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Author Topic: New to Beekeeping  (Read 29776 times)

Offline Oak

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Re: New to Beekeeping
« Reply #20 on: September 17, 2013, 06:01:22 am »
Thanks Col,

These might be my famous last words, but I really just want to do it myself. It's nothing personal, I am this way with all my projects. I know it is probably very foolish but I am set in my ways.

I will let you know how it goes.

Regards

Offline Oak

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Re: New to Beekeeping
« Reply #21 on: October 07, 2013, 05:13:46 am »
Hi all,

Well I had to wait a while for suitable weather but I got there in the end:



The finished result:




I got enough comb to fill 14 frames. I have frozen some honeycomb so I can feed it back to the hive over the next few weeks.

There were some queen cells in the hive which I decided to leave in place in case the original queen was harmed.

Offline Oak

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Re: New to Beekeeping
« Reply #22 on: October 09, 2013, 03:44:13 am »
The hive swarmed yesterday. Don't know where the swarm went as the swarm ball was in the tops of the trees one minute but had roared off by the time I had retrieved my gear from the house.

Still plenty of bees using the hive today so I guess I will wait and see. The bees have been pretty aggressive since the cut out. One even chased me into the house whacking my hair all the way. Actually they have been more aggressive the last few weeks which I think may have been because the hive had built it's numbers up.

Offline Oak

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Re: New to Beekeeping
« Reply #23 on: October 15, 2013, 10:41:04 pm »
The ugliest smoker ever:



Works well. The big ugly handle on the top means I don't have to touch the biscuit tin part. I will put a guard on it for safety.



The foot bellows push out a lot of smoke but my conventional bellows are better because they can be operated with one hand instead of a hand and a foot. However, the large biscuit tin is easier to light.


Offline Oak

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Re: New to Beekeeping
« Reply #24 on: October 16, 2013, 03:11:17 am »
There is scout bee activity at 3 of my 4 bait hives. The bees seem to walk in the top entrance then out the bottom before wandering back in again. I hope a swarm moves into one of them.



Offline Oak

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Re: New to Beekeeping
« Reply #25 on: October 17, 2013, 10:51:16 pm »
The scout bees now seem to be visiting only two of my bait hives and are focusing on the one below.



We have had terrible wind the last few days and hail yesterday, I hope the swarm is OK wherever it is.

Offline Oak

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Re: New to Beekeeping
« Reply #26 on: October 18, 2013, 01:13:44 am »
Well that didn't take long. I thought I would be updating the scout bees progress over the next few days.

I was lucky I was home today. It sounds crazy but I thought I heard the roar of the swarm move over my house so I checked the most active bait hive and there they were:



Now I have two hives both from wild swarms.

Offline prestonpaul

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Re: New to Beekeeping
« Reply #27 on: October 18, 2013, 07:19:54 am »
Well done!

Offline Oak

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Re: New to Beekeeping
« Reply #28 on: October 18, 2013, 07:46:28 pm »
Thanks prestonpaul

Offline Bee therapy

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Re: New to Beekeeping
« Reply #29 on: October 18, 2013, 09:11:33 pm »
Looks good! Well done :-)  :)

Offline Oak

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Re: New to Beekeeping
« Reply #30 on: October 19, 2013, 02:41:50 am »
Cheers Bee therapy

Offline jelder

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Re: New to Beekeeping
« Reply #31 on: October 22, 2013, 05:14:57 am »
these pics are things of beauty, and i like the home made smoker too.
whut!

Offline Oak

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Re: New to Beekeeping
« Reply #32 on: October 22, 2013, 11:00:42 am »
Thanks jelder,

The pics help me keep track of things.

Offline Joe D

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Re: New to Beekeeping
« Reply #33 on: October 22, 2013, 03:04:11 pm »
Nice pics, Oak.  Looks like you are have good luck with your traps.  And big swarms also.  Good luck to you and your bees.




Joe

Offline Oak

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Re: New to Beekeeping
« Reply #34 on: October 22, 2013, 09:30:08 pm »
Thanks Joe

Offline Oak

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Re: New to Beekeeping
« Reply #35 on: October 27, 2013, 02:29:07 am »
Hi all,

I inspected the hives today.

The captured swarm is doing great. I only opened it to remove the container of lemongrass oil. From what I saw they were drawing comb from the starter strips quite well but everything looked a bit delicate so I left well enough alone.

The cut out hive is three weeks old now. I wanted to check for American foul brood. Long story short no symptoms of that disease. The thing was, I had a hard time finding any brood.
 
The brood I could find was already capped. No eggs were seen and no capped honey. The hive swarmed three weeks ago so I am waiting for a replacement queen to emerge.

I will move a frame of brood from my captured hive to my cut out hive. Seems a pity to disturb such a young hive but the cutout hive is starting to worry me.

A frame from the cutout broodbox



A bit of wonky comb that needs cutting



Comb from the super

« Last Edit: October 28, 2013, 12:50:42 am by Oak »

Offline Oak

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Re: New to Beekeeping
« Reply #36 on: October 28, 2013, 01:03:15 am »
Edited the above post because after sleeping on it I decided to move a frame of brood so I could stop worrying about it.

The combs in the captured hive were more advanced than I thought. Ten days after the swarm moved into this hive this is a foundationless frame.



There are eggs here if you look hard enough



Now I can stop worrying about whether the cut out hive is queenless or not.

Offline Oak

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Re: New to Beekeeping
« Reply #37 on: November 05, 2013, 12:31:20 am »
Hi all,

Just checked the cutout hive before the cup. I found a solid patch of grubs and eggs on one frame so I guess I finally have a laying queen in there. Glad I didn't buy one. The super had plenty of wonky comb that I cut and rubber banded back in place. If I do a cutout again I will use starter strips in the cutout frames as they often attach comb to a grooved top bar in an irregular way.

The frames in the colonised bait hive are nice and straight and nearly completely drawn. It is looking really strong with heaps of brood and I will probably put a super on it in a week or two.


Offline Oak

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Re: New to Beekeeping
« Reply #38 on: November 06, 2013, 04:27:50 am »
The cutout hive below is throwing out its rubberbands. The abundance of drones in this hive was worrying me but not now that it appears to have a queen. The colonised bait hive has no drones.



I built a couple more nucs and set them up as bait hives. Is nuc pronounced "Nuke" or "Nook"?

I thought it was short for "Nucleus hive"?

Offline BeeMaster2

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Re: New to Beekeeping
« Reply #39 on: November 06, 2013, 01:07:43 pm »
Oak,
The picture that shows nothing but white comb has eggs placed in the center bottom of the cell (middle of the picture.
Jim
Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
Ben Franklin

 

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