Adding Supers ...

Returning from a 2 week adventure on a canal boat the weather was superb and I felt slightly nervous as I approached the hive as I had been told they had been very active.  You may have heard of PPPPPPP (Proper prior Planning Prevents XXXX Poor Performance), well in my haste for a quick 2 minute look see whilst the rest of the family were drinking tea on the patio I failed to follow my own rules and the bees caught me out.  Smoking them nicely I was astounded to see the quantity of bees in the hive.  This was no longer a quiet Nuc sized colony, although still very good natured they had filled every frame with brood and stores and needed space rapidly with hot dry days and many plants to visit.

Returning 48hrs later with a proper plan and all the equipment I might need and then some I conducted a full inspection prior to putting the first super on (I still have no idea why they are called a super!).  Cursing my bottom bee space setup and plastic queen excluder I carefully took the frames out to see if I could spot the queen that had previously been marked.  I had promised myself that I would remark her at some stage because I had been told the paint wears off … who knows? Anyhow not a sign of the lady, not really surprising as the colony seemed vast after the first few inspections and I was extremely pleased that I felt no panic unlike the observers who saw my suit covered in bees from afar!

Inspection complete and the hive was reassemble with the super in place with freshly built frames and crossed fingers.

All we need is bees !!

So now all we had to do was get some bees …. Simple one would think but yet again naivety was abound and although the option to simply buy a “nucleus” was available it would take some time and I just wanted to get going. As it happens an assignment to Scotland took my mind off the issue for a few weeks but then I was refocused by an email from a fellow beekeeper who was downsizing for the year to facilitate a back operation.  Needless to say I was galvanised into action and the prospect of putting all the theory into practice came ever closer.

We had chosen to place our first hive in my parent’s garden in Fareham as it is long, has no problems with neighbours and is abundant with plants and trees. With the whole family booted and spurred we waited for Mike to turn up with his Nuc transport box – he duly arrived and we decided to transfer them the following night for a variety of reasons.  My son declared it all a bit of an anti-climax! The following night they were transferred and it became clear that the Nuc was queenless – disaster! Mike kindly shot home, found her and got her into the hive in due course and we were all mightily relieved.

Then came the question of feeding them … 20 different answers. Eventually I offered them some in a frame feeder but they didn’t take much really although by the end of June the brood was steadily expanding and a merry stream of bees could be seen entering and leaving the hive so we were happy. To be honest we were expecting to generate a good colony by the end of the summer, give them a good feed for winter, button them up and have a good 2012 but then I had an interesting inspection.

So how did it all start ?

A few years back during a particularly unpleasant rain storm in Scotland I was putting the world to rights with a colleague when he told me all about his beekeeping experiences. A few bottles of red later and a plan was hatched.  Circumstances did not allow a direct leap into beekeeping at that point so I spent some months researching the subject online; I was amazed at just how much information exists and how many differing opinions there are to a simple question.

Work commitments prevented me from doing much other than read until the latter part of 2010 when I finally moved back to a new job close to home on the south coast. Taking the plunge I bought a kitten for my daughter, 3 chickens for the garden and and joined the local beekeeping club.

Pretty soon Friday evenings were spent in the company of like minded individuals and the club was overwhelmed with applications for the night school classes due to run in the spring of 2011. Luckily both my wife and I were accepted and rushed out to buy everything we thought we'd need ... all the advice was to wait but not us; we got it all including a flat packed hive for Christmas.  Thursday evening in January had us studiously following the lectures on view-foils followed by practical sessions on frame building completing with a few hands on sessions at Manor Farm where the association has its training apiary.

All we needed then was some bees ..