Beekeeping - Short and Sweet

If you're new to beekeeping then the thought of queen rearing might send a shudder through you, well, no worries, if you've lost a swarm, congratulations, you're already raising new queens! In this week's podcast I discuss the basic technique of queen rearing known as the Artificial Swarm. If you would like to get early access to my weekly podcast please check out my support page www.patreon.com/norfolkhoney I use a range of reference material including a few very good books, if you'd like to see the queen rearing books I use check out my reading list on my website www.norfolk-honey.co.uk/readinglist. Possibly one of the best sources of accurate beekeeping information currently available on the internet is a website managed by Roger Patterson here in the UK, originally set up by a beekeeper called Dave Cushman. www.dave-cushman.net

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Welcome back to my podcast, this week it's my monthly Q&A session. You can submit questions via patreon.com/norfolkhoney. Beekeeping Short and Sweet, a weekly podcast for the inquisitive beekeeper with a short attention span, a beekeeper, in fact, just like me! 

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Beekeeping Short and Sweet. A podcast for the inquisitive beekeeper with a short attention span, a beekeeper, in fact, just like me! Welcome back to my weekly podcast and this week is our monthly preview of the month ahead, May! If you would like to take a look at my Patreon page please visit www.patreon.com/norfolkhoney. May already, where is this year going and when will the beekeeping season finally get started! I'm hopeful the next week or two will see the weather warming up a little and that means without any doubt some colonies will start swarming! In today's podcast I discuss the long, slow, chilly start to the new season here in the UK, comb change, wax moth and a little about Oil Seed Rape!

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Welcome to Beekeeping Short and Sweet - A podcast for the inquisitive beekeeper with a short attention span, a beekeeper, in fact, just like me! In today's podcast I interview Dan Bates from BS Honey, a new beekeeping enterprise with a couple of really nice young chaps at the helm. BS Honey Bees UK was formed by business partners & Bee Farmers Daniel Bates & Tristan Sawczuk in Gloucester, set in the beautiful countryside of the Cotswold's. Since 2011 BS Honey Bees has strived to be the lead producer, distributor & importer of high-quality bees & queens. With hives based around a 15 mile radius of Brockworth, Gloucester. BS Honey Bees have a vast amount of colonies offering a huge variety of flora for the bees to forage on. Daniel & Tristan are childhood friends, working together in commercial Bee Keeping operations down under & in the UK. Both fully DASH accredited (Disease Accreditation Scheme for Honeybees), they began BS Honey Bees as a joint venture only aged 21 with a wealth of knowledge behind them proving that bee keeping is not just something restricted to age. If you would like more information about BS Honey check out their website at www.bshoney.co.uk For anyone interested in joining my growing band of beekeepers on my patreon page check out the details at www.patreon.com/norfolkhoney

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During my recent visit to the BBKA (British Beekeeping Association) Spring Convention 2018 I managed to grab a few minutes to chat with Belinda Bright, Co-Founder of BBWear. With their combined experience, they saw the opportunity to develop a range of British made protective clothing for beekeepers. BBwear clothing is now sold all over the world and they are considered a market leader. BBwear suits offer protection, comfort and quality that is proven to last for many years. Since they started, BBwear has grown considerably and now have their three sons, James, Steve and Paul working with them. The business continues to develop and expand. Steve is a keen beekeeper and now manages their apiary of 10 hives. If you are interested in purchasing one of their bee suits why not give them a call or order online and use our unique discount code NHCBBW10 to obtain a 10% discount off any of their bee suits. BBWear are actively seeking worldwide distributors and if you are interested in discussing this business opportunity with them please do give them a call on 01872 562731 or alternatively drop them an email [email protected]

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Beekeeping Short and Sweet - A podcast for the inquisitive beekeeper with a short attention span! This week is our April Question and Answer session from our Patreon members, lots of really great questions ranging from Apivar treatments for varroa, bailey comb changes, cleaning out dead hives and much more. If you’ve not yet started beekeeping and looking for help and assistance, pop over to my website, www.norfolk-honey.co.uk/getstarted and I’ll do all I can to help out with suggestions and recommendations for you. This podcast is sponsored in part by BBWear Beekeeping Clothing. British Made BBWear clothing offers Protection, Comfort and Quality proven to last for many years and now you can also grab a special discount off their latest lines by using discount code NHCBBW10 Use the code on their website www.bbwear.co.uk 

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Our Apiary in AprilBeekeeping short and sweet, a podcast for the inquisitive beekeeper with a short attention span, a beekeeper, in fact, just like me!Welcome back and thank’s for joining me here in Norfolk in the UK where we find ourselves just easing out of a prolonged cold, late Winter and chilly early Spring. The weather has really played it’s part this year with our beekeeping routine having been delayed somewhat by the colder weather.My podcast is released on a weekly basis firstly to our Patreon page where you can catch up with all of our content, if you’re not familiar with it, my beekeeping channel on Youtube and now more generally on Patreon is funded in part by my supporters on Patreon for which I am very grateful and if you’d like to have access to all of my beekeeping videos and podcasts as soon as they are released please do take a look at my patron page www dot patreon.com/norfolk honey. It’s April and I’m still waiting to be able to open up the hives and start seeing how the colonies faired over Winter. Today I’m looking at where we need to be heading this month with things that need to be done and so much of that still depends on the weather but we are moving into a warmer Spring like period and it’s noticeable that the bees are definitely becoming more active. It’s time to make sure everything is ready for the early season plans that we have in place and a good time for you to revisit your plans and think about what needs to be done this month in the apiary.It’s very much sunshine and showers at the moment, the sun warms everything up and then the cool Spring April showers turn up and cool everything back down again so it’s a tricky time for all of us, both beekeepers and honeybees. Of course, you could well be seeing lovely warm sunshine and temperatures well into the high teens and we all need to take account of the local conditions, just because I am able to inspect doesn’t mean that my beekeeping friends in Scotland can open up their hives.When I do finally manage to get into my bees I'm looking out for some very specific things.As I open the colony, how are the bees? Are there plenty of them, how many top bars do they cover? Are they moving about nicely or are they terribly sluggish, could that be a problem or are they just cold? I encountered Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus late last year and the bees just staggered around the colony, shivering and looking very sorry for themselves. Unfortunately they didn’t see out the Winter and I’ve had to clean out the hive and prepare it for reuse.Removing frames I’m looking not just at how much stores they have left but I’m also looking at the condition of the stores, is it still ok for the bees or has there been a problem with mould or fermentation, basically can the bees still use it?I’ve had some pollen supplement on my bees for a couple of weeks and I’m now looking to replace it with an early Spring feed of syrup. But don’t be in too great a hurry to start feeding your bees syrup, know why you’re feeding them, is it because they are running low? Are you aiming for an early crop such as Oil Seed Rape, also called Canola.Perhaps you're looking to expand the number of colonies you have or want plenty of bees for early queen rearing, just be sure you know why you’re feeding your bees. Once it’s warmed up a little I feed one to one sugar syrup in a contact feeder, it’s a system that works best for me.You might find your colonies have expanded incredibly quickly, this can seem like a really good start but be careful they have enough space, I’ve seen colonies swarming in early April because they haven’t enough space so be mindful that they may need additional room.This could be another brood box, ideal if you’re looking to split the colony or you may simply add a queen excluder and super, I like to make the first super I add one that has already been drawn with comb, I always think trying to get the bees to draw out fresh foundation th

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Beekeeping short and sweet - A Beekeeping podcast for the inquisitive beekeeper with a short attention span, a beekeeper, in fact, just like me!In this week's podcast, I'm talking about Pollen Substitute, why you might use it, how to mix it up and how to use it.Unless you've been keeping honeybees for a prolonged period of time it can seem that at every turn there's yet another difficult choice to make. Here's my take on one of those choices, whether to feed your honeybees pollen substitute and if so, how to feed it to them.Following a long, drawn out Winter our honeybees sometimes struggle in the first few weeks of Spring, variable weather, certainly something we get all too often here in the UK, can see the bees explode from the hive en masse foraging for pollen and nectar on one day only to be huddled back up in a cluster the next.I suspect most beekeepers will have considered feeding some fondant to their bees at some point over the Winter months, maybe your bees seem to just munch through all the food stores you give them as quickly as possible (another reason for considering near-native or native bees as they tend to be more frugal) or perhaps you just got caught out with the amount of food or the length of Winter the bees have had.Either way, adding fondant is a simple process of mostly lifting the lid and adding a block of soft sugar fondant to the bees and replacing the roof.But what about Pollen Substitute? Why feed it, when should you feed it, what does it do and should you bother?Why Pollen Substitute at all?Stepping back to basics for a brief moment, most beekeepers know that honeybees collect nectar as a carbohydrate and pollen as a protein and it is this protein early in the season that helps the colony launch itself out of Winter and into that very important growth phase through Spring.In order to produce eggs the queen is going to need protein and for the workers to produce brood food for the ever-expanding number of larvae they also need protein, but that doesn't mean you should rush out and buy a sack of pollen substitute or start mixing your own concoction, it just might not be necessary.I've often explained to beginner beekeepers who contact me or attend my courses, with all things that you do in beekeeping there should be a reason, don't just launch into doing something because you read about someone (like me!) doing it or some old timer in the bee club was talking about what he was doing. Think through your beekeeping plans and have a plan of action to follow, have a purpose for everything you do in beekeepingSo, back to the Pollen Substitute, during early Winter you will see you bees out foraging perhaps on ivy, grabbing as much pollen as possible, storing this pollen gives the bees much needed protein for the long Winter period but also for the late Winter and early Spring period as they gradually start to build up again. If you're lucky you will have early Spring flowering plants and trees that will provide a source of pollen for them. I am very fortunate that here in Norfolk, UK we have at most of our apiaries a range of plants such as snowdrops, crocus, hellebores and many others that provide a much-needed injection of pollen. Everything really starts to kick in around early to mid-March when the Willow starts to flower and this is the main source of pollen that our bees have to forage.When to Feed Pollen SubstituteWhere I have chosen colonies that I want to be roaring away as early as possible I will give a light syrup stimulatory feed in early March and then, having encouraged the queen to increase her egg laying the bees are going to want more pollen and so I follow this light feed with the pollen Substitute. Timing will vary depending on where you are and how your season is unfolding but don't be tempted to feed syrup too early, it will simply act as a heat sink and draw away warmth from the brood nest.Here then is the dilemma and also the question fo

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Welcome back to the Podcast. This week is my monthly review of jobs that might feature in March. It doesn't seem that long ago that I was chatting about the tasks for February, Spring is definitely on the way. Having said that Spring will soon be here there is also a risk to our bees from a last Winter chill and with it our bees could well be eating through their final remaining stores so it's important to keep a watchful eye on what stores your colonies have left and give them a top-up of fondant if needed. By now most of the Winter repair and cleaning work should have been completed, unless of course you're anything like me and leave most tasks to the last minute, anyway, it's time to get stuck in to the final few jobs that need to be done to be prepared for the new season.

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