One of the most important parts in my management system has become a simple thin hardboard in front of the entrance. The first thing I do when I come to an apiary is going reading them. They give a lot
Reading the hardboard
Harvesting with all the flavor
Larry Garret in Indiana is a beekeeper of art. Look at his harvesting. His honey is worth double the price. He writes to me: I typically begin harvesting the first honey in early June and continue to harvest each week
Swarm from a tree
Last year my friend had a call in July about a swarm that had come from a big old tree. The cavity couldn’t bee very big. And the swarm was not big. http://www.elgon.es/diary/?p=235 But the bees in the tree survived the
MT-colony conclusion
I have shared the performance of this colony which had almost a box of plastic small cell frames and natural positioning of these frames (as the uppermost broodbox). Which also had a tough experience with mice living in the bottom
First crop from the multitest colony
Last year I gave almost a whole box of plastic frames 4.95 mm cellsize with natural positioning, http://www.elgon.es/diary/?p=384 This colony was a very nice colony, but needed some thymol as it came up with some wingless bees. It gave an
The queen of the wall
Five days after I hived the swarm from the wall I checked it. I placed it about three km from the wall where it originated, to help form the ”stock of the region”. It wasn’t a very big swarm, but
Feral swarm
Tonight at half past nine after a telephone call, I took a swarm in a raspberry bush which came from bee colony in a wall in an old house 20 meters away. The house is situated ”in the middle of
Explaining the starter board
When the super is below the starter board, on the bottom board, with the field bees and with the grafted cells, the only connection with the queen is by air through the netting in the starter board. Thus they are
The best cell starter
The modified Snelgrove board by Pasaga Ramic is an excellent starter board. http://www.elgon.es/diary/?p=167 Where you usually have the broodnest box(-es) – on the bottom board – you place a queenless box with bees, with or without a couple of brood
First Queen
Beware ye old men, the day have come when women run faster. Like in the old days of the survival of farmers, when the women were the beekeepers. Well, anyway my niece (I treat her mother as my sister though