of mine in Yorkshire keeps bees, thirty-nine hives at the last count; it's supposed to be a semi-commercial venture. The last time I spoke to him (twice a year at most) he said that, because of the very bad summer, most of the honey they'd produced (which was down anyway) was being consumed by them!

I believe bees don't like getting wet...

There's also these threads which might be of interest to you:
http://www.powerswitch.org.uk/forum/vie ... hp?t=18038
http://www.powerswitch.org.uk/forum/vie ... hp?t=11163
http://www.powerswitch.org.uk/forum/vie ... php?t=6744

lancasterlad · Post by **lancasterlad** » 23 Oct 2011, 16:41

Yep, I've been shadowing my brother-in-law this year - he uses Langstroths. I hope to start with a hive in our orchard next year based on a nucleous provided by him. I'll start with Langstroths to make life easier as I can borrow some kit off him to get started.

Keela · Post by **Keela** » 23 Oct 2011, 18:44

We have 3 colonies: Two at home in Topbar Hives and one at my sister's place in a National.

Bees are fun.... and always seem to swarm when the main beek is away leaving me and the family to cope.... LOL

alternative-energy · Post by **alternative-energy** » 23 Oct 2011, 18:55

Thanks for the links. Will go through them and see what people are up to. Seems like quite a few are newish to this art!

Keela wrote:We have 3 colonies: Two at home in Topbar Hives and one at my sister's place in a National.

Bees are fun.... and always seem to swarm when the main beek is away leaving me and the family to cope.... LOL

How are the top bar hives? There is such beauty in seeing the bees making natural comb.

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 23 Oct 2011, 21:14

Nicko, who occasionally posts here and is a neighbour of mine, has top bar hives. They do seem to have several advantages.
(I used to keep bees several years ago.)

Nicko · Post by **Nicko** » 24 Oct 2011, 08:46

Hi A-E(thanks for the Yacon!!)

We have kept Warre hives for three years, after three years of pretty unsuccessful conventional beekeeping.The hives are easy to build, easy to manage, and looking at all the data, far better for the bees.

We started with a tiny cast which we housed in a Warre and didn't touch from May 2009 until August this year, (apart from adding more boxes and changing the floor), when we took off our first Warre honey. One box with 10kg.The hive swarmed twice this year and we caught both swarms and rehoused them in new Warre's. They seem to be doing well and all three were out in force yesterday bringing in pollen.

A very good book written by the UK's pioneer in Warre hive bee keeping is
'The Bee-friendly Beekeeper- A sustainable approach' by David Heaf. Very well researched. I suggest anyone thinking of beekeeping read this before they make a decision on what system to use.

Also Warre's original book 'Bee Keeping for all' is available for free download
http://www.users.callnetuk.com/~heaf/be ... or_all.pdf
Again very well researched.

Nicko

Janco2 · Post by **Janco2** » 24 Oct 2011, 10:27

We have had 1 Horizontal Top Bar Hive for well over a year now.
They only just survived the last winter so had to build up numbers again.
They are situated in our orchard and this year we have had our biggest ever crop of apples.
We do intend taking a little honey from them but only in good years.
The primary reason for keeping them is for pollination and also the pleasure we get from seeing them in the garden.
We chose horizontal hives to avoid all the lifting that can be incurred with the Warre system.
Easy to make our own hives which is a bonus.

Nicko · Post by **Nicko** » 24 Oct 2011, 11:31

Two of us have managed the Warre's with no problem, and we are not very strong.Its more to do with having an extra pair of hands than the extra strength.
Both top bar methods involve far less lifting than any of the conventional methods due to the lack of intervention(not taking off the supers to inspect the brood chamber every couple of weeks in the warmer months).

Nick

alternative-energy · Post by **alternative-energy** » 24 Oct 2011, 19:58

Nicko wrote:Hi A-E(thanks for the Yacon!!)

No prob

A very good book written by the UK's pioneer in Warre hive bee keeping is
'The Bee-friendly Beekeeper- A sustainable approach' by David Heaf. Very well researched. I suggest anyone thinking of beekeeping read this before they make a decision on what system to use.

I have been thinking about this one but it seemed quite expensive and I am tight! Though if it comes highly recommended then I will add it to my Xmas list! I have a original Waree book but find reading anything of any length as a pdf a real bind. I was also given an electronic copy of 'At the Hive Entrance' by H. Storch. That seems like a real gem explaining what's going on inside the hive by the actions, noises, smells outside the hive. Again I wish I had a hard copy to browse through or use as a field guide.

Really looking forward to populating the Warres next year.

Glad to hear your bees made it through last winter Janco, I would be devestated if mine didn't make it.

Keela · Post by **Keela** » 24 Oct 2011, 20:21

We only started the topbars this year. So far all seems great!

alternative-energy · Post by **alternative-energy** » 24 Oct 2011, 20:29

Keela wrote:We only started the topbars this year. So far all seems great!

I saw the photos in the link posted. It all looked very impressive attaching the comb to the top bars. Have you taken any honey this year or are you going to wait til next year?

alternative-energy · Post by **alternative-energy** » 25 Oct 2011, 11:38

And we wonder why these creatures are suffering from severe stress and colony collapse...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15439754

Keela · Post by **Keela** » 25 Oct 2011, 19:44

This is the end of our second full year. We took one jar of honey in total - but I'm not sure which hive it came out of in the end. I suspect it was the National hive as it has been going longest.

And the honey was genuinely the most delicious ever tasted - really mellow. My parents brought us a jar from somewhere after a holiday and it was much sharper and harsher.... and I don't think that was just bias.

None of ours left now of course!

alternative-energy · Post by **alternative-energy** » 25 Oct 2011, 19:52

Keela wrote:This is the end of our second full year. We took one jar of honey in total - but I'm not sure which hive it came out of in the end. I suspect it was the National hive as it has been going longest.

And the honey was genuinely the most delicious ever tasted - really mellow. My parents brought us a jar from somewhere after a holiday and it was much sharper and harsher.... and I don't think that was just bias.

None of ours left now of course!

Yes, your own honey is always going to be the best! That lovely smoothness

My friend seems to get 30 - 40 lbs of honey from each of his hives. One hive had over 50lbs. He sells most of it. The hive location is really good. Loads of natural forage, willow, hawthorn, lime, clover, ivy all around and then there's the many crops that I grow and a 3/4 acre forest garden.
I'm not too interested in taking loads of honey and would prefer to take enough for ourselves and leave the rest for the bees.