The Hive

Thank you Brian - hello to you and other hive-dwellers!

I am lucky in that in my area (dept 47) we have an evangelist for bee-keeping who runs classes for free. I have done a 6 week introduction which covered everything at a high level and thus allows the decision to keep bees or not to keep to be made. This coming year, we have the opportunity to take British Bee Keeper Association exams. If you watched the ITV programme Little England, you may have seen Bridget (bee evangelist) along with Sally (secretary of our local association) where the latter was about to take (and I can report pass) her BBKA exams.

I am also fortunate that we have a local cabinet maker who is also a bee keeper and queen-breeder. He is a French guy called Frederic - between he and Bridget, they purchased some Buckfast Abbey queens and have bred from those so Frederic makes your hives and then colonises it with a growing nucleus before we take delivery. Mine are coming this Spring.

For me, the fascincation goes back to school days where we used to do Ag.Sci as it was called. The teacher kept bees and as well as the traditional hives, we had an observation hive in the classroom with glass sides. Somewhere, down the line I plan to do something similar as the moving tableau of bees hard at work is a wonder to watch.

In the meantime, our association is also quite co-operative and I plan to hang around with some more experienced keepers while they work on their hives to gain experience and knowledge of my own. Having been lucky enough to sample the proceeds of some of them, they do a fine job.

So I will shut up and stop waffling on. I expect I will have a load of questions as things go on and look forward to chatting with you all.

All the best,
David

welcome into the hive david. have a good start now as the weather builds up. my survivors are already hard at it. i coincidentally opened thorne's catalogue the moment your request arrived, time for supplies... having just smashed my shoulder to pulp 10 days ago work on hive cleaning and so on will be hard work but I am for once hoping for a few stings - around about the break. folk medicine in andean south america where i have worked, but it works...

i wouldn't say any local bees would cause you a problem, and, if you were interested, a local beekeeper might hive a swarm from your property, and, if you got yerself a beehive box, and equipment, you could keep them. You might have to change the queen, if her offspring are agressive, but, normally, a swarm means a new, young queen.

Bees do compete a little, but, honestly, you can get three beehives side by side, all getting their pollen from three totally different places, because of the whole "waggle dance" thing. A bee will find the loot, and tell her sisters. A bee from a neighbouring hive will almost certainly have a different stash.

We use langstroths, because they're very easy to work with, and the frame size suits. For people not actually in it for the honey, a hivette "ruchette" might be good, as it's easier to find the queen when you go through 5 frames instead of 10,or 12. Perhaps shorter frames also, as during the summer months, they can get quite heavy, and difficult to hang on to with gloves, especially when you're doing a detailed inspection. I would say dadant or langstroth are all you're going to find at your supply shop anyway, and both make fine hive boxes.

For traditional, if you mean skeps, and hollowed log types, I love seeing them, but the idea of breaking up the hive for honey makes me cringe. I'm a big fan of keeping as many bees alive as possible, and don't have the heart to pull out that much larvae comb.

Many people are now opting for frameless beekeeping, in truth, yes, it is les stressful for the bees, but, if there is ever a problem, the comb has to be cut out, larvae and all, instead of just removing a frame, shaking off, or cutting out the problem, and replacing it. There are a few US, and UK beekeeping sites, McSwienty beekeeping is one, andother is walter T Kelly, they supply worldwide. If there is a local association of beekeepers, they will possibly get you started without needing to order things from abroad, most keepers I know are delighted to chip in a hive, or a colony, or a spare smoker to someone eager to startup.

In the meantime, if you're in the 74 over the summer, let me know, and you can definitely have a look in at our girls.

If you mean

I think the biest first step is actually visiting a beekeeper, opening a hive, and seeing what it all entails. If you don't fall in love straight away with the little universe, you will know, but if it's magic for you, you really won't wait long before getting started.

these folk look like they can help with the basics of how it all works,

http://mjcrivegauche.fr/rucher-ecole/index.php

Also, i picked OH's brain, and got this

Cité des Abeilles La
Chemin Crêtes
64110 Saint Faust, France

Tel. 05 59 83 04 60

might be worth a look for materials.

We bought the book "beekeeping for dummies", back in the day. If I can root it out of the rubble, i can send it, perhaps, for a flick through.....

I did a search, and there seems to be quite a few beekeepers in the 64, I really think that if you were to try getting in contact with a local one, they will usually be only happy to help you get into the world of bees. Most of us get so excited when we hear someone wants to share our passion.

Helen, Welcome, what department are you in?? Gettign bees from closer will mean less stress on them, postage is a bit rough on them. There are beekeeping supply shops for tools, hive boxes, and clothing, but for the actual bees, better to go to a beekeeper. There are also pages like leboncoin where you possibly will find things, but, by getting your area, we might be able to help more.

News from the apiary.. out of the 13 hives we use for royal jelly production, we lost one. phew. The honey hives, out of 36, we lost 3. Delighted. Most people are saying they're sorry for our loss, but we'd though we'd be doing well if we'd lost half. Four hives is really a relief.

Brian, how are your girls doing?? We've fed ours a bit of candy, to get the queen all motivated, and gave a little thyme discs for the varroa before the nectar flow.

My ex-OH in Malaysia now started keeping and I only started by taking over while she was away. We talk bees of FB, Skype, etc for hours, plus my colleague in Viet Nam's father keeps and he e-mails me. He being a former professor of European literature is wordier than I am! I loose days 'talking' bees sometimes. Wok now, take it easy!

I spent the whole afternoon talking about bees to a beekeeper in Kenya on Facebook. My brain is fried.

Yes, two out of six, could be worse - like 0.0!

Oh, I'm so happy. We're thawing out today, the cold snap is over for us. Sending OH down to the Var next week to give ours a little boost,and get the queen laying. Hopefully flowers start blooming quicksmart!!

Zoe. Just had a look and there are two very small, very sluggish and quiet BUT SURVIVING nucleii in my hives. Let's hope spring comes quickly now!

Sure did, I am a great hive knocker, best way of getting a good buzz.

I'll see how the Spring pans out, other keepers may just give up in desperation in which case I'll be in. Let you know when the weather is better anyway.

Did you knock??I put my ear to the hive and knock twice sharply, they pipe for a couple of seconds before calming back down, lets me know they're still moving.

I really hope they're ok, but, it's better to be pleasantly surprised, rather than hope for the best,only to be disappointed.

If you have trouble getting nucs in your area,let me know, I can ask a guy not far from here, he sells them, and has a rather big business.

Woke up to -18 today, just tried putting a mini-microphone in far enough to detect any sound at all. Nothing. Think all six hives are dead. No point in starting two more then... Just called our local large scale keeper Nicole (her husband is our electrician and a good friend... so she speaks a bit freer with us) and she thinks that even the roughly 40 hives she has in a barn are mostly done for. Poor woman, she was decimated by Asian hornets last summer and varroa did for a lot more of the depleted colonies. She cannot sell me any nucleii this year and the man where I got my original stock had already lost all of his last week. Now I am in a fix and very sad for the poor little creatures anyway. Shit!

http://pan-europe.info/Resources/Articles/A_World_Without_Bees.pdf

In April the pear orchards of southern Sichuan, China play host to one of the most bizarre
events in the world agricultural calendar. Each spring thousands of rural residents are
mobilised to take to the trees clutching makeshift stepladders and feather dusters. They
then undertake the Olympic-sized challenge of brushing each of the pear blossoms by
hand. Despite appearances Sichuan’s labourers are not enacting an ancient Chinese
fertility ritual or following the latest madcap orders of the Beijing politburo. They are in
fact conducting essential, perhaps pioneering work as human pollinators.
Welcome to a world without bees: in which most crops must be pollinated by hand.

The cluster is losing outer members on "nice" days. Same here, they go out on a cleansing flightm and never make it home. Anything below 12 degrees, and they have trouble with the wings. It will be a rough start to the year, methinks. The spring flowers also started scarily early.

Just had a look. All hives have sluggish activity with the sun out BUT still too cold. Poor guys on guard duty seem to have copped it already and the girls seem confused. Looked in one, didn't even bother with gloves, nucleus hard clustered but sluggish and not as big as two weeks ago. Does not look good.