8 posts tagged “beekeeping”

OK, so its been a while since the last update.  That by no means indicates that the bee thing was a passing fad.  I have been doing an enormous amount of reading.  Many of the books I have been reading have been from the marvelous E. F. Phillips Collection at Cornell University.  These books may be old, but bees are essentially unchanged in millions of years so a lot of the content is still relevant today.  The online collection has been formed with two guiding priorities: books that have historical relevance and books that are of practical use to today's apiculturist.  Many of the books they have published online fit both categories; aside from the frequent sermons and switching to latin for the description of reproduction Langstroth's book is still as relevant today as it was then.  Other highlights are A. I. Root's ABC of Bee Culture and C. C. Miller's 50 years among the bees.  T. W. Cowan's "The Honey Bee" is also well worth a look if you are into bee biology.  I haven't quite brought myself to read Huber or Dzierzon yet.  They are the definitive works on honeybee biology; however many other books have summarised their findings.  I'll probably get around to them eventually.  I've heard that ABC and XYZ of Bee Culture is due for a long awaited new revision early next year.  If the first edition is anything to go by then I definitely want to pick up a copy.

More current information includes the Scottish Beekeepers Association's The Basics of Beekeeping: an excellent free beginners guide.  Some of it has a particular Scottish focus (taking hives to the heather, more focus on the Smith hive than most sources) but it is all relevant.  As it was updated in 2006 the pests/diseases section is more up to date than most books and well worth a read.

There are a lot of other sites I've been looking at.  Take a look at my del.ico.us links tagged with beekeeping for a selection of my favourites.

So in summary:  I'm not dead.  I'm not bored with bees.  I've just been incredibly busy reading.

I also went to my second meeting of the St Albans BKA.  The annual honey tasting event and social.  A very interesting evening, got to sample 12 different local honeys as well as a couple of curiosities that people had brought along.  Very enjoyable.

There seemed to be quite a few new members like myself in attendance and it seems that the beginners course in February is going to be pretty full booked.  As far as I'm concerned that can't be a bad thing.  You don't see anywhere near as many bees in the garden these days as you used to when I was a kid; and that can't be good for pollination.

Things are so much easier in the states.

So here in england there are nearly ten choices of hive (although the Smith isn't used much outside Scotland)

1. WBC
2. Modified National (14x9.5)
3. Modified National (14x12)
4. Modified Commercial
5. Dartington Long Hive
6. Langstroth
7. Modified Dadant
8. Smith
9. Top bar

Why so many? 

The Langstroth and Dadant are quite uncommon here, although globally they are the most common.  Largely due to the fact that the British Standards Institute actually published an ISO standard for the British National Hive (now expired). 

That is where the National comes in.  I really like the design of the national and think it deserves its place as the most common hive here in England.  More on that in a minute.  Time to discuss the other options first. 

At the time of standardisation there were different thoughts on the size of the brood box.  The National box is quite small, and an alternative design was put forward using 16x10 frames: the Commercial.  This has the same external dimensions as the National (almost) and is compatible with National shallow supers, however it has short lugs and is constructed more like the Langstroth with scoop handles. 

The WBC is pretty much the only double walled hive still commercially available; however the main reason is not its suitability for harsh environments but its looks.  The WBC looks like what everyone thinks an English country garden hive should look like.  These looks and its enhanced insulation come at the expense of a much harder hive to work and the smallest brood space.

The Smith is the Scottish answer to the national.  Using short lugged frames with the same dimensions as the national and with top bee-space rather than bottom bee-space it is perhaps easier to manipulate.  I would have thought the ease of carrying national equipment would be a benefit when moving hives to the heather, but apparently not enough to stop a lot of Scots preferring the Smith.  As I am yet to gain any practical experience I am keeping my mind open about whether top or bottom bee-space is better.

The top-bar hive seems to be enjoying a lot of interest around the world.  Its probably the oldest movable comb design, with documentary evidence going back to ancient greece, however the modern TBH is much more refined.  It was largely developed as a simple to construct alternative to the complex movable frame hive in developing countries.  Many beekeepers are now promoting them for general use as they apparently keep the bees a lot calmer during manipulations.  I am still interested in these and will probably give one or two a go; however I am decided on starting out on frames.

The Dartington Long Deep Hive is a recent English design that mixes some of the concepts of the TBH with more conventional frame based hives.  The bees expand back rather than up and there is less heavy lifting making it ideal for those with back problems.

After much deliberation I have decided that I want to start on the Modified National, but instead of the standard brood box I will use the newer 14x12 deep brood box.  Apparently the local hybrids here in St Albans are fairly Italianised and a large brood chamber is essential.  I plan to try and rear queens for native AMM traits; however unless I acquire my initial stock from a BIBBA member I'm likely to be starting with local hybrids and using them for the next couple of seasons at least.  Once I have a few stocks on the go I can inject some AMM blood simply by requeening which will be much cheaper than a full nuc stock.

"The amazing ability of the bee to adapt herself often helps the beekeeper to overcome the results of his ignorance." - Brother Adam.

Having now finished reading Hooper and Waring and mostly read Yates the old adage "ask eight beekeepers how to do something and you'll get ten answers" is finally dawning on me.  In my head I've been trying to plan ahead for my apiary development over the next 3-4 years.  Reading the books and seeing the scope of opinion online has left me feeling that I have an overwhelming amount of learning to go before I'll be able plan even one or two years ahead.  Certainly the plans I was thinking of are now seeming far too ambitious.

I want at least two crop producing colonies.  I want to practise queen rearing on a small scale with a double mating nuc that I can winter a couple of queens in.

I need at least a national and a nuc (for swarm control) for the first season.

Not looking forward to a Rape crop from the BKA apiary in the first year.  Should I hold off starting until after the rape flow finishes?

If I start from foundation then my colony may not have moved into the supers by the time the rape flow finishes.  If they use up any stored rape honey as summer food the problem is deferred until year two.

Granulated stores as winter food seems to be a contentious point.  I have read opinions from some who readily feed granulated stores to the bees as winter food rather than scrape the combs; others say it causes dysentry.

It is no wonder that people can do this for 50 or more years and still consider themselves students.

Long term goals: 5 colonies through the summer, 3 through winter.  If all 3 survive and need splitting the extra colony can be donated to someone at the BKA (new member or someone with colony losses).  At the end of the season the two weakest colonies are de-queened and united with stronger colonies for wintering.

Three or Four hives at home / allotment / out-apiary?

How many allowed at the BKA apiary?  Cost?

I want to jump in head first but need to do this slowly.  One at the BKA apiary for the first year under their beginners program.  Add one at home in the second year.  Don't want to plan any further than that at the moment.

Need to play with Google sketch up to get some of my hive construction / apiary plans posted up here.

Have had ideas for a stacked stand for top-bar hives and for a self-filling watering trough that can be connected to a garden hose.

I went along to my first meeting of the St Albans Bee Keeping Association last week (my local association affiliated with the Hertfordshire Bee Keepers Association).  The online advice to join your local association is definitely well founded and I think I came along to a pretty good meeting to start with too.  The topic was a review of the year and was largely to talk to the new members at the end of their first season to share their experiences and any lessons they've learnt and also to ask questions about maintaining their colonies through the winter.  Very informative.

One of the more experienced members kicked things off by bringing along a recent purchase to show;  a plastic Miller type feeder from Thorne's.  A cheap but durable alternative to a traditional cedar feeder that won't suffer from leaks due to wood shrinking during the dry summer.  Can also be used for letting the bees clean up the cappings after harvesting.  Looks well worth it and I'll probably get a couple once I have hives up and running.  The plastic feeders are just an insert that need to be rested inside something.  Thorne's also have ekes for this at reasonable prices.
Glad I did plenty of reading.  I understood everything the speakers were talking about at the meeting and so managed to take quite a lot from it without having to ask any embarassing newbie questions (not that there would have been any embarassment envolved, questions from other newcomers were answered patiently and without a trace of condescention.

I am certainly going to be signing up as a full member and will be putting my name down for their new beekeepers course starting in February as soon as I get the details in the post.  The course syllabus looks pretty good.  Stuff I've read about but which will have a whole new dimension when explained by someone with experience willing and able to answer questions.

A few book recommendations from a new bee keeper who has read a lot but has no practical experience yet:
I've already linked to Teach Yourself Beekeeping.  A good intro which I found very useful.  Will probably not get much reading after my first season or so of practical experience due to the fact that they are trying to cover so much while still keeping it accessible to the beginner.  Has a good index though, so perfectly capable of being a longer term reference book.

Other recommendations are:

Guide to Bees and Honey

Seems to be the default recommended reference work for a lot of associations.  A drier read than the Teach yourself book, but once you're over the initial learning curve this one has more staying power due to the greater depth of detail.

Beekeeping Study Notes: "BASIC Cetificate", "SBKA Basic Beemaster Certificate", "FIBKA Preliminary C

I plan on taking the basic certificate next year after I've been running a hive for a year (the recommended time to take the certificate) so I have bought a copy of the official study notes.

The Bee Friendly Garden: Bring Bees to Your Flowers, Orchard, and Vegetable Patch

I've now decided on a theme for my vox.  My new chosen hobby - Bee Keeping.

I am planning on starting one or two hives next season and have approached the St Albans beekeeping association about coming along to a couple of their winter meetings as a guest.

Expect more posts about my search for the right hive for me and progress updates once I get a colony going.

Teach Yourself Beekeeping (Teach Yourself - General)

Adrian Waring

I seem to have switched to hyper mode.  I use the word fascinating a lot below.  Apologies but it is the best word for how I feel about this subject.

I have become fascinated by beekeeping over the last few days.  It all started at the weekend when I saw a toy called Antlantis in the Argos catalogue.  When I was a kid I was fascinated by insects and especially ants, bees and water insects (the all time favourite was always the Water Boatman).  Me and my best friend Buddy used to go out collecting bees in an old drink bottle and spend hours watching them.  Looking back on it we were incredibly cruel, as most young lads are; however at the heart of it all was fascination.

Anyway.  Back to now.  Initially I looked at Antlantis and thought "cool"  then I started doing some googling on ants and triops.  Both incredibly fascinating creatures in very different ways.

Then while following links I stumbled across a couple of beekeeping sites and the lure of buying a queen ant suddenly dropped off.  An ant colony is a fascinating thing but ultimately its just a curiosity.

Reading some of the online information about honey bees brought the childhood fascination flooding back, the innocent sense of wonder.

A honey bee colony is a truly fascinating thing.  The queen is the mother of all but can and will be replaced regularly (ant queens will live for 10 years but the more active queen bee only lives for up to 5).  Again unlike ants the natural multiplication method of swarming is when the old queen leaves set found a new colony with attendants; handing the reigns over to a daughter.  Ant princesses are the ones that leave the nest to found their own dynasty.

The structure of domestic hives are pretty fascinating too.  Just wide enough to provoke the bees to build honey comb rather than fill in the gaps.  The queen is kept at the bottom to keep her from laying eggs in with the honey stored above.  At the moment this seems to be a true fascination rather than a passing fad.  That has happened before though.  I need to be careful.

Fortunately I have come to this at the right time of year.  All I can do at the moment is read and learn.  I can't actually start with any bees until April / May next year.  If it is a fad and passes before then I don't have the problem of disposing of tens of thousands of live bees.