Any beekeepers updates?

[Nicos]

Lovely to hear from you seasprout!

My daughter lost a swarm earlier in the year - she’d left their honey in with them rather than sugar seeing as it’s been such a rubbish Spring - I guess they thrived on it and some decided to move on.
She’s still got a couple of other hives so at least she’ll have some honey.

Sorry to hear about that MH

[seasprout]

Don’t tell anybody but I lost my first ever swarm this year, it was that hot summer of 5 days, I’m gutted and took it personally.

still waiting for a virgin queen to get mated, but the weather has been a bit difficult.

sorry about your bees MH, I’m sure you’ll get another hive one day.

[seasprout]

Introduced a new queen today. Hope she does well.

[Containergardener]

Oh lovely. Good luck with your queen seasprout

[Nicos]

Introduced a new queen today. Hope she does well.

Lots of willing admirers I see!

[seasprout]

Greetings. Still beekeeping.

[mothhawk]

Good photo seasprout! She's marked blue for this year, did you raise her?

[Nicos]

Fantastic!…thanks for sharing

[seasprout]

Yes, she was a supercedure queen. Confusingly her mother is still in the hive.

[seasprout]

I’m currently on a trip, I’ll post more when home and on WiFi.

[seasprout]

Oops forgot to come back …..

in 3 years a beekeeper now, just extracted a 2nd batch of honey this year. Splendid spring, not so splendid summer due to the hot dry weather.

currently got 8 hives in 3 places, with have to euthanise one soon due to Cronic Bee paralysis Virus and them becoming a drone layer.

another smaller colony will be combined in a month or two as they are not building up for the winter well enough.

any other beekeepers about? How your year going?

picture from a recent honey tasting competition with my local association.

I came 16h & 18th out of 29 with my 2 entries.

[Nicos]

Fantastic news CG on your competition entries! No idea what they look for to win first prize but in my mind it’s the flavour which counts!

Sorry about you having to euthanise a hive. That sounds a pretty dreadful disease. Is it common in beekeeping?

[seasprout]

Fantastic news CG on your competition entries! No idea what they look for to win first prize but in my mind it’s the flavour which counts!

Sorry about you having to euthanise a hive. That sounds a pretty dreadful disease. Is it common in beekeeping?

I thought it was, but after chatting to a couple of other beekeepers apparently it’s not, but it’s not talked about too much.

hey ho… we live and learn. I’m going to do the deed in a few weeks. It’ll be horrible.

[mothhawk]

Have you tried anything to alleviate the CBPV, seasprout? Is the queen still there or have you drone laying workers? I've heard a modified shook swarm can be effective. You cage the queen, move the hive at least 50m away, replace it with a new clean hive and foundation (or drawn comb), then shake all the bees out of the old hive into the air (not onto the ground).

The strong, healthy bees will make it back to the hive, the sick bees won't. You will have to feed them for a while, and feeding pollen sub as well as sugar syrup would probably be a good idea. It goes without saying you have to get rid of the old comb and thoroughly sterilise all the parts of the old hive of course.

[Nicos]

^^^ gosh…that would be a wonderful alternative MH.
Sounds very logical.