Super Steve Earle
Well-known member
It'll be about £18 a jar once Nutmeg starts selling it alongside her 2 jars of raspberry jam!
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[Misc] Beekeeping...
- Thread starter Titanic
- Start date
- Thread starter
- #42
OK - the hive is growing so fast.... I have decided to try a 'walk away split'.
Basically, this is to create two fully sustainable hive communities from the one existing... and hopefully in the process get rid of the bastard National frames.
It involves preparing a second hive with a brood chamber of built comb frames and some foundation, which I have already done; and the finding the queen. She stays in the existing hive along with half of the bees. The new brood chamber is filled with 5 frames of brood and a good community of bees.
Hopefully the original hive and queen will continue to thrive and grow to fill out their now half-empty home.
And the new colony will have enough resources to start the process of creating a new queen - which is an extraordinary business!
Basically, this is to create two fully sustainable hive communities from the one existing... and hopefully in the process get rid of the bastard National frames.
It involves preparing a second hive with a brood chamber of built comb frames and some foundation, which I have already done; and the finding the queen. She stays in the existing hive along with half of the bees. The new brood chamber is filled with 5 frames of brood and a good community of bees.
Hopefully the original hive and queen will continue to thrive and grow to fill out their now half-empty home.
And the new colony will have enough resources to start the process of creating a new queen - which is an extraordinary business!
Tony Towner's Fridge
Well-known member
I used to love beekeeping but sadly lost interest a few years back. For me it just didn't have the buzz it once used to have.
TNBA
TTF
TNBA
TTF
- Thread starter
- #44
End of season update:
The split went well, and the new queen, I decided to buy one to both improve genetics and chances of survival. She arrived in the post and has established herself - hopefully they will be a strong enough colony to survive the winter with some additional feeding.
The original colony is growing strongly and filling two brood boxes. They produced two supers (18 frames) of capped honey. I was going to leave all of it for them to overwinter, but curiosity got the better of me, so I harvested 6 frames - using a rather basic and messy 'crush & strain' method.
The result is 14 x 240ml jars of interestingly pale but quite tasty honey.
The next challenge is getting the colonies through winter - it is a perilous time for bees and there is quite a high mortality rate
The split went well, and the new queen, I decided to buy one to both improve genetics and chances of survival. She arrived in the post and has established herself - hopefully they will be a strong enough colony to survive the winter with some additional feeding.
The original colony is growing strongly and filling two brood boxes. They produced two supers (18 frames) of capped honey. I was going to leave all of it for them to overwinter, but curiosity got the better of me, so I harvested 6 frames - using a rather basic and messy 'crush & strain' method.
The result is 14 x 240ml jars of interestingly pale but quite tasty honey.
The next challenge is getting the colonies through winter - it is a perilous time for bees and there is quite a high mortality rate
Worried Man Blues
Well-known member
Wife used to keep bees. Someone gave her some Buckfast bees, damned things hunted me down in the garage and had me running round the garden to get away, I have that sort of attraction to them! Beware of the Buckfasts!
- Thread starter
- #46
Oh
The new queen is an F1 Buckfast Mated Queen supposedly with superior genetics and remarkable performance.