Bee keeping...

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  • Actually yes. Not many honey bees, but larger bees of various size and markings. Plenty of wasps about too!

  • We've got some hefty bumbles that make plant stems bow in our garden. Also spotted carders, red tailed and mason bees. The honey bees have arrived now the alliums are out and we've had a few leaf cutters emerge the last few days.
    We had some hairy footed flower bees early in the year when the lung wort was out.

  • Another of our leaf cutter bees emerged from the bee house today and I got to watch it. It flew straight to the meadow we've grown. I'm so happy, I was convinced that the house would just get covered in spiders and never used by the bees.

  • Six out, four to go. the sections come apart for cleaning but there's already a couple of bees building new nests in it.


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  • We got a second hive today, so happy! Was fascinating splitting the hive and transplanting eggs from the old hive into the new... It's a pretty easy process for Oz natives, think I feel confident enough to have a go myself next time... I think I've found a new hobby!


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  • I split a hive earlier this year to repopulate a hive that had failed (robbed to the point of starvation by another hive). All I'll say is it's a bit riskier when the buggers aren't stingless.

    Interesting hive, that. Wouldn't work for European honey bees because they produce much more honey and if you can't expand the hive to allow more space for storage they swarm.

    So I have two questions:

    Did you split just to enable a second colony or also to presenting swarming (often a strategy used for swarm control with European bees)?

    One of the very few things that I know about Tetragonula is that when they swarm to create a new colony, they're more likely to attack an existing colony and take over their home than find a completely new site (housework's already been done by the poor buggers they attack). Which sounds as if people keeping multiple hives of stingless bees might have an extra thing to worry about and an extra motivation for controlling swarms. Is that actually a potential problem, do you know? Is there a risk of one of your hives trying to turf out the other one at some point?

    I know from sad experience that with multiple European bee hives there's a risk of them attacking each other if one hive is weak but they do that to rob honey, not to evict the tenants. Even if they did, European bee swarms like to move a reasonable distance away from their old home, so a local turf war wouldn't be a thing.

  • Did you split just to enable a second colony or also to presenting swarming (often a strategy used for swarm control with European bees)?

    Bit of both really, apparently it's best practice to split the hive every year... We wanted another hive in the other corner of the garden... Next year I'll split both again and give one to a friend and put a third in another corner... Not sure they'll fight, our bee guy didn't mention any problems arising, the hives are about twenty metres apart so hoping that's enough space for them to be good neighbours...

  • Not sure they'll fight

    There was a news story a few years back about Brisbane, where Tetragonula keepers regularly see fighting swarms at the entrances to their hives, and it caught my interest at the time. Looking at it again, seems they more commonly set up new colonies peacefully but sometimes they go the aggressive route and nobody's quite sure why. If your bee guy didn't mention it then it's probably not likely to be a problem.

  • It's a fairly regular topic of conversation in the LBKA chat, where Richard is a regular contributor. Anybody keeping bees in London really needs to be contributing to the improvement of forage for pollinators as well.

    The big problem in London isn't so much hobbyists but grifting companies that portray themselves as green companies. Like the one managing the apiary in Myatts Fields, who have put a ridiculous number of hives in there (and in the other areas where they have a presence).

  • Park Beekeeping has closed. Shame, that was a nice little company.

  • Our second colony eventually settled down, must've been a new queen that was making all the boys crazy... We've got two very happy hives now... πŸπŸ™ƒ

  • So any londoners want to start hives there are quite a few people/groups that want/need places to hibernate bees.

    Quick search should help.

    Non londoners may want to start threads in relavant groups.

  • About to start my training tomorrow - planting appropriate seed mix today - excited.

  • Random question - but anybody here keep bees in the SW (of the uk)?

  • If anyone keeps bees and has runny blossom honey in bulk send me a message.

    Thanks

  • Does anyone know of hive/nest designs that would suit just being put out in a community garden and left for a few months between light maintenance?

    I've seen some that are being called mason bee hives with a bunch of straws and others labeled as bee hotels with wood and holes drilled into it(similar to the one a few posts above).

    Any woods to avoid? Any woods to be sure to use? Avoid painting the sides?

  • I made one last year with some old scrap wood and filled with bamboo and some old blocks of wood with varying sized holes.

    It is for solitary bees, about 5 used it last year but only one has so far this year!

  • My dad does (Honiton), lots of swarming at the moment!

  • Saw a swarm when I was out riding last Saturday, it was too remote to try to get a beekeeper out to collect it though.

  • That's the style I was looking at. Would it be better to make lots of small ones dotted around?

  • Have the oddest shrubTree in the new back garden
    Is about 10ft high and at least that straggly wide
    Leaves are the darkest grey-purple, literally tons of poker-type nearly yellow flower stems and tiny-tiny almost not visible flower buds and it’s a total bee magnet
    Delighted to have it and keeping it but any ideas what the draw is?
    Observing bees (all kinds) on it and can’t see pollen bags / a useful haul
    Happy for the bees but mystified

  • I didn't know about the facing south part. They look simple to build so I might make some.

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Bee keeping...

Posted by Avatar for sniffy @sniffy

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