Welcome!

[gavin]

We've been playing with this software for a week or two, and now the time has come to set it free and see where it goes. Do chip in with your questions or observations, and pass the word on to all your online Scottish beekeeping colleagues. The SBA goes Interactive, and is very much looking forward to see how beekeepers use this new ability to talk to each other, talk to your national and local beekeeping associations, and discuss beekeeping issues with anyone dropping by.

The only rule is to be civil. Do try to keep on topic though.

[POPZ]

Gavin, congratulations to you and all that helped on getting this forum off the ground. It appears on first sight to be considerably more advanced than other forums - Whatever, it will be interesting to see where it goes and partake in it's travels!

[gavin]

Thanks POPZ - the extra features are down to vBulletin rather than anything we've done, and some other beekeeping fora use blogs and the newsy home page too. We need to work out how to use them to our best advantage though. Nice to see you posting.

G.

[Trog]

Hello, Popz. How easy did you find the registration process?

[Jon]

Hi gavin.
Feel free to delete off the jon1 jon2 and jon3 usernames.
I think you will get a lot of spamming if you don't use an e-mail verification.

[gavin]

Thanks Jon - will do. The Spam bots were smart enough to register through the email verification and we had one filling the forum with gobbledegook, quickly spotted by Trog. Since I've moved it back to 'Human Verification' via questions it seems to be keeping clear. I suspect that no system is perfect, but it seems the email verification is easily breached automatically and so isn't good to protect the forum.

[POPZ]

Hey Trog. Good to hear from you. I found it very easy to register and that means it must be easy if I can float through it. Sorry about delay in replying to your post but have been away up north where there was no WiFi - wonderful!

[Beer Hunter]

I've just joined up - first post :)
Best of luck with this forum, I hope it takes off. Its a brave move for the admins as I well understand the pressures of running a forum - I run a fairly large one for the shooting community.

Anyway, hope to learn a lot from you guys, I have a small farm and have been meaning to start beekeeping for a couple of years.
I'm half way through the "Beekeeping For Dummies" book which has really fired my interest even although it was primarily written for the US.

ATB,
Kev.

[gavin]

Excellent to see you here Kev, welcome! I really hope that you will get all the help you need. I know what you mean about running fora - there has been a huge amount to learn so far. We're just about at the point where we can invite lots of people in, so well done for finding us ahead of what I hope will be a crowd. There was one other name today I didn't recognise, but apart from that the members are all a select group invited in to try it out.

One more thing to try to do first, upgrade to the latest release of vBulletin. If that goes well I'll be happy. Is your forum vB4, and if so have you mastered automatic (cron?) backups?

best wishes

Gavin

[Beer Hunter]

Gavin,

Glad to help with the beta testing :D
I've tried vBulletin and several others over the years, but have now settled on phpBB as it allows more customisation than most.
I still use chron jobs to backup the databases "offsite".

The best thing about vBulletin is the strong support you will receive - you pay for it after all, so don't be afraid to ask them.

ATB,
Kev.

[gavin]

Thanks Kev. Cron jobs are next on my list. At the moment I'm doing manual mysqldumps, and feel quite pleased with myself that I got them working across two servers without having to call on the teenager in his bedroom upstairs!

I'll be closing the forum for those updates in 5 min.

G.

[Beer Hunter]

Well done - the update seems to have gone perfectly :)
One small tip you may want to consider - you show the forum software version at the bottom - i.e. "Powered by vBulletin™ Version 4.0.2" - you may want to consider changing it to just "Powered by vBulletin™" as hackers often look for specific versions of forums with known vulnerabilities to attack. With the version number at the bottom, it becomes easy to find with Google.

Functionally and cosmetically, it looks really good though :)

Kev.

[gavin]

Hi Kev

Well, it worked in the end although it took me a while to realise how to make it run. I wonder if it might be better to show that the forum actually is running on the latest updates as they ought to have vulnerabilities minimised? I don't know how to make that change anyway - replacing the vBulletin logo on top with the SBA one was a major breakthrough for me.

And where did you find those smilies?! It seems rather erratic in what it offers you each time.

I should also stop displaying my own inexperience! Hackers: I very much know what I'm doing!! (I wish ... )

G.

[gavin]

Hi Kev

Are you beginning your beekeeping just from books? I did it that way in the main, but had a friend to call on too. My books were this one for the basic introduction:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51nFhhzo5gL._SS500_.jpg

And then for all the detailed stuff:

42

I've heard people talk highly of Dummies, but my time as a beginner was before they were invented.

G.

Ooops! That's what happens when you pinch images off the internet. Second one is Ted Hooper's Guide to Bees and Honey.

[Beer Hunter]

Gavin,

If you click the reply directly below the post or "reply to thread" at the bottom of the post then the forum gives you just the the simple quick reply box - one without most of the features.
From there you can click "go advanced" and you get all the features including the smilies. You soon learn the shorthand for them all anyway :)

Forum vulnerabilities seem to be as common or more common in new releases of the software. Personally I don't like to hand hackers any more information than I need to.

Thanks for the recommendation on the books - I'll order them from Amazon later tonight :cool:

I've been watching a few videos from YouTube which have been great - its amazing how much more you can pick up from seeing something done rather than just reading about it.
Lets try the forums ability to play external video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi39aJ--cok
It works :D

Cheers,
Kev.

[gavin]

Thanks Kev :) Smilies re-found! :D

Thanks for the video - she really should have a lid on that extractor for safety! We did have a YouTube video here in an earlier trial (Dr Who and the Alien bees!) but in a fit of tidying the earlier blether I cleared it away. That seems to be one advantage over earlier vBulletin versions, the ability to post videos.

Thanks for the comments on vulnerabilities - it is great to have a forum expert on board. I'll look into ways of changing it.

Gavin

[POPZ]

Kev - just had to butt in here. I may be a bit old fashioned but amazed at watching a video on the forum. I have not done that before, and it is a very interesting one. Thanks for that.
POPZ

[POPZ]

Forgot to mention that I absolutely agree with Gavin regarding choice of books. I have read many, but those two are streets ahead for simplicity and clarity.
POPZ

[Beer Hunter]

Thanks both - just bough them both.
For anyone looking for them:
Bees at the Bottom of the Garden (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bees-Bottom-Garden-Alan-Campion/dp/0907908977/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266966389&sr=8-1)
Guide to Bees and Honey (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Guide-Bees-Honey-Ted-Hooper/dp/1904846246/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266966389&sr=8-4)

Kev.

[Calum]

I got the honey handbook by Kim Flottam for christmas. I cannot recommend it - unless you are beekeeping in the USA!

[gavin]

Welcome, Calum! Saw your blog - excellent to hear of your experiences in Germany. I've just emailed details of the forum to around 100 beekeepers in Scotland, so I'm hoping that we will have more along over the next few days.

[rourkie]

Hi gavin thanks for the email,looks great , hope it takes off, will be good to talk scotish beekeeping,regards rourkie

[gavin]

Thanks Jim, glad that you could make it.

G.

[Rhea15]

Hey, thanks Gavin for inviting me to join this forum it looks great well done. Im looking forward to learning more about beekeeping from you all which I am sure will be invaluable for my uni work!
Rhea

[Stromnessbees]

Well done, Gavin, for setting up a Scottish forum.
I'll try to pop in whenever I've got a spare minute.

Good luck with it anyway,
Doris

[gavin]

Wonderful to see you both joining in, Rhea and Doris. I hope that you both get something from it. Doris - the local association area can be for aspiring as well as actual local groups so if you think that an online meeting place is worthwhile I'm happy to set one up.

G.

[Lindsay]

Hi Gavin
Managed 1st post. Site is looking good - well done!
Not done any blogging before so it will be interesting to see what happens.

L

[Trog]

Hello Doris - are you really from Stromness? Lovely place! What's it like for bees up there? Hope still clear of varroa?

[Neils]

I hereby declare bristol the southern most city in Scotland. :)

looks good folks hope you don't mind an imposter lurking about :)

[gavin]

Can't you find a great-granny from Edinburgh or something?! We also have a man from Belfast hovering in the background. I think that his sister married a man with a Scottish-sounding name, something like that.

I was keen that our primary aim was to provide a means for the Scottish beekeeping community to communicate, rather than siphoning people away from other established fora, and that seems to be going well. Expertise from elsewhere will always be welcome though! Popz was wondering if I had an interest in testing your database for hive records. Feel free to start a new thread on it if you like as there may be others keen to try it.

[POPZ]

Popz was wondering if I had an interest in testing your database for hive records. Feel free to start a new thread on it if you like as there may be others keen to try it.

Gavin - as usual I have put my foot in my mouth, or something like that. I spoke to Nellie about this today and he would prefer not to pass it on yet as he still has more work in tidying it up first. This I absolutely understand, so apologies to both for jumping the gun.:o

[Neils]

I went to Dundee once if that helps :)

I've got time to gas about bees on another forum so I thought I'd take a wander over and see how it's done north of the border. I promise not to clutter up the place.

I'd really appreciate your feedback on the app, I'm on a phone ATM but will stick up a thread here for anyone who might be interested in giving some input when I'm back at the main computer.

Popz, no problem at all, more than happy for anyone interested to take a look and provide feedback, I just want to know who has it so I can make sure they have the latest version and that people are aware that it isn't at a point where people should be putting real information into it yet.

[Jon]

Can't you find a great-granny from Edinburgh or something?! We also have a man from Belfast hovering in the background. I think that his sister married a man with a Scottish-sounding name, something like that.

Hmm. The Jackie Charlton approach to eligibility.

I don't have any sisters, it was my aunt!
That's me off the hook then, as Belfast is nearer than Bristol.

Remember how Sarah Palin claimed foreign policy experience due to the proximity of the Rooskies to Alaska....
Well I can see Scotland on a clear day from the Antrim coast which is is not possible from the Clifton Suspension Bridge.

I have never been to Dundee though.

[Calum]

Hi

nice day here, lots of pollen and water being collected :
http://www.sbai.org.uk/sbai_forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=53&d=1267377813

Also a super film if your internet is not too slow...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJpqJcxCpAo Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Miiniji9ALY&feature=related Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fcMHreE6E8&feature=related Part 3

Sorry its in German, but great just to watch without sound. Some of the things they do (with school groups 2min50sec)) would give health and saftey a jump!

[gavin]

Excellent videos, many thanks Calum (well the first one was - I'll see the other two later). I can see that we have a lot of catching-up to do in Scotland!

G.

PS And a wonderful photo of the action at your hives!

[Stromnessbees]

Hello Doris - are you really from Stromness? Lovely place! What's it like for bees up there? Hope still clear of varroa?

Hi Trog

I live (and keep bees) in Stromness, but originally I am from Austria (Tyrol), where beekeeping is a bit easier than in Orkney (very few trees, lots of wind, long winters, cool summers).
We haven't got varoa here yet, and we will try to keep it out as long as possible.

There are about 20 beekeepers up here, with about 80 colonies between them, spread out over the islands. And there are lots of people wanting to start beekeeping. The challenge now is to produce lots of nucs in Orkney and to provide training at the same time. It's all starting from a very small base, we just formed the new Orkney Beekeepers' Association.

One thing I want everybody to remember: please don't bring/send any bees to Orkney! The risk of importing varroa is too great.

All the best, Doris

[Trog]

Wow! 80 colonies. So pleased to hear you're free of varroa, too. What sorts of bees do you have? Presumably not all AMM? On Mull we have lots of folk wanting to start but only about 11 colonies between us. Also doing all we can to keep varroa out. Do you reckon your members could spare any nucs to help us? Would be good for the gene pool and there are so few places to source varroa-free bees. In a couple of years we could then return the favour as it were, by letting Orkney have some good Mull bees.

Delighted to hear about the new association. Mull BKA has existed for years but been dormant for the last 20. We have just ... regenerated ... and are now forging ahead.

If you want to discuss things off-board, Gavin (Admin) has my email address.

Very best wishes, Trog

[gavin]

If you exchange Private Messages (known in the trade as PMs) copies will be sent also to the recipient's email address (without divulging the originator's email address, which you will have to add to the PM!).

Strikes me that there was a poster earlier today with a similar but not identical situation who might benefit from joining your discussion (but I'd best not expose that person's identity either!).

G.

PS Regenerated ?? Was that a cue for me to put the link to Dr Who back on the forum?!

[Trog]

:confused:

[Donald]

Hi, Donald posting here for the first time - to see if it all works and come up with something to say next time .....

[gavin]

Donald, Lindsay, Bizzy, Ron, Judith, Wullie, and everyone else who has signed up recently, welcome!

G.

Oh ... and Nellie and Jon!

BTW If you edit a post of your own quickly (within a few minutes, as in just spotted a spelling mistake) it is accepted without comment. A bit later and it says 'Edited by ... '. I seem to have super-human powers (you're not surprised, are you?!) and can edit at will, so I'll try to expose my edits by colouring them like this. If I remember.

[Stromnessbees]

Do you reckon your members could spare any nucs to help us? Would be good for the gene pool and there are so few places to source varroa-free bees. In a couple of years we could then return the favour as it were, by letting Orkney have some good Mull bees.


Hi Trog

I wrote 80 colonies, which was our count in autumn, we'll have to see yet what's left after quite a tough winter.
We are actually desperate to increase colony numbers up here, too, as 80 is a very small number for Orkney. On the outer isles some of the beekeepers just have a single colony, this problem needs to be addressed as otherwise these bees will succumb to inbreeding problems.

I think the way forward for Mull and Orkney is to try to increase colony numbers as much as possible locally, and to think about exchange later. We have done morphometry testing on a handful of colonies and the results were pointing towards Amm, but with some variation.

To get more varroa free bees you could ask Andrew Abrahams on Colonsay.

I also had the chance to visit the Isle of Man last October, which has several hundred colonies, mostly dark. They are currently testing every apiary on the island for varroa. If they can prove that they are varroa free they have a chance to get a bee import ban approved by the EU.

It'll be good to stay in touch through this forum,
Doris

[Trog]

Point taken, but 80 seems a lot to us! Very difficult to increase from 11, assuming all survive this winter, but we're trying! Just 5 nucs would make a huge difference to us. We're not looking for freebies, by the way! Quite a lot of Colonsay bees here already. I'd heard Man was varroa-free and it's interesting that they're testing every apiary. Hope they're also testing for the other nasties ... sometimes folk can be so focussed on varroa they forget bees can die of other things, too!

[beeanne]

The web-site looks great! Am sure it's going to take off.

[GRIZZLY]

Hi Gavin,really nice to have our own forum.I'll encourage our membership to join. JOHN ADAMS. Chairman Western Galloway Beekeepers.

[gavin]

Hi John

Great to see you here and to know that our reach extends to the far SW. I had asked the SBA Area Reps to circulate the associations in their areas, but I think that Fiona may not have email. I can put you in touch with Peter Stromberg (the W Area Rep) if you like (or you can just send him a PM here), if you don't already know him. Through the year there are quite a few emails circulated via the Area Reps, so perhaps you could offer to be the email contact for the Western Galloway BKA?

Welcome aboard, and I hope that you and your colleagues enjoy your time on the forum.

best wishes

Gavin

[GRIZZLY]

Hi Gavin,be pleased to take on the job.No I don't know Peter so you can put us in touch if you like.
Best regards JOHN

[gavin]

Welcome! To ... Anne, drumjerry, EmsE, Eric, Hamiish (two i's), Grizzly, Honeybunch, Jemima, Jimbo, jockanease, Kennycreed, Manzie, Mike and Mike Thornley, orcadia, queenB, snimmo243, Tony Riome ... and anyone I've missed who registered in the last few weeks (and indeed the many who registered before that). Nice to have you all along.

That's all!

[GRIZZLY]

Hi BDADDY,welcome to the forum !!!!!

[BDaddy]

Hi Grizzly. Thank you. Took your advice!! Just finding my way about at the moment, very impressive. Hope you're well. Watching your formic acid thread..interesting.

[gavin]

Welcome BDaddy! (and everyone else joining up recently)

Can you see Scotland on a clear day (perhaps if you climb a nearby hill)? Then you're in!

G.

:)

[BDaddy]

Thanks Gavin. Yes I can and try to get up there as often as time allows. Beautiful place!
Congratulations for a brilliant forum by the way.

[gavin]

About 6 weeks have gone by since I last said hello to everyone who had joined up lately, so: Welcome!! to you all ... but a particular welcome to tonight's new member as I just love creative user names ... so hello GlasweJen!!

G.

[Hoomin_erra]

Afternoon all.

Good to see a scottish forum. Hopefully means advice given will be more pertinent to local areas.

Me? I'm in the borders atm on the east coast, but will be moving to the Cabrach in 2 weeks. YAY!!!
I currently have 2 small colonies, results from an A\S i had to perform on a Nuc i got in June. Hoping they build up enough to survive the Cabrach winter which is apparently "interesting".

[gavin]

Welcome to you too Hoomin Erra! Nice name - did your mum and dad christen you like that? Shame what some folk do to their kids ....

There are people from Moray and Aberdeenshire reading this, so maybe you'll hear more about the interesting winter up there. Stock up on fondant and polystyrene sheets, that's my tip.

G.

[Fori]

Hi everyone,

I joined the forum last week but never quite got round to posting anything...ha so lazy I know! Anyway, I've only recently started to keep bees, been almost 5 months now but I'm learning quickly so that's good. I hope you are all nice to me :)

Fori

[gavin]

Welcome, Fori!

I'm sure that everyone will be nice to you, and if not just let me know and I'll sort them out!

G.

[beebreeder]

Hi Gavin
Just joined the forum, Hope you don't mind I'm from down south, (over the border) think we have conversed on one of the other forums, looking for some fresh blood and some nice in depth topics to talk about instead of " I've got my bees what next" if you know what I mean we all needed help at some time but books do help. Best of luck with the new forum
Kev
Wiltshire
PS Feel free to kick me out for being the wrong side of the border if you wish

[gavin]

Hi Kev

Welcome! (And the same to all the other recent new members)

You and Nellie can form our SW England branch.

And there was me grumbling loudly earlier this year when the BBKA wanted to come N of the border with their displays for their new sponsor .....

The forum has developed a strong Scottish flavour, just as I'd hoped, and so a few interlopers from elsewhere will be most welcome.

What kinds of bee do you breed? (I should just point out that broad-mindedness is something I think the SBA should be embracing to a greater extent .... )

Gavin

[beebreeder]

Hi Gavin
I bought 5 Carniolan Queens from A commercial Beekeeper near London (name witheld) Lovely bees and great to handle, I have subsequently found they are Kona queens and I bought them 4-5 years ago and so they are not pure anymore as I am running 30 plus hives now and with the help of a mutual friend in North Somerset am expanding fast ( he will laugh as we have met and he knows my size!!). I have ordered some of Roger Whites queens for next year as they come very highly recommended. I am planning to rear queeens from their daughters if all goes well. I am not into buying queens but do like to keep the gene pool diverse and am getting into II but thats another story. Had you thought of starting a Queen Rearing sub heading, I do not know the volume of q/rearing done in Scotland, I am certaily surprised by the amount of commercial guys in my area that raise no queens just buy in almost yearly.
kev

[gavin]

It could be a good idea to start a queen-raising section but I think that I'll leave it until next season now. One reason for starting a Scottish forum was that attitudes are quite different here. I was surprised at the number of people in these English fora who prefer to keep exotic strains and buy in queens regularly. Here it is probably fair to say that the majority view is that local is best, and that amongst the local types the original native type still exists and should be given help to persist. One of the bigger commercial beekeepers near me also likes to keep the genepool diverse as you put it - and so my bees get an interesting range of mates. Sometimes the crosses are vigorous and sometimes they make very angry bees indeed. A small group of us are planning an isolated mating site to try to keep selected, productive, gentle native types pure - with a bit of breeding you can recover really good bees from native stock.

all the best

Gavin

[beebreeder]

Thats probably the difference, when we had a Galtee queen and we talked AMM most of the beekeepers at our meetings did not have a clue what we were talking about and when the word BOUGHT queen with MONEY was mentioned a lot of them got the shakes. We also have very little area where isolated mating could be even half guaranteed, but a friend on exmoor knows of a place that if you put out apidea with virgins in they would never get mated as there are no other bees in the area and its low in a valley. The problem however would be keeping the strain pure enough without inbreeding problems as you have been talking of in another thread, has II ever been talked about or is that frowned upon north of the border?
kev
I do agree fully about native stock and selective breeding can give good tempered, prolific bees with disease resistance, ( I am in the same county as Ron Hoskins and know him and his work well)

[gavin]

I would say that II is seldom talked about - simply because it is rather too technical rather than any frowning! Maybe we can have a Ron Hoskins discussion in another thread?

[beebreeder]

Good idea Gavin, see what the concensus is on the subjuct, a guy willing to stay up to 2.00am in the morning inspecting mites both mature and nymphs has got dedication.
kev

[Alvearium]

Hullo Kev
Good to hear from the deep south and hope you find our forum interesting. Mostly we are trying to breed from our best local stocks and things are slowly getting off the ground here in Fife. The idea is to try to keep within our local strain while making sure we have a good gene pool. This way we hope to be able to fix desirable characteristics more easily. We have a real problem when there is an influx of Carniolans as the cross matings show a lot more aggressive tendencies. We had a good queen rearing course at the end of May and are pushing on with our plans for a late November course on 'Breeding Better Bees for Scotland'. Self sufficiency is the name of the game! I am getting very interested in the possibilities of bees with hygienic behaviour that are able to handle varroa. Do you have any news on that front?
Alvearium

[Jimbo]

Hi Kev,

I agree with Alvearium we are trying to breed from our local stocks and improve the strain of native bees. On the West Coast of Scotland we do not have the same problems as the people in Fife or Central belt of Scotland. We do not have large scale commerial bee farmers importing in other strains of bees. What we do have in our local stocks is a high percentage of native or near native Amm which we are trying to preserve. Once we can fix the strain and breed good quality native bees we might look at II but at the moment there is no need.
Jimbo

[Brian]

Well done Gavin. I wish I'd had access to such as this 20-25 years ago. The mistakes I've made - a lot of them painful too! To those just starting out on the road - ignore the cost of fancy stainless steel extractors with timers, thermostats and tea making add-ons. Get a hive and if, necessary, scrape your first frames of honey into a bog standard sieve sitting over a clean pot. Beekeeping is like every other hobby - it is only as expensive as you make it. Good luck all.
Brian

[beebreeder]

Hi Jimbo, Alvearium and Gavin
If we still had any semblance of AMM in our area it would be a miracle, but Ron Hoskins has got something going and its a great pity that all his pics and research was on the Moray Beekeepers site but that has changed servers and its all gone at the moment, but suffice to say that Ron has pots and pots of mites plus microscope photos of damaged varroa and all sorts of damage, his floor inserts are insect proof so nothing else causing it but then 18 months ago he started finding varroa nymths on the insert (they are white or virtually transparent) obviously being uncapped by grooming bees. His work is moving on from that in that he is trying to set up beekeepers in an ever increasing radius of his site with nucs and monitoring kit to check that grooming is still going on in the progeny, the idea being as the area gets bigger more and more drones will be around from grooming colonies, its a very long term project but as I stated earlier for a guy Rons age to be counting mites under a microscope at 2.00 am does show dedication to the cause.
kev

[Poly Hive]

Hello Gavin,

thought I should have a presence on my home turf as it were, although currently living in the south.

Some may remember me as "Spirtle" from the magazine. :)

PH

[gavin]

Welcome PH, and also Pete L, EmsE and all the other folk joining up since I last said something here. Also a special hello to anyone at yesterday's bee breeding event at Scotlandwell.

Now to try fighting my way through some snowdrifts ...

G.

[VEG]

Hello all some will know me from other forums as I use the same name on them all. I live in South Wales and hope I can contribute to this forum too.

[Jon]

Cheers veg. Good to see you here.

[gavin]

Croeso Veg! (no, I Googled for that ... )

[POPZ]

Nectarboy - welcome to the forum, I hope you enjoy it. Don't be afraid of asking questions on anything you wish to, there are plenty of veteran beekeepers as well as newbies on board. It will be interesting to hear and compare, thoughts and ideas, from your distant part of the world.

I notice you deleted a posting you made earlier. If you are having any problems, please get back to me.
POPZ

[necterboy]

Thanks for the welcome. I'm enjoying the reading. This is a fairly new format for me & I'm a little apprehensive and most likely not as computer savy as the majority of you.
All the best.
Alan

[Neils]

Fear not, mostly Drones with no sting ;)

[Trog]

Fear not, mostly Drones with no sting ;)

... and a tendency to be very loud and land heavily ... ;)

[necterboy]

Fear not, mostly Drones with no sting ;)

I hear you... I'm really enjoying reading the banter back & forth between you "bee people". Especially the discussions on CCD & Varroa. These are issues heading my way like a thunderstorm. Not looking forward to dealing with mites but I'm getting a good education on the devils here. All the best

Bee Positive

[tonybloke]

Hello to all, just joined the forum, thought I'd better say 'wotcha' ;)

[Adam]

Hi Tony. You have to say wotcha in a Scottish accent rather than a Naarfuk one!
For all those that don't know, Tony is just a mile or two away from me and the local association swarm co-ordinator.

Tony, another member, POPZ, used to live down here but escaped to the Isle of Mull.

[Dan]

Hello... my name's Dan and I'm here to get better...

[Neils]

Hey Dan,good to see you find your way here.

[gavin]

:)

Welcome Dan the Man.

Do you really need to get better?! I have a feeling that we will be benefiting more than you ....

[Dan]

Thanks guys - too kind :)

[gavin]

Welcome to the whole bunch of people who have signed up since I last said welcome. I'm glad that you're here and hope that you enjoy your stay.

Having been so comprehensively entertained by the Drone Ranger recently (even though I've been helping a beginner tonight with a dodgy swarmy Carnie stock which ultimately came from the Brechin-Forfar area!) I have to say that I'm particularly looking forward to getting to know tonight's new entrant, Dingus Magee. Haven't a clue who you are DM, but the the name sounds good already.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FV6M8dpRWrE

[Dingus Magee]

Welcome to the whole bunch of people who have signed up since I last said welcome. I'm glad that you're here and hope that you enjoy your stay.

Having been so comprehensively entertained by the Drone Ranger recently (even though I've been helping a beginner tonight with a dodgy swarmy Carnie stock which ultimately came from the Brechin-Forfar area!) I have to say that I'm particularly looking forward to getting to know tonight's new entrant, Dingus Magee. Haven't a clue who you are DM, but the the name sounds good already.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FV6M8dpRWrE

Hi there

First of all thank you very much for the warm welcome, as well as for the advice on another thread.

I loved the 'Dirty Dingus Magee' clip, Gavin, and have to say that I have neither heard of nor seen that movie. For me, the moniker 'Dingus Magee' came about as a CB radio 'handle' back in the early 80's! I seem to remember that it was the name of a character whom I identified with in a book that I'd started reading, but in those days, I spent a lot of time inebriated, so....? :rolleyes: Anyway, thanks for posting that clip...I have downloaded it and aim to put it on my bushcraft forum profile :o

As mentioned in another post, I'm a 'newbee' to beekeeping and am looking forward to making a start as soon as is practical. Don't know whether it will be possible to have a colony started this season, but at least I have made the first moves...have been meaning to have a go at this for years!

Anyway...thats enough from me for now...I'd best 'bee' off :p

A'ra best,

Dirty Dingus Magee ;)

[The Drone Ranger]

Italian Carniolan AMM all Ghosts ?

[gavin]

Yeah, well, I should have left out the carnie bit, I admit. Even if they are swarmy little beggars. Those debates are for elsewhere, this place is to welcome people. In case I never said it DL: welcome! Greatly enjoy your posts, refreshing to see a different perspective and great to see it expressed with humour.

[madasafish]

Hi . Exiled # Scot in Stoke on Trent, 4 xTBH, 2 x warre.. Mainly Carnies - fed up with swarms, moving to summat less swarmy..

# for heinous crimes like disliking whisky:-)

[gavin]

How is it possible to dislike whisky?!! Oh well, I suppose that I have met people who don't like honey, or sunshine, the Amm honeybee, the Green Wing comedy programme or Miranda Richardson. Takes all kinds I guess.

There's an 'Alternative beekeeping' area down below if you'd like to tell us your impressions of TBHs, Warres and their relative merits. Popz on Mull was going to try a TBH but I don't know if it happened. He tends to go quiet in the whale-watching season. I thought that we might risk a Warre once the association apiary has (non-swarmy) bees to spare.

Welcome aboard Madasa (for short). Remember, those swarmy Carnies are like boomerangs! (Oops, said I should have left that out before .... )

And all the more shy new entrants, including the delightfully named Monty Stubble. I hope that you are real and not one of those Spam thingies!

[Trog]

I think Popz bunged a swarm in his TBH this summer.

[gavin]

That doesn't sound like him? Surely he carefully placed it!

[Trog]

IIRC, several trips up a ladder were involved over more than one day but I'm sure each bee was carefully put to bed :)

Meanwhile it's been a swarmy year over here with the unaccustomed good July weather. Still a swarm somewhere on the loose from some ferals nobody knew about which in some ways is good news as long as they find a good home.

[gavin]

More members tonight - excellent! Welcome aboard Mike and the delightfully named Threeleggedmouse.

[threeleggedmouse]

Hello all,

Thank you for the warm welcome from Gavin. I think I had better explain my user name threeleggedmouse. It stems from a newyear tradition of holding a 3 legged pub crawl in fancy dress, my friend and I were as you can guess were dressed as mice ( as you do) just seems to have stuck with me.
I Look forward to reading many of the interesting posts from your members.
Carolyn

[gavin]

Eeeeee - eeeeee - eeeeee!!

You're *exactly* the kind of person we like to encourage on this forum!

Welcome Carolyn. If you're in the Western Galloway association, I hope to see you on 31st October. If you live near enough and you're not a member, I *still* hope to see you then!

Right - I'm on a day off and was planning to pack some cut comb honey ...

Gavin

[threeleggedmouse]

Looks like we will be joining south of scotland association as we are closer to the dumfries group. I must say both ssba and wgba were very welcoming, look forward to meeting you at some point.

Do you get much cut comb at this time of the year, how many frames do you cut?
Cant you tell im a newbie!!

[Neils]

Eeeeee - eeeeee - eeeeee!!

You're *exactly* the kind of person we like to encourage on this forum!

Welcome Carolyn. If you're in the Western Galloway association, I hope to see you on 31st October. If you live near enough and you're not a member, I *still* hope to see you then!

Right - I'm on a day off and was planning to pack some cut comb honey ...

Gavin

Some might think that the statement in bold isn't necessarily a compliment ;)

[Jon]

But it's only right to extend a special welcome to those who enjoy a drink on their chosen number of legs. All welcome from monopods to quadrupeds.

[Neils]

that's... erm.... quick run to google quintapodist that is. Never mind Hexapodist on a flipping beekeeping forum.

[gavin]

Hi 3LM

The Dumfries group will keep you well educated and entertained. Give Archie my regards and tell him to get on the forum!

My honey harvest in recent years has been meagre, but this year I had one colony fill a super while the lime was flowering. Looks and tastes like lime too. The lime is erratic, needing dampness at the roots and muggy conditions. Each super frame gives 4 blocks suitable for those cut comb plastic boxes plus a little extra around the edges which can be pressed to recover the extra honey. With 11 frames in a super that's 44 blocks if the super is well-enough capped. You can extrapolate from maybe £6 a box (not that I usually sell) to a tidy sum. Pretty similar to the £300 earned by a colleague in our local association for a full super of his thin-foundation honey which he sells as-is to a restaurant owner.

I hope that you know that we go to great lengths to keep mice *out* of our hives?!

[Beek]

Hello everyone just joined, after loosing interest in the BBKA forum so got a suggestion to come over here.

So hello to one and all.

Adam

[Jon]

Cheers.
You will find a lot of the usual suspects here.
You must be Adam Adam as opposed to Adam D as he is already here posting as ...wait for it...Adam.

[Beek]

Yeah, I tried to get Adam but it was already taken - so we've swapped.

[Neils]

Welcome :)

[gavin]

Welcome to *so* many people since I last said welcome, but especially to Fidan from Russia who I sadly banned at first, thinking that he was a spammer. Sorry Fidan!

Gavin

[gavin]

... and Eddie .... and Ewan .... and anyone from the SBA Centenary who has signed up recently.

[gavin]

Its been a whole year ...... welcome everyone!

[croc]

Hello everyone,
Steve here, south of Huntly.
I have had a colony in a "Zest" hive for the last three years with reasonable success. They have survived the last three winters (re-queened last year) and have supplied me with some honey. I have been in touch with both local associations (Aberdeen and Moray) but have not joined either yet, mainly because being right on the edge of both it is a bit of a trek to go to meetings (although I have been to some).
I am looking to start a second colony in the hive so I am after a mated queen to introduce some different DNA to the apiary. The question is am I better buying one from a breeder or someone local? and is here someone local with a queen available?

[gavin]

Hi Steve

Welcome to the forum. Are you near Rothiemay? Les Webster used to be active in the SBA but has withdrawn from all that time-consuming stuff to spend more time with his bees. He may be worth looking up if you want to talk bees or obtain some different stock. There's also someone on the forum (Hoomin Erra?) in the Cabrach.

G

[croc]

Thanks Gavin, Rothiemay is the other side of Huntly but not that far away, is Les on this forum or can you pass my contact details to him? I spotted Hoomin Erra and Rhynie Beekeeper and sent them PMs.
I started a thread about my zest hive in the alternative section, interesting reading some of the TBH stuff as there are similarities but the zest isn't traditional or TBH, although the bees seem ok with it.

[Williamtyrone]

Hello to everyone, I have enjoyed reading and learning about bees over the past few months on this forum. I have not posted until now. I am not a BK but am interested and like to learn more. I have posted some photos of bees which i spotted in my back garden this morning. I think they are honey bees but i am sure folks on here will let me know.

http://www.sbai.org.uk/sbai_forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=2072&d=1402830198

http://www.sbai.org.uk/sbai_forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=2071&d=1402830005

http://www.sbai.org.uk/sbai_forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=2070&d=1402829927

[fatshark]

Pretty certain these are hover flies … single pair of wings so a dipteran of some sort. Check back later and Gavin or someone who actually knows what he's talking about will have produced a definitive answer.

Very nice photos.

[Jon]

William.
I am a Tyrone man myself, born in Dungannon.

[Williamtyrone]

Me too Jon, and still living in Dungannon. I am interested in bee keeping and find this forum to be very friendly and has lots of information to trawl through to learn more. have been viewing it on and off for most of a year now.

[Jon]

You could join Mid Ulster Beekeepers Association. They meet at Loughry college on a Friday evening once per month.
My father who is a member there keeps about ten colonies of bees. He lives on the main Coalisland Road about 4 miles out of Dungannon.

Where have you posted the photos?

[Williamtyrone]

I should join the MUBA but have just not take that next step, have not had much spare time over the past few years with other commitments. I have bought honey of a gentleman on the Coalisland rd. could have been your dad. I Know there are two Beekeepers in that area.

as for the photos I created an album on this forum and up loaded them there, however did not think they would immediately become viewable by all. I am not aware of any BK within 3-4 miles of me and am keen to spot any bees in my immediate area.

[gavin]

… single pair of wings so a dipteran of some sort.


Yup, nice pictures. They look like drone flies (http://www.naturespot.org.uk/species/common-drone-fly) to me, members of the hover fly group, the Syrphids.

[Jon]

I Know there are two Beekeepers in that area.

The other one is Ernie Waterson.
He lives at the top of Flour Mill Hill and my parents live closer to the (ex) Metal Bridge.
You will definitely have beekeepers within a 3-4 miles of you. There are quite a few in the area.
You could contact a beekeeper called John Ross who would be helpful and point you in the right direction.
He was on the queen rearing course we ran on behalf of NIHBS last summer and is a member of Mid Ulster Association.

[Mellifera Crofter]

Yup, nice pictures. They look like drone flies (http://www.naturespot.org.uk/species/common-drone-fly) to me, members of the hover fly group, the Syrphids.

That link says,


This stocky hoverfly is the commonest 'drone' fly, so called because they mimic bee drones

Do you know, or can you guess, why this hover fly tries to mimic honey bee drones, Gavin?
Kitta

[gavin]

Do you know, or can you guess, why this hover fly tries to mimic honey bee drones, Gavin?
Kitta

The guess would be that a syrphid looking like a honeybee ends up looking like a drone, as drones are fly-like. Probably that's good enough to get some protection.

Drone flies even vary, like honeybee workers, for an orangey band on the first abdominal segment.

[fatshark]

Drone flies even vary, like honeybee workers, for an orangey band on the first abdominal segment.

But these yellowish Italian drone flies are disliked by some who prefer the near-black drone flies. I can't find the original images now but I think they were good enough to check the discoidal shift …

And seriously … from "http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/96/1/ImperfectMimicry.pdf"

Diptera are exclusively mimics of Hymenoptera, and most of the mimics belong to one family, the hoverflies (Syrphidae). This is one of the largest and most diverse of all dipteran familes, with a worldwide distribution and more than 5600 species described (see Rotheray, 1993; Rotheray & Gilbert, 1999). The literature contains information about the mimetic status of some 279 species of hoverfly (Gilbert, in prep), an astonishingly high number relative to other insect groups: clearly mimicry is a dominant theme of the evolution of this group of flies. Especially in Europe, most of the models for hoverfly mimics appear to be social insects: the bumblebees, honeybees and social wasps.

And there's pages and pages more if you're interested.

Remember that the mimicry is not so that the syrphid resembles a bee to us … it has to resemble a bee to whatever preys on syrphids (presumably birds). In the paper quoted above they cite work in which mimicry is tested in terms of what a pigeon sees …

An obvious objection to the claim of differences in the specificity of mimicry is that human perception is not the same as that of predatory birds, and perhaps they perceive the ‘poor’ mimics differently. Dittrich et al. (1993) used operant conditioning to test whether a representative bird would make the same sort of mistakes that humans do when presented with models and their hoverfly mimics. They chose pigeons (Columba livia) to represent a generalized avian visual system. The birds were trained to discriminate between images of wasps and non-mimetic flies, and then tested to see how they would respond to images of wasp mimics. One group (fly+) were trained to peck at the images of non-mimetic flies for food, wasp images being unrewarded. A second group (wasp+) were trained to peck at wasp images for food, with the non-mimetic flies being unrewarded. Both the fly+ and wasp+ groups of pigeons learned to discriminate between the two sets of images equally quickly, after only two training sessions. During the 20-sec projection time of a rewarding stimulus, the pigeons pecked 50 to 60 times, whereas they hardly pecked at all at non- rewarding images. This suggests that there is no inherent bias of the pigeon visual system against black-and-yellow wasp-like patterns (perhaps not surprising, since it is not insectivorous).
The pigeons were then tested using images of hoverflies chosen to represent a range of mimetic quality as perceived by humans. The pigeons were extremely consistent in their responses, ranking the hoverflies in more or less the same order as did the humans, with the fly+ group being more or less the mirror image of the wasp+ group. Pigeons do appear to see hoverfly mimics in roughly the same way as we do: they seem to rank the images in the same way, and make the same sort of category mistakes.

[gavin]

So, in the main, we're as good entomologists as pigeons? Even though pigeons don't eat them (whearas we sometimes do).

It strikes me as cruel to train pigeons to peck at wasps. Unless these pigeons will never see the great outdoors, destined to be a Friday evening snack for the cruel scientists taking their work home with them. Do scientists do that?!

Back to the colour morphs of the drone fly. Doesn't that (the existence of a proportion with an orange band) suggest that the original Amm was a bit more diverse in colouring than current fads would suggest? Indeed, didn't Beo Cooper say that, or was it Ruttner?

This time we've discussed drone flies I've managed to avoid linking to the bizarre medical tales of rat tailed maggots (their larvae) being found colonising humans. Yuck. Maybe they get closer to man than pigeon sometimes.

[fatshark]

I don't think scientists ever take their work home with them …

Re. the pigeons thing. There was something else in that paper (which I found after a quick Google, having remembered how much I enjoyed an evolution course many, many years ago) which said that in tests of animals being stung by bees/wasps, birds were rarely stung. I began to wonder if this means that whatever is predating syrphids is something other birds.

I'd prefer not to hear your rat tailed maggot stories … however, I did read an excellent article on insects being used for warfare. Did you know that before the cannon was invented ships carried clay beehives to lob at the opposition? There were a load of other examples. Great material for talks!

[Williamtyrone]

The discussion about how this fly is mimicking a drone bee is making me feel slightly less embarrassed about thinking it was a bee in the first place. and has seem to have started somewhat of a debate i was not expecting. thanks for the responses.

Jon, I am sure it was your Dad we bought honey from last year, my parents know them. the location is is spot on. (I am not sure on protocol whether to mention names over the open forum)
I plan to get in touch with the mid ulster association and hope to attend some meetings over the summer.

Mark.

[gavin]

I've known really senior beekeepers to think that they were bees, so there's no need for any embarrassment. Nice to see you posting, Mark.

[marion.orca]

I.D THIS BEASTIE PLEASE - 2078 - can anybody id this huge beastie which was feeding yesterday on the Nepeta, along with bumblebees and honeybees. It was its sheer size that caught my attention - though unfortunately there was nothing close to it for a size comparison. Thanks if you can point me in the right direction.

[gavin]

Lovely photo, Marion. It is a narrow-bordered bee hawkmoth (http://butterfly-conservation.org/files/habitat-nbbhawk.pdf). The Butterfly Conservation people might like to hear about your finding in case it is in a new area - see the link.

I thought for a minute it was a hummingbird hawk moth, a migrant which ranges far and wide, but this one is resident. We're seeing plenty of migrant butterflies (painted ladies, red admirals) here already.

G.

[marion.orca]

Thanks for the i.d Gavin - it's definitely the first one I have ever seen - and I will check out the link, thank-you - what a size they are !

[HJBee]

Great picture Marion

[marion.orca]

Spot on Gavin - this is a first sighting received for this area - and the conservation society for the butterflies and moths were extremely pleased to get it as it is a priority species - now have to look after my little Devils Bit Scabious and watch out for caterpillars [ leaving it alone sounds good to me ! ] - thanks for the suggested link.

[gavin]

Sitting here with one of these on my face: :)! We had a speaker from Butterfly Conservation Scotland at our local association a couple of winters ago. Nice to help them out a little too.

The one that's turned up on the Isle of Wight has caused quite a fuss: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-27859592

Yesterday after work, finally having mostly caught up with beekeeping things, I headed out for a walk at Lundie Crags to the NW of Dundee. I was hoping to see small blue butterflies but may have left it too late (either too late in the day or too late in June!) but I did see a comma, a fritillary, and a hummingbird hawkmoth. I'll add the record for the hawkmoth to the online survey at Butterfly Conservation. It has made an appearance all up the east of Scotland this year already.

http://butterfly-conservation.org/sightings/map/10/1087

G.

[marion.orca]

It's a good sign that priority species are making a comeback - I'll certainly be on the lookout for others, especially when I visit my hive, as I cross a wild-flower meadow to get there. I may keep quiet otherwise about this one though, as I remember a couple of years ago, we had a Black Headed Bunting turn up at the bird feeders - all hell broke loose ! The twitchers turned up in their masses, binoculars trained onto the house for a glimpse, strangers knocking at the door or simply having a wander in the garden ! Felt under siege, so was quite glad when it flew off to pastures new !

[Trog]

One spotted in Glen Feshie was photographed and sent to me for id because it looked like a bee. Two days later, up came the BBC news report about the Isle of Wight one. So pleased to hear they're across the water from me, too, and will keep a lookout!

[marion.orca]

I've not seen it since that photo Trog, but then I've not been standing all day next to the Nepeta ! Must admit I hope to see more and good to know there's more not so far away from me.

[gavin]

I read somewhere that they are great timekeepers - no need to stand outside all day, try a peek at the same time of day you took the photo!

Sent from my BlackBerry 8520 using Tapatalk

[marion.orca]

Thanks for the tip Gavin - I'll try to keep a lookout around roughly the same time of day once the rain stops !

[gavin]

It has been a while since I welcomed folk here, so it is time for a catch up. So, many thanks everyone who has bothered to fight their way through the registration system over the last year or so. It is great having you here! Top marks to Calluna4 for agreeing to squander some of his valuable time engaging with folk many with a different take on beekeeping. It is always great to learn from someone with so much experience. Today's new forum folk include Alec (good to see you taking the plunge) and Bracecomb! I'm a sucker for inventive forum names, so thanks B, good to see you here. So many bee forum names across the internet, but Bracecomb is a new one on me. I'm expecting you to get stuck in between the gaps.

What a cracking day out there. Looks like it is warm enough to look into some brood boxes undisturbed since last autumn.