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  • General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #12077  by Steve 1972
 15 Oct 2021, 17:47
Sounds good Nigel..I vaped the five eight frame colonies again on Tuesday and all have dropped over fifty after two days..I will continue at five day intervils till I am happy ..
 #12078  by NigelP
 15 Oct 2021, 19:33
On a different note was phoned by Lord Mexborough's factor asking why I hadn't asked his permission to put my bees on his moorland estate land but was selling my heather honey in the local village shop. Puzzled I asked what was going on.....after a long conversation it appeared that he had come across 2 hives on his estate that he had no idea where they where from, so presumed mine. As I explained mine were long gone and were nowhere near the location of these and where on private land (not his :). Went to take a look and yes, there where 2 hives, Abelo poly on a nice leveled hive stand with about 3/4 of a super of heather honey in each with a second totally empty super above. Nothing to identify owner or anything and still on the moors. Obviously not worried about varroa and leaving valuable heather harvest as winter stores.
Owner was a ventilation freak as all holes in crown-board open and roof lifted up on wedges to maintain a through draft. Bees were tightly clustered.
Re-arranged to conserved heat for the bees and left polite note in each hive asking owner to contact estate regarding permission to site hives in their moors.
 #12079  by AdamD
 16 Oct 2021, 10:05
How dare you block up the ventillation! :) :lol:
I wonder why a polyhive was used when a gale could blow through it meaning that the insulation properties of the hive were not used. I guess there are some (many?) that still adhere to the old notion of ventillation is a 'good thing' nad then consider 20% winter losses as acceptable.

I recall reading a study on polyhives which was done quite a few years ago and the conclusion was that they were no better than wooden ones - however within the text it was apparent that there was top ventillation applied!
 #12080  by Patrick
 16 Oct 2021, 10:21
Hmmm. Not great.

Guerrilla beekeeping putting out hives without securing permission is not very smart. I have had it on ground I manage. Just annoys people about beekeepers in general. Especially when it includes vehicular access. You always get some tosh about “I thought it was Common Land”. Yeah right.

On our crowded island, virtually everywhere is owned by someone. Registered Commons included.
 #12081  by Patrick
 16 Oct 2021, 16:45
Went out to check orchard bees - amazing amounts of activity, like middle of May. Pollen is pouring in, presumably mainly ivy. Resisted temptation to open up a hive but I suspect brood rearing is going great guns. Weather today is daft warm for second half of October, wandering around in a t shirt.
 #12082  by NigelP
 16 Oct 2021, 19:07
Patrick wrote:
16 Oct 2021, 16:45
Weather today is daft warm for second half of October, wandering around in a t shirt.
Lucky you :) 4C this morning and thermals where required on market stall, damn parky uupnorth.
Tomorrow cold and rainy....ideal trading conditions ...not.

Adam, it's been my suspicion that people looking at survival in poly vs wood hives tend to look at what is easily measurable i.e does hive survive,,,yes/no and ignore the more complicated questions like number of bees going into winter and number surviving come spring. Amount of stores used etc speed of spring build up etc etc.
Factorr in varying varroa loads and it's easy to see why there are few definitive conclusions.
 #12091  by Patrick
 18 Oct 2021, 09:37
Don't worry, now raining here as well :) . Just wish this summer had been as good as the autumn, might have had some
honey and top fruit to show for it.
 #12098  by Steve 1972
 18 Oct 2021, 13:50
Yesterday I topped the 4.5L feeders up with sugar syrup for the last time this year..all five of the full colonies are well and truelly glued to the ground..mind you it has took around 130kg of sugar to get them to winter weight..the five seven frame nucs also got 2.5kg of fondant each..I have tried to order more fondant but Abelo has sold out..I just hope the nucs can hold on till Abelo get there delivery..
 #12102  by Alfred
 20 Oct 2021, 10:52
Went up to bees this morning with the intention of taking off the feeders but found a few completely empty again.
I think all the pollen is in now as the ivy berries are forming
Bees really bad tempered after the overnight thunder and torrential downpour.Had to retreat and get full ppe on.
Decided to leave it for sunday when the vaping begins again
 #12105  by MickBBKA
 21 Oct 2021, 00:35
Bees have never had so much pollen at this time of year here. The ivy usually flowers far too late but its in flower now and they have hit it hard. Some other stuff is coming in quite large amounts but no idea what that is.

ABELO FOR FONDANT :o :o :o :o OMG you must be rich..LOL Its more than twice the price I pay for it.
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