Another year about over, and for beekeepers what a dreadful year its been, the worst I can remember. But already I have to make plans for the coming season.
I don't start advertising colonies for sale until late January early February, I have a better idea of how my bees have come through the winter by then, but I have orders for hives and nucs with colonies already. And the course that I run for absolute beginners is also becoming booked up early. The beginning of the season used to be the start of April for me, I had a couple of colonies that were hugely productive, varroa was in the distant future, summers were always sunny, winters were mild...... Must stop wearing those rose tinted glasses.
My early nuc and colony queens were ordered two months ago and most of those have already been sold with the colonies they will head. I start building hives and nucs the first week of January and I don't really stop building frames. I am going to severely restrict the number of colonies I produce this coming year, I have, unfortunately, a lot of non-beekeeping work to get through in 2013.
This year I am going to be offering people who like the idea of beekeeping but who have never had the chance to see what is involved, 'Taster Days', these are an opportunity to inspect a hive or two with me to see if beekeeping is something they would like to take up. I will be providing all the kit they will need, so the outlay is minimal and greatly reduces the risk of starting something that they may not actually like.
For those wishing to read up on beekeeping through the winter in preparation to start keeping bees in the spring, two books that I use and recommend,
Practical Beekeeping by Ted Hooper and A Guide to Bees and Honey by Clive de Bruyn. Both appear from time to time on auction sites, as with all hobbies/pastimes its much easier to understand when you have had hands on experience.
