Beekeeping

johngalway

Well I haven't got a notion where to post this so I'll stick it in here for the time being.

Been reading about beekeeping elsewhere and I have to say I do like my honey

Has anyone here any experience in this craic? I've emailed my local association so will see what comes from that

weefarmer

johngalway wrote: »

Well I haven't got a notion where to post this so I'll stick it in here for the time being.

Been reading about beekeeping elsewhere and I have to say I do like my honey

Has anyone here any experience in this craic? I've emailed my local association so will see what comes from that

I was going to ask about this too, we have got a hive but dont know where to take it from here!

johngalway

http://www.bees.ie/

http://www.irishbeekeeping.ie/index.html

I contacted my local Connemara bee keerpers association, what ever will come of it Also ordered a book called "Guide to bees and honey" by Ted Hooper which was recommended on one of the above sites.

reilig

VGSSL has posted some stuff up here about beekeeping in the past. He has some interesting stories to tell. Might be worth a pm to him if he doesn't post on here.

johngalway

Have you that name right Reilig? Can't find on a search

reilig

johngalway wrote: »

Have you that name right Reilig? Can't find on a search

Sorry, that was wrong John

i had to go searching for a thread of his that I remembered about Rushes in Monaghan. His user name is VCSGGL.

Hope it helps

Dan

Yi Harr

I'm just into my second season of keeping bees. I would strongly recommend doing the beginners course. It's probably too late this season to get bees and courses often run from January. That said I think it may be possible to do a course during the Gormanston Summer School.

Fire away with any questions and I'll answer whatever I can.

vcsggl

reilig wrote: »

Sorry, that was wrong John

i had to go searching for a thread of his that I remembered about Rushes in Monaghan. His user name is VCSGGL.

Hope it helps

Dan

Yes - it's vcsggl!

Bees - far and away the best thing is to contact your local bee keepers association - they can advise about all aspects, disease control, suppliers of kit - wax, frames, hive parts etc. The association up around the Monaghan area is very active, lots of meetings and they do introductory talks to various other groups like gardening clubs etc. You can easily find your local/regional association through Google.

I think this has not been a good year for bees/honey in Ireland - too wet for the bees to be out foraging so they sit in the hives eating honey instead!

In the Uk we've got 8 hives at the moment, got quite a good yield of honey so far but the problem looming up here is a disease called - EFB - European Foul Brood - very damaging to tyhe bees and in fact it's a notifiable disease so the Ministry Bee Inspector has to be informed. If the infestation is bad then you have to destroy the bees and- worse - burn all the hive components. EFB seems to be spreading throughout the UK and no doubt will turn up in Ireland.

It's quite a lot of work but honey prices are high - £5.00 a 1lb jar and bees are expensive - a small swarm is making at least £100.00 at the moment. You'll not get rich keeping bees but you can have a very enjoyable time and the honey is great!!

George

Username John

johngalway wrote: »

Well I haven't got a notion where to post this so I'll stick it in here for the time being.

Been reading about beekeeping elsewhere and I have to say I do like my honey

Has anyone here any experience in this craic? I've emailed my local association so will see what comes from that

Hello John,

We used to have bees at home years ago, so this year I said I'd get a hive and see what'd happen.

Back then, I remember if we had an empty hive, we would just put it out the start of summer, and the bees would find it. And that was that... Bees would move in, and then away you went...

But this doesnt seem to happen anymore. Not many swarms around at all. So while I have a hive, I dont have any bees yet

I would recommend having a look at bee hives online, if you're handy you'd be able to make the hive, and then buy the internal bits and bobs...
A national hive is prob what you want...
Have a look here for what they consist of, and how to make em...

Also, see here - I know this lad is in cork, but it has a price list, which might be of interest.

Let us know how you go. Honey is nice all right, but looks like it'll be a while before I'll have any of me own...

vcsggl

John - a further thought about all the kit etc - the biggest supplier in the UK is Thornes, family firm, been in the business for several generations. They deliver to the Republic. Their catalogue is an extremely useful "book", it has everything you could imagine ( and a few things you couldn't!!) for keeping bees, extracting honey, dealing with wax, making candles, wax polish etc etc. They are fully on-line at www.thorne.co.uk their prices are reasonable and if ever you can get to one of their annual sales there are very big savings to be made - more than 50% on a lot of the stuff. If you are starting absolutely from scratch you're looking at several hundred pounds worth of kit. That's one of the reasons why joining a local association is such a good idea. For example the cheapest honey nextractor is going to be a couple of hundred pounds but most associations have a branch extractor that members can borrow when they need it.

Good Luck with the bees!

George

johngalway

Thanks, I do appreciate the time taken for these replies. I'm just reading and trying to digest the information at the moment. I'll come back to this when I've a bit more of that done

No6

Hi John you should come to Feile Na Tuath in Turlough outside castlebar next year, its one in May around teh 20th. There is a load of beekeping stuff at it, both products and local associations, they can give you loads of advice. I was talking to one old boy last year and he reckoned the best thing was do the course before you spent loads of money on the hives etc, just in case you didn't like handling bees or were allergic to them. I've been thinking of getting a hive for a few years but I've got a small kid and the misuses isn't too keen!!

stereomatic

Does anybody know the difference between national and commercial beehives and if they know the internal dimensions for both with regards to both the brood box and super box. I promised my cousin that I'd look up the internet to try and find out about these things but all I found out was their external dimensions, so maybe somebody here might know and be able to post a message. Please don't refer me to a site nor suggest that I should be able to calculate it

Yi Harr

I only have National hives and won't be at them till next weekend so probably no use to you.

I suggest sending an email to Paul (paul@beesupplies.ie) in Bee Supplies.
He'll have all the info you need.

bertie1

commercial is larger

Cul a cnoic

Hope this helps. Taken from this site

POST 1 of the above website

National Beehive Dimensions and statistics
External dimension - 18 1/8" square
Brood body depth - 8 7/8"
14” x 12” brood body depth - 12 ½"
Super depth - 5 7/8"
The brood area is 2200 sq. ins.
No. of worker cells 50,000
Bottom Bee Space

Frames sizes
Top Bars – 17” long
Bottom bars – 14” long
Deep side bars – 8 ½” long
14” x12” side bars – 12” long
Shallow side bars – 5 ½” long

Foundation sizes
Deep – 13 7/16” x 8”
14 x 12” – 13 7/16” x 11 ½”
Shallow – 13 7/16” x 5”

How many frames in each box:
11 Hoffman (self-spacing) frames in either a brood body or super. Although it is possible to fit in 12 frames, it is easier for manipulation to use 11 frames and a dummy board.
11 frames on narrow ends in the brood body
10 Manley frames in the super
9 or 10 frames on castellated spacers in the super
8 frames on wide ends in the super

Commercial Beehive Dimensions and statistics
External dimension – 18 5/16” square
Brood body depth – 10 ½”
Super depth – 6 3/8”
The brood area is 3000 sq. ins.
No. of worker cells 70,500
Bottom Bee Space

Frames sizes.
Top Bars – 17 ¼” long
Bottom bars – 16” long
Deep side bars – 10” long
Shallow side bars – 6” long

Foundation sizes
Deep – 15 7/16” x 9 ½”
Shallow – 15 7/16” x 5 ½”

How many frames in each box:
11 Hoffman frames in either a brood body or super.
10 Manley frames in the super.


POST 11 of the above website
In a National box, the internal dimension should be 372mm, That is the bottom bar length plus two beespaces. 356mm + (2 x 8mm). When I make up my boxes I use a template to ensure that I don't encroach upon this in any way.

The other internal dimension of note is 424mm. This will fit 12 x 35mm top bars with 4mm spare, so likely to be a very tight fit with a bit of moisture and propolis build up. It does mean that with 11 frames, that there is 39mm remaining, so a dummy board is a good idea and can be removed to facilitate inspection and replaced at the other end at the end of the box on completion of the inspection.

I make my frame feeders from 12mm door stop material and 6mm plywood. I use these also as dummy boards. I get very few drownings, despite not using a float, because the bees can reach both sides at all times if necessary. Two will fit in the box as well as the eleven frames if required.

At 14x12 frame dimensions each frame feeder contains approximately 1 litre of feed, for spring buildup, use in nucs and other emergency feeding applications.
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