My bees being busy. I only have one hive at the moment until I plant a whole load of wildflowers for next year.
by box_of_carrots
My bees being busy. I only have one hive at the moment until I plant a whole load of wildflowers for next year.
by box_of_carrots
14 comments
Being busy is their whole shtick isn’t it?
Don’t want an idle Bee. P45 in the post son.
I’d love to do that. How much did it cost to get started? Did you attend any courses for beekeeping?
I would build or get a second hive. Reason being is when the hive gets too full they will swarm so a second hive will help the next swarm to go to to live in then you now have a second hive. Just something for you to think of. No need to do it now as you’ve just started but maybe next year once the swarm is settled in nicely. My family used to keep hive in South Africa and that is what we used to do back in the 70’s. I actually climbed a tree to drop a swarm into a hive as we didn’t have an empty one at the time.
I know you prob know this, but just make sure you get a native mix of wildflowers, not just any bargain-bin stuff
Plant Borage. My neighbours bees go mad for it.
Fantastic!
Well done, sincerely.
Having a second hive was good advice I got starting out. You can have a supply of draw out comb and a back up for eggs in case on hive becomes hopelessly queenless. Also use a brood box for super. That way if you’re becoming honey or brood bound in the brood box you can just move those frames up a box to make space, replacing them with empty drawn out comb. Are these native Irish bees or Buckfast?
I’d love to get into this. Question, is this something someone can do in a suburban area, in their back garden. Or would it piss off the neighbours… Do they fly around in swarms that would upset neighbours back yards? Back yard is decent size in length, but only house width
How far away from where people without PPE would they need to be? I have an acre of ground. The back 1/3 or so is an orchard, so that’s where they’d go. But that’s also where my chickens and polytunnel are, so we’re down there constantly.
It’s a good thing you’re doing.
My grandfather was a beekeeper with something like 16 hives and as a kid helping him, I have found memories of everything related to it. Unsealing the honeycomb and pumping honey using this barrel/centrifuge (not sure the proper name for it) was my favorite. I would do that for free just for the sake of experience now.
Great work!
Anyone else noticing how few bees and butterflies are around?
You needn’t even wait to plant. They’ll still get plenty nectar from plants like dandelions and clover swards.