What beekeeping related activities did you do recently?

[demented dale]

By popular demand a thread about all things to do with or related to beekeeping.

Like many others here I have a few colonies and I keep them for all sorts of reasons. The main one was simply just to have honey bees about the place as we had not seen them locally. They have gone one to produce a good crop of honey and produce plenty of other products such as wax, pollen and propolis as well as help pollinate various plants in our local area.

I'm also keen to try and look after them in a more natural way and to try and make most of our equipment ourselves.

Currently I'm trying out foundationless brood frames and after today's inspection they seem to be going well.

What's everyone else been up to?

Does anyone have or know a good supply of beeswax. I am making candles. I had a good source but the prices went up by 20% overnight and priced me out of it. I am hoping to sell a few and just cover the cost of the molds and maybe get the ones I use cheaper or even free. I burn candles everyday so it makes sense to make my own. Thank you . DD x

 

[slowworm]

Does anyone have or know a good supply of beeswax.

I think your best bet would be to find a local bee keeper who doesn't make their own wax products. There's likely to be a few around you with a large stock of wax they've not got round to doing anything with, it's just finding them. You could see if there's any local bee keeping association near you, or see if anyone collects swarms and see if they know of anyone selling bulk wax.

 

[demented dale]

I think your best bet would be to find a local bee keeper who doesn't make their own wax products. There's likely to be a few around you with a large stock of wax they've not got round to doing anything with, it's just finding them. You could see if there's any local bee keeping association near you, or see if anyone collects swarms and see if they know of anyone selling bulk wax.

You are right and I have done that. I just did a bee keeping course and asked the guys there but no one has got back to me so for ages so trying elsewhere. x

 

[TeeDee]

Did notice a bit of what I thought was unusual behaviour today.

The gable end of my property has an Air Brick and the Bee's have been using it as an impromptu home. I can only imagine what the cavity of the brick work looks like.

Anyway - airbrick is equidistance of the gable end and the bee's have been finding it without any issue at all - taking the proverbial beeline from their aerial errands.

I had to plant up a trough up and had instructions to relocate the trough in the middle of the gable end - so I didn't do this on purpose but accidently put an quasi ( space around and to the rear ) for the Bee's to have to navigate.

I came back ten minutes later and found a bit of a bee on bee cleared for landing stacking backlog - Ten bee's all seemingly 'lost' - trying to run into the brick work like Harry Potter on the Train platform - scrabbling to find the Airbrick without success - but as I say there was space behind and to the sides of the trough for them to locate the Airbrick , they just seemed to have forgotten or found the wooden trough a navigational Bermuda Triangle.


I dutifully moved the Trough a foot or so in away from the current position - and then observed in rapid succession as within a minute or two all the Bee's relocated the airbrick and were cleared for approach - landing gear down - happy landings

The other thing I noticed that although there are Ten apertures in the air brick - all the Bee's used the single bottom right opening - on the way in and , because clearly I had time to kill I waited and observed , on the way out also.

Not sure how Bee's communicate ( probably small talk -ha-ha-ha ) but I found the observation interesting.

 

[William_Montgomery]

Did notice a bit of what I thought was unusual behaviour today.

The gable end of my property has an Air Brick and the Bee's have been using it as an impromptu home. I can only imagine what the cavity of the brick work looks like.

Anyway - airbrick is equidistance of the gable end and the bee's have been finding it without any issue at all - taking the proverbial beeline from their aerial errands.

I had to plant up a trough up and had instructions to relocate the trough in the middle of the gable end - so I didn't do this on purpose but accidently put an quasi ( space around and to the rear ) for the Bee's to have to navigate.

I came back ten minutes later and found a bit of a bee on bee cleared for landing stacking backlog - Ten bee's all seemingly 'lost' - trying to run into the brick work like Harry Potter on the Train platform - scrabbling to find the Airbrick without success - but as I say there was space behind and to the sides of the trough for them to locate the Airbrick , they just seemed to have forgotten or found the wooden trough a navigational Bermuda Triangle.


I dutifully moved the Trough a foot or so in away from the current position - and then observed in rapid succession as within a minute or two all the Bee's relocated the airbrick and were cleared for approach - landing gear down - happy landings

The other thing I noticed that although there are Ten apertures in the air brick - all the Bee's used the single bottom right opening - on the way in and , because clearly I had time to kill I waited and observed , on the way out also.

Not sure how Bee's communicate ( probably small talk -ha-ha-ha ) but I found the observation interesting.

They are interesting creatures. Their sense of navigation is pretty impressive, so I expect they will have figured it out eventually. Did you clock what type of bees they were?
Perhaps they propolised up the other holes, if they are honey bees.

 

[TeeDee]

They are interesting creatures. Their sense of navigation is pretty impressive, so I expect they will have figured it out eventually. Did you clock what type of bees they were?
Perhaps they propolised up the other holes, if they are honey bees.

I find Ants equally if more fascinating.

No idea on the type of Bee - I shall see if I can ID them tomorrow .

 

[William_Montgomery]

I find Ants equally if more fascinating.

Yeah, the insect world is endlessly fascinating, and brutal. I came across a huge battle playing out on my garden path between two ant colonies the other day. The aftermath was just a scene of devastation.

Not seen it for years, but 'Life in the Undergrowth' was a brilliant series as I recall.

 

[Falstaff]

Two of my hives were starving due to lack of foraging, this being the June dearth, so I mixed up some syrup and fed them yesterday. Today one of the weak hives was being robbed by the one strong colony, I think I maybe fed too much or it warmed up and the others could smell it. I had to invent a single bee entry to slow down the robbing, hopefully they'll start to defend but it is a very weak swarm colony.
Also, it's in a Langstroth hive (conventional boxy sort of hive for non-Beeks), which is a bit un-natural and difficult for bees, they definitely don't do as well as the ones in my top bar hives (a trough with wood bars on top, imagine a log on it's side for non-beeks), the bees love them.