Oxalic treatment

The cold spell of the last few weeks is about to break, so this is probably the last chance this year to carry out the oxalic acid treatment on the hives.  I measure out the acid using a jewelers scales.  The recipe for this is clearly stated on the back of the pack of crystals and should be adhered to, absolutely.

The crystals are mixed into a 1:1 sugar syrup solution, 5ml per seam of bees is the recognized dosage, so I use 5ml syringes, ten of them are filled before taking the top off the hive.

One 5ml syringe full is drizzled along each seam of bees.  As each seam is completed I leave the empty syringe at the end of the row of bees, so I know which have been treated.

The whole operation should only take a few seconds, the crownboard and roof back on as soon as possible.

The empty syringes are refilled, and the routine moves on to the next hive, hopefully the bees have minimal harm and they will be carrying a lot less passengers.

Winter has arrived

Well after the very mild weather just before Christmas, I guess it was going to happen sooner or later.  It is freezing -6 C last couple of nights.

However it does mean that I can get on with building some of the kit for next season without feeling guilty about all the jobs I have to do outside,  I am working on the second batch of hives, so far, three floors, three broods, two supers, two roofs and a shedload of frames.  The first batch of four are complete, all have deposits on them are stored away in the dry and will be ready for collection mid - late May 2013, with colonies installed.  From the amount of interest I don't think this second batch will be available for long.

I am glad I did not rush to trickle oxalic acid on my colonies before the new year, another week of this weather, and that looks likely, will be the ideal time to carry out the treatment.

Nucs for the 2013 season

And so production begins for the 2013 season.

I have cut the timber for the first batch of nucleus hives into flat pack ready for glueing and pining.  I usually build nucs and hives in batches of four, it is a monotonous job, I find four is enough to keep me interested, any more and it becomes a bit of a chore.

Once the nucs are glued and pined all that remains to be done is to tar the roofs and melt the felt into it for a weather-tight lid, and paint with five coats of exterior wood preservative, and of course the endless job of building frames.

This first batch of nucs, each with a colony installed, are for orders already taken.  Even now it looks as if 2013 will be sold out very early.

Taster days, courses and colonies

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.

Winter preparation

The first frosts have arrived as usual in the first week of November, its the time that I rearrange the hives in readiness for winter.
All supers and queen excluders are removed from the top of the brood box and a full super is given back to each hive, but placed under the brood, the fifth of November was a lovely day, just right for such an operation.

As soon as they are rearranged, I put fondant on every hive.  I make the fondant in half kilo tubs, this is placed upside down over a feed hole on top of the crown board.  this allows me to monitor the bees through the winter without going into the hive.




It doesn't take long for the bees to find and start using this food source.  Some of my colonies get through large amounts of fondant, others barely touch it, but it is always there if they need it.