Helping The Honeybees --- 3

....And then one day, it was time for my own colony. The courses were finished and I was deep in the mentorship. The next step was to acquire my own colony.

Here in the area there are several imkers (beekeepers) and some of them are specialized in queen production and the selling of colonies and supplies. My mentor suggested two different vendors. I contacted them and then my mentor and I went to check out some colonies. I decided (upon the mentor's advice) to begin with two colonies. The idea was that if problems arose in one colony that I could use the other one to supplement or take things from to strengthen the other. Things like brood, a queen or frames with nectar and/or pollen.

You know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men......
It didn't all go quite according to plan, but I shall get into that a bit later.

First things first: Before I secured and transported a colony, I would first have to have something to place it on. This was a logical requirement, as I did not want to place my hives on the ground.
This hardwood support stand was conceived and placed at an out-of-the-way location at the north-eastern corner of the "old veggie garden". Choosing the right place was not an easy thing to do, as there were several factors to be considered.


Once the place was cleared and the support was finished, it was time to search for a couple of colonies. The one vendor was out in the countryside and after making an appointment, my mentor, my bride and I went out there to have a look. It was a trip that resulted in the acquisition of a 6-framer hive, with a laying moer (queen) on board.

The bees were the Buckfast sort. The bees were raamvast; or in other words, they stayed sitting on the frame when it was pulled out and didn't fly at you or demonstrate any aggressive behaviour. Just what I needed for on the allotment complex.


We talked and he showed several frames and then I said that I would take it. We began loading the frames into the 6-framer hive that I had brought along. I took the hive with my first colony up the hill and placed it in the back of the auto. I have to say that I was pretty excited, for beekeeping suddenly became real for me. I would have my own colony on my own plot. It was a feeling of independence, which was on the one hand was a 'fun' feeling , and on the other hand, a bit scary without the "mentor security blanket". Ach--one must take the step sometime.
We transported that little hive to the lottie and placed it on the support that I had already ready for the purpose.


The mentor and I placed the hive and gave them a bit of sugar water syrup to stimulate them to get building.


It was not too long before they had outgrown their little box and so I would have to give them a larger hive to live in.
Here, the mentor has begun the process of setting the bees over to their new "house".


The frames were nice and full. Here is one of them with the queen visible (she has a yellow dot, indicating that she was born in 2012).


All the work done and here is the new hive in place.


A little vid of the new hive's activity--up and over the top. Just click on the foto.


A second colony was needed and it would be kept at the mentor's place and the idea was that from that time on I would come and assist the mentor with his colonies and we would check my second hive in the process.
The hive on the allotment I would do myself and call him if I had questions.

Well, the hive over at the mentor's house just had one problem after the other. He called me one day to tell me that I had better come over, as he had found the "Her Majesty" on the ground in front of the hive.
We got her back in, but he said that the next morning we would have to take steps to try and discourage the swarming need. Next day we made what we call a "vlieger" whereby we removed the queen and some of the bees into a different hive and placed the new hive where the original one had been so that the bees that went out to get nectar and pollen would return to this new hive.

The old hive we put further along the stall, eventually it would only have hive workers, so they would not fly away and not return. They had no queen but would make a new one.

The old queen who had swarmed disappeared in a couple of days, so then those two hives were queenless and both would have to make new queens now.
They did that, and one queen stayed and one new queen also left or died and they made yet another one just before the point where the bees were making themselves ready for the winter.

After the treatment for Varroa mites at the end of the summer it was time to remove the bees from my mentor's house and place them at the allotment, along with the colony that was already there.


A video of the two new hives on either side of the hive that was already at the allotment. You can see how active the two hives are--the bees are flying all over the place getting to know their new surroundings.
Another video:Just klik on the foto.


To make things worse, the little hive out at the allotment also became queenless. What on earth was going on?!
My mentor thought that the bees at his place had a genetic urge to swarm easily. He had no idea why the queen out at the allotment had disappeared.

I told the vendor about the situation and he came and got the queenless hive at the allotment and gave me a new colony with a new queen, and that is the way we went into the winter.

The colonies were so small that I had to supplement their honey stores for winter consumption with sugar syrup solution. The hives are heavy and should have enough food stores to get them through the winter now. At any rate things are quiet with the bees now and they only venture out when the weather is warm enough.
Here they are, all winterized and ready for the long, tough road ahead to Springtime.


So then, I have all my bees at the allotment now. I am still almost as excited and enthusiastic as the first day that first hive arrived. I keep an eye on mite fall on the hive bottoms. So far, I have not seen any at all. Let's hope that all goes well when I open the hives in the middle of march for that first sit rep of the 2013 season.

 

Wow!!! That's a lot of work and know how to keeping bees. I am sure the honey is going to be yummier than yummy because I'm sure those bees are real happy with you spoiling them.

 

Wow S, Those a some mighty busy hives. Great video. Have you discovered why you kept going queenless? I have never had that problem. Interesting. I hope the rest of the season is easy now, although I wouldn't count on it. I am not sure I can say any year was a breeze.

 

Thanks for your nice comments, KK--I sure hope they will too. We'll see come spring.

They sure are busy alright, CAROLYN--or at least they WERE. We never discovered why. The mentor has 36 years experience both academically as well as practically. He reckons that it is a genetic urge to swarm. I may need to introduce a new queen next year. I shall first see if they all come through the winter oké.
Att any rate I have learned to expect the unexpected. hahaha.
Also as my mentor pointed out--all the adversity has a good side and that is that I got first-hand experience with a number of different techniques that most first-year beekeepers never get.
He is certainly correct there.--Whew! :-D

 

Hiyah Eileen-- What a nice thing to say. I hope that they will be handy to someone in the future. Who knows, you may get your own bees sooner than you think.
Keeping bees is not a very popular hobby for many gardners, but it is such a pleasure. Bees and their role in pollination is such an intergral part of gardening that it is actually surprizing that more folks do not do it. hahaha.
Lots of folks are a bit afraid of bees, but taking a introductory course is a good idea if only to learn about the little animals.
I think that the overwhelming majority of students that sat the course with me did it just for the info so that they could do "bee friendly" gardening and civic activities.