# General beekeeping > Starting out >  Hi there everyone

## gwizzie

Hi everyone,
been on here for a bit now and just been reading through the post's until I got my bees, which I have now got :Big Grin:  three hives

No:1 Full hive bought from a local beekeeper.
No:2 Swarm been installed about one week now and no signs of eggs.
No:3 Nuke bought from again a local breeder.

Just so excited to be finally able to see my bees flying in and out of the hive, I have decided to film every time I go into a hive to check on them as I can refer back to the video later and then sopt things that I have missed.

Regards
Graham

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## gavin

I can more or less remember the excitement myself - around 20 years ago.  It was a good decision then and remains so now.  Hope it works out as well for you.  Let us know how you get on.

Gavin

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## Adam

One thing that always pleases me is when a queen starts to lay. Hopefully yours will soon.

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## gwizzie

> I can more or less remember the excitement myself - around 20 years ago.  It was a good decision then and remains so now.  Hope it works out as well for you.  Let us know how you get on.
> 
> Gavin





> Adam
> One thing that always pleases me is when a queen starts to lay. Hopefully yours will soon.


Hi Gavin & Adam, thanks for the comment. Wish now I had started 20 years ago now  :Big Grin:   here are a few videos of what has been happening to the 2 hives that I am working on just now! 

Yes I hope the queen in the swarm hive starts laying soon and also shows herself  :Smile: 

Any comment welcome:

Swarm hive 1st inspection



Hive one 1st real inspection 6-7-14 



Found supercedure cells in this hive today, took them down will check again in a few days. Does this mean I will have to split this hive do a artificial swarm??

I think that videoing what I am doing is a great help as I can watch it back again & again and notice stuff that I didn't when I was doing the inspection. 
Hope you enjoy the videos  :Smile:

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## alclosier

Hi giwizzie,

Very interesting to see someone else doing an inspection and brave to post it for comments.

A couple of tips which hopefully will be of use from watching the videos:

I noticed on the second video that you lifted the crown board without removing the empty super/ roof first. When it slipped back down it gave them an all mighty bang which probably agitated them a bit. I would have broken down it into more manageable and sections before removing the crown board. I was also puzzled by you putting the QE on crown board and then an empty super. I could not see a reason for it!

On a side note you might want to check the gap in the side of the second hive, it looks a bit big. You'll see what I mean if you review the end as you close up. You also went and killed the QCs as soon as you saw them. I personally have waited for a bit more info from the inspection just in case they were requeening due to a sudden queen loss. If they were you could have stopped that process.

In the both videos I reckoned you had 12 frames in the body. If this is correct, have you considered going to 11 and using a dummy board? Gives IMO an easier time when removing the first few frames.

Out of interest why did you treat the first hive? Was there evidence of high mite levels?

I would try to get into the habit of neat working round the hive. You'll soon find the flow that you are comfortable with which will make life easier.

Good luck, I'm no expert but but these are my comments on your very brave post. I hope they are of use.

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## gwizzie

Hi Thanks for your comments, this is the reason that I posted it to get feedback from members. I will try and answer some of your replies the best I can!!!




> I noticed on the second video that you lifted the crown board without removing the empty super/ roof first. When it slipped back down it gave them an all mighty bang which probably agitated them a bit. I would have broken down it into more manageable and sections before removing the crown board.


You are correct it would have been easier and it is what I normally do but the weather was so changeable that day (newbie mistake)




> I was also puzzled by you putting the QE on crown board and then an empty super. I could not see a reason for it!


I placed the crown board back on top of the QE because I had intended to add frames to the super and was going to remove it then... as didn't want the super filling up with bees before I had put in the frames.




> In the both videos I reckoned you had 12 frames in the body. If this is correct, have you considered going to 11 and using a dummy board? Gives IMO an easier time when removing the first few frames.


At the moment that is what I use and other members around here 12 frames! I have in my new poly hive 11 frames and a dummy board in it as you can't get 12 into it.




> Out of interest why did you treat the first hive? Was there evidence of high mite levels?


This swarm came from a colony that had survived the winter in someone's roof (not from someone's hive) therefor they had not been treated for varroa and I was advised to treat them ASAP before brood had started to appear.




> I would try to get into the habit of neat working round the hive.


I do so a bit confused over this comment???

but again thanks for your comments

regards
Graham

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## alclosier

Graham,

Sorry should have been clearer about neat working. What I mean is when you arrive at the hive have everything you are likely to need at your hands. I remove my roof and put it behind me to my right every time. I then follow the same removal process for each item. It builds habit which should make things easier as you do it more. You also know exactly where everything is when you need it.

There is a phrase from the yanks, 'slow is smooth, smooth is fast'. If you are comfortable with everything at your hands you will move smoothly and increase your speed. I also run a checklist through my head before I start so I know what I want to do in the hive before I start. I usually have a list of what if scenario's in case I encounter something unexpected. This has included, stop, close the hive walk away and think about it.

Thanks for the reply. If I had a tripod for a camera I would video mine so I could be critiqued!

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## gwizzie

> Graham,
> 
> Sorry should have been clearer about neat working. What I mean is when you arrive at the hive have everything you are likely to need at your hands. I remove my roof and put it behind me to my right every time. I then follow the same removal process for each item. It builds habit which should make things easier as you do it more. You also know exactly where everything is when you need it.
> 
> There is a phrase from the yanks, 'slow is smooth, smooth is fast'. If you are comfortable with everything at your hands you will move smoothly and increase your speed. I also run a checklist through my head before I start so I know what I want to do in the hive before I start. I usually have a list of what if scenario's in case I encounter something unexpected. This has included, stop, close the hive walk away and think about it.
> 
> Thanks for the reply. If I had a tripod for a camera I would video mine so I could be critiqued!


Again thanks for the tips, I will try and get into some kind of routine so I can be more efficient. :Wink:  As for the tripod go out and get one there not that expensive and dont worry about being critiqued IM not thats how you learn.

As I used to say to people when I ran several forums *There are never stupid questions only stupid answers* life is one big learning curve for us all everyday and if you never ask you will never learn or know anything!!
regards
Graham

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## The Drone Ranger

Graham Thornes sell a blue metal thing for hanging a frame on outside the hive
I have found that handy 
http://www.thorne.co.uk/hardware-clo...roduct_id=1783
They were £5.00 in the sale last year or one before

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## gavin

Hi Graham

Yes, brave putting up videos of beekeeping so early in your career!  One of mine would show lots of things folk would pick up on.  One last night would have been entertaining as I when I opened a double brood hive it erupted into thousands of angry bees zig-zag flying at chest height in a radius of about 15 ft around the hive.  I retreated into the trees and then there were only 20 or 30 trying to kill me through my veil.  I had to leave them to settle for 20 min before I could face going back to retrieve the smoker.  That one has been getting worse and worse.  I managed a quick peek at the queen cups along the join between the boxes thanks to a dense cloud of wood smoke but then had to retreat again.  It has joined its neighbour in the 'unmanageable' category.

Anyway, two things.  Once you prise open a hive more than a bee space try not to let the gap close again.  Some use wooden wedges, I just hold the equipment apart.  The crunchy sound is never pleasant, though in your case you may have managed to keep bees out of the gap with smoke.

Just wanted to amplify Al C's comments on queens.  Once you see queen cells (I doubt that they're supersedure cells) you need to switch over to detective mode before doing anything removing them.  Is the queen still there?  Are there eggs?  Nowadays my first move is to find the queen, move her into a nuc on her frame plus a frame of stores, making sure that there are enough bees with her.  Then I leave them alone until a couple of days before the first queen is due to emerge.  Alternatively you can do a classic artificial swarm.  To find the queen you have to take your time, starting looking all round the edges of each frame and working in.  I use the back of my hand or a hive tool to gently touch thicker layers of bees to make sure I'm seeing every bee.  You did some of that but not enough to check thoroughly.  Also look on the walls and floors as you go (and the underside of the queen excluder when you take it off).

If any of those cells were sealed you might have lost a swarm already.  As Al said you could have lost the queen (perhaps damaged on the last inspection) and if so then removing all the cells renders them hopelessly queenless.  If there are eggs or young larvae the bees can recover from the loss of queen cells by making more, but if they have moved on from that point there are no young larvae to use so the colony cannot replace their queen.

It looked like they were open queen cells.  Assuming the queen is there you need to do an artificial swarm.  If you managed to remove all part-developed queen cells leaving only perhaps larvae less than a day old then you may have a few days (perhaps 4), unless they make emergency cells from older worker larvae.  Removing the cells doesn't solve anything and risks a swarm earlier in the process before queen cells are sealed.  If you missed one you may have only a day or two.  In other words it has become urgent to find the queen and do an artificial swarm.  All weather dependent of course, that may delay them swarming.

hope that helps

Gavin

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## busybeephilip

> One last night would have been entertaining as I when I opened a double brood hive it erupted into thousands of angry bees zig-zag flying at chest height in a radius of about 15 ft around the hive.  I retreated into the trees and then there were only 20 or 30 trying to kill me through my veil. 
> Gavin


Gavin,  sounds like you've got a carnolian mellifera mix which are rather nasty when the hive gets strong and can be a tad difficult to requeen with a more docile bee

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## gwizzie

> Graham Thornes sell a blue metal thing for hanging a frame on outside the hive
> I have found that handy 
> http://www.thorne.co.uk/hardware-clo...roduct_id=1783
> They were £5.00 in the sale last year or one before


Hi thanks for the reply and the input, they say great minds think alike LOL. It just so happens that my one turned up today from Fleebay... used it today and yes it is a god send.

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## gwizzie

> Hi Graham
> 
> Yes, brave putting up videos of beekeeping so early in your career!  One of mine would show lots of things folk would pick up on.  One last night would have been entertaining as I when I opened a double brood hive it erupted into thousands of angry bees zig-zag flying at chest height in a radius of about 15 ft around the hive.  I retreated into the trees and then there were only 20 or 30 trying to kill me through my veil.  I had to leave them to settle for 20 min before I could face going back to retrieve the smoker.  That one has been getting worse and worse.  I managed a quick peek at the queen cups along the join between the boxes thanks to a dense cloud of wood smoke but then had to retreat again.  It has joined its neighbour in the 'unmanageable' category.
> 
> Anyway, two things.  Once you prise open a hive more than a bee space try not to let the gap close again.  Some use wooden wedges, I just hold the equipment apart.  The crunchy sound is never pleasant, though in your case you may have managed to keep bees out of the gap with smoke.
> 
> Just wanted to amplify Al C's comments on queens.  Once you see queen cells (I doubt that they're supersedure cells) you need to switch over to detective mode before doing anything removing them.  Is the queen still there?  Are there eggs?  Nowadays my first move is to find the queen, move her into a nuc on her frame plus a frame of stores, making sure that there are enough bees with her.  Then I leave them alone until a couple of days before the first queen is due to emerge.  Alternatively you can do a classic artificial swarm.  To find the queen you have to take your time, starting looking all round the edges of each frame and working in.  I use the back of my hand or a hive tool to gently touch thicker layers of bees to make sure I'm seeing every bee.  You did some of that but not enough to check thoroughly.  Also look on the walls and floors as you go (and the underside of the queen excluder when you take it off).
> 
> If any of those cells were sealed you might have lost a swarm already.  As Al said you could have lost the queen (perhaps damaged on the last inspection) and if so then removing all the cells renders them hopelessly queenless.  If there are eggs or young larvae the bees can recover from the loss of queen cells by making more, but if they have moved on from that point there are no young larvae to use so the colony cannot replace their queen.
> ...


Hi Gavin,

thanks for the reply and your input,,,,

It so happens that I was at the local club apiary today to check on my 2 hives that I have there and when checking that hive in question the queen was found second time around and there are eggs present. So under the guidance of a local beekeeper doing a check again on Sunday and if more queen cells are found an artificial swarm will follow.

I also helped him with one of the clubs hives that has 2 suppers on it and I got my eye OPENED  :EEK!:  I thought my hive was getting big Nothing compared to this one 40,000 bee's plus he told me.. 

We then checked on another that were *very* aggressive and we discovered that they had lost the queen (not something I will forget) Second bee sting and counting.

The worry that I have about splitting this hive is DO I have enough bees to split ok ? I am sure Sunday will tell one way or another..

Thanks again to everyone that has commented so far, I will keep everyone up to date on its progress  :Wink:

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## alclosier

Gavin, the wooden wedges is an awesome idea. I've never thought of that, so simple.

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## busybeephilip

> Gavin, the wooden wedges is an awesome idea. I've never thought of that, so simple.


works even better if you screw in an eye hook to each wedge and tie a bit of string to them, dont get lost so easy.  I tried wedges but now its just twist and lift.

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## gavin

Good tip, Philip.  You may have just encouraged me to try wooden wedges after all these years.  

I'm now doing a lot of propping brood boxes on their front edge having been shown that in a demo for the Smartbee project at Sand Hutton earlier this summer.  You can lift the back of the top box, slide the upper box backwards a few inches (few more centimetres) then tip it up at quite an angle to assess lower frame coverage or to look for charged queen cells along the bottom of the upper box.  A useful quick check for queen cells in those colonies of killer bees.

When I'm putting boxes back after lifting one off I try to overlap them in both directions by the thickness of the walls, making contact with just the edges of the rims.  Then slide them back to make them properly aligned without crushing a bee.  Usually.

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## The Drone Ranger

Hi Gavin
Laminate flooring spacers are plastic wedges and they just about do the job 
You lose a lot of them (well I have anyway)
Like the ones in this pic

ae235.jpg

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## Bridget

> I'm now doing a lot of propping brood boxes on their front edge having been shown that in a demo for the Smartbee project at Sand Hutton earlier this summer.  You can lift the back of the top box, slide the upper box backwards a few inches (few more centimetres) then tip it up at quite an angle to assess lower frame coverage or to look for charged queen cells along the bottom of the upper box.  A useful quick check for queen cells in those colonies of killer bees.


Gavin
I have 2 brood boxes and 2 supers on a couple of hives of very aggressive bees which are all over the place and a bit intimidating.  Do you reckon that lifting as suggested is good enough or is it something to do if you have lots of colonies and don't mind loosing the odd on or two? I only have the 2.
I am hoping to re queen these with a couple of queens originating from Drumgerrys calm quiet bees but not just yet.  On the plus side these aggressive bees have built up beautifully and I've never had 2 bb's AND 2 supers before.  




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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## gavin

Great set of posts, thanks everyone.  I usually go and get a cup of tea and settle in the sofa when C4U has posted one of his highly informative ones. 




> Do you reckon that lifting as suggested is good enough or is it something to do if you have lots of colonies and don't mind loosing the odd on or two? I only have the 2.


If it fails perhaps 1 time in 10 then it should be good enough for you now  :Smile: .

I've only turned to it recently when forced to, when frisky colonies and sub-optimal weather conspire to intimidate me.  The other option is to shift the entire colony aside and leave for a while a BB, floor and roof on the original site.

However it is reassuring to see a row of perhaps 10 queen cups and determine that there isn't as much as an egg in one.  That ought to give you a week's reassurance in most circumstances.  With a clipped queen in residence I'm happy with that.  Bear in mind that backwards sliding of the top box resting on its forward edge only works for boxes with frames at right angles to the entrance.

One bee farmer (not C4U) mentioned to me recently that he was happy if he'd stopped 80% of swarms.

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## gwizzie

Well guys, some good news for me anyway I have found the queen in the swarm hive  :Big Grin:  and marked her today, it was just a very quick inspection to see if I could find her and see if there was any eggs. NO eggs so far but have noticed that they have a good deal of the comb drawn out now and the bees are taking in some amount of pollen good signs I believe, I will not check this hive now for another 3 week just to leave the queen alone to get on with it.

I will be checking on the hive No: 1 tomorrow weather permitting and checking to see if they have got more queen cells and if so do a artificial swarm, will keep you all posted on the outcome.

Hive No: 4 I am picking up from a member on Monday night  :Big Grin: 

This is what I have decided to do for the marking of the queens, I am going to stick to a 2 colour system White and Yellow! reson easier to see Yellow for odd years and White even years ect, ect.

regards Graham

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## fatshark

> This is what I have decided to do for the marking of the queens, I am going to stick to a 2 colour system White and Yellow! reson easier to see Yellow for odd years and White even years ect, ect.


You can get away with one colour and good records, so saving a whopping £3 or so for the pen. Once marked (and clipped) the queen should stay put and your records should tell you when you marked her. Good records are actually more important than marking queens (and I'm afraid this is a case of _Don't do as I do, but do as I say_  :Wink: ). I'm colourblind and really struggle with the red and green marking of queens.

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## gwizzie

> You can get away with one colour and good records, so saving a whopping £3 or so for the pen. Once marked (and clipped) the queen should stay put and your records should tell you when you marked her. Good records are actually more important than marking queens (and I'm afraid this is a case of _Don't do as I do, but do as I say_ ). I'm colourblind and really struggle with the red and green marking of queens.


Hi thanks for the input, its not to save on money but that does help  :Wink:  as I have said it for easy seeing of the colours, but I do intend on keeping good records I am also going to put a marker on the outside of the hive plastic pins to show at a glance what colour queen should be in the hive.

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## gwizzie

Well yesterday I decided to have a peek into the swarm hive to see if the queen had started to lay yet ? and to my surprise 4th frame in capped brood  :Big Grin:  (my neighbour thought I had been stung) as I danced around the hive full of joy. 

Sorry if I sound a bit over excited but 1st swarm 1st laying queen, even though I haven't really done anything. I promptly put the have back together and will leave it for a few weeks now before I check it again, is that correct or how long should it be before I check it again ?

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## gavin

Some new queens might give you queen cells, most just settle.  Not much need to check it regularly but do so if you wish.  Feed if it is weak, no need if strong or there is a good flow. 

Dancing around the hive was the right response  :Smile: .

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## gwizzie

> Some new queens might give you queen cells, most just settle.  Not much need to check it regularly but do so if you wish.  Feed if it is weak, no need if strong or there is a good flow. 
> 
> Dancing around the hive was the right response .


Thanks Gav, dancing around the hive was a great feeling but not sure it did my back any good as it's a bit sore today  :Frown:  

Not sure if I need to feed it now as I did give it 2 loads of ambrosia to help draw out the frames, also plenty bees coming and going with pollen ect only a few frames not drawn out. 
SO should I give them a little to help them out or leave them ?

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## gwizzie

wee update on the swarm hive, working very hard in the wind to bring in stores and pollen. Its a creamy colour so think its from the brambles as there seems to be a lot of it that they're taking in just now.

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## gwizzie

Well I did a hive inspection of the swarm hive yesterday and I must say I was inpressed and shocked at the rate that they have built this hive up in one month  :EEK!: 

1st inspection of swarm hive 




2nd inspection of swarm hive 



comments welcome guys if any ?

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## The Drone Ranger

> comments welcome guys if any ?


Like your enthusiasm Gwizzie
You might have started a new trend to post video

What are you going to do in the Winter when there is no beekeeping  :Smile: 

There might be a thread on here about varroa treatments that's an important Winter task
You can start now with thymol treatments but not if your bees are going to heather

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## gavin

Seven frames of brood is good but with 3 frames left to draw they are not strong enough now to get a heather crop.  Keep feeding until that box is full and you might (just might) yet get some heather honey as it is a late season.  I just watched the second one.

The bees seem to be leaving your black gloves alone, but sometimes they react badly to black.

Good though, and yes, this could be a new trend.

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## The Drone Ranger

> The bees seem to be leaving your black gloves alone, but sometimes they react badly to black.


Johnny Cash was never going to make a beekeeper

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## gwizzie

> Like your enthusiasm Gwizzie
> You might have started a new trend to post video
> 
> What are you going to do in the Winter when there is no beekeeping 
> 
> There might be a thread on here about varroa treatments that's an important Winter task
> You can start now with thymol treatments but not if your bees are going to heather


Hey DR, 
Yep you could bee (pardon the pun) LOL yes I think it is a good way of referring back on hive inspections as were all not getting any younger (me included) and memory is not as good as I would like it and videoing what I do at each hive is a great way, also allows me to show it to you guys so you can scrutinise it  :Wink: 

In the winter I will be learning more and getting ready for the next year MY 1st Real year of beekeeping. (hibernating more like) LOL

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## gwizzie

> Seven frames of brood is good but with 3 frames left to draw they are not strong enough now to get a heather crop.  Keep feeding until that box is full and you might (just might) yet get some heather honey as it is a late season.  I just watched the second one.
> 
> The bees seem to be leaving your black gloves alone, but sometimes they react badly to black.
> 
> Good though, and yes, this could be a new trend.


Hi Gav, you could be right I'm not saying your not, but they're going to the heather as there getting to many now flying about in my small garden, also they will still get a feed to help them out to draw the last few  :Wink: 

As for the black gloves !!! I was told that when others seen them but they don't bother with them at all gav and there stronger and thicker than the blue ones. Also hands don't sweat as much in these.
These are the ones 
$_57.jpg

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## gwizzie

Just a wee update on my hives that now have all been moved to my apiary, they are all doing fine. Two of the hives have had a super on then for the last week, and when checking the other two hives today they were about to burst so I have had to add supers to them now as well, there seems to be a good flow on here now around my apiary.

The bell heather is still out but the main ling heather is just starting to come out now and the bees are just getting to work on it, lets hope that the weather stays the same as it has for the last few days  :Smile: . I seen one of my bees working the ling today BIG deal for me as my 1st year of beekeeping so sorry if this post boars you  :Stick Out Tongue: 

Can someone please tell me if the pollen on the bees leg is from the ling heather ???

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## The Drone Ranger

Hi Graham 
Is that one called heather  :Smile: 
They seem to be working individually where's all her mates ?

I'm Waiting for the "extracting heather honey " vid   :Smile:

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## gwizzie

Well after showing the video to a beekeeper he thinks that the pollen on the bees leg is more likely to be field thistle as ling heather pollen is a bit more browner. O well you learn something new every day :Big Grin: 

Well fingers crossed for some good weather and hard working bees for that long awaited Highlander heather  :Big Grin:

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## The Drone Ranger

Gwizzie
Have you got yourself a microscope yet ?
The SBA run a microscopy course most years doing pollen identification ,nosema , pollen samples from honey etc
All interesting stuff and I think you would enjoy it
Heres a pic of a pollen grain taken by just sticking the lens of a compact camera against the eyepiece of the microscope

IMGP0626.jpg

Sorry G for some reason it hasn't displayed but there are loads on the net

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## gwizzie

> Gwizzie
> Have you got yourself a microscope yet ?
> The SBA run a microscopy course most years doing pollen identification ,nosema , pollen samples from honey etc
> All interesting stuff and I think you would enjoy it
> Heres a pic of a pollen grain taken by just sticking the lens of a compact camera against the eyepiece of the microscope
> 
> IMGP0626.jpg
> 
> Sorry G for some reason it hasn't displayed but there are loads on the net


Hey DR, No not yet not sure if I will need one as the local club has a science officer and she does all that kind a stuff for a job so sorted there  :Smile: . Humm not sure about the course as too far to travel ?

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## gwizzie

Ok guys I have been up at my apiary on sunday to check on a things and have a peek in to see how the honey collecting is going and there doing a great job so far  :Wink:  BUT I did notice one thing out of the 4 hives 2 are wooden and 2 are poly.... now the 2 wooden hives have bees only drawing comb and filling in the center of the super's, BUT the super's on both of the poly hives the bees are ALL over the 10 frames drawing them all out. 

So my conclusion to this is that the poly hives are warmer for the bees than the wooden ones and they are spreading themselves over the whole super, were as the wooden ones are only drawing out come over the bee custer of the hive ? 

what do you think or make of this ????

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## gwizzie

Forgot to post this video in this thread, it shows the difference Im getting between the poly hives and the wooden ones, Massive difference I would say

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## mbc

Nice video.
I don't wish to be critical but one thing I noticed was the porter bee escape left in the crown board, the bees often propolise these up so that they're ineffective if left on, be carefully to free the springs if you use this to clear the super later on.

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## gwizzie

> Nice video.
> I don't wish to be critical but one thing I noticed was the porter bee escape left in the crown board, the bees often propolise these up so that they're ineffective if left on, be carefully to free the springs if you use this to clear the super later on.


Yep I am aware of that and will be cleaning and checking before I use them, but thank you for the comment. :Wink:

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## gwizzie

Well small update for those that want to read it, I checked on the hives today and they still are pulling a small amount of honey not much as the ling is just about done now. The swarm hive is doing about the best with 4 frames full and just about capped off, the other 2 are struggling a bit but in saying that I am happy with the amount that I have got for the 1st year as I started SO late in the season and some of my hives are only about 2 to 3 months old now. 
Fingers crossed for a good winter and a good start to the spring, I have a better understanding now of what I have to do for next year all going well and should be hopefully going from 6 hives to about 15 next year prob finish at 20 think that that is enough for me.

Plan to use the rapeseed to build some of my hives up to double brood boxed hives for the heather ? comments welcome !!!! any suggestions of what to do with the rapeseed honey ??

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## gwizzie

Well checked the hives today as I have been busy with other things like life in general, and I think i'll be lucky to even get a teaspoon party going as there is not much honey on 2 of the hives they seem to have moved it down stairs, the 3rd hive that has got a supper on it well it might give me about 4 frames, just enough for my porridge for a few weeks :Smile: .

So tomorrow it's off with the suppers and on with the feeders as going on holiday next week and want to get this all sorted before I go. I have given the hives a wee lift with one hand and can just about tilt the brood box there all heavy so think that's a good sign that they will have enough stores for the winter, so feed before it gets too cold for them to take the syrup.

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## gwizzie

Humm never got time to take of the supers before I went on holiday :-( never mind back now and will raid the supers tomorrow to see what I get, will keep you posted but don't think it will be much  :Frown:

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## The Drone Ranger

Hi Graham
As I mentioned in your other thread please be careful you leave enough Winter stores for them as it's a bit late now for syrup feeding
P.s it's super as in superintendent or supervise (meaning above) as opposed to supper which is a tasty evening snack  :Smile: 
DR

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## gwizzie

> Hi Graham
> As I mentioned in your other thread please be careful you leave enough Winter stores for them as it's a bit late now for syrup feeding
> P.s it's super as in superintendent or supervise (meaning above) as opposed to supper which is a tasty evening snack 
> DR


LOL just back from Crete bud,,,, head and fingers not really working together yet..... all sorted now  :Embarrassment: 

please see other thread reply http://www.sbai.org.uk/sbai_forum/sh...ll=1#post32752

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## gwizzie

Well bees are doing fine so far as the winter has been very mild up here, checking on the bees yesterday one of the hive was very active as you can see here



These are the are only bees that I have that I will do this with and also NO bee suit  :EEK!:

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## madasafish

> These are the are only bees that I have that I will do this with and also NO bee suit



I can do that with all my hives at this time of year.. it's when there are lots more bees when I start to take a little more care... or in the case of our Association bees, wear a veil and tunic and boots and vinyls and apply Avon "Skin So Soft" to my hands and cuffs.

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## gwizzie

Well its took a bit of time but we're nearly there as my 1st apiary is now just about finished  :Wink: 

IMG_0339.jpg

IMG_0357.jpg

IMG_0359.jpg

Just got to make all the stands now for all the hives, I have worked out that I will get 16 hives along the back wall of the fence, leaving room for me to get around the hives.
One thing that I would like to know is how much room to give between hives (distance from front of hive to next hive in front ?) The whole apiary will be covered on three sides with broom.  I will post more pic's later.

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## Kate Atchley

> Well its took a bit of time but we're nearly there as my 1st apiary is now just about finished 
> Just got to make all the stands now for all the hives, I have worked out that I will get 16 hives along the back wall of the fence, leaving room for me to get around the hives.
> One thing that I would like to know is how much room to give between hives (distance from front of hive to next hive in front ?)....


What a lot of work! Looks good.

I'd leave as much space between hives as you can spare. Not all in neat rows either, and some slightly askew? Untidy though!

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## madasafish

> What a lot of work! Looks good.
> 
> I'd leave as much space between hives as you can spare. Not all in neat rows either, and some slightly askew? Untidy though!


Perhaps a zig zag pattern..  ?   How about a nice spiral...that will ensure the bees are scattered everywhere..?

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## gwizzie

> Perhaps a zig zag pattern..  ?   How about a nice spiral...that will ensure the bees are scattered everywhere..?


LOL not going to be that adventurous. straight lines will do me...

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## gwizzie

Well it was such a lovely day here today that I thought I would go up to my apiary and check on my bees... As I approached the apiary I started to hear this roaring sound that was getting louder and louder,  O no I thought, is one of the hives been knocked over ???

No to my delight it was my two strongest hives out flying




what a delight to see  :Big Grin: . I checked on my other hives and they were starting to come out to and fly about in front of their hives. When I went to check the nuc that I have been overwintering I found that they were busy taking in pollen  :EEK!:  :EEK!: 
IMG_0368.jpg

IMG_0369.jpg

starting to get excited now  :Smile:  :Smile:

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## Emma

Cuteness!!!! (And snowdrops, from the look of it.) Every winter I go through a period where I start to engage with the other bits of my life, & think, hmmm, maybe I should give up bees for a bit, I'm not really so hooked on them am I?
& then they go & do something like this, & I'm a lost cause again. Enjoy!

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## drumgerry

Keep looking for a like button for posts like the two above Emma and Gwizzie!  

Not so far from you Gwizzie and just spent the afternoon pottering round the bees, picking up my first sting of 2016 as I added fondant to one sans smoker!  Just lovely - and looks like the weekend might even be warm enough to consider opening up a hive or two!

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## Greengage

Today here in Ireland lots of bee flying in the warm sunshine, lets hope we dont get a bad cold snap as everything is going fine so far.

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## gwizzie

> Keep looking for a like button for posts like the two above Emma and Gwizzie!


Think this is something that Gavin should look into as we don't have one ??




> Not so far from you Gwizzie and just spent the afternoon pottering round the bees, picking up my first sting of 2016 as I added fondant to one sans smoker!  Just lovely - and looks like the weekend might even be warm enough to consider opening up a hive or two!


when you say not far from me do you mean close by ?  not had my dose of venamin this year yet but im sure its not far away :EEK!:

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## drumgerry

Well relatively speaking - I'm in Speyside and you're in Ross-shire. Us north of the central belt-ers need to stick together!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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## Kate Atchley

> LOL not going to be that adventurous. straight lines will do me...


gwizzie the suggestion of not setting the hives down in straight lines is to help prevent drifting ... to help bees return to the hive they came out of. Straight rows make this difficult.

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## gwizzie

> gwizzie the suggestion of not setting the hives down in straight lines is to help prevent drifting ... to help bees return to the hive they came out of. Straight rows make this difficult.


Hi Kate, yes I am fully aware of that but think I have enough room to space them out and they won't be there all year as that compound is for overwintering mainly.

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## gwizzie

Well went to check on the bees today as it is such a lovely day 14 deg  :Smile:  and a lot of the bees were out flying but hive 2 was going mad collecting pollen. I checked on the other hives BUT not the wooden ones as they don't seem to be doing that well as yet so I won't open them yet. 
Here is a wee video of how the 3 paradise bee box hives are doing and to be honest they are far stronger in size than to wooden ones so its polly for me now all the way....

hope you enjoy the video :Wink:

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## alancooper

What's the whitish pollen quizzie? I have it also and have identified it a laurel - got any near to you?

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## gwizzie

> What's the whitish pollen quizzie? I have it also and have identified it a laurel - got any near to you?


Hi Alan, whitish pollen ? not sure were you seen that! the pollen taken in in the video was yellow and some orange this is coming from the gorse that has just started to flower in the area.

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## alancooper

Well - at least there were no pink elephants  :Smile:  I guess I should beware of colour reproduction from cameras and computer screens.

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## madasafish

> Well - at least there were no pink elephants  I guess I should beware of colour reproduction from cameras and computer screens.


Looks white to me. Blame the camera...

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## busybeephilip

> Well went to check on the bees today as it is such a lovely day 14 deg  and a lot of the bees were out flying but hive 2 was going mad collecting pollen. I checked on the other hives BUT not the wooden ones as they don't seem to be doing that well as yet so I won't open them yet.



Hi Gwizze...must say your video with poly hives is very impressive - no problems there at all.  Would have liked to see how the wooden boxes compared, i also notice that you appear to be using non native bees, perhaps buckfast.  Given that buckfast do build up very fast, and eat a lot of stores early in the year this does demonstrate the advantage of having strong hives ready for the early flow in May

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## gwizzie

> Looks white to me. Blame the camera...


Nothing wrong with the camera, must be you computer screen lol :Stick Out Tongue:

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## gwizzie

> Hi Gwizze...must say your video with poly hives is very impressive - no problems there at all.  Would have liked to see how the wooden boxes compared, i also notice that you appear to be using non native bees, perhaps buckfast.  Given that buckfast do build up very fast, and eat a lot of stores early in the year this does demonstrate the advantage of having strong hives ready for the early flow in May


Hi thanks for your kind comments. 
I will try and get a look into the wooden hives this week if I can and do a video to show how they are doing so you can see them compared to the polly hives. The bees you see in the first part of the video are poss buckfast ? but the other in the video are definitely not they are poss carniola cross ? (just a guess)

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## gwizzie

Well decided today to try and get the apiary ready for moving in the bees, I had some help today from a very good friend as you can see in the picture. We were there for nearly 3hrs sorting out the weeds ect etc, we also had a very large area in the back of the apiary that sloped up very steeply that had to be dug down to make it level :EEK!:  but its all done now and all the dips and holes filled in  :Smile: .

from this
IMG_0339.jpg


to this
IMG_0382.jpg

Just have to get the paving slabs in and leveled off for putting the stands on and then move the bees into their new home  :Big Grin:  :Big Grin:

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## gwizzie

Hi everyone, here is a small update of my new apiary. I moved the bees 2 days ago using a method of covering the entrance of the hive with some broom stems so that the bees would have to reorient them selfs to the hive, as had been told that you could not move a hive more than a few inches or I would have to move them at least 3 miles for a few days them move them back again..... BUT not according to a video I watched SO I thought ok we will give it a bash and try it AND it works!! all hives that were moved were moved between 10ft  and 30ft to were they are now...

Taken today,

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## alclosier

Good sized hive stands. A particular design you found online or of your own making.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

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## gwizzie

> Good sized hive stands. A particular design you found online or of your own making.
> 
> Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk


Hi thanks for the kind comment :Smile:  They are of my own making and design not to hard to work out ;-)

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## gwizzie

Well not sure what the weather was like with you guys but here it was about 11 to 12 deg  :Big Grin: . went to take the dog out for a walk at the forest and decided to check on the bees on the way and this is what I saw 




A nice sight to see for me anyway as this is just my 1st year still, Loads more to learn BUT very eager to learn.

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## gwizzie

Well after the last few days of rain and drizzle. I popped up to see how the bees were and to my astonishment they were out in force, temp was 10° and wind about 10 to 12 mph. Sorry if I am boring you with these videos but as my first year I want to document as much as I can and then I have something to refer back to next year ect etc 

Anyway I hope you like the video and please let me know if your bees are flying as strong ??

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## fatshark

Two quick observations ...

Firstly I've got more standing water in one of my apiaries after the rain of the last couple of days  :Smile: 
Secondly ... and more significantly, your hives look to be beyond the 'fulcrum' point of whatever of the stands (wrong name I'm sure). What would happen if you removed one hive and the other had 200 lb of honey in the supers? I'd centralise them over the place where the legs of your rather nice have stands are connected.
Cheers

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## gwizzie

> Two quick observations ...
> 
> Firstly I've got more standing water in one of my apiaries after the rain of the last couple of days 
> Secondly ... and more significantly, your hives look to be beyond the 'fulcrum' point of whatever of the stands (wrong name I'm sure). What would happen if you removed one hive and the other had 200 lb of honey in the supers? I'd centralise them over the place where the legs of your rather nice have stands are connected.
> Cheers



Hi FS, thanks for your observations .....

Firstly if its that bad you better buy a boat :Stick Out Tongue: 
Secondly these hive stands are not going to be used for hives standing on when working they will be on lower hive stands or pallets (have been looking at plastic ones) they stack in each other so don't take up much room and are light... But yes you are correct they could topple over if there were only two hives one on each side BUT then again these hive stands were built to take 3 hives so that would not happen if used correctly  :Cool:

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## The Drone Ranger

Gwizzie
Shove them over the legs it'll only take minute you stubborn so and so  :Smile:

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## gwizzie

> Gwizzie
> Shove them over the legs it'll only take minute you stubborn so and so


LOL haha ok pops  :Stick Out Tongue:

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## The Drone Ranger

> LOL haha ok pops


Lol dont tell everyone

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## Mellifera Crofter

> ...
> Secondly these hive stands are not going to be used for hives standing on when working they will be on lower hive stands or pallets ...


Do you mean those tripple stands are only winter stands?  Or are you going to move each hive down in turn to a lower stand when inspecting them?

You can keep the set-up and save the stands from toppling by weighting them down with sandbags slung over the lower struts.  I do that with all my stands.

IMG_20160218_124731.jpg

Kitta

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## mbc

> Hi FS, thanks for your observations .....
> 
> Firstly if its that bad you better buy a boat
> Secondly these hive stands are not going to be used for hives standing on when working they will be on lower hive stands or pallets (have been looking at plastic ones) they stack in each other so don't take up much room and are light... But yes you are correct they could topple over if there were only two hives one on each side BUT then again these hive stands were built to take 3 hives so that would not happen if used correctly


Be aware with plastic pallets that flat areas without holes accumulate dead bees and they rot and stink.  Took me a while to figure out the problem when going through a friends apiary, from several yards away my nose told me I was approaching bee apocalypse, only to find the colonies were fine but the problem was the pallets. This doesnt seem to happen with wooden pallets, probably because they drain better and air can get to detritus allowing it to decompose properly.

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## gwizzie

> Do you mean those tripple stands are only winter stands?  Or are you going to move each hive down in turn to a lower stand when inspecting them?
> 
> You can keep the set-up and save the stands from toppling by weighting them down with sandbags slung over the lower struts.  I do that with all my stands.
> 
> Attachment 2665
> 
> Kitta


Hi Kitta, many thanks for the tip  :Wink:  
That know has me thinking lol as sand bags would be a lot easier to work with and cheaper in the long run.... Where did you get your's from if you don't mind me asking ?

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## Mellifera Crofter

> Hi Kitta, many thanks for the tip  
> That know has me thinking lol as sand bags would be a lot easier to work with and cheaper in the long run.... Where did you get your's from if you don't mind me asking ?


I was lucky.  My neighbour used the bags to hold down huge sheets of polythene that covered his worm-beds, but he packed up his worm-farming - so now I can just nip down and get some bags ready-filled with gravel.  I don't know where he got his bags from.  I'll ask him when I next see him - but a quick search on Google for sandbags gave a lot of results.

Before I used sandbags, I used to put a plank across the bottom of the stands from one strut to the other and weight it down heavy stones.  That did the trick as well.

Kitta

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## gwizzie

Hi Kitta,

sorry for late reply been kinda busy just now!!! I have had a look about and found that you can get them on ebay for a few ££ so it won't break the bank!! When I do need them I will take up your advise and load them with gravel rather than sand  :Wink: .

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## Mellifera Crofter

I asked my neighbour about the source of his sandbags, Gwizzie, because they are particularly good, strong, and weather-resistant.  He said they were made by Secure Covers to keep sileage covers down (instead of tyres).  They should be able to tell you about distributors near you.  This is another company with similar strong bags.

Kitta

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## gwizzie

> I asked my neighbour about the source of his sandbags, Gwizzie, because they are particularly good, strong, and weather-resistant.  He said they were made by Secure Covers to keep sileage covers down (instead of tyres).  They should be able to tell you about distributors near you.  This is another company with similar strong bags.
> 
> Kitta


Hi Kitta, thank you very much for taking the time to supply the links, they do look exactly what I have been looking for. :Big Grin:

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## gwizzie

Well its been awhile since posting  :Big Grin:  due to work and looking after bees lol.... Well the weather has been very kind to me up here and the hives that I have at the heather are doing very well for my first year. Here are a few pictures for you showing how there doing I hope you like ? 
They have started filling their second box now so fingers crossed, I have a few frames in each hive marked for cut comb with thin foundation.
IMG_0571.jpgIMG_0572.jpgIMG_0573.jpgIMG_0574.jpg

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## Kate Atchley

> ...Well the weather has been very kind to me up here and the hives that I have at the heather are doing very well for my first year. ...  I have a few frames in each hive marked for cut comb with thin foundation.
> IMG_0571.jpgIMG_0572.jpgIMG_0573.jpgIMG_0574.jpg


The frames look splendid gwizzie. I wonder why they aren't all on thin foundation, or starter strips? 

Good luck if you're planning to extract the heather honey. I haven't found a good method (on a small scale) of agitating it to make it liquid enough to extract fully despite trying lots of so-called "looseners". They have loosener more frustration from me than heather honey from the depth of the cells!

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## Greengage

Kate Ia m curious how can you tell by looking at the pics that they are not on thin foundation or starter strips. tks.

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## Feckless Drone

Nice looking frames, alot of good honey there to enjoy.

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## Kate Atchley

> Kate Ia m curious how can you tell by looking at the pics that they are not on thin foundation or starter strips. tks.


No mystery powers Greengage! I simply assumed from what gwizzie wrote – about some frames being marked for cut comb and on thin foundation – that the others were on something different.

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## Greengage

Phew I gave you mysterious powers there should read the posts properly.

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## gwizzie

> No mystery powers Greengage! I simply assumed from what gwizzie wrote – about some frames being marked for cut comb and on thin foundation – that the others were on something different.


Xray eyes lol.
Nice one Kate and yes you're right there are a few marked for cut comb on thin foundation all the others on normal foundation. The reason that for this is as it is my 1st real year at the heather I thought that I would like to try cut comb and bottling some heather honey too. So to try and answer one of your questions in another post Kate I plan to try and use a smith cutter and then use a press to get the lovely heather honey out for bottling.

Ps. it was nice to see you on Sat when you were speaking to lyle  :Big Grin:

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## Kate Atchley

> Xray eyes lol.
> Nice one Kate and yes you're right there are a few marked for cut comb on thin foundation all the others on normal foundation. The reason that for this is as it is my 1st real year at the heather I thought that I would like to try cut comb and bottling some heather honey too. So to try and answer one of your questions in another post Kate I plan to try and use a smith cutter and then use a press to get the lovely heather honey out for bottling.
> 
> Ps. it was nice to see you on Sat when you were speaking to lyle


Good plan gwizzie. Have one of those cutters ... just not sure I have the patience to use it effectively! So good luck with that.

Wish you'd introduced yourself at Lyle's stand ... or are you the guy who said we'd spoken on the telephone?

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## gwizzie

> Good plan gwizzie. Have one of those cutters ... just not sure I have the patience to use it effectively! So good luck with that.
> 
> Wish you'd introduced yourself at Lyle's stand ... or are you the guy who said we'd spoken on the telephone?


Hi kate I will keep you in the loop on how I get on with processing it. Yes I was the guy that said he spoke to you on the phone.

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## Kate Atchley

> Hi kate I will keep you in the loop on how I get on with processing it. Yes I was the guy that said he spoke to you on the phone.


Ahhh .... gotcha!

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## gwizzie

> Ahhh .... gotcha!


Hi Kate, sorry for l8t reply been very busy with work and new processing room and bees ect ect..... As I said in earlier post about the smith cutter, well its GREAT as far as I am concerned very easy to use and very fast at cutting through the comb. I did all mine no problem straight into a bucket and scraped the last of the honey with the scraper part then emptied bucket into my new press. 
End product well all I can say is YUM YUM....

Put frames back onto the hives for them to clean up and they then started to draw then out again  :Smile:

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## mbc

> and new processing room


pics?

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## gavin

> pics?


Video!

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## fatshark

Wait for the book which is also being serialised in the _Ross-Shire Journal_ ...  :Wink:

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## mbc

> Video!


I raise you a guided tour with tea and cake.

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## gwizzie

> I raise you a guided tour with tea and cake.


OK we have a winner lol you guys crack me up sometimes  :Stick Out Tongue:   Here are a few pictures of the process so far I hope you like? For the observant ones YES the water heater is the wrong way round in the 1st pic it was just sitting there until I installed it lol......

IMG_0669.jpgIMG_0670.jpgIMG_0671.jpgIMG_0673.jpgIMG_0674.jpg

still got the water to plum into the shed yet, the wiring to get finished and tested flooring to get laid then install the 20 frame extractor to its resting place 100L settling tank to get put in place and a few other things and we should be just about there..... hopefully..

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## Mellifera Crofter

Impressive, Gwizzie - particularly the speed with which you're progressing.
Kitta

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## mbc

Thanks, what flooring have you decided on?

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## Feckless Drone

Yep! very impressive.

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## gwizzie

> Impressive, Gwizzie - particularly the speed with which you're progressing.
> Kitta


Hi Kitta thank you for your kind comments, its actually going slower than had planned but I have learnt some patients since getting a bit older lol. 
I hope that you are well ?

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## gwizzie

> Yep! very impressive.


Hi Thank you  :Embarrassment:

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## gwizzie

> Thanks, what flooring have you decided on?


Hi mbc, I have decided on vinyl flooring (lino) as hard wearing, easy to clean and repair if it does get damaged...

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## gwizzie

Hi folks, I know its been a while since posting something but just been so busy new job, bees live in general. Just thought I would keep you up to date with what's happening up here lol. Clean room is just about there and wont be long now until inspection and hopefully get the all clear ?.
Its been a funny kind of year weather wise! my bees were going mad at one of my apiaries the other day as you can see in the video.



and then today was at my second apiary and there booming there a lot further on than i thought they would be as you can see by the pictures..

Think they need a super ?? 
Papabear honey buckfast hive 4 01-04-17.jpg

queen is laying very well
Papabear honey bees 01-04-17.jpg

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## gwizzie

Hi everyone its been a while now since I have posted anything in this thread, this is due to a few things work (not at the bees) and life in general. The clean room is just about finished now only a few snagging jobs to do but they will need to be done very soon. Last year I decided to try my hand at queen rearing and had great success, so I decided to buy in a few breeder queens and after a long hard look on the web I bought some queens from Keld Brandstrup. 
This year these have done me very well and I am in the processes of re-queening all my hives with his F1 queens.
I also this year had the pleasure of being invited to spend some time with Keld at his place to learn from him (he was taught by brother Adam) he is a tough task master but I learned a lot, I also spent some time with Mogens Mundt his technician (I called him the queen man) lol he also has been trained by Keld. I have been lucky enough to be invited back again so I must have done something correct.
Some of the pictures of my visit.

NOT SURE WHY some pictures on there side ?

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## Mellifera Crofter

Nice update, Gwizzie.
Kitta

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## Thymallus

Excellent what an amazing experience that must have been. The vids on his site of unveiled beekeepers bears testament tot he gentle nature of those bees. I use his Island mated queens and the F1's are brilliant. Perhaps due to the feisty nature of my local bees the F2's are to be  avoided.....As I know to my sting count when I get it wrong.

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