Beekeeping chit chat

05-01-2018 3:02pm

solargain wrote: »

Usually when there are drones around at this time of year there is a problem . They will be looking to get rid of the queen fairly soon in spring or you have a drone laying queen in the stock. There is nothing you can do but keep an eye on it

Thanks, yes will be interesting to see how it performs in the spring. I last had it open in October and was surprised to see some capped drone cells, but they were correct, as in all together and separate from the capped worker brood. There were plenty of stores too.

victor8600 · 09-01-2018 5:15pm

solargain wrote: »

Usually when there are drones around at this time of year there is a problem . They will be looking to get rid of the queen fairly soon in spring or you have a drone laying queen in the stock. There is nothing you can do but keep an eye on it

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

yosemitesam1 · 11-01-2018 2:14pm

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.

11-01-2018 9:52pm

Heres a recent summary article that I found on drone lifespans. Seems that its not always as straightforward as we thought.

https://honeybeesuite.com/what-is-the-lifespan-of-a-drone-honey-bee/

I was watching my hive one day in mid December.. It was a cold calm day, about 5C, - only drones were flying, big fat drones, who barely fitted out of the mouse excluder.

After watching for a while i began to think that all i was seeing was the same three or four drones constantly flying in and out of the hive. Perhaps they were looking to be fed, and not being fed by the workers in the cluster, just repeated the behaviour..?
A couple of days later the temperature got over 10 and then it was mainly (95%+) workers who were flying.
Right now, with this weather, its totally quiet.

ganmo · 13-03-2018 9:18pm

Found this today.

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

13-03-2018 9:48pm

I would suspect wild. It's not easy to tell unless you saw the whole comb and this is just a bit.

If it was from a managed hive it would most likely be built on foundation, possibly wired, and as far as i see, the piece doesn't show that.

Was it beneath a tree where a colony might have set up a hive? Presumably its been broken up by an animal though its not destroyed as i've seen sometimes.

ganmo · 13-03-2018 10:36pm

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

13-03-2018 11:00pm

ganmo wrote: »

What do you mean by wired?

Beekeepers usually give the bees a template (foundation) on which to build their comb. This is a thin sheet of wax with the basic impressions of honeycomb on it. It is often strengthened with a thin wire running through it to stop it collapsing.

eg
https://www.irishbeesupplies.com/National_Brood_Wired_Foundation/p1800428_11117706.aspx

In addition, it is difficult to see how comb would come from a beekeepers hive, unless the hive got overturned and opened.

new2me · 10-04-2018 1:00am

so can you make a good income from bee keeping

victor8600 · 10-04-2018 8:36am

new2me wrote: »

so can you make a good income from bee keeping

Not in Ireland. Honey is too cheap to be very profitable and there are no pollination contracts. You could probably make 20K a year (just my guess) by working full time from April to September. I would be glad if somebody proved me wrong though

solargain · 10-04-2018 8:37am

In Germany they consider a beekeeper a hobbyist unless they have over 200 hives, as it is impossible to make a living with less

Effects · 10-04-2018 11:23am

new2me wrote: »

so can you make a good income from bee keeping

No, there's very few people working at it full time here.

bpmurray · 13-04-2018 9:34pm

new2me wrote: »

so can you make a good income from bee keeping

If you have 200 hives, you should average at least 20kg each, i.e. that's 4tonnes of honey. You should also easily produce 50 nucs and 100 queens. That'll give you around €20000 in honey, €7500 in nucs and €3000 in queens, so I suppose you should easily make €30K. However, you'll hit bad years when winter goes on until the middle of April (this year), when it rains too much so that your queens aren't properly mated (last year), etc. So it's a small income for a large amount of work, while being subject to weather, etc.

It's not a great career, TBH.

yosemitesam1 · 14-04-2018 5:55pm

bpmurray wrote: »

If you have 200 hives, you should average at least 20kg each, i.e. that's 4tonnes of honey. You should also easily produce 50 nucs and 100 queens. That'll give you around €20000 in honey, €7500 in nucs and €3000 in queens, so I suppose you should easily make €30K. However, you'll hit bad years when winter goes on until the middle of April (this year), when it rains too much so that your queens aren't properly mated (last year), etc. So it's a small income for a large amount of work, while being subject to weather, etc.

It's not a great career, TBH.

And that's before running costs!

Buford T. Justice XIX · 15-04-2018 10:01pm

https://twitter.com/backt0nature/status/985336908963287040?s=19

thelord · 16-04-2018 9:32pm

Everybody still feeding their bees too ?

yosemitesam1 · 17-04-2018 8:18am

thelord wrote: »

Everybody still feeding their bees too ?

Ye, hopefully will stop this week if the good weather comes

Effects · 17-04-2018 1:27pm

I've only had a feed a few hives. Didn't feed them at all in the autumn.

thelord · 18-04-2018 6:54pm

Yes hoping the weather will change too

bpmurray · 19-04-2018 10:27pm

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

https://twitter.com/backt0nature/status/985336908963287040?s=19

A really dirty jar of honey - didn't even sieve out the bees legs.

nikitahealy · 31-05-2018 4:13pm

anyone in the limerick area want a swarm of honey bees? have some in my kitchen ceiling that arrived day before yesterday and now all of a sudden have moved in without paying any rent. theyre in the ceiling of my kitchen and in my garage

victor8600 · 31-05-2018 4:36pm

nikitahealy wrote: »

anyone in the limerick area want a swarm of honey bees?

Unless somebody contacts you soon, call the Limerick's BKA's commitee:
http://www.limerickbees.net/contact_us_committee.html

nikitahealy · 31-05-2018 4:49pm

victor8600 wrote: »

Unless somebody contacts you soon, call the Limerick's BKA's commitee:

they sent someone out to me already and they told me to leave them there they'll die off in the winter or kill them theyre just honey bees

victor8600 · 01-06-2018 12:55am

nikitahealy wrote: »

they sent someone out to me already and they told me to leave them there they'll die off in the winter or kill them theyre just honey bees

What? This is not only ridiculous, it is also factually incorrect. If the association is not helping you, go to https://www.facebook.com/groups/bees.ireland/ and ask there.

Unless the "bees" you are referring to are actually wasps. Do you have a picture? A selfie stick is a good way to get your camera closer to the bees.

thelord · 01-06-2018 9:03pm

perhaps he means bumble bees

01-06-2018 9:49pm

Its strange, the advice given was appropriate to wasps not honey bees. Either OP has his species confused or else they decided it better not to open up the structure to remove the invaders.

Lorahart · 11-06-2018 6:58pm

Anybody know where in Dublin I could purchase raw honeycomb?

Looking to use it as a hay fever treatment but I just don’t how to go about getting it.

victor8600 · 12-06-2018 10:57am

Lorahart wrote: »

Anybody know where in Dublin I could purchase raw honeycomb?

Probably if go to to the Facebook group "Beekeepers of Ireland BUY/SELL/SWAP/FREE" and ask there, somebody may have honey and comb for sale from Dublin.

Mad Benny · 08-07-2018 4:02pm

(snip)

thelord · 21-08-2018 6:17pm

Whats the going rate per lb for raw irish honey this year ?

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