Newbie keeper

Hi, hawthorns and welcome back to the vine. It's my first winter with bees, but I have them in a farmer's field not an allotment. Two hives, one wood, one poly. Mine are both nationals, in the wood a swarm that chose the hive itself, and in the poly a colony I bought from the guy I took over the apiary from - oops, haven't paid him yet Had to rescue that one as when I took it over the Queen had already gone AWOL with half the bees, but it's doing well now.

What have you got?

edit - Oh, I see from another thread you have two, a national and a 14x12.

I was given a small swarm back in June and they went into the standard which was a brand new hive. Think she was a virgin queen as she took a while to get going but they have doubled in size going into winter so hopefully they will get thru to spring. They are really gentle bees.

The other swarm I was given in July and this was a big colony they went into the 14x12 which I was given by a beekeeper who gave up. These bees are also very gentle and have thrived on the plot. I have let them keep all their well earned honey for the winter.

How did your bees do this summer

The swarm moved in at the end of June, really nice quiet bees, lovely calm queen, they've done well, though they were a small swarm, and I've left them on brood and a half for winter so they've lots of stores.

The bees I got in July in the poly were bad tempered 'cos the guy had done a Bailey change wrong and put apiguard on at the same time, plus a full Ashforth feeder as he'd taken off the honey. They filled every cell in both boxes with syrup, and a few days later the queen and half the bees decamped, leaving the rest Q- with a bit of capped brood, no Q cells, no eggs/ young larvae. I found this out the first time I went to check them - they were really cross.

I gave them a frame of eggs from the other hive and they promptly made 9 Q cells, I left 2 and one Q emerged and destroyed the other. Since then they've done well, becoming much better tempered and raising a nice lot of winter bees.

The hive needs a good sort out come spring though, and clean foundation put in. The frames are really old, not well spaced, so there was/is brace comb everywhere. I didn't want to do it this year after all the hassle they'd been through, I just wanted them to settle down. It's not nice having half the hive rise up out of the box to greet you.

Jobs for spring - sort that hive, plus find and mark both queens

My mentor marked the queen in the small colony not seen the queen in the big colony yet but there are so many bees in there. Only had to smoke them on the final check of the autumn we put that down to them defending their honey. I'm yet to be stung.

They got me working for them now. Put in loads of spring bulbs snowdrop anemones and crocus so they have foraging flowers to go on in early spring

My mentor marked the queen in the small colony not seen the queen in the big colony yet but there are so many bees in there. Only had to smoke them on the final check of the autumn we put that down to them defending their honey. I'm yet to be stung.

They got me working for them now. Put in loads of spring bulbs snowdrop anemones and crocus so they have foraging flowers to go on in early spring

I'm planning to do a beekeeping course next Spring, with a view to getting hives on my allotment site. Sounds very complicated and time consuming though, so I'm hoping a few other plotholders will be up for the challenge too.

It's a lot to take in I found that the bbka guide to beekeeping 2nd edition is well worth buying. The bee base website is also excellent

It's a lot to take in I found that the bbka guide to beekeeping 2nd edition is well worth buying. The bee base website is also excellent

Top bar hives (a la Monty Don) are a lot easier to manage. If they were not so heavy to move about, that's the way I'd go...

There's a beekeepingforum.co.uk that's very useful.

The Haynes bee manual is excellent and I recommend everyone taking up beekeeping gets a copy.

I agree 10%

I have run topbar hives. They are cheap to make, but looking after them can be VERY difficult.. I switched to jumbo Langstroths..