Bees from lenny24124

[LENNY24124]

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[LENNY24124]

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

These are some of my bees it was the first time I opened a hive all by myself.4 yeasr ago

[MissEllie]

Hi Lenny, I know nothing about bee keeping I'm afraid. Would like to hear more about how many you have, how do you look after them etc? Sorry if it's daft questions

[Annie]

See Lenny thats 2 ladies in Scotland requesting info

[Meredith]

There's nothing like the first time you actually take the top off a hive for the first time on your own is there? Okay, I confess I wasn't entirely on my own it is a joint project with my husband but it was still scary and exhilarating at the same time.

I will leave it up to Lenny to answer your questions, MissEllie and Annie, as it is his thread.

[Mallard]

Our allotment beekeeper had his first swarm of the year,this week, and lost them!

[Shrek]

Lenny, I to am intrigued and would like to see and hear more of your bee keeping.

[LENNY24124]

LENNY24124 » 23 minutes ago

Hi gust thought I would let a few people on the site know a little about bees .
I had 3 hives last year and during the winter one hive died. It became queenless in the winter as I found her on the floor of the hive during the winter after giving them a winter treatment of oxcilic acid ugh.( this is to reduce the infestation of the varoa mite)
I now have 2 hives and at the present time the weather is a bit too wet for them to leave the hive to collect nector .
I am novice and only been doing it for 3 years it is so rewarding to have your own honey .
I inspect my hives 7 to 10 days at a time to stop swarming to ensure the queen is laying eggs and to check on levels of varoa mites present in the hive.
There is such a realy good feeling when you collect your own honey and those 2 ladies in Scotland are so luckey as honey heather is mmmmmmmmm lovely .
I cant get my other half interested in them apart from allowing me to use the kitchen which becomes a stickey afair in August as beekeepers on site will tell you .
Just before winter I check my bees food stocks of honey and if they have nt sufficent I feed them sugar and water which they convert into a honey and store this is usualy done at the end of August .
Yes I get stings hurt and I do feel them but ther pain is short lived and I carry on the procedure what ever I am doing as long as the bee is not inside the hood then I will panic some what.
Bee hives have on average 60,000 bees in them so there is a large chance of one little devious bees may sting me. I sometimes do not where gloves and do not necessarly get stung it depends on how gentile you manage them. I can go into more detail about bee keeping as it is amazing to get aan insect to work for you and produce honey I am totaly hooked and yes it gives me a buzzzzzzzz Lenny(my spelling is not the best )

[LENNY24124]

Our allotment beekeeper had his first swarm of the year,this week, and lost them!

Yes bees do as they like ypu cant make them stay with you they do as they like Lenny they buzzed off I expect

[HappyBob]

I started read up on beekeeping once and although i didnt take it any further, i can see the facination of it, as really like honey. I read somewhere that if you eat honey local to you it helps if you are a hayfever sufferer, although i,m lucky that I dont suffer hayfever. Thanks for sharing Lenny

[LENNY24124]

Hi Lenny, I know nothing about bee keeping I'm afraid. Would like to hear more about how many you have, how do you look after them etc? Sorry if it's daft questions

url=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/715/p1010571t.jpg/][/url]

Uploaded with ImageShack.us I thought you may like a photo of one of my hives taken today. I had to feed them as the w
weather is so cold they will not come out but ,as luck would have it after I fed them with some sugar water suryp they came out sa it had stopped raining Lenny

[Annie]

Lenny, thanks for taking the time to explain some of the work put into your hobby. Just a thought but some of us gardeners do a diary of whats happening on out allotments /gardens/greenhouses would you think about doing something similar with the bees, a post every so often about the progress of the hives would be really interesting and may encourage someone else who may be toying with the idea of this as a new hobby ?

[MissEllie]

Sorry for late reply Lenny, just spotted this. Thanks for all the information and the pictures, it sounds really interesting.
I hope all this rubbish weather doesn't affect them too much. As annie suggests - a diary of your keeping through the year would be really interesting to us non bee keepers

[Scooby88]

ooo I love this thread! Already I am hooked. More about Bees please Lenny!

[LENNY24124]

ooo I love this thread! Already I am hooked. More about Bees please Lenny!

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/809/nat004.jpg/
Well what a change in the weather. My bees are still having syrup mix although the weather is a little better. They are coming out to try and harvest some nectar even though I am feeding them. I have got a Queen bee arriving through the post next weekend for one of my hives as no queen seen in it for 3 weeks. May be due to weather,not being able to be mated or could be she has just stopped laying mmm not sure. If she resumed laying and then the new queen arrives I may start a new small hive off have to wait and see. My other hive seems ok and building well so I will still feed it until next weekend, it will encourage the queen to lay more eggs. More =x more bees to collect honey.) Lenny