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Apr 2020
8:46am, 25 Apr 2020
1,050 posts
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xt350 🇳🇿
i left the supers on all summer without extracting, in the end both had 4 supers on, however as autumn is here now both colonies are naturally reducing which gave me an opportunity to take 3 off each, i always leave at least one full super on the colony to aid them through the winter months. sugar syrup all ready ... its deffo starting to cool now.
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Jun 2020
5:15pm, 28 Jun 2020
2,218 posts
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Minnie Mad
I've just started to learn the ropes from new BF who has 3 large hives with 6 supers on each. He has just done a honey collection of about 200 jars which took a week to process in the garage. He is very hands off and doesn't like to go into the hives too much. He did a brood box inspection today and all the supers are full again so he is anticipating an extra harvest this year. I am planning to put a small hive in my garden (we can't terrify the neighbours with his) and he will give me a nucleus to go in and I will buy a queen.
We were thinking of selling the honey at a local food festival later in the year. It's good stuff and supposed to be good for hayfever.
Exciting times, I like bees.
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Jun 2020
5:45pm, 28 Jun 2020
18,674 posts
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Angus Clydesdale
That’s very cool.
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Jun 2020
6:34pm, 28 Jun 2020
2,460 posts
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Trin
That's great Minnie 😊
Raw honey has lots of health benefits, not just for hayfever 👍
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Jun 2020
8:20pm, 28 Jun 2020
1,713 posts
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Winniefree
Ooh - local competition  Thankfully not that local - good stuff Minnie, hope it goes well.
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Jun 2020
11:45pm, 28 Jun 2020
1,265 posts
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xt350 🇳🇿
You should not need to buy a queen as if they give you the nucleus colony with a few day old eggs then they should in theory bring on their own queen
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Jun 2020
5:38pm, 29 Jun 2020
2,220 posts
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Minnie Mad
Possibly, I was wondering about growing my own queen. We could see how it goes. My BF always buys a fertilised new queen as soon as he thinks the old one isn't laying enough eggs rather than growing his own, that's just the way he prefers to do it, but I wouldn't mind having a go at doing it myself.
I also feel sorry for the old queens that get squished! It's a good job we don't get squished once we are menopausal!
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Jun 2020
5:49pm, 29 Jun 2020
2,461 posts
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Trin
squished! Nooo!
Why do that? Bees are not and should never be captive and controlled creatures. We don't interfere with our queens at all, only open our hive a maximum of twice a year... once to inspect and once to harvest.
Other than that we just let our bees be bees
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Jun 2020
6:35pm, 29 Jun 2020
2,462 posts
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Trin
Where I said hive, it should read hives, as we currently have around 20
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Jun 2020
7:21pm, 29 Jun 2020
2,226 posts
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Minnie Mad
He treats his bees as a commercial operation in that he likes the honey to mean that they at least pay for themselves a bit more. I think I will be a bit more relaxed about mine and I will certainly be talking to them! But I have a lot to learn from someone who knows a lot about bees.
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