The Poultry Keeper

Stujan · Joined: 05 Jul 2008 Posts: 465 Location: East Sussex

Its been a while now since talking about our little friends but hasn't been forgotten and I was wondering how your bees got on and how the honey harvest went.
Like most things that happen in the USA it usualy comes over here after and recently read some states are 95% down on thier bee population , lets not go into the money subject , good grief ! Sad

, have yours dropped in number ????? hope not but be good to have an update , cheers , Stu

nigel · Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2008 6:12 pm Post subject:

The bees are doing OK, the early season was very good for them, but then we had three or four unsettled and coldish weeks mid August to early September and this seems to have made a huge dint in the late season honey.

They have been treated for Varroa mites and left for the winter. I've decided to winter them on two boxes this year rather than the single box I used last year.

Beekeepers here seem to have had a mixed year, but so far ´[fingers crossed - touch wood] we have not experienced losses like in the UK and the rest of Europe. I suspect because pesticide rules are very much stricter here

Stujan · Joined: 05 Jul 2008 Posts: 465 Location: East Sussex

Thanks for that Nigel, loss of honey is totally acceptable if its just weather , I hope they do ok over the winter . I have been in touch with the NBKA and may well do a course over the winter in bee keeping , even if I dont get a hive i would still like knowledge of bee keeping, who knows , this time next year ............. Very Happy

nigel · Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 6:51 am Post subject:

The courses are great - that's how I started and it's also what started us on the self sufficiency life style too.

Local beekeepers assocs can be very helpful [though I admit some are not]. Get to know your local bee Inspector from the NBU. I plagued the life out of mine with questions, he became more of a mentor to me than the one assigned by my local BKA who couldn't really be bothered.

Itsybitsy · Joined: 11 Feb 2006 Posts: 1452 Location: Leicestershire

I got 5lbs of honey, from 1 hive. . . . . Shocked

I went into last winter with 3 hives and lost 2 through the winter, not from anything sinister mind, a branch fell off an overhanging tree and knocked one over when I was on holiday in February and then the pony got out and rubbed up against another and knocked that over, I was able to pick that one up the next morning, but unfortunately it was raining and the bees got chilled. . . . Anyway my local mentor got 100lbs of honey . . . last year he got 400 Shocked

My Somerset mentor got 150lbs and would have got double that if he had been able to extract a month earlier - July instead of August, because it was so wet the bees ate the honey. I suppose that means I would have got 10 - 20lbs if the weather had been half decent, which isn't so bad Smile

I'm going into the winter with 3 hives again

Fingers crossed

Itsybitsy

ps - Nigel. . . . Andrew has moved from Wymeswold, can't remember where he's gone though.

vanessa · Joined: 24 Sep 2005 Posts: 1269 Location: Correze

I was reading the other day about the probs of feeding bees beet-originated sugar, because of the level of pesticide in it is toxic to bees!! Imagine feeding your bees with the best intention, only finding out too late you've poisoned them?!!

Poor bees are struggling enough as it is!

nigel · Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2008 8:50 pm Post subject:

i've seen story this circulated too vanessa, though I am unsure of the accuracy of the claims. I'm still looking for some science to back up the claims.

The alleged Imidacloprid contamination of sugar beet seems to have originated with a group who are committed to banning neonicotinoid pesticides.

This doesn't make their claims false of course and in the mean time if I had to feed my bees I'd make sure I used cane sugar.

Itsybitsy · Joined: 11 Feb 2006 Posts: 1452 Location: Leicestershire

How do you know what cane sugar has had sprayed on it?

The pesticide is on the seed coating.

Itsybitsy

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 7424 Location: isle of lewis

was a really interesting story from what i was reading i think on a farming forum is that the suger beet wasn't posioning them it was the weeds next to the feilds and how the spray was interacting with it Shocked

,a;though the spray wasn't applied to the weeds Shocked

layla · Joined: 26 Oct 2007 Posts: 603 Location: West Midlands

we have had just enough honey for the bees it's not been a good year for us but it's our own fault Ian split the hive and didn't leave enough bees in the colony . It's a learning curb this bee business

He has to go to an allergy specialist as he got stung again the other day and he has a really bad reaction ....luckily it was only on his hand but it swelled up real bad Shocked

...he does seem to have 12 hours before the swelling gets uncomfortable so we would have been able to get him to the hospital if it had been his neck Wink

...I have no problem if i get stung nothing that a pireton tablet won't sort out Very Happy