todays news

[GRIZZLY]

Phew !!. Just finished double coat painting 11 Denrosa poly hives with the good old Dulux weathershield. Drying has been a pig , I've had a blazing fire in my workshop stove day and night and ran out of places to stack the parts for drying off. I see yours are overwintered on a combination of wood and poly , Gavin. Your site looks good wellie country.

[gavin]

Phew !!. Just finished double coat painting 11 Denrosa poly hives with the good old Dulux weathershield. Drying has been a pig , I've had a blazing fire in my workshop stove day and night and ran out of places to stack the parts for drying off. I see yours are overwintered on a combination of wood and poly , Gavin. Your site looks good wellie country.

The commercial guys hire an industrial paint sprayer and blast them against a warehouse wall - when the neighbours are out!

Definitely wellie country, and I had them on. The white box is made from basic softwood not polystyrene. A local social enterprise - the Claverhouse Group - has been making them and selling to various beginners. I borrowed one last autumn. I'd rather have Wester Red Cedar or some similar cheaper timber and the box will be going back to its owner in the spring. So all of mine are wooden, though I do have Paynes nucleus boxes in a shed awaiting some paint. I also look after bees for the association and there we have a mix of Swienty poly Nationals and a couple of Smiths, Paynes poly nucs and wood.

[Poly Hive]

Sadly under-represented lol... I am currently going through my slide collection and Craibstone had: Timber, National, Langstroth, Smith, Dadant, WBC, Glen and Commercial, and in poly Lang and Smith. And this in 1988.
PH

[Bridget]

I had a band of jays in my garden today. Bright flashes of blue caught the eye. Don't think they are normally resident this far north. Maybe escaping the waterlogged south. Coldish wind so only the odd bee about, mainly doing the housekeeping. Looks like quite few more dead bees to be turfed out. Still waiting to get the OA done but a bit tardy in ordering it up.


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[Bumble]

I had a band of jays in my garden today. Bright flashes of blue caught the eye. Don't think they are normally resident this far north. Maybe escaping the waterlogged south.

Very few acorns this year, so maybe they've flown north in the hope of finding something to eat?

[Bridget]

Thornes delivery arrived in double quick time so OA done today. Calm, 10 degrees and the rain had stopped so ideal. all three hives look in good nick for the present. 9 seams in the Demaree hive that gave me my first honey and it also looks like plenty of stores. 7 seams in my new hive, lots of noise and batting off my suit. The fondant is nearly all gone so may need some more soon. #3 the hive that swarmed while we were on holiday, and probably a cast as well, we're on about 5-6 seams, very quiet and hardly into the fondant so reckon they are OK as well.
lots of dead bees had to be cleared from the entrance of the 9 seam hive, this was the one with the wooden roof and quite a lot of condensation in the roof so will have to do something about the ventilation in that one. All hives have insulation above the crown board.
when is the best time to check for varroa drop? One week?


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[gavin]

Sounds like some powerful colonies you have there. The weakest of your three is about average size for this time of year. The ones I have which are as powerful as your other two - if they are still like that as spring arrives - will be getting a second brood box. As long as there is some forage in spring you should have strong colonies for the season ahead. It is great to read such an optimistic report!

As for looking at the Varroa drop, a week sounds reasonable. You might have most or perhaps just a fraction of the total drop by then, it varies so much. However you will see whether it is a little or a lot. Doesn't matter too much - you should get the vast majority (>90%) of them with the oxalic treatment.

[Bridget]

Thank you Gavin. I've not had to use a double brood box before so I'd better get some ordering done with Thornes before the sale ends!


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[gavin]

You don't have to but you may restrict the brood nest if you don't. A second brood box suits my ways of making increase too.

[Jon]

I bought 10 more broods and 10 supers yesterday.
Can't keep them in correx forever.

[GRIZZLY]

14 colonies all alive and thriving.They all got a slab of fondant this morning.I'm hoping they all make it thro to spring. Interest in our ass'n to go to Belfast-we should be able to get a car load.Be nice to make contact with our "nearest" association.

[greengumbo]

Had a quick peek yesterday and I can see they are munching through the fondant fairly rapidly now as I can see through the cellophane wrapping to the frame. Time to replace it after these snow drifts calm down again !

Buds on lots of my hedging and crocus / snowdrops poking up :)

[GRIZZLY]

Snowing hard this morning.Glad I got fondant on all of my hives to make sure they don't run short of stores.

[Bridget]

Went to check the hives and cleared the entrances of a bit of snow build up1393
Then checked more carefully and found, eek, left hand hive eke was off the 1394crown board at the front despite being tied down and having a log on top.
The wooden crown board is quite frozen and slippy and the poly eke is sliding off it in the wind I think. Retied it, added a large stone out of the dyke and will check again tomorrow. Think the problem is I didn't take the QE off that hive so have both QE and crown board which is a bit unstable in this weather. However as its a polycarbonate crown board I could see the bees were none the worse for it.


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[Mellifera Crofter]

...The wooden crown board is quite frozen and slippy and the poly eke is sliding off it in the wind I think. Retied it, added a large stone out of the dyke and will check again tomorrow. Think the problem is I didn't take the QE off that hive so have both QE and crown board which is a bit unstable in this weather. However as its a polycarbonate crown board I could see the bees were none the worse for it.

Yes, I've seen that slipperiness before - that's why, with poly hives, I now don't place the crown boards between two boxes anymore - and certainly not in the winter. I cut them down so that they're the same size as the top bars and fit neatly inside the eke. I think you're right - having a queen excluder and a crown board together probably made it even more slippery.

Kitta

[Bridget]

Thanks for that advice Kitta. Will try to remember to do that when I get a chance.


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[drumgerry]

This is the scene in front of one of mine today (a Paynes poly Nat). First time I've had the classic melted patch in front of the entrance from the heat generated by the cluster. I've always had mine on stands but I didn't have time to make one for this hive. And yes - no mouseguard! Call the overwintering police!:p

13981399

[GRIZZLY]

How do you fit a mouseguard to that entrance ?.

[drumgerry]

It would be possible Grizzly if you cut some plastic queen excluder to size so that it was smaller than the overhang but a standard mouseguard wouldn't work. Or if you used the nails/pins spaced on the entrance block method. I never quite got round to it as you can see. All's well though. No meeces present AFAIK!

[drumgerry]

A standard mouseguard would work if you made the entrance block deep enough that it was flush with the central column. Again something I didn't do when I made the entrance block.

[Bridget]

Silly bees lured out by the sun shining on the hives at -3 degrees. Had to shade the entrances. Small birds in the trees near the hives picking off the dead and dying bees that show up so well on the snow
No new snow here since Friday - the one area of the country well equipped for it. I love the snow. 1402



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[Neils]

Spent this morning talking to beginners and this afternoon giving the nature reserve bees a once over to make sure they've got enough food. All hives still looking good, though two on the allotment are touch and go,

[GRIZZLY]

Off to Glasgow today to get another load of cedar to make brood boxes for an Ass'n member. Realy clean knot free timber - some of the best i've had. Nice job to have over the winter months getting everything ready for the next season.
Bees been flying over the past days and clearing a few dead bees out, Weather seems to be going backwards again with icy winds and snow showers.I hope it warms up a bit so that the bees can get at the pollen being produced by the snowdrops which are in profusion this year.

[Jimbo]

Hi Grizzly,
Where are you getting your source of cedar in Glasgow?

[GRIZZLY]

Company called TIMBMET just off the A8 towards the airport. Best quality air dried western red. Reasonably priced.

[gavin]

Anyone else pleased to see bees flying again? My Magnificent Seven were out relieving themselves in numbers today and many were taking full advantage of the drifts of snowdrops sitting agape across the estate. For a change there were snow, snowdrops and flying bees all happily coexisting. Some of them are powerful colonies which will boom when the OSR comes along.

A quick peek at the association's bees tells me another small nuc has gone, and quite possibly more will before things turn in April, but with 8 surviving colonies varying from strong to weak we'll have enough for our purposes.

The local willow has been showing some silver for a couple of weeks so spring really is on its way. Just as I was leaving the association apiary David in Edinburgh sent me a picture of their bees on flowering cherry. Scotland is waking up again.

[Bridget]

Went out to remove the snow/sun shades from the hives this morning and found the ladies out and about already. Still a bit chilly I thought at 6 degrees but the snow has gone from here. No sign of snowdrops or anything else much.1420


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[gavin]

Went out to remove the snow/sun shades from the hives this morning and found the ladies out and about already. Still a bit chilly I thought at 6 degrees but the snow has gone from here. No sign of snowdrops or anything else much.1420


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It was 9C here, enough to entice quite a number out. Not as warm as exactly a year ago to the day (12C) when, remarkably, I had my last session with a camera and snowdrops at the apiary.

Here are the bees today:

http://www.sbai.org.uk/images/Feb13-01.jpg
http://www.sbai.org.uk/images/Feb13-02.jpg

but the pictures a year ago were much better! My excuse is that the sun had gone in when I got there.

http://www.sbai.org.uk/sbai_forum/showthread.php?771-Lovely-orange-balls-of-snowdrop-pollen

http://www.sbai.org.uk/sbai_forum/entry.php?209-Snowdrop-frenzy-at-the-apiary
(http://www.sbai.org.uk/sbai_forum/entry.php?209-Snowdrop-frenzy-at-the-apiary)

[drumgerry]

Still a few patches of slushy stuff here but the bees were out in good numbers at mine today. Just cleansing flights - not a hint of pollen to be seen on them yet. Or maybe I wasn't watching for long enough. Does the heart good to see them up and about though!

[Poly Hive]

Things are moving along here but am having woodpecker problems, one has decided that drilling into the supers holding the fondant is amusing. The odd thing is I cannot see the payback for the work. Each hole has missed the bees and the fondant so the beak is ending up in the air space. I will post pics of the damage and the repair method.

PH

[drumgerry]

Bummer! The only woodpeckers I see around here are the black and red spotty jobs - don't seem to bother with the hives though.

Was watching your spanset video last night PH. Had to move a couple of hives yesterday and my ratchet straps have played up for the last time - I've hated them ever since I got them years ago. When I got to the destination I unceremoniously took the knife to the b*****ds instead of undoing them! Now I need to buy some new straps and it'll be spansets for me!

[Bumble]

The wet weather has driven our green woodpeckers away. There aren't many ants in waterlogged soil.

[GRIZZLY]

We're too far north for the green jobs - we've got two families of the greater spotted woodpeckers which feed on our bird feeders. They don't bother my hives at all. We've had them for at least 6 years.

[gavin]

Great spotteds just seem to be getting more and more common, nice to see. It is because they are so willing to come to bird feeders?

A few years ago I regularly heard green woodpeckers (aka yaffles) on the estate where I keep my bees, but perhaps Bumble is right and wet summers don't suit them. We've had a string of those. They'll (green woodpeckers not wet summers) still be around on the drier slopes of the the Sidlaw Hills where the short grass, s-facing slopes and nearby wooded burns and copses suit them.

I've seen them at various places up the A9 and apparently they get as far as Inverness. I've never heard of them bothering bee hives in Scotland but I'd be surprised if it never happens. They do look a bit sparse in Galloway.

From:
http://data.nbn.org.uk/gridMap/gridMap.jsp?allDs=1&srchSpKey=NHMSYS0000530763


http://www.sbai.org.uk/images/greenwoodp.jpg

New theory: Are pure Amm just too feisty to allow Green Woodpeckers to co-exist?!

[Jon]

The advance party is already here.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/advice/expert/previous/woodpeckers_ireland.aspx

[gavin]

The advance party is already here.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/advice/expert/previous/woodpeckers_ireland.aspx

Nice that you have some Great Spotteds but you could really do with Greens as well. That call is a wonderful thing to have around. Always cheers me up.

http://www.wildechoes.org/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=49:green-woodpecker&catid=42:picidae-woodpeckers&Itemid=62

Although I have to say that sitting in a boat on a Highland Perthshire loch, trout rod in hand, with the mists clearing and half a dozen of these calls echoing all round is not so bad too! The 'drumming' call here:

http://www.garden-birds.co.uk/birds/great_spotted_woodpecker.htm

[Jon]

I have seen a lot of woodpeckers in Mexico.
There must be at least 20 species.
There is one I see locally on the slopes of the Volcano, Strickland's woodpecker (https://www.google.com/search?q=strickland%27s+woodpecker&hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENGB303&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=tCcqUYXcOqnD0QW_pYGwBw&ved=0CEQQsAQ&biw=1184&bih=618), a high altitude fellow.
I have seen them at the edge of the tree line at 12,000-13,000 feet.
There is another monster of a thing, the Lineated Woodpecker (https://www.google.com/search?q=lineated+woodpecker&hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENGB303&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=9CcqUemAL-yV0QWf_oGgCA&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAQ&biw=1184&bih=618), I have seen a few times in Chiapas at the edge of the jungle

[gavin]

I can see who would win in a battle between a lineated woodpecker and a Paynes polyhive.

[Jon]

It is quite a shock the first time you see one of those.
The first one I saw was at the mayan ruins at Palenque (https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENGB303&q=palenque%20chiapas&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=5y8qUcmxHqnD0QW_pYGwBw&biw=1184&bih=618&sei=6C8qUYiMDs7J0AX3s4HgBw).
I have never seen polyhives in Mexico.
They all seem to use wooden langstroth.

1424

[fatshark]

(snip) and wet summers don't suit them.

Ironic considering an old name for the Green Woodpecker is "rain bird" ... as well as Laughing Betsey, Yaffingale, Yappingale and even Jack Eikle.

[Bumble]

The green ones weren't too bothered by the wet summer, but the rain didn't stop and it looks as if a good few ant colonies might have drowned, which is quite carelss of them when you think about it. They normally retreat underground for winter and go back into their anthills in spring. The big wood ants are probably okay, although some might have needed to swim a bit. The birds will have just moved away to some higher and drier ground, they'll be back soon to pair up for Spring.

[Dark Bee]

I saw frog spawn not long after Christmas this year, ie early January. There have been a few daisies flowering all through the winter and I noticed buds on the hydrangea bushes last November - they are slowly opening. Mull over that :rolleyes:

[GRIZZLY]

Had a male G.S.Woodpecker eating crusts off the ground under our bird feeders this morning. We seem to have two pairs in the garden , hammering on the trees in our wood and coming down to the bird feeders for peanuts . All the bee colonies flying strongly today and bringing in some pollen - either from the snowdrops or the whins.Realy good to see.
Did you see any Sapsuckers in Mexico Jon ?

[Jon]

I have seen the yellow bellied (https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENGB303&q=yellow-bellied+sapsucker+range&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&bvm=bv.43148975,d.d2k&biw=1184&bih=618&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=HswxUZWOKOXB0gXUvoGACQ#um=1&hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENGB303&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=yellow-bellied+sapsucker+&oq=yellow-bellied+sapsucker+&gs_l=img.12..0i24l6.4504.4504.0.6452.1.1.0.0.0.0.6 8.68.1.1.0...0.0...1c.1.5.img.eXIbDopDibk&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&bvm=bv.43148975,d.d2k&fp=760b34e20891a971&biw=1184&bih=618)

[GRIZZLY]

Good job we don't see themover here !

[EmsE]

I got a text yesterday from the farmer whose land my bees are on to say that the lid was off one of my hives. They'd tried to put it back on, but the bees were flying for them. My friend went down to put the lid on and said that the ratchet strap had been completely undone, the roof was to one side and the crown board was to the other. Oh and it was the colony that can be rather feisty. I can only guess that they got a big surprise & learnt a valuable lesson. Thankfully it has been dry recently too.

Whilst I'm annoyed that the colony has been disturbed and was without a lid for possibly up to 2 days , it's a relief it wasn't knocked over, or even worse, stolen.
So, padlocks for the ratchet straps or CAUTION! Signs on the hives?

[gavin]

Or even a new site. If someone was interfering with them, don't you think that they'll be back?

[EmsE]

I'm hoping it was some naive person walking their dog in the field and curiosity just got the better of them. We've had no problems before and the dog walkers do tend to avoid that corner of the field. If it happens again though......

[fatshark]

Whilst I'm annoyed that the colony has been disturbed and was without a lid for possibly up to 2 days , it's a relief it wasn't knocked over, or even worse, stolen.

While out walking at the w/e I came across a dozen hives in a very sorry state ... Miller feeders in place, but no roofs, large gaps between brood and floor or supers (askew) or simply knocked over. Incredibly about half of them still had bees in (it was warm enough for a few to be flying). I don't think this was vandalism ... I suspect simple negligence. I tidied them up a little and am trying to locate the owner.

On a brighter note ... it was warm today and every hive had flying bees, including one I'd pretty much given up on - the entrance had been blocked for at least a month in mid-winter and it was total carnage once I got round to replacing the floor.

[Calum]

Really lovely today, the bees were very busy on snowdrops, hazel and crocuses some colonies have a brood nest that fills half a frame on the largest frame already. Snow and-10 c forecast for the week coming so no supers on yet, but its a joy that the season is about to kick off again! Good luck everyone!

[Bumble]

I think we will need the good luck. Icy winds here, and snow not far away. I wish I hadn't left the fondant above the crown board.

[Black Comb]

Yes same here. I did this on a few for the first time this year and the small colonies that have died got isolated.
Back to on top bars in future.

[drumgerry]

-6 last night and 3 inches of snow on the ground. Come on Spring get your act together!

[Poly Hive]

I have no idea who promotes this business of fondant over the CB. 14291430 As you can see there is evidence of a furry visitor in the Paynes box which goes to show they have managed to design in (for goodness sake) rodent access which other makers manage to design OUT. Grr mutter and said box is as of Spring downgraded to a bait box, all it is fit for.

PH

[GRIZZLY]

I thought you were a Swienty man PH

[Calum]

I thought you were a Swienty man PH

That's fighting talk where I come from...

[Poly Hive]

I am: but I was given a Paynes to trial it. I think they regretted that....LOL

[Mellifera Crofter]

I have no idea who promotes this business of fondant over the CB.

But PH, I don't understand. There is no crown board that I can see ... I'm clearly missing out on some subtleties here.


... a furry visitor in the Paynes box .... rodent access which other makers manage to design OUT. ...PH

I see Paynes now sell their boxes with entrance blocks but I suppose, like me, you received yours without one. If it was a wooden hive you would have told the beekeeper to put a mouseguard in front of the entrance - so why didn't you do that with your Paynes? I don't think you can entirely blame Paynes in this instance - but yes, most of the other poly hive designs have entrance blocks that keep the mice out.
Kitta

[drumgerry]

I think a standard entrance block doesn't work with Paynes polys if you want to fit a mouseguard. It needs one which is double depth so that there's not a gap in at the back of the mouseguard for the little buggers to use.

[Mellifera Crofter]

I've never used mouseguards, so I don't understand the problem, Drumgerry. I just make sure that the entrance is about 6mm high so that mice don't have access. Here's a photo of my Paynes with entrance block. The photo was only meant as a private reference to me about those dead bees - so, pardon the artistically skew hive on the photo.
Kitta
1431

[drumgerry]

Kitta - I'm probably really stupid in thinking a standard entrance block wouldn't work! I guess you just don't push it all the way inside the space. With the setup you have there a mouseguard would work fine.

[Poly Hive]

For the simple reason the design of the brood box does not enable the usage of a normal mouseguard and with many other things to keep me busy I didn't get round to modding one to fit. There should be NO need for an entrance block for a poly, the entrance should be 8mm and so the issue is designed out. KISS Manufacturers who produce units needing entrance blocks are missing the point.

PH

[Mellifera Crofter]

Not stupid,DG - I had lollypop sticks handy, so it was easy to add hooks to an entrance block. Without hooks the block will just disappear out of sight into the hive.

Ideally, yes, PH - a poly should be well designed from top to bottom, but I've still got to see one. The entrance design was one of Paynes hives' shortcomings.

[Bumble]

I have no idea who promotes this business of fondant over the CB.

A touch of insanity on my part, probably.

Interested to know how you protect the top of your fondant from drying out as I can't see anything in the pictures. Assuming you've taken whatever it is off, so you could check and take picture.

[GRIZZLY]

To stop your fondant drying out, Just cut away one side and leave the rest of the plastic in place. Use it with the exposed fondant in contact with the bees.

[Poly Hive]

I put on pretty hefty chunks (4kgs or so) and nothing on top usually, the bees use what they want and what remains is then turned into syrup. KISS

PH

[Calum]

I really need your advice on a serious problem:

I have suspected for some time now that my wife has been cheating on
me.

The usual signs, if the phone rings and I answer, the caller hangs
up and she goes out with the girls a lot.

I try to stay awake to look out for her when she comes home but I
usually fall asleep.

Anyway last night about midnight I hid in the shed behind the honey extractor.
When she came home she got out of someone's car buttoning her blouse, then she took her panties out
of her purse and slipped them on.

It was at that moment crouched behind the extractor that I noticed a
hairline crack on the leg bracket.



Is that something I can weld or do I need to replace the whole
leg?

[gavin]

A touch of insanity on my part, probably.

Not at all. If the colony is of decent strength, it will be raising a modicum of brood and there will be warm moist air rising over the cluster. In such hives they will easily cross the gap to fondant on the crownboard and take down extra. If it is really weak then I'd put it straight on the top bars and face the mess of fondant glued to the the bars in spring.

Calum: I'd get a new one!

[Jon]

Is that something I can weld or do I need to replace the whole
leg?

You married to Heather Mills?

[Poly Hive]

Depends to what standard you can weld really....

The fondant does not "weld it's self to the top bars" it is pretty easy to slide a hive tool under t and it comes away in a lump I find.

When it is seriously cold then putting the winter feed over a CB is in my view pretty dangerous. I would not endorse that move at all. A ventilated floor should be coupled with insulation over the CB and under the roof. It is how the research was done into better wintering so to have the one and not the other is not necessarily best for the bees.

PH

[Mellifera Crofter]

What bothers me about the hive in your photo, PH, is the big huge empty space above the bees' heads - unless you've covered it with something. I think that's what Bumble was asking about.

I do use crown boards because I don't want them to have to heat up all that extra space above them - but the feeding holes are quite large so, in effect, the candy is still on top of the frames, and the candy is covered with a see-through tub - then on top of that the insulation. I prefer the polycarbonate crownboards so that I can see where the bees are. In one hive they've moved, so I quickly replaced the crown board with another with three feeding holes so that I can open the one above their heads if they've moved again. I'll try to be better prepared for next winter. (I guess, PH, you'd probably say that's not KISS.)
Kitta

[Jon]

What bothers me about the hive in your photo, PH, is the big huge empty space above the bees' heads - unless you've covered it with something.

That colony looks like less than 2 frames of bees in a large box with a large eke on top.
Whatever way you do it I would remove at least 90% of the space there to give the colony more of a chance of pulling through. You could probably squeeze that colony into a Kieler.

[Bumble]

What bothers me about the hive in your photo, PH, is the big huge empty space above the bees' heads - unless you've covered it with something. I think that's what Bumble was asking about.

Yes, that is what I meant as well as the fondant being uncovered.

My fondant is above the crowboard and contained by a shallow kinsgpan eke, then there's thick polystyrene insulation under the roof. I cut each 12.5kg block in half and put one piece in each hive without taking it out of the oriingal polythene wrapper, so it wouldn't dry out. I didn't have (couldn't find) an eke for one colony, so used a super and packed the space above teh fondant with some polystyrene in a plastic bag. The fondant in that one is double wrapped, with an extra polythene sheet above it - there was a good reason at the time, but I can't remember what it was.

I don't really know why I put it above the crownboard, it's gone on the frames before and I've scraped it off and packed it away for later. It was probably listening to the club elders, whose cedar-dwelling bees are apparently far hardier than my poly-hive softies.

Calum - gaffer tape will fix most things!

[Poly Hive]

LOL there are actually a lot of bees in those colonies. Kieler my backside I'd like to see it tried. The space please remember is enclosed in poly not wood. Listening to club elders is good to a point but they dinna know much about poly. There are really only a handful who do, Murry McGregor being one, and Hamish Robertson another. Murray uses the same method for some of his which is to upturn a poly feeder and put the fondant under it.

I know which two boxes I photoed so I will up date on here or on my site as they progress. I have absolutely no concerns, and neither will you in a few years time.

PH

[Jon]

The worst thing a colony can have at this time of year is a huge amount of extra space.
That eke is really deep.
How many frames are occupied with bees?
Appearances can be deceptive but that looks like a very weak colony.

[brothermoo]

I couldn't sleep last night thinking of my bees having to come above the correx crownboard to get their fondant. It is in an upturned deep take away container over a porter bee escape sized hole.. the eke is actually a secondary rose hive box (190mm deep)
Is this too much, it was all I had at the time :confused:
Should I put some insulating material between the feeder and the wooden crownboard?
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[Jon]

I insulate my colonies with a 50mm square of polystyrene above the crownboard.
I put insulation inside the lid of my correx nucs as well as there is a space of about 2 inches between the top of the frames and the underside of the lid. Just a piece of polystyrene faced with correx 18 inches by 10.
It is always a good idea to close down as much space as you can and then give them more space bit by bit as they start to expand.
You need to adjust the size of the box to the size of the cluster to some extent especially if the cluster is small.
Not in cold weather though.
In the autumn if I find smallish clusters I reduce the space by removing about 3 or 4 frames and replacing them with insulated polystyrene dummy frames.

[gavin]

Ah .... we can't possibly advise you if you've gone for a Rose hive! ;)

My blocks of fondant are in spare empty supers (sometimes empty brood boxes). If I have one to hand I put a sheet of Kingspan over the wooden crownboard, but if the colony is strong enough I don't obsess about it if they don't get one. In the past I also put smaller pieces of polystyrene sheet into the super above the fondant but don't bother now.

[gavin]

In the autumn if I find smallish clusters I reduce the space by removing about 3 or 4 frames and replacing them with insulated polystyrene dummy frames.

Good policy - and of course you can fumigate the frames in a box in a bin bag with acetic acid so that they are more or less free from nasties.

[Jon]

Good policy - and of course you can fumigate the frames in a box in a bin bag with acetic acid so that they are more or less free from nasties.

I do that with everything which is taken out of the box every spring time whether through a dead out or just removed as surplus to requirements.

[Mellifera Crofter]

I couldn't sleep last night thinking of my bees having to come above the correx crownboard to get their fondant. It is in an upturned deep take away container over a porter bee escape sized hole.. Should I put some insulating material between the feeder and the wooden crownboard?

I think you're doing more or less that I'm doing, but as I said above, I prefer to use a crownboard (or perhaps I should say 'feeder board') with larger openings - but I do add insulation above the feeder board and below the roof even though most of my hives are poly hives. I use wool, but if you use something like Kingspan, then cut a hole in it to fit over your container. With the insulation in place, I think your bees will find their way to the candy. See Gavin's post number 818.


... My blocks of fondant are in spare empty supers (sometimes empty brood boxes). If I have one to hand I put a sheet of Kingspan over the wooden crownboard, but if the colony is strong enough I don't obsess about it if they don't get one. In the past I also put smaller pieces of polystyrene sheet into the super above the fondant but don't bother now.

So, Gavin, like PH, you don't mind that big empty space above their heads? Maybe your hives are in a more sheltered position than mine, but I like to keep mine as cosy as they can be. Having that space above them surely means that they must employ more insulating bees around the cluster than if they had a proper ceiling immediately above their heads - so they'll require more energy to keep the space around them, and above them, heated. Or am I wrong thinking that?
Kitta

[Poly Hive]

Who can say about right or wrong all I know is it works for me. And that is all, all, I am concerned about. As said I will monitor the two I posted the pics of, and you can judge yourself. As for wool.... never used it but off the cuff seems a damp trap and the whole point of poly is to keep them dry. If I can make a suggestion it is to read Mobus on over wintering on my site under Mobus. A very canny man.

PH

[Bumble]

Who can say about right or wrong all I know is it works for me. And that is all, all, I am concerned about.

That's a good point to make.

[Mellifera Crofter]

Who can say about right or wrong all I know is it works for me. ... As for wool.... never used it but off the cuff seems a damp trap and the whole point of poly is to keep them dry. ... PH
Sorry, PH, I'm not criticising, or implied that a space above their heads is 'wrong'. I'm just trying to find out what other people do and why, particularly as I tried my best to avoid such a space. As for wool, it's not a damp trap - just the opposite.
Kitta

[GRIZZLY]

I just made myself a set of 2in x 1in rims which sit on top of my poly hives under the roofs. I place the fondant directly on to the frame tops and replace the roof.NO extra insulation. I also don't put the trays under the varroa floors as the bees seem to benefit from the ventilation. Despite our temperatures going down to minus 8 deg C ,so far all 15 of my colonies seem strong and seem to have wintered well. The clear space above the brood doesn't seem to bother them at all.They have been flying and bringing in pollen ete at every opportunity.

[Poly Hive]

Another dismal week of weather forecast. Winter dear readers is far from over yet.

PH

[chris]

Here, it's started snowing again. This year I'm selecting for bees on skis.

[fatshark]

More fondant on those that were running out ... far easier to do this very late in the day as it gets cooler. Many of the bees return to the body of the hive and those that don't can be encouraged with a gentle puff of smoke. Then remove the old fondant container and place another on top. 30 seconds. Even easier if you remember to leave a bee space sized gap between the top of the fondant and the lip of the container ...

Tried to snow again today. This time last year I was doing my first inspection in shirtsleeves.

[gavin]

Yup, what a change from this time last year. Sleeting outside at the moment. Checked fondant today on one colony - I prefer to use big dollops, either a half or a full box, none of this messing about with the wee Ambrosia packs. It was a wee Ambrosia pack I was looking at this afternoon, a hive passed on from a local organisation that seems to be getting out of beekeeping. Very small cluster but alive.

[Jon]

You have all stopped talking about woodpeckers but I just spotted this article (http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/environment/woodpeckers-on-belfast-city-outskirts-29136650.html).


It's about eight years since the great spotted woodpecker started showing up in gardens along the east coast of Northern Ireland and now it looks like some of the birds may be considering starting a family in the city. That distinctive drumming sound has been documented in Belvoir Forest in recent weeks, signalling that at least one woodpecker there has romance on its mind.

Belvoir forest is about 2 miles from our Association Apiary

[gavin]

Time to get those bird feeders dusted off. From the pics on the site it looks like you all had a pleasing St Pats Day parade - no flags perhaps but plenty of tassles and feathers?

[Jon]

I didn't get out of the house yesterday apart from 15 minutes walking the dog.
St pat let us down with the weather.
It rained nearly all day and it was freezing cold as well.
Spent most of the day painting a bathroom.
Undercoating doors today.

[drumgerry]

Just been out to look at the hives. Would rather not have disturbed them but better that than let them starve. The colony I had the biggest fears for has given up the ghost at last - I was pretty much expecting that to happen. Plenty of stores and no obvious signs of nosema. No brood whatsoever so my guess is they were queenless. During the milder weather a few weeks ago they were the only colony inactive. Any that were needing it today got a slab of fondant on the top bars. The others are ok but a couple have only a couple of seams of bees. If I'm lucky I should be able to bring them on assuming no queen problems. But we need this bloody weather to get its act together!

[Jon]

Mine are the same Gerry. Loads of small colonies in need of decent weather and fresh pollen.
The weather would need to improve very soon but the forecast is bad all week.

[brothermoo]

We got a weather warning in work tonight, snow socks may be on the fire engine before the night is out! I'm not enjoying this weather so I'm sure the bees aren't!

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[Feckless Drone]

Not good today on the east side of the country.

[gavin]

Five inches of snow where I am and the beginners class tonight cancelled ...

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[wee willy]

Just back from a walk with some other old codgers , bright but cold starting but high cloud and temperature on the up :)
WW


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[prakel]

First tee-shirt day (well, hour) here in the balmy South today. But still a long way to go.

1459

[gavin]

First tee-shirt day (well, hour) here in the balmy South today. But still a long way to go.



Sheesh! Must be warm, even the Buckfasts are outdoors ...

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[prakel]

Sheesh! Must be warm, even the Buckfasts are outdoors ...

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She aint a 'proper' one but I suppose a distant ancestor might have been!

[GRIZZLY]

Well, S.W Scotland has finally caught the bad snow !. We're well and truely snowed in with the wind piling drifting snow all round the house. Our wind speed is approaching 40 mph and fine powdered snow has filtered into our woodshed , covering everything inside to a depth of 6 inches. We also had a brief power cut last night but fortunately thats been put rught. I'm not going to look at the bees because - like captain Oates " I might be sometime coming back". I think Jon has somewhat similar conditions over the water.

[Jon]

Yep. Same here 40 miles to the west. Horizontal driving snow.

This time last year (http://www.sbai.org.uk/sbai_forum/entry.php?526-Checked-a-few-more) it was over 20c.

[Neils]

Eek.

[Trog]

Blowing a hoolie here but no snow; just grey. A few snowflakes drifted around aimlessly earlier but it's too warm for them to settle. Glad I finished digging the onion plot yesterday while it was still sunny and dry (albeit cold). Put some syrup on two colonies yesterday as I can guarantee nobody will be out robbing for a day or two! Others still have candy and living bees near it ... but how many, other than the ones I saw at the feed hole, I've no idea!

[Bridget]

Forecast here for 135mph gusts on the top of Cairngorm. Here it's just cold, windy with snow flurrys.

[gavin]

Digging?! You'd need a hovercraft to get on most land around here.

Today our regular morning March snowfall was unusually light by recent standards. However we have a bitterly cold Scandinavian hoolie to end all hoolies. A three-brick hoolie, only I'm not going anywhere near an apiary today.

If any Tayside bees survive this winter they must have special properties (or a special keeper of course).

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[Trog]

Only 25mm rain all this month - very dry so ideal for digging, even if the wind's been a bit cold from time to time. Most of the month, though, we've had lovely sunshine and quite warm out of the breeze. The bees got out to the hazel, whin and snowdrops but haven't been out much recently due to low temperatures. I see the first of the pussy willow's out now but it's late arriving this year. Hope it warms up soon so the bees can enjoy it.

[gavin]

Only 25mm rain all this month - very dry so ideal for digging, even if the wind's been a bit cold from time to time. Most of the month, though, we've had lovely sunshine and quite warm out of the breeze. The bees got out to the hazel, whin and snowdrops but haven't been out much recently due to low temperatures. I see the first of the pussy willow's out now but it's late arriving this year. Hope it warms up soon so the bees can enjoy it.

Did manage some digging early in the month when we had a dry spell, but since then the only time I would have walked on the allotment soil was when it was frozen solid. At lunchtime it was still covered in icy snow.

Looks like we're heading for another year of East-West differences .....

[Bumble]

Looks like we're heading for another year of East-West differences .....

And north - south, if you include this far south. We're paddling again.

[wee willy]

Looking through the lounge window into the fading light! A blizzard driven by gale force winds !
Last weeks frenzied pollen gathering long forgotten. :(
WW


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[The Drone Ranger]

Rape crop problems England/Wales (http://www.fwi.co.uk/articles/12/03/2013/138115/poor-oilseed-rape-crops-at-risk-after-wet-weather.htm)

Wonder what Scotland will be like

[gavin]

I suspect that it will be OK on the slopes, but any crop on the flat, low, poorly drained land is at risk.

Interesting that the article predicts an increase in spring rape, though still a small area compared to winter OSR.

[The Drone Ranger]

Thanks a lot for the fix and the info Gavin
I think it might be an interesting season if this weather keeps up
Last year was horrible because in the early part there was a spell of warm weather switching to wet
That affected the bees themselves in a disruptive way they were all suited and booted with nowhere to go
This year the bees might be in tune with the weather but the early rape might not be so early ?

[Poly Hive]

Look for pigeon damaged OSR. Tends to be later which is a help. Spring OSR yields poorly, mind you these days winter OSR is not so great either. The days of 8 weeks flowering are sadly gone.

PH

[GRIZZLY]

What weather !, 8 foot high snow drifts completely surrounding the cottage and then no electricity for 3 1/2 days.Could only get out thro' the front door and took until now to dig round to the back door. Still havent managed to get thro into the back garden to check on the bees. The council digger cleared a narrow channel along the road which was completely filled with snow from hedgetop to hedgetop. He then kindly dug thro' the 20 feet of high drifts blocking us in. Managed to drive into town to replenish our dwindling stores. I recon I've got another 60 feet of digging to go thro' before I can see how the bees have fared. I'm pleased I managed to get some candy on before this lot set in.

[gavin]

Wow! Take care John.

Do you have pictures?

[GRIZZLY]

Wow! Take care John.

Do you have pictures?

I stil am struggling putting pictures on the web. Yes we've got a lot of pictures.If you email me your web address I'll send you the pictures and you can put them on the web for me , if that's allright.?
Perhaps if you email the instructions I might be able to post my own photos in future.

[greengumbo]

I stil am struggling putting pictures on the web. Yes we've got a lot of pictures.If you email me your web address I'll send you the pictures and you can put them on the web for me , if that's allright.?
Perhaps if you email the instructions I might be able to post my own photos in future.

Wow good luck.

I seem to be in a microclimate of snow but not as bad as that ! Aberdeen and the immediate surround are clear but we had another 3 inches last night only 13 miles out. Birds going mad for seed this morning and fieldfares back in the garden.

[GRIZZLY]

146814691470 Hi Gavin, my computer literate wifey has managed to upload the photos.

[gavin]

Goodness me, that is quite something. Thanks John, and Mrs Grizzly. The mild SW mustn't be used to such treatment especially in late March. I'll bet the bees are mostly fine.

I asked at our Dundee meeting last night about winter losses so far and they didn't seem too bad yet, as far as folk were aware. One had lost three from five.

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[Trog]

Wow! So much for the gulf stream! Hope the bees are OK, Grizzly. I agree last year was worse with the hot March then wintry April; however, our lot have had very few days when cleansing flights were possible this winter. I'm not looking forward to opening up the hives when the weather permits.

[GRIZZLY]

Finished digging at last.Slight thaw now. Some bees completely burried under snow but o.k. after being dug out. Small amount of flying going on. Lost quite a few fruit trees crushed under the weight of snow. Lost no bees yet however.

[greengumbo]

Just had a coffee break wandering around the local botanic gardens. You could kid yourself it was spring out there today ! Watched bees working the crocus and hellebore like mad. Lovely stuff.

[Trog]

Lots of activity around the hive entrances today despite the cold wind. Hope they're not just busy robbing each other!

[Bumble]

Good luck Grizzly, and anybody else who's been snowed in.

Too cold here for bees to be doing anything other than huddle round the fondant - I hope.

[greengumbo]

Just had a coffee break wandering around the local botanic gardens. You could kid yourself it was spring out there today ! Watched bees working the crocus and hellebore like mad. Lovely stuff.

Ah well I knew that would be short lived. Snow snow and more snow. Here I was all armed with my macro lens and tripod for todays coffee break :(

[gavin]

Ah well I knew that would be short lived. Snow snow and more snow. Here I was all armed with my macro lens and tripod for todays coffee break :(

The day started really sunny here but it is going downhill fast. Yesterday's lunchtime stroll took me to the patch of hellebores where I often see my first bumble bee. The flowers are only just coming out, about a month later than last year. No bees, too cold (.... no ... was about to do a neonic joke there but I really shouldn't).

The cherry plum trees (regrowth from rootstocks from old trees in the orchard) have buds showing white, ready to pop right over the bees. Willow trees have been waiting patiently for their day in the sun. Snowdrops aren't even done yet. Spring is going to come (one of these days) in a big rush.

[Bridget]

Feels warm in the sun after -8 degrees last night but its really only -2 and never got above 5 degrees yesterday with a cold east wind so no flying here yet. Crocus all bashed by the snow but the resilient little snowdrops still perk up each day.

[greengumbo]

The day started really sunny here but it is going downhill fast. Yesterday's lunchtime stroll took me to the patch of hellebores where I often see my first bumble bee. The flowers are only just coming out, about a month later than last year. No bees, too cold (.... no ... was about to do a neonic joke there but I really shouldn't).

The cherry plum trees (regrowth from rootstocks from old trees in the orchard have buds showing white, ready to pop right over the bees. Willow trees have been waiting patiently for their day in the sun. Snowdrops aren't even done yet. Spring is going to come (one of these days) in a big rush.

There was a speaker at the WBK convention last week, Tim Sparks (http://www.zoo.cam.ac.uk/zoostaff/csg/sparks.html).

Gave a great talk on phenology and the coming and going of the seasons. The past two decades have shown that spring is significantly earlier than ever before (in recorded records!) but that this year was a massive outlier :(

Really cool research methods as well.....checking the leaf coverage on old successive photos of trees behind the cenotaph in london on rememberance day, people recording when they hear the first cuckoo while sitting on an outside dunny near their house. Some brilliant wee individual stories about those of us with slight OCD that record everything - beekeepers must be amongst the best/worst for that !

He reckons it will come with a boom and be spectacular this year. Hope so !

[Jimbo]

Just back from one site where I have polyhives. Warm in the sun but no bees flying. On checking all OK with the bees huddled under their bags of sugar. If fact most of the sugar bags were untouched so they were not needing it.

[Trog]

Plenty of bees out and about today (though from the way they were flying past me I wonder if some of their stores have maybe fermented!). Still too cold to lift lids but the forecast's good for the next week or so. Five lifted out of the horse's bucket after going for a swim.

One sign of spring: 1477

[The Drone Ranger]

Your are swimming at this time of year -- wow

[EmsE]

It's been a beautiful bank holiday weekend (but chilly out there). Finally we've managed to get out in the garden as its not been frozen or waterlogged. My raspberry canes have just begun to show signs of sprouting leaves- I'm normally harvesting the leaves at this time of year for the wine.

It was 5 degrees at midday when we visited the bees and one still came across the field to the car with us:D. I'm expecting my garden to jump into fast forward to try and catch up on its self once the weather starts to warm up. Will the bees do the same?

[Dark Bee]

The early afternoon here in Shamrockshire was quite pleasant, there was definitely a feeling that spring was here. Then the east wind started blowing again and it became bitterly cold once more. If we get a little rain and milder weather there will be a growth explosion here. If your bees are healthy and have a vigorous queen they will build up rapidly, nature is marvellous in it's ability to compensate.

[The Drone Ranger]

. My raspberry canes have just begun to show signs of sprouting leaves- I'm normally harvesting the leaves at this time of year for the wine.

EmsE
The field where I keep my bees is still covered in snow !!
How do you make raspberry leaf wine in your tropical paradise ??
I'm partial to a drop of wine but thought berries or something was the min requirement

[Neils]

Down in the balmy, tropical south, everything is poised. The cherries are out and a few dandelions right now but not much else. It's still around 5-7 degrees during the day, but the sun is out and while the wind is nippy it's pretty low.

[EmsE]

Hi DR,

I've just followed a bramble tip wine recipe using young raspberry leaves instead. http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/bramble.asp

It does give a lovely delicate wine and to make an extra special version of it, I'll add 3/4 pint of red grape concentrate.
When the roses are out on the cycle path then the fragrant petals make the best wine and it matures quickly!

Ps. I only boil them for 20 minutes, just long enough to kill the bugs.

[gavin]

Sounds like my pal Ron (http://cairnomohr.homestead.com) has competition. He does rasps the usual way but does shin up the local oak trees to do a leafy beverage. I should drag you along to see the place sometime when you're over.

[The Drone Ranger]

Hi DR,

I've just followed a bramble tip wine recipe.

Thanks for the link I might give it a go :)

Gavin
My Grandfather lived at the Horn Farm close to where the winery is now and I went to Errol primary school with a lad Gillies it wasn't a winery then just a farm

[gavin]

Jings! Ron, Mickey, the one with the shed business?

Was surprised to find my 6x grandmother was from Errol. Lived there 24 yrs myself.

You can come too when I drag Ems along.

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[Bumble]

but does shin up the local oak trees to do a leafy beverage. Is the brew any good?

I've got the oak trees and I've got the demijohns, all I need is the recipe.

[The Drone Ranger]

Jings! Ron, Mickey, the one with the shed business?


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I think he was called Richard
I was between 6 and 10 so 50 to 55 years ago . :)

[EmsE]

Is the brew any good?

I've got the oak trees and I've got the demijohns, all I need is the recipe.

There are a few recipes on line http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/oakleaf.asp
but I've not tried them yet for oak as the leaves are too high on the oak trees near me and shimmying up a tree just aint gonna happen!!! I did try birch leaves instead (just need to sit on the shed roof) but decided that it took so long to pick the leaves it wasn't going to be a regular brew. From memory, I think it tasted ok.
Of course, coming from the Rhubarb triangle, it'll soon be time to get my staple wine on the go.

[EmsE]

Sounds like my pal Ron (http://cairnomohr.homestead.com) has competition. He does rasps the usual way but does shin up the local oak trees to do a leafy beverage. I should drag you along to see the place sometime when you're over.

Do they do tasters:cool:

[Dark Bee]

Some rather nice childrens drinks being described on the forum these days.


"At the foot of the hill
there's a nice little still.
Which fills the air
with a perfume rare.
And ' twix both me and you
..........................................."

[gavin]

Do they do tasters:cool:

Of course! You might be one step ahead of them with your rhubarb though - don't remember that flavour on offer. *Now* I know what to do with that rhubarb coming up on the allotment.

G.

[gavin]

So, it briefly reached 8C today. The snowdrops are overlapping the willow and it is all a month or more later than some recent years. Red squirrels have spread into the estate - very nice to see (http://www.sbai.org.uk/sbai_forum/entry.php?619-Wey-hey!).

http://www.sbai.org.uk/images/MeggApr13_1sm.jpg

Did you notice that mouse guard hanging off?

http://www.sbai.org.uk/images/MeggApr13_4sm.jpg

I had six colonies with such a mouse guard rather than an entrance block, and four of them are now off, a couple completely. Their removal has been in stages overwinter. What would do that? The drawing pins holding them in seemed firm in October. Woodpeckers? Hedgehogs? Foxes? Something with a penchant for slightly whiffy dead bees accumulating on the floor?

Mice have been in. I can't see them being strong enough to wrest the front door off its hinges, so to speak.

This one has 6+ seams of bees that appear to be on brood-raising duties (a good size of cluster), plus some fondant which has softened and dribbled down the edge. And a row of mouse droppings at the side.

http://www.sbai.org.uk/images/MeggApr13_5sm.jpg

Whereas this one has more mouse damage with big flakes (comb destruction) and lots of droppings. The bees are hanging on and should build to a decent colony as long as she's not a drone layer.

http://www.sbai.org.uk/images/MeggApr13_6sm.jpg

Not looking in to check though - far too cold for lifting frames. I should get mesh floors on them all. I've much less idea what's going on over the solid floors.

[Neils]

I had something similar on one of mine last year with the mouse guard being removed. I put it down at the time to someone trying to be helpful as it was removed entirely and lying in front of the hive entrance. There was no other sign of disturbance in the hive.

[Feckless Drone]

Hi - how lovely to see those pictures Gavin. Now, do still have geese on the estate? Never seen mention in any books of geese as presenting a problem with an interest in the bees but maybe they like the odd thymol scented - acidic taste of a worker.

[wee willy]

Drawing pins aren't the most secure of fixings , an hour of sun expanding the metal mouse guard will loosen the pins, strong winds up through omf will eddy on exiting through 10 mil holes in mouse guard. It takes surprisingly little to dislodge a mouse guard so affixed !
VM


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[Black Comb]

Agree John.
I always put one in the middle as well as one at each end

[gavin]

The floors have the correx sheets in and are in a fairly sheltered spot. Don't think it was the wind. Geese are indeed possible. Still some left though numbers have been slowly declining overwinter. Is the demise of the geese the fox or possibly the sea eagle I mentioned on the BKF?

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[chris]

Just back from checking an apiary, and in front of a hive,dead, was a royal eagle. 1m90 wingspan, no visible wounds.A real beauty.

[greengumbo]

Just back from checking an apiary, and in front of a hive,dead, was a royal eagle. 1m90 wingspan, no visible wounds.A real beauty.


Poisoning ? Carbofurin would show the throat area skin as blue. Bit of a problem with it up here at the moment.

[greengumbo]

I collected a few WBCs for free from a beekeeper today who said I could have them. Big things but lovely looking. They don't look that much of a hassle to work with compared to what I have heard, other than having to remove the liffs which are not heavy. Not for me but for a wee garden project nearby.

[The Drone Ranger]

Just back from checking an apiary, and in front of a hive,dead, was a royal eagle. 1m90 wingspan, no visible wounds.A real beauty.

You are just kidding right??
It might be just a drone or something Varifocals can do that sometimes

[GRIZZLY]

My poor old bees are still struggling to find pollen.The whins are still buried under feet of snow. Lot of snow/ice damage to trees and shrubs. They are all still flying actively tho'. Only lost one so far,was a late swarm so probably had a failing queen. Died with plenty of food left in the hive. Waiting for the weather to warm up 'cos I've got to Baily comb change a couple of colonies from 16x10's to National poly hives. We get Sea Eagles down here but havent touched my hives so far !!

[gavin]

These eagles could be the ones picking off the mouse guards (and the geese). They probably do it on purpose so that they can come back and get the mice later.

Smashing bird, pity to hear of its demise. In case anyone is curious ..... l'aigle royal, en anglais, c'est 'Golden Eagle'. Chris has been away too long!

Our white-tailed (or sea) eagles dwarf the goldens: wing span up to about 2.4m (8 feet). You don't want to be gadding about in the orchard in a (small) deer suit when they're around. Didn't know that they reached Galloway.

[GRIZZLY]

Rare ,but I've seen the odd one following fishing boats in the north channel. Had Peregrins chasing the neibours pigeons around my hives tho'.

[Trog]

Don't want to swank (well OK I do) but they're common as muck round here. This photo posted on Tobermory Otter Fund's facebook page1482 That's 7 sea eagles on the beach!

[The Drone Ranger]

So that's where they all go on holiday

[gavin]

So - does anything pick off your mouse guards .... and, have you ever tried dressing up in a small deer costume and prancing about in the paddock?!

[Neils]

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5225/5610862361_cb4ea6fec8_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/33552301@N05/5610862361/)

One of these do you?

[Trog]

No to both, Gavin. A couple of the nearest sea eagles came and took a look at the hens but I have more problems with buzzards as hen-killers (usually just one rogue buzzard gets a taste for hens now and again). Oddly enough hen harriers never bother them and although the regular peregrine causes the cockerels to sound a warning, he's more of a problem for other birds. I have to check the hives every morning in case the deer have used them as scratching posts. (When our B & B ad says 'wildlife on the doorstep' it's no exaggeration; the deer even chomped the primulas in a tub on the doorstep!)

[gavin]

The buzzards on the estate were making themselves unpopular by knocking off a pheasant a day at one stage. Seemed entirely reasonable to me that such a predator helped itself to the easy meals on offer.

Neil - that must be a goldie. I can't imagine anyone having a sea eagle on their arm and still remaining upright.

[greengumbo]

1483

Here is a picture of one of my friends who is involved in the tagging of white-tailed eagles around Scotland. What an amazing job (if you have a head for heights!). Pretty rank smell in that nest though :)

[gavin]

See - a couple of half-sized sea eagles under each arm and he has to sit down. What a cracking job though. Just hope that he changes his breeks before he goes home. Looks as happy as a pig in sh%!.

[fatshark]

Pretty rank smell in that nest though :)

He could have waited ...

Sorry

[brothermoo]

Removed the remnants of a colony from the eaves of a house today.. reached a balmy 10degrees so I finally went for it (owners selling it, so wanted it out asap).

Didn't know what to expect but it turned out to be a small cluster left on loads of comb. Luckily enough my dad lifted a comb out with her majesty sitting on it.. I thought I was going to have to use a cone to get the bees and lose the queen.

They are in a polynuc with 2 frames of stores and a tray of fondant, probably overkill but these Aw the only live bees I have ;)
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[Neils]

Fingers crossed BM. Have they got any space on the combs with stores for the queen to lay?

[brothermoo]

Oh aye one frame is full but there are 2 half frames of stores so she can lay there. Here's hoping!
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[Jon]

Nice one.
Bound to be the first cut out in NI this year.
Did you drive it home with the siren on?

[brothermoo]

:D if only I was allowed to put one in my car!!

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[Neils]

Today I've been in optimistic mode, putting together supers and making up frames. For once I've actually got too many super frames and not enough supers made up to keep an empty one on top of each hive as is my preference so it's been mostly putting supers together. There is a sense of satisfaction watching the big pile of unassembled kit in the box in the garden starting to go down though, I might even get to a stage where I can move some stuff out of the shed and get to the freezer again :)

This year I've decided to ditch nails and use screws instead. Far easier to take things apart again if something goes wrong. I'm still using wood glue anyway as it only takes a sharp smack with a mallet to break the glue seal. despite drilling, countersinking and then screwing (with a single drill) it still feels like a lot less work that using nails, bonus all round.

First, lone bee patrolling the garden looking for forage also spotted, just in time for the rain to come back again :(

[The Drone Ranger]

We Had Sleet ....again !!
More tea vicar :)

[EmsE]

Another beautiful day here (sorry DR :o) & the bees were flying well, bringing in lots of pollen. One of my hives is in a sun trap so we managed to get the queens clipped & marked. The hives are in the brick base remains of an old green house ( about waist height) with the ground surrounding the hives covered black weed membrane and you could feel the warmth from it. In combination it really makes a big difference to the apiary in the corner of the turf field where it was too cool to open the hives.

If anything, we could do with a bit of midnight rain just to ensure the trees have enough juice for the spring flow

Edit: and we spotted our first bumble queen in my garden today:cool:

[Bridget]

Edit: and we spotted our first bumble queen in my garden today:cool:
I saw an enormous bumblebee yesterday when my bees were out and about in the sun. ( Snowed all day today). How do you identify a queen bumble bee Emse

[wee willy]

Queen bumbles are huge in comparison with the workers , Drones are smaller than workers !
WW


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[mazza]

I saw an enormous bumblebee yesterday when my bees were out and about in the sun. ( Snowed all day today). How do you identify a queen bumble bee Emse

At this time of year it's only the queens that will be going about, as they have been hibernating over the winter and are only just starting to look for suitable nest sites. You won't see workers until at least June as the queens are still the primary worker for the colony until then; and once the workers are numerous enough to be able to forage the queen will stay in the nest and concentrate on laying brood. The workers and males are a lot smaller, and a lot of the species' males have yellow tufts on their heads. There is a lot of information available (including id guides) on the bumblebee conservation trust website

[EmsE]

Those enormous bees that look they couldn't possibly stay airborne :) but absolutely beautiful.

[greengumbo]

Snow on the ground again this morning. Will it ever end. Was reading the Scottish beekeeper magazine over brekkie and getting increasingly bored by the pesticide stuff. Is the magazine now a propaganda device ? Endless letters but some nice stuff on a "healthy hive" which cheered me up.

[gavin]

Including one letter writer that says that he 'appreciated the respectful tone of the debate' then three paragraphs later accused 'one of the scientists' of failing to mention that there are 'proven risks' and also failing to mention that 'the particular neonicotinoid used to treat the winter oilseed rape that he is so keen to see continued is NOT one of the ones that the EU are proposing to bring in a 2 year moratorium on. This too he failed to mention.'

Hardly a respectful tone, and also a little confused as the scientist did mention bumble bee concerns and the seed dressing neonics *are* the ones the EU tried to get agreement to ban. I think that part of his confusion comes from hearing about thiacloprid, the bee-friendly one now used to (sometimes) control pollen beetle.

I have it on good authority that the scientist concerned is 'so keen to see' the proper application of science and a balanced view of eliminating risks versus permitting efficient crop production, rather than wish to protect neonicotinoids per se, but that sort of nuance seem lost on some.

Nigel isn't taking sides. Send him decent prose on the topic - or any other relevant one - and he'll publish it.

[drumgerry]

Yep - not one of the SBA mag's finest issues this month but credit to Nigel for not taking sides. It's been said a million times before - all of this Neonic stuff is a complete smokescreen to distract from the real problems facing bees and other pollinators. Habitat loss, monoculture etc etc. It frustrates me no end that all of the funding/research is being thrown at this one area when there's so much else that could be done to make the lot of the bees a happier one.

Ps - GG no snow over here this morning and it looks like Spring might actually get underway come the weekend!

[The Drone Ranger]

I would like to see a chalkbrood survey

[prakel]

Way too much neonic stuff cluttering the place up at the moment. Practical beekeeping has got to be far more interesting but it looks like the vociferous minority have achieved their goal and hijacked the bee forums; it's great when you can get the gullible to do your work for you.

Reading these forums is now like wading through treacle in concrete boots.

[Jon]

And some of the anti pesticide campaigners are not even beekeepers or at best have a marginal interest in bees.
Guys like Murray McGregor who make their living from bees must be pulling their hair out as agendas pushed my marginal pressure groups could adversely affect his livelihood. A ban on seed treated oil seed rape would be likely to greatly reduce the acerage sown.
Given that turkeys rarely vote for Christmas, his interests are probably closely aligned to the interests of bees in general although bringing in imports is certainly a risky business in my opinion.

[GRIZZLY]

Here we go again!. No sooner than our snow melts and the temperatures go up slightly - DOWN COMES THE RAIN accompanied by high winds. I'm now desperate to get into the bees as I need to change a couple of colonies into nationals from 16 x 10's (Baily comb change) and then transfer the lot into poly hives. I need to do a disease check as these 5 colonies have been partially neglected over the last couple of years.They need to be put on varroa floors then be treated with Apivar to see what their mite burden is. I know for certain they weren't O.A.'d at christmas by their previous owner. They have however been flying very strongly, bringing in loads of pollen. My bees back at home don't seem too bad following their burial in 6 feet of snow. Ive now got to keep everything crossed for a couple of good days of weather.

[Trog]

A bit warmer here today and we've had some rain at last. Checked all colonies still had candy/frames to clean out above the crown boards then went back later when the sun came out for an hour. All flying strongly and bringing in 3 types of pollen. Pussy willow, dandelion and probably gorse. Judging by the heavy landings by some of the the non-pollen ones there was some nectar to be had, too. One of these days I'll be able to do the first spring inspection but I learnt all I needed to know for the time being without interrupting them ...

[nemphlar]

Someone towed mull to the med? even the weeds are struggling round here. Spring will need to really go to catch up this year though there is a cupful of frogspawn in the pond

[Trog]

We had frogspawn back in February but nearly all of it dried up. Last night I was surprised by 12 singing frogs in the back pond and wondered if the females are able to produce further eggs if it's obvious to them that the first batch have failed. Sure enough, there's a new patch of frogspawn in amongst the small tadpoles from the earlier batch. (The tag line for a local Italian restaurant here is/was 'Mull on the Med'!!) Much nicer than the Med, though ... less crowded!

[The Drone Ranger]

We had frogspawn back in February but nearly all of it dried up. Last night I was surprised by 12 singing frogs in the back pond and wondered if the females are able to produce further eggs if it's obvious to them that the first batch have failed. Sure enough, there's a new patch of frogspawn in amongst the small tadpoles from the earlier batch. (The tag line for a local Italian restaurant here is/was 'Mull on the Med'!!) Much nicer than the Med, though ... less crowded!

12 singing frogs from Mull http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpevZ0-wUYQ

[GRIZZLY]

Charming D.R. Are you sure it's not the mull of Kintyre ?

[The Drone Ranger]

Charming D.R. Are you sure it's not the mull of Kintyre ?

Oh No ! Doesn't Paul McCartney own mull ?
clanger!
http://www.freewebs.com/1969clangers/w1.htm

[Trog]

Mulligan's Tyre (as a famous DJ used to call it) is well south and east of the Isle of Mull ... and it's mainland. Surprising how many folk get mixed up! For that matter, I wonder how many people try to do day trips to Iona and Staffa from Kintyre?

[Neils]

Today was a complete washout. I had grand plans to at least swap out floors and maybe take a peek under the crown boards. That said, second hand reports continue to arrive that hives that I was sure weren't/aren't going to make it are flying.

I've been critical before about the degree of worry that some posters on forums have over their bees. My continued experience is that they're hardy little buggers with an amazing capacity to surprise. That said I'm still not counting my chickens though the queen in one hive survived two of my attempts to introduce a new on because she was obviously dead so the winter/spring should be nothing :D

[Bumble]

Today was a complete washout. I had grand plans to ...
We're thinking of turning the whole of our garden into an organised bog, instead of the disorganised and churned up patch of mud it's become. Today's rain has put parts of it under an inch of water, again.

The BBC did tell us it was going to 20C tomorrow, but that's been downgraded to 15C. The Mail is telling us to get our barbecues out.

[The Drone Ranger]

weather readers --can't believe a word they say
Or that McCartney did you know he's been lying about owning mull ?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-11510428
now he's been caught out he's getting shot
Apparently he thought it was an island and was amazed to find that you need water on all sides to be classed as one

[Trog]

Some folk regard islands with bridges to the mainland as no longer being islands - see Hamish Haswell-Smith's wonderful book on The Scottish Islands - Skye became a mere appendix!

[The Drone Ranger]

Some folk regard islands with bridges to the mainland as no longer being islands - see Hamish Haswell-Smith's wonderful book on The Scottish Islands - Skye became a mere appendix!
If that bridge had been there in the 1700's Bonny Prince Charlie would have been caught and Camilla Macdonald wouldn't have a margarine named after her
Apparently a very good nosema treatment for combs etc is UV
I'm looking at the fish tank lamps
Can't depend on sunlight

[Dark Bee]

If that bridge had been there in the 1700's Bonny Prince Charlie would have been caught and Camilla Macdonald wouldn't have a margarine named after her............................................... .................................................. .................................................. ...............


Was it not Flora MacDonald? I visited her grave once in the north of Skye, it was WINDY. I was amazed the steel braces could keep her gravestone upright.:rolleyes:

[Jon]

You may be making the deadly mistake of taking DR too seriously!

[The Drone Ranger]

You may be making the deadly mistake of taking DR too seriously!

Sadly I'm beginning to think you are right :)

Worryingly Dark Bee is the only person who spotted my Flora MacDonald blunder --What does that say about the state of Scottish beekeeping ?
P.s who is the Margarine named after? could it be Flora Nightingale the lady of the lamp?

[Trog]

(Well, I got your joke, Droney!)

However, wasn't the Lady of the Lamp called I-can't-believe-anyone-could-possibly-think-it-was-butter Nightingale? ;)

[The Drone Ranger]

(Well, I got your joke, Droney!)

However, wasn't the Lady of the Lamp called I-can't-believe-anyone-could-possibly-think-it-was-butter Nightingale? ;)

Yes Trog that's the one and thanks for digging me out of a hole with my previous gaffe
No wonder lovely gentle monoped Heather Mills had enough of McCartney
He claimed he owned mull(Bet he tell all the girls that)
Turns out he only had a farm on kintyre
Heather was right to dump him, he wouldn't even install an escalator in his private jet, the bounder

[gavin]

By some strange coincidence we had a Heather Mills staying with us some weeks ago. I counted her legs and am certain that she was a biped. Didn't raise the question of whether Paul had mislead her over the holiday home location. In fact we never talked about him at all.

Today was threatening to be spring, but it changed its mind. Nevertheless, in a rush of enthusiasm I opened some hives. They were bringing home the cherry plum pollen and big light yellow gobs of willow in the afternoon after the sun came out for a while. The first one surprised me - 8 frames of bees and a lot of brood raising going on. I should have known, that one has almost polished off its 12.5kg of fondant as well as its stock of Glen Isla heather honey. The second had about 7 frames of bees and the third has maybe 5-6. It complained loudly that I was lifting their roof off and sent a brave soul to inject me with venom and invite me to retreat. That one had been raising brood but had more or less stopped for a while then recently the queen has been laying eggs again. For the others I just lifted the lid and had a quick peek. Between 5 and 8 frames of bees in each of the 6 survivors. Saw worker brood in four, decided to leave the last two in peace as it was getting chilly but they had been bringing in pollen. All should be well in my apiary in 2013.

The association bees are a different matter. Really weak colonies which will take forever to build up to something decent.

[Dark Bee]

You may be making the deadly mistake of taking DR too seriously!

Not at all:rolleyes: Prince Charles and Camilla trysted in Nelsons County. I just felt the need to impress the more illustrious and famed contributors by announcing I had visited Skye. Anyone know where is the McCrimmon school in the Winged Isle? :)

[The Drone Ranger]

Dark Bee
The information about Flora MacDonald's gravestone would have got hundreds of points on QI, very impressed
lately I've been googling Camilla furiously (with little success re Nelsons county)

Sorry about the error in the Heather Mills post I may have been thinking gastropod
Fortunately there wasn't anything else which might be considered offensive sorry Gavin
Good news on the bee front
impressed by your restraint not quizzing heather about Paul

[marion.orca]

Dark Bee - do you mean the MacCrimmon school ? It was a piping college at Borreraig, near Dunvegan on Skye and the MacCrimmons were pipers to the chiefs of Clan MacLeod. Not there now though if you were considering enrolling !

[Jon]

LOL there are actually a lot of bees in those colonies. Kieler my backside I'd like to see it tried. The space please remember is enclosed in poly not wood. Listening to club elders is good to a point but they dinna know much about poly. There are really only a handful who do, Murry McGregor being one, and Hamish Robertson another. Murray uses the same method for some of his which is to upturn a poly feeder and put the fondant under it.

I know which two boxes I photoed so I will up date on here or on my site as they progress. I have absolutely no concerns, and neither will you in a few years time.

PH

Any update on this colony?
I have seen a lot like this recently and very few are likely to survive without a serious amount of attention.
I have some in apideas as I reckon this is the best way to keep the queens alive until more bees are available later in the season.

[Dark Bee]

Dark Bee - do you mean the MacCrimmon school ? It was a piping college at Borreraig, near Dunvegan on Skye and the MacCrimmons were pipers to the chiefs of Clan MacLeod. Not there now though if you were considering enrolling !

Thank you Marion, I was in fact enquiring on behalf of Mr. Drone Ranger, to help him recover from his infatuation with Camilla. He has abandoned beekeeping in favour of alpacca breeding and I though that perhaps playing the coel mor would be quite therapeutic for him. I did check that Ireland was a long way from Scotland.

[gavin]

Thank you Marion, I was in fact enquiring on behalf of Mr. Drone Ranger, to help him recover from his infatuation with Camilla. He has abandoned beekeeping in favour of alpacca breeding and I though that perhaps playing the coel mor would be quite therapeutic for him. I did check that Ireland was a long way from Scotland.

DR does live out in the wide and under-inhabited wide valley called Strathmore, so a spot of pipery wouldn't annoy too many neighbours. There are dangers though. A colleague who collaborates on a current project is a piper. I have to sit to one side of him as his left ear hardly functions at all now. When you learn which one is defective it is a simple task to decide whether or not you wish him to follow the conversation, and choose your pew accordingly.

These alpacas are charming creatures, at least in picture form. We sometimes mount displays on the origin of potatoes, so maybe one day I'll be seeking a loan of a couple. The very same people who domesticated the vicuña also gathered wild potatoes on their travels up and down the Peruvian Andes. In those days you had to freeze-dry your spuds high on the mountain, trampling them underfoot in the late morning after they had frozen solid overnight. Maybe they even engaged their alpacas in the task, pre-history wasn't too good at recording such detail. That trampling squeezed out some water. Before long, your wild, poisonous spuds had dried. However they were still poisonous, so the next stage was to soak them in a pond or stream for a few weeks. Once you re-dry your spuds you have a nutritious product which is light and will keep forever if stored dry (we have some bought in a market in the 1960s). Grind it up and, well, see below. There are lots of things you can do with it.

So, these alpaca domesticators migrated up and down the mountains with their stock, gathering and replanting wild spuds. From there it was but a small step to replanting the tastier, non-poisonous variants and before you know it you've domesticated the potato as well. Now that you have *real* productivity, you can have settlements, villages, and before you know it whole civilisations with their own particular takes on life.

Of course to make the better combinations of genes in those spuds you need bees to shift pollen around from one plant to another, and there we are, I'm back on topic.

These guys seemed to think that their freeze-dried potato was the latest in technology, but I'm not so sure. Funny how these things go in circles.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NejkiMWhYXg

[The Drone Ranger]

Lots of QI points for your post Gavin
there's more to potatoes than meets the eye
A sort of potted history :)

Black bee is right I need some new interests
Piping might be risky those guys get some incurable lung fungus for starters
The folks here at the asylum think macrame

[gavin]

There is indeed. I'll bet that the world's first stovies were made from vicuña/alpaca and spuds. Maybe one day I'll give you more on the fascinating story of the spud.

On the other hand the Andean peoples didn't have iron until the Europeans came by to pillage their rich heritage including their genetic resources, so how would they do that? There's only so much you can do with pottery, cooking pits and animal hides.

While I'm on a roll, how about this for a remarkable link across the cultures? Top one is the Andean version, the pre-European versions didn't have the iron foot. Bottom one is the tool our ancestors used once we borrowed the potato. Were we using something similar before the potato arrived?

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wODI43kFMwY/T-dVdQ2s9EI/AAAAAAAAAWY/0jGOnrEJ2is/s320/chakitaqlla.bmp

http://www.macaskill.com/History/BillsHistory/Plowing.JPG

[The Drone Ranger]

Fishing is a fine hobby
Here's Bill Dance showing how its done
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjxXrVsojC8

[gavin]

I was driving something very similar to Mr Dance today. Part of our bean planting activities. Back to potatoes tomorrow .... thankfully, as my back can't take any more of what it was doing today.

Then ... on Saturday .... back to some kind of bee activity (well, you have to try .... ). We're inviting our beginners to come and play with equipment given that opening hives doesn't look like being sensible.

[Dark Bee]

Gavin,
Thank you for information on the origins of the potato. It was interesting. I was reading recently that someone here is growing the potato type that failed during the 1840's famine. Incidentally the gentleman in the black and white photo seems to be using a wooden spade, or should I go to Specsavers?

[gavin]

I believe it to be a cas chrom, (our) gaelic word for a foot plough, narrower than a spade.

Lumpers? Fortyfold? I'd save the space for that great Irish potato, Rooster.

Sent from my BlackBerry 8520 using Tapatalk

[The Drone Ranger]

Opening hives weekend Gavin>>Saturday 45% chance rain>>Sunday 98% forecast might change again though
Is Rooster a new potato or have they just re-branded an older variety --like pink lady apples

[gavin]

Opening hives weekend Gavin>>Saturday 45% chance rain>>Sunday 98% forecast might change again though
Is Rooster a new potato or have they just re-branded an older variety --like pink lady apples

We have a bunch of beginners desperate to get stung, and had earmarked Saturday for the purpose. So we'll clean and paint and hammer and nail instead, and if the wind drops and the sun comes out maybe we'll open a hive after all. The main hands-on day will be postponed until spring does properly arrive.

Rooster was bred by Harry Kehoe (like most Irishman, a most entertaining man to spend time with) and that tells you it isn't an old variety. Rather flavoursome I reckon, and multipurpose. Comes from a cross involving Pentland Ivory and a breeding line.

[Dark Bee]

[QUOTE=gavin;17526]I believe it to be a cas chrom, (our) gaelic word for a foot plough, narrower than a spade.

Lumpers? Fortyfold? I'd save the space for that great Irish potato, Rooster.

Sent from my BlackBerry 8520 using Tapatalk[/QUOTE


In Irish it would be "cos chrom" - literally a bent foot or crooked foot. The lumper was the famine potato. I did not know that the "rooster" was an Irish potato. They are for sale in every shop here.

[Jon]

The Rooster and the Kerr's Pink are my favourite spuds.
How long has the Rooster been about Gav?
I have only noticed it in the shops for a decade or so.

[Trog]

Fishing is a fine hobby
Here's Bill Dance showing how its done
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjxXrVsojC8

I assume all those mishaps are deliberate? If not the man's a liability! For me, the best fishing involves a walk of varying lengths across wild country with a fly rod and several home-made flies. Or a long walk down to a river that might just hold a salmon or seatrout. Or a trip out to sea with a boat rod ... not much chance of any of that today :( Or, returning desperately to topic, opening a hive!

[gavin]

It gained Plant Breeders Rights in 1991 but didn't really take off as a variety until the early 2000s.

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[Jon]

It gained Plant Breeders Rights in 1991 but didn't really take off as a variety until the early 2000s.

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That figures. It has become very popular recently.

[GRIZZLY]

Still prefer the good old fashioned King Edward for flavour and versatility - grows well here too.

[The Drone Ranger]

I assume all those mishaps are deliberate? If not the man's a liability! For me, the best fishing involves a walk of varying lengths across wild country with a fly rod and several home-made flies. Or a long walk down to a river that might just hold a salmon or seatrout. Or a trip out to sea with a boat rod ... not much chance of any of that today :( Or, returning desperately to topic, opening a hive!


Bill Dance isn't messing up deliberately he's an American fishing guru lol!

Here's another example of his genius

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqLbQp4xZVs

Rained all day here again :)

[Jon]

Rained all day here again :)

Same here. Depressing.
looks to be a bit better tomorrow.

[Trog]

Wind n rain all day here. :(

Still, it'll bring the rivers up .. :)

But at this rate I'm going to have to feed the bees :(

[GRIZZLY]

Sunday seems to be the day for inspections - sunny with light winds and warm. I'll believe that when it happens. Heres hoping however.

[The Drone Ranger]

deleted for reasons of harmony

[gavin]

Having downgraded Saturday's beginners visit from a hands-on(-bees) session to a play-with-hammers-and-brushes session, I'm now nervously eyeing the forecast for the *next* Saturday and at present that's not looking too good either.

I have to say that I'm proud of the forum today (again!). I saw DR's post while away on business and fretted about issuing a 'please ignore an invitation to get political' notice but you're all better than that. No doubt we all have our own opinions on the lady just buried but they don't belong on here.

[Dark Bee]

.................................................. ................... No doubt we all have our own opinions on the lady just buried but they don't belong on here.

I concur and may the dead whoever they might be, rest in peace. Amen.

[The Drone Ranger]

Fair enough post gone

[gavin]

Saw some OSR on my travels today. It was filling out nicely, perhaps at the stage you would have seen in March in previous years. Only some of that field though, much of it was stunted and some of it non-existent. It is just within range of my bees but there is a closer one which I didn't pass today.

However the cherry plum is most definitely out and there are leaves starting to show in some of the trees and bushes at last.

[gavin]

Thanks DR. Some topics are just too hot even for SBAi.

Now .... back to the banter ....

[greengumbo]

Saw my first swallow of the season this morning and our elder and hawthorn are leafing now. Excellent.

Saturday looks nice up our way.

[Neils]

Spring is coming! A balmy 15 degrees here with sunshine! But too windy for me too want to open them up. This is my hive with a polycarbonate crown board and I can see there are a few more bees than last time I looked but its still only 4-5 frames of bees. The hive was also pretty light so in lieu of syrup I've given them another pack if fondant as insurance as there's still a lot of stuff yet to brave the elements.

Tomorrow I'll brave a look at the allotment and take stock up there and change the other floors over and maybe hazard a peek under the crownboards.

I parked the car next to a cherry tree in full blossom and while I was getting a clean floor out of the car it dawned on me I could here buzzing. The whole tree was absolutely teeming with honey and bumble bees.

[GRIZZLY]

At last !. Managed to go thro' 5 colonies in my out apiary. Three were absolutely booming with slabs of brood and lots of stores of sealed honey and pollen.The other two quite tiny , still with stores but small patches of sealed brood with eggs and larva. These were inherited from an ex ass'n member who got fed up with his bees and virtually abandoned them.Shame realy as the bees are very docile and friendly. I'm going to re-hive them in poly hives, treat them against varroa and coddle them a bit.The booming colonies are going to need supering a.s.a.p. The bees are about 1 mile from 100 acres of rape so should produce something when the rape grows and blooms. We went to look at the rape and I recon it will be at least a month behind last years crop. The trees are showing very slight inclination to swell buds so I think Spring will come in with a bang.

[Trog]

I probably should have been doing the bees today but tied 3 new flies last night with my friend and we were itching to try them out. Did take time to note that bees were flying well and bringing in pollen and to hope that they would be ready for the bonanza that's just around the corner now that the garden's decided it really is spring.

[Neils]

And just to try and get a picture or two

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8261/8664462602_a7057f07d3_o.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/33552301@N05/8664462602/)

For a pic taken on the phone I'm actually quite pleased with this one, an hour or so after moving the hive a couple of feet and finally getting it onto a higher stand as I think they get a bit damp on the pallet where they are.

[prakel]

@Neils; a very uniform looking gang of bees.

[Finno]

I believe it to be a cas chrom, (our) gaelic word for a foot plough, narrower than a spade.


Still off topic - known as a "loy" in Ireland from gaelic "láighe". Chrom element in Scottish gaelic name would describe the handle - crom = twisted or bent. Go here to see one in use http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=za3HAjcLpHU

Finno

[drumgerry]

At last managed to properly get a look at my colonies this afternoon. Bit of a mixed bag really. 9 colonies ranging from little to no brood to 4 frames of brood. Pollen sources available round here practically non-existent yet which might explain the very limited brood rearing. You get the feeling things will kick off big time once Spring properly starts. On a plus note saw a single willow catkin laden with yellow pollen this afternoon.

[wee willy]

More vandalism!
Hopefully they got their just desserts!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2312006/Bees-sweet-revenge-police-look-hive-vandal-stung-countless-times-killed-1-000-insects.html
WW


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[Mellifera Crofter]

Still off topic - known as a "loy" in Ireland from gaelic "láighe". Chrom element in Scottish gaelic name would describe the handle - crom = twisted or bent. Go here to see one in use http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=za3HAjcLpHU

Finno

Do you know if anybody still makes, and sells, loy spades, Finno?
Kitta

[Dark Bee]

Still off topic - known as a "loy" in Ireland from gaelic "láighe". Chrom element in Scottish gaelic name would describe the handle - crom = twisted or bent. Go here to see one in use http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=za3HAjcLpHU

Finno

Would it be accurate to say that use of the loy was confined to the western part of Shamrockshire and elsewhere the spade was used? I never even heard of of one until I read Synges "Playboy of the Western World". Thanks for the link, it was an interesting video to watch.

[Finno]

ion.ie/contact/contact.html[/URL]

Do you know if anybody still makes, and sells, loy spades, Finno?
Kitta
You might like to contact some of these people, they probably could advise.....http://www.loyassociation.ie/contact/contact.html

Finno

[Finno]

Would it be accurate to say that use of the loy was confined to the western part of Shamrockshire and elsewhere the spade was used? I never even heard of of one until I read Synges "Playboy of the Western World". Thanks for the link, it was an interesting video to watch.

Was especially used on hilly land and on heavy soils where horse drawn plough could not be used. Heavy drop forged spade of similar shape was used until very recent times - the back of the implement provides powerful leverage. A marvelous implement if one if breaking new ground for cultivation on ridges or "lazy beds" in the garden. Ridges are very suitable method of cultivation on heavy wet soils. Modern spades for use in suburban flower beds are absolutely useless. Hard work - probably the guy who first called them "lazy beds" sat on horseback and never turned a sod in his life!.

Finno

[greengumbo]

Lots of preparing ground and sowing of wheat in the fields around me this week.

Swallows back and checking out the woodshed :)

Getting bees in mid-may ! I have my combs from last years hive that have capped honey and a bit of uncapped - they and the hive have been acetic acid fumigated. Should I just chuck em out or re-use ? Prob not worth the risk I thought.