Any beekeepers updates?

[seasprout]

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.

It’s gone drone later, so it’s a doomed hive. When it’s done and sorted I’ll move a few new hives to the site in the winter.

[mothhawk]

Such a shame, Seasprout, and late in the season to be finding a new queen for them, which might have saved the hive. Oh well, there's always going to be losses at some stage in beekeeping, the same as farmers have fallen stock, but it gives us experience and that's always good.

[seasprout]

Picture from earlier in the year.

Well the beekeeping season for me is almost done, honey suppers are removed, treatments for varroa destructor are finished, I just need to change the configuration of a couple of hives in the next week before it becomes too cold to open up.

Then lots of equipment cleaning and organising and assessing what went well this year and not so well.

Also thinking about Christmas honey sales… I’ve not pushed honey for Christmas before but I’ve got so much left I need to sell…. 🙁

[Nicos]

Great to hear your update seasprout- you’re going to make a lot of people happy with your spare honey.

[seasprout]

Thought I’d show you what I was up to today, jarred up 37 jars from one bucket of Summer Honey.
12 jars already reserved.
Roll on next year. ☺️

[Jungle Jane]

They look great seasprout,you’ve done really well producing all that honey 😎

[Containergardener]

Oh fabulous amount of honey , yum

[seasprout]

I had one colony completely die out in mid December.
i know have 5 left going into 2026.

I’m going to increase my hive numbers by 3 more in 2026 I think, one of those to replace r
the dead one, a 2 more on a new site I’ve been given.

roll on spring.

[Nicos]

Gosh seasprout!…that’s really wonderful to hear.
Sad to hear about the one you lost though

Is it getting harder to find new colonies?

[seasprout]

Is it getting harder to find new colonies?

No, I make new queens from my existing colonies and build them up into full size colonies.

[seasprout]

5 colonies made it though the winter so far.

Getting into danger time, bees being more active in warmer weather, queen laying more, bees eating stores.

fingers crossed.

[Peanut]

I love bees, I know nothing about them other than that. Fingers crossed for your bees seasprout

[mothhawk]

Smartened up my hive with a coat of ronseal and put it on breeze blocks as the ancient wooden hive stand is showing a few signs of rot. All I need now is a nice big swarm to move in. I'll get out the lemon grass oil and a bit of old wax and keep my fingers crossed.

[Nicos]

How many hives do you have now MH?

[Nicos]

Actually, I was wondering what wood the hives are routinely made from?
Are some woods less appealing?
We are looking into replacing some massive fence posts and it looks like acacia comes up high on the longevity aspect…is there something similar for beehives?