I am now a Beekeeper!!

[dickymint]

Jambo85 said:

dickymint said:

Hence my rofl

However I'm bound to try it at some stage Dishwasher aside though don't you agree that the fact that the main objection seems to be due to the system "clogging up" It's a big plus that the frames can be easily stripped down and cleaned?

How many people on here were aware of this I wonder? What i do know is that the mentors for the group i'm in have little to no experience of Flow. Their objections are based on bias confirmation and group think that (so far) can be overcome.

I wasn’t aware but it’s irrelevant - if you lose your entire honey harvest into the dishwasher what’s the point? Normal frames need no maintenance or cleaning (by humans) normally so it’s hardly a step forward.

I admire you wanting to do things differently and embracing advances and technology but dismissing the opinions of people with experience as confirmation bias and groupthink vs your own position of zero experience is bold! I wish you well though and will be happy to be proven wrong!

Did you buy some extra flow supers?
And are you aware that strong colonies will partially fill the first super with pollen, which definitely doesn’t flow?

Many thanks, i truly appreciate your comments and concerns and yes I fully understand i have no practical experience. My thinking is to maybe use a shallow super (think that's the right term) before the Flow super goes on? I don't yet know about timescales etc. (let alone what bees do and when) but i don't expect to have any bees until late summer so it's a question of getting the nuc established and safe through to next spring?

As i've said there will be the WBC hive to establish at the same time.

[dickymint]

They’ve given me bloody homework at my age FFS .....



Gotta paint it, make six frames with foundation and take it back

[Jambo85]

dickymint said:

Many thanks, i truly appreciate your comments and concerns and yes I fully understand i have no practical experience. My thinking is to maybe use a shallow super (think that's the right term) before the Flow super goes on? I don't yet know about timescales etc. (let alone what bees do and when) but i don't expect to have any bees until late summer so it's a question of getting the nuc established and safe through to next spring?

As i've said there will be the WBC hive to establish at the same time.

True if getting bees late summer then supers are unlikely to be an issue for 2020!

[Jambo85]

Jambo85 said:

dickymint said:

Many thanks, i truly appreciate your comments and concerns and yes I fully understand i have no practical experience. My thinking is to maybe use a shallow super (think that's the right term) before the Flow super goes on? I don't yet know about timescales etc. (let alone what bees do and when) but i don't expect to have any bees until late summer so it's a question of getting the nuc established and safe through to next spring?

As i've said there will be the WBC hive to establish at the same time.

True if getting bees late summer then supers are unlikely to be an issue for 2020!

And good luck with the homework. If you think you're going to do this on any scale then a £20 nail gun is a good investment!

[rxe]

dickymint said:

Hence my rofl

However I'm bound to try it at some stage Dishwasher aside though don't you agree that the fact that the main objection seems to be due to the system "clogging up" It's a big plus that the frames can be easily stripped down and cleaned?

How many people on here were aware of this I wonder? What i do know is that the mentors for the group i'm in have little to no experience of Flow. Their objections are based on bias confirmation and group think that (so far) can be overcome.

IMO the biggest issue you will face is not the clogging up. You will have massive clogging up problems, but other problems you will have are:

- scaling mid flow. I’ve literally spend days nailing and recycling super frames to cope with a whopping flow. I think the peak last year was 26 full supers in a day. You could easily need to add 3 supers to a hive at an inspection.

- artificial swarming - what are you going to do? A load of flow hives spare (not cheap)? Or run parallel langstroth and Flow?

- When you need a test frame from a fellow Beek (and you absolutely will), what then? Pretty much everyone in the U.K. runs Nationals or 14x12. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Langstroth outside the Thornes shop display. May vary by region...,

- how does it handle the moisture content issues in honey? You need to be less than 17.8 percent for the honey not to ferment. Bees aren’t daft - the simple approach is to only extract capped frames. However, bees will have unripe honey right next to ripe honey....you won’t know until it is in the jar.

- And yes, it will set solid. Your drains will be full of honey from the dishwasher.....

I think the objection that most people have is they don’t understand what problem you’re trying to solve. Taking supers off for extraction is a proven and reliable method that costs sod all if your local association has an extractor. We’ve just bitten the bullet and got a 20 frame radial, but but we shift a lot of honey for an amateur operation. If you clear the hives properly, the bees barely even know the supers have gone.

[dickymint]

Jambo85 said:

Jambo85 said:

dickymint said:

Many thanks, i truly appreciate your comments and concerns and yes I fully understand i have no practical experience. My thinking is to maybe use a shallow super (think that's the right term) before the Flow super goes on? I don't yet know about timescales etc. (let alone what bees do and when) but i don't expect to have any bees until late summer so it's a question of getting the nuc established and safe through to next spring?

As i've said there will be the WBC hive to establish at the same time.

True if getting bees late summer then supers are unlikely to be an issue for 2020!

And good luck with the homework. If you think you're going to do this on any scale then a £20 nail gun is a good investment!

Agreed on the nailer but the Plaslode was overkill This manual stapler and Brad Pinner is perfect.....



First batch of 50 complete - got the hang of it and got it down to Roger Bannister sub 4 mins...

[dickymint]

^^^ Gwent Beekeepers (guys i'm doing the course with) are building a new apiary and Bee Centre on land they've purchased near where I live and they've decided to change every frame for their hives. I'm after Brownie points

[dickymint]

Well Covid has scuppered any chance of visiting the apiary for any hands on training which means little chance of getting a nuc from them (understandable but annoying) so i've bitten the bullet and sourced a 6 frame nuc and queen that will be with me tomorrow morning. Meanwhile I've readied my garden for their arrival.......................





The nuc is for the WBC hive that hopefully be split to populate the FlowHive.

Edited by dickymint on Thursday 14th May 11:40

[dickymint]

Poxy PH photo uploader so here's a quick vid of my setup..........

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VayAPsOFMpc

[anonymous-user]

Have seen some new beehives places near me (Balbeggie) and it made me curious as to how you would describe the honey if selling? Ie is it organic if the bees are using rape fields or similar?

[dickymint]

Iwantafusca said:

Have seen some new beehives places near me (Balbeggie) and it made me curious as to how you would describe the honey if selling? Ie is it organic if the bees are using rape fields or similar?

Was having a debate about this a few days ago so I did some research and as far as can tell UK honey cannot be classed as Organic even if you have hives in a field well within the bees max flying distance - nobody (that I could find) sells UK produced Organic honey it’s all imported.

Edit: best you could describe it is 100% raw honey as in not heat treated.

Edited by dickymint on Thursday 14th May 13:10

[Jambo85]

dickymint said:

Well Covid has scuppered any chance of visiting the apiary for any hands on training which means little chance of getting a nuc from them (understandable but annoying) so i've bitten the bullet and sourced a 6 frame nuc and queen that will be with me tomorrow morning. Meanwhile I've readied my garden for their arrival.......................





The nuc is for the WBC hive that hopefully be split to populate the FlowHive.

Edited by dickymint on Thursday 14th May 11:40

Great stuff! Is the flow high at the front or is it just the photo? Get them level if you can.

Are you planning to split the colony this year? Depends on a lot of things but probably the most successful way would be to start a new nuc from it.

[Jambo85]

Iwantafusca said:

Have seen some new beehives places near me (Balbeggie) and it made me curious as to how you would describe the honey if selling? Ie is it organic if the bees are using rape fields or similar?

I don't think there is any organic honey produced in the UK as theoretically you'd need organic land in a 3 mile radius from where the bees are kept, which is basically impossible, you even need to consider domestic gardens which are unregulated and I don't think there are many 3 mile stretches without houses.

Rape honey tends to be sold as spring/spring blossom/blossom honey, and is always soft set. The glucose/fructose ratio in the nectar is such that it crystalises quickly and very hard if it isn't processed into soft set honey.

[dickymint]

Jambo85 said:

Great stuff! Is the flow high at the front or is it just the photo? Get them level if you can.

Are you planning to split the colony this year? Depends on a lot of things but probably the most successful way would be to start a new nuc from it.

Well spotted but yes it is higher at the front. They are designed that way for the honey to “flow” out of the super. The base has a spirit level built into it that when the bubble is centralised it’s actually at 4 to 5 degrees slope front to back. There is another built in level for side to side to set to ‘proper’ level.

The vid shows it better that they are side by side.

Yes I’m hoping to get split to overwinter for next Spring for the Flowhive. As long as I can get one strong colony through the winter is main priority though.

[Jambo85]

dickymint said:

Well spotted but yes it is higher at the front. They are designed that way for the honey to “flow” out of the super. The base has a spirit level built into it that when the bubble is centralised it’s actually at 4 to 5 degrees slope front to back. There is another built in level for side to side to set to ‘proper’ level.

Feck I never thought of that! Makes sense!

dickymint said:

Yes I’m hoping to get split to overwinter for next Spring for the Flowhive. As long as I can get one strong colony through the winter is main priority though.

Yeah - you're definitely better with one strong colony rather than two weak ones. If you overwinter a strong one this year and then you can easily split next year. But if the weather is kind and the nuc is strong you could get away with it this year, especially if you feed them through any gaps - they have to draw a lot of foundation out this year which they won't do without a flow.

Fun times ahead for you

I'm going to graft some larvae from my favourite queens tomorrow to try to raise a few daughters for nucs and re-queening for the heather

[anonymous-user]

dickymint said:

Was having a debate about this a few days ago so I did some research and as far as can tell UK honey cannot be classed as Organic even if you have hives in a field well within the bees max flying distance - nobody (that I could find) sells UK produced Organic honey it’s all imported.

Edit: best you could describe it is 100% raw honey as in not heat treated.

Edited by dickymint on Thursday 14th May 13:10

Ah I see. Best honey i have had so far was from turkey , pine fir honey , can’t mind if they said it was organic tho.

[dickymint]

Finally after 40 months it really is official...
https://youtu.be/uiC_BRn3Xs8

Don’t mind saying there’s a distinct whiff of chopped onions in my garden

[Jambo85]

Great stuff. Chopped onions???

Hope you helped those stranded bees out of the nuc

[dickymint]

Jambo85 said:

Great stuff. Chopped onions???

Hope you helped those stranded bees out of the nuc

Yep they got in eventually but not without my first mini panic as a Beeminder! The guy that provided me with the nuc and kindly guided me through the install had to leave at this point. It was then i noticed a large "beard" of bees around the side and on closer inspection were actually getting in between two of the lifts. I took the lid back off and there was a hundred or so in the void with no access to the brood box Smoked the outside beard and brushed them off and they still kept going for it - turned out the second lift wasn't seated properly so easy fix. Lesson learned stay calm, think it through and be confident.

Day two: Discovered i get up earlier than Bees

Oh the onions? After wanting to do this for at least 30 years i got a tad overwhelmed by it all

[Nimby]

dickymint said:

Day two ...

That long? They'll be preparing to swarm !