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.

 

[slowworm]

Still experimenting with things. A few days ago I made up a couple of foundationless super frames buy simply putting a thin strip of wood in the top groove of the frame. Today I had a look and they've been mostly drawn out and partly filled. Ideal if you don't have any foundation or don't want to use it, our long term plan is to make our own frames. Here's a pic if anyone is interested, you can just see the strip of wood on the right hand side.

 

[Falstaff]

Looks good. If you keep the open frames between some straight or foundation frames then it generally keeps them on the frame. If you put too many empty frames in they like to cross bar across the frames. If you accidently break or to reposition a comb then there are three recovery options;
1) Several big thin rubber bands right round the frames holding it in alignment until the bees refix it to the frame
2) ditto, by wrapping cotton string around the frame to do the same.
3) Use big crocodile hairdressing clips to hold onto the comb, then tie these to the top bar of the frame. (TB hives have to use this option. Pre run your tying medium thru the hair clips first is easiest - I use garden twist wire - like the freezer bags wire but comes in a roll. Again the bees will build comb all around it

 

[slowworm]

I often just use strips of foundation on super frames so I'm used to adding new frames between drawn frames so don't get many problems. With the foundationless broodframes I've tried I will add a support down the middle (wooden/bamboo skewer work well).

One thing to add, unless the frames are in the brood boxes the bees will draw larger drone cells, so not much use if you wish to use the frames as brood frames later.

 

[Falstaff]

I often just use strips of foundation on super frames so I'm used to adding new frames between drawn frames so don't get many problems. With the foundationless broodframes I've tried I will add a support down the middle (wooden/bamboo skewer work well).

One thing to add, unless the frames are in the brood boxes the bees will draw larger drone cells, so not much use if you wish to use the frames as brood frames later.

Sorry if I was teaching you to suck eggs, you're clearly well up on it, unlike a lot of beeks who are very wary of trying it.
If you can get them to accept the bamboo skewer then that's a good solution. I tried it on some top bars but the girls didn't like it and left them alone.
Interesting, as a TB'er I haven't noticed the larger drone cells being an issue if I happen to move one of the bars into the brood area. Some of the combs will have a lot more drone than brood cells of course, but Queens seem to mix and match around it. One thing that is different to standard hives, is that Queen cells are nearly always on the outside edge of the comb on the sunny/warmest side of the hive. Typically 2 or 3 Q cells per comb. They only put them elsewhere if there are not enough combs.

 

[slowworm]

Sorry if I was teaching you to suck eggs, you're clearly well up on it, unlike a lot of beeks who are very wary of trying it.

It's always good to hear other ideas. I find it's good to be more self sufficient with the bees and making do without foundation seems common sense to me. It does help having a busy hive and a good flow. Funnily enough, the bees seem to be taking to the wooden strips better than old foundation at the moment.

I did post a photo earlier in the thread of a brood frame that I just used a strip of foundation and two skewers. It may not be clear but the sides have larger drone cells and the middle mostly smaller brood.

Hopefully this works...(or not, just click the link...)

View attachment 80553

 

[Stew]

Seems an appropriate thread to drop this video in.

 

[CrispyDuck]

Went to do an inspection on a late swarm that very fortunately colonised an empty hive. Found two hornets (European) hawking around the entrance and taking out bees as they returned.
Fascinating to watch. But decided to leave the inspection and keep the weeds that had grown up around the hive. They seemed to offer a small level of protection, with the bees flying under the foliage and out rather than straight up as they had been.

 

[Gabri]

I’ve got two hives going at the moment and also switched to foundationless frames this season, the bees seem to build them up pretty quickly, though a couple did go off at an angle so I had to nudge them straight before they got too messy. I usually save the wax and melt it down into small blocks for candles, which has been a fun side project, and I’ve been toying with the idea of making a propolis tincture but haven’t tried it yet.

 

[slowworm]

Went to do an inspection on a late swarm that very fortunately colonised an empty hive. Found two hornets (European) hawking around the entrance and taking out bees as they returned.
Fascinating to watch.

I've not noticed the hornets around our hives much this year, possibly down to our bees being a bit defensive. We have got quite a few hornets picking off the wasps and butterflies on the over ripe figs by the back door. It's a bit grim to see a pile of old butterfly wings on the ground as the hornets chew them off and carry the bodies back to their nest. I also have to get out of their way as they fly off, they have no interest in me but as they fly off at head height I don't want an accidental sting!

 

[CrispyDuck]

I’ve seen more hornets this year than I’ve ever seen in my entire life. I’ve evicted 3 from my home, two in the last week. Perhaps it’s just me, but there seems to be more bugs in general this year. I seem to have had swarms of everything from fruit flies to wasps. Just waiting for the plague of locust..

 

[CrispyDuck]

Couple more videos of the hornets on the bee hive this afternoon.

 

[Woody girl]

How are hives doing in general around the country?
Here ,a year ago, I had 3 local producers. One has retired, one is thinking of giving up, another found all his bees dead, all 3 hives. (No he is not a beginner and has produced for many years.) And anther friend who produces for himself only with one hive found an empty hive when he went to check . No local honey available anymore. I've always bought local honey. It's such a shame. Now we have to "import " honey from 15 miles away, from a commercial business and the price has risen to almost unaffordable.
My lawn is covered in dandelion and daisy, I have red dead nettle, honeysuckle and many other flowering plants in the garden at present. Not one single bee has been noted yesterday in the garden. Normaly I'm seeing the odd one or two by now. The garden is silent. Even the birds are very quiet. Is this our silent spring? I'm worried.