Beekeeping chit chat

Thanks for that. I am on the alert list for the Fingal one which suits me best. They open the bookings in September. I will definitely read up on the subject too. I read bits and pieces and am on the Facebook pages but I get a bit lost with the jargon.

Effects wrote: »

I read the haynes manual a few times until it all sank in.
Ted Hoopers book is more in depth and I refer to it a lot.

Haynes is definitely something all beginners need to read. However, Hooper is way too much for folk starting out.

If anyone is thinking of taking it up, find your local Beekeeping Association and ask them when their beginners course starts. Typically they're in the winter when the beekeepers don't have too much to do.

Nipper Man wrote: »

I have heard that too and it seems that the Honey from your own area is better for your Hay Fever, because the bees collect the pollen for the area around where you live and this seems to help with the Hay Fever.

FYI, there's no evidence for this. The only research I'm familiar with only used a small sample, and it found that there was no effect. However this small sample leads me to discount it. So no reliable evidence for or against the idea.

Also, since Ireland is pretty uniform in plants, "local" here means pretty much anywhere in the country.

Bees are still under threat from spraying and GMO crops that are creeping into Ireland as well and this is a very bad thing.

GMOs don't harm bees or humans. There has been extensive research into this, and the idea that they're harmful is a load of bunkum.

As for spraying, yes this can be bad. However, if the sprayers follow instructions, the impact is minor. On the other hand, there appear to be major problems with seeds coated with neonicitinoids, so more research is needed there.

It appears that if we humans don't curb our bad practices, then we are putting the Human Race in peril and I guess that it really is the big company's who have thousands of acres of farmland who are doing the most damage to the Bee population.

From my experience, farmers are very aware of what's needed and are very accommodating to beekeepers. However, the IFA seems to have a much more cavalier attitude to things, incorrectly assuming that managing the environment is not part of their goals.

In reality one of the major impacts on bee populations is this "natural beekeeping" where no attempt is made to curb the populations of varroa. These are the people who nurture disease in the hope that somehow the bees will survive, and ignoring the damage they're doing to surrounding colonies. I have selected my queens this year based on their hygienic behaviour based on varroa counts. This has been quite successful - I just did a count over the weekend and only one hive had excessive mites. However, I also started treatment to ensure that my bees can thrive and survive the winter. Next year, I'll requeen that less successful hive and continue to selectively breed until they can actually handle the varroa on their own. This is actually the goal of natural beekeeping, but while they're struggling, I'm optimistic that I'm heading there.

Honey is an amazing food from what I hear these days and the Pharma people don't want to hear that it is useful for healing wounds and the like because they wont be able to control it, unless government's make it Illegal to keep Honey Bee's.

What on earth are you talking about? Honey is used routinely for treating wounds nowadays. Its antibiotic properties have been well known for some time, but it's only the past few years that they've been able to remove the Clostridium botulinum spores to allow its safe use. (These are the bacterial spores that make honey unsafe for very young children).

yosemitesam1 wrote: »

@bp breeding based on varroa counts like you're doing/planning will be highly unlikely to get you anywhere in terms of progress against varroa unless you are controlling mating, otherwise you have no idea what you are breeding from and what its being mated with. On a larger scale it might have the potential to identify a few marker genes but thats still a long shot as the majority of hives will have multiple strains within them

Partially true: drones are 100% genetic copies of the queen because they're haploid. The workers are the ones that pick up the unknown genes. If neighbouring beekeepers practice the same selection criteria as I do (and they do), their drones will carry that hygienic behaviour to match my queens' behaviours. Some of my queens will carry the gene and others won't. By selective breeding I hope to eventually hit the point where the majority force the non-hygienic behaviour out of the population.

yosemitesam1 wrote: »

How will you stop your queen being mated with a non varroa tolerant drone who comes from a hive not evaluated yet or from a drone a good few miles away from you who closes the distance over a number of days?
How will your hives be set up to make sure its a fair test and doesnt favour negative traits?
What percentage of workers must remove varroa to have an effect on the total population, if a low proportion of workers can reduce overall levels you could breed from a hive with a low varroa population and be actually grafting an egg fertilised by a drone with a high susceptibility to varroa.

Arista are running a programme in spain to breed vsh bees from carnica and buckfast, all lines being evaluated are all ii'd to a single drone afaik. Nothing being left to chance compared to what you described, I'd say within 5-10 years there'll be commercial lines from it.

NIHBS are running a programme here too. The way it works is that you do counts in May and August, and breed from the hives that show very low numbers. Of course, there's a large risk of mating with drones that screw my plans up, but I'm doing it much less rigorously than the Spanish (and others). I suppose if I was really serious I'd get into AI. As for contamination, the apiaries around me (at least those I know of) all practise the same methods, and some are much more careful, only mating queens in specific locations which they have flooded with controlled drones. The LBKA apiary is trying to establish itself as a supplier of good drones too, so I'll bring my apideas along to there to be mated next year.

While that's good news with the work they're doing in Spain, with the news about the further spread of small hive beetle, I hope folk are very, very, very careful about imports: importing from a laboratory is one thing, but importing bees from an arbitrary breeder is akin to Russian roulette.

Of course, it's important to breed for other traits too, such as docility (particularly with AMM who have a bit of a reputation), such that I ended up deliberately squishing a queen for the first time a couple of weeks ago - that just seemed so wrong!

scheister wrote: »

What book wud be recommend for someone looking to read up on beekeeping b4 seeing weather to go further with it

Probably the easiest to get to grips with is the Haynes Bee Manual (by the same folk who do the car manuals). There are other books that are more thorough but they're also much more difficult to understand unless you have access to bees. Haynes is also focused on UK/Ireland beekeeping practices while books like Beekeeping for Dummies is more American.

Something else you should consider is contacting your nearest Beekeeping Association. They often have an apiary where beginners can experience bees first hand without committing themselves, much as you appear to want to do.

Edit: I forgot to mention that there's a beekeeping thing on for Heritage Week in Castletown House in Celbridge.

bpmurray wrote: »

Probably the easiest to get to grips with is the Haynes Bee Manual (by the same folk who do the car manuals). There are other books that are more thorough but they're also much more difficult to understand unless you have access to bees. Haynes is also focused on UK/Ireland beekeeping practices.

Thanks for the recommendation. I got this the other day and feel so overwhelmed with it. I hope to study it intensely so I am well prepared for my course in Feb.

Knowall Macduff wrote: »

a but this is constructive. If he takes that statement he could save himself a fortune. I started beekeeping with the hopes of a few pounds profit to be made from an enjoyable hobby. so got my first hive and suit and equipment, then another hive because you should have two to cover emergencies then for swarm control another couple of hundred worth of hives and equipment, then with the hopes of a honey crop extractor ,wax melter and spent money doing up a shed as a honey house. Now after ten or so years I still don't make money, I spend most of what used to be my spare time at bees, honey, meetings,talking bees til I bore the crap out of anyone that comes near me and I even dream about bees. I now realise that it has become an addiction and that it was easier to quit smoking than to cut down on bees. then on the other side from starting the beekeeping course about 60% drop away in the first two years, money down the tubes.

Is the problem perhaps then more related to your expectations of "profit" ?

Tírghrá wrote: »

Hi Guys,

I have an issue and wondering can anyone help. I have a hive of black bees, they were transported about 85km to there new site. I have put on a super as space was tight and put in 2 new brood frames. It has been nearly 2 weeks and they seem to be ignoring the super and the 3 new brood frames. There is a queen excluder in between the super and brood also. Just getting worried they aren't ever gonna take it.

First hive FYI

How tight was space really? When you say you added two new brood frames? They are just foundation, they're not drawn out yet?

How many frames have brood on them? Is it a new queen from this year or one from last year? Is it a nuc that was recently made up or is it an established colony?

I suspect that maybe they weren't as stuck for space as you thought. Is there much new brood emerging? We're just past the peak of the season for the amount of eggs that a queen will lay each day - there's more brood to come but it will be starting to slow down now.

Also, they can be a bit reluctant to move up through the queen excluder to start drawing out the first super. You could try removing the queen excluder for a while until they move up.

Your super may not be necessary just yet.

For a colony that's not filling supers at this time of year, my main concern would be getting them as strong as possible before the winter so that next year will be good.

If they're a recently put together nuc then it might be worth feeding them to help them build up.

A bit of history of the colony would help and a photo of the open brood box.

brianmc wrote: »

How did the grafts go?

Sorry only saw this now, first lot this year had a poor take. I think it was 50-60% but it was very cold when they went in. Went up to 85%+ when it warmed up.
Had to get my queens finished up with early this year so only had about 50-60% of queens get mated due to the bad weather around the start of June.

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Can anybody help with identifying pollen?

For the past three weeks or so my bees have been bringing in large amounts of yellow pollen. I assume its Ragworth as theres quite a bit of that around.

Some are also bringing a grey or offwhite pollen these days. Not only is the pollen on their legs but its all over their bodies, especially on the tops of the thorax, giving them an almost grey appearance (like after sugar shake but less pronounced). Any idea what plant they might be feeding on?

Yellow pollen is ivy and the white is Himalayan balsam

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I think you're spot on with Himalayan Balsam. Theres a river and wet ground nearby so it makes sense.

However they've been bringing in the yellow pollen since early/mid september (lots of it) and as far as I can see, the ivy is just about to flower here... thats why i thought ragworth.

I'm not sure what ragwort pollen looks like but lots of yellow pollen in September sounds like ivy. Was there an ivy smell from the hives?

They'll collect pollen all year as long as it's available and weather's suitable

victor8600 wrote: »

Exactly. Another possibility is that they have no queen since autumn. Bees would not kick out drones in autumn unless their queen is good.

Used to think that was the case until I started trickling oxalic. It's not uncommon at all to see drones in hives that will go on to be perfect in spring.

Found this today.

Is it a wild bee comb or one from a maintained hive?

it was under a tree but didn't notice any bees near it last year. What do you mean by wired?