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'tis the season........
one of mine is to be a lot more careful about where and when i add foundation to a hive.
mainly, won't be putting an empty super of foundation right above the brood chamber, separating it from the honey supers above. i believe this triggered swarming in several of my colonies last spring.
To not put off checkerboarding until it's too late to stop my hives from swarming anyway.
To collect the supers I had stacked in the bee yard for the bees to clean out before they are covered with snow (like today?)
My main objective for next year is to avoid bee fatigue and pay timely attention to all my colonies through out the season.
My resolution is simply to get my first two hives up and running, healthy and productive.
My first year as a beek I was in the hive about every 5 minutes, killed a queen because of it, but had the experience of the colony making a new one.
This year's resolution....STAY OUTTA THE HIVE...except for necessary management!:D
To cut back on the months of 80 hour weeks...like to 79. :)
To make more honey and hopefully weather permitting get a little locust honey.:)
Better swarm management. I didn't do so well with this last year.....but I learned a lot about what DOESN'T work.
To be more selective on cut-out jobs. Some of the cut-outs I did were allot of work and mess and not worth the time spent.
I receive a lot of swarm calls in the Spring and this year I want to resist the urge to "expand" when swarm season comes around and focus on building up my super inventory. I use all mediums for both brood and supering.The goal is to keep my colony numbers at a level which I have the time to properly manage. A few years back my plan was to keep just a handful of colonies at one location. Right now it's a dozen total at three different locations, and that was after some Fall combining. Funny how that happens. I'll use swarms to draw comb but I need to be more aggressive in combining and culling earlier in the summer. I never seem to have enough drawn honey supers when I need them because I'm adding colonies. One day when I retire I'll have the time to step it up a notch, but right now I need to run lean and efficient with smaller numbers. Famous last words, right? :rolleyes:
This year one of my resolutions is to take on as many swarm calls and bee cut outs as I possibly can.
Not really a resolution right?
Ok then, I resolve to learn something new each and every day even if it has nothing to do with bees. lol
It doesn't get any easier when you retire. One thing I've learned about myself is that I'm a hoarder when it comes to honeybees. You might as well surrender now Mike and give in to your addiction. Enjoy it while you can. It is useless to resist. There is no known cure. :eek:Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Gillmore
I know ... I know. But we have to have at least one resolution we can break ... right? :D
Spend less time on the internet....and more time in the beeyards ;)
I'm going to expand to 15 full hives (from 8) and come mid summer make nucs out of the least productive ones to overwinter. Hope to come out of winter with a minimum of 15 colonies and sell the remaining nucs.
Welcome to Beekeeping! I'm an hour south of Columbus in Frankfort (near Chillicothe). Also I'm President of the Scioto Valley Beekeepers Association, if your close to Circleville stop in for a meeting! If you need any help finding a local association closer to you let me know.Quote:
Originally Posted by Acrolite
Raise more queens, more bees, and produce more honey!! :D
I like it!!!!!!!Quote:
Originally Posted by pine_ridge_farms
That's mine too. I added supers too late, with too many with all empty frames not knowing that's not a good idea.Quote:
Originally Posted by zookeeper
Set up more bait hives around my own hives just in case. Last year I bait hived everywhere except around my bees. Again, not smart.
Starting to feel my age so this is the year. Going to thought it all out there and going for it all. 1000 hives with a 200 lb avg.:digging: