Hives Archives - A Simple Life of Luxury https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/tag/hives/ Tales from a down-shifted family - Making the most of modest means in West Wales Tue, 06 Mar 2012 08:51:31 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/cropped-favicon-160x160.jpg Hives Archives - A Simple Life of Luxury https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/tag/hives/ 32 32 2696646 Beekeeping in the Dark https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2012/03/beekeeping-in-the-dark/ https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2012/03/beekeeping-in-the-dark/#comments Tue, 06 Mar 2012 11:34:46 +0000 http://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/?p=9751 Things are beginning to get busy in our beekeeping world again. Yesterday we took delivery of a pallet of supplies. I was sat working at my computer when a huge articulated lorry pulled up outside, there was a knock on the door and the delivery driver said there was a pallet for us. My mind raced, I...

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]]> https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2012/03/beekeeping-in-the-dark/feed/ 4 9751 Beekeeping – Wrapping up for Winter https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2011/10/beekeeping-wrapping-up-for-winter/ https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2011/10/beekeeping-wrapping-up-for-winter/#respond Wed, 26 Oct 2011 14:43:59 +0000 http://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/?p=9103 I’ve just retuned from the garden and a little bit of beekeeping. As well as closing all entrances down to the smallest settings on the hives I also put some mouse guards across them. A nice warm hive with loads of honey is quite an attrractive place for a mouse over the winter and they...

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]]> https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2011/10/beekeeping-wrapping-up-for-winter/feed/ 0 9103 Beekeeping – Are our Hives Ready for Winter? https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2011/08/8713/ https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2011/08/8713/#respond Fri, 26 Aug 2011 06:58:25 +0000 http://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/?p=8713 In addition to our recent Nosema test and checks for Varroa in our bee hives, we also had Helen, our Mentor, pop around for a quick inspection of the hives so that she could give us her opinion on their strength, or weakness. 3 colonies or 2? We were fairly confident that Leri, the stronger...

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]]> https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2011/08/8713/feed/ 0 8713 Our Growing Apiary https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2011/07/our-growing-apiary/ https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2011/07/our-growing-apiary/#respond Thu, 14 Jul 2011 10:31:36 +0000 http://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/?p=8449 As mentioned in our latest beekeeping update, our apiary that started out with two hives currently has an additional third hive and a nuc box in it. We’re not plnning on keeping them all with full colonies in them and will probably merge them into two colonies before the end of the summer but at the moment...

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]]> https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2011/07/our-growing-apiary/feed/ 0 8449 Pollen Varieties https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2011/05/pollen-varieties/ https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2011/05/pollen-varieties/#respond Tue, 10 May 2011 08:06:58 +0000 http://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/?p=7922 We’ve been watching our new bees coming and going and they certainly seem to be bringing back quite a bit of pollen. This is of course good news, but although we have a pollen chart I don’t think that identifying the pollen is going to be easy. The pollen chart really only shows the colour...

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]]> https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2011/05/pollen-varieties/feed/ 0 7922 Early Swarming Bees https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2011/04/early-swarming-bees/ https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2011/04/early-swarming-bees/#comments Sat, 23 Apr 2011 06:09:34 +0000 http://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/?p=7638 This gorgeous spring weather, warm temperatures and the profusion of spring flowers and tree blossom seems to have been working wonders on the local honey bee colonies. We’ve yet to get our bees – they should arrive sometime in May, but we were at an Aberystwyth Beekeepers Association meeting on Thursday night and have been...

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]]> https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2011/04/early-swarming-bees/feed/ 1 7638 Beehive repairs https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2011/04/beehive-repairs/ https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2011/04/beehive-repairs/#comments Mon, 18 Apr 2011 05:57:27 +0000 http://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/?p=7577 We haven’t got our bees yet, but already our hives have needed some repairs. We don’t know why but the plywood used for certain parts of them has started delaminating. It was external grade ply, but just wasn’t quite up to the job. Not to worry though, we bought some wood clamps and some glue...

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]]> https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2011/04/beehive-repairs/feed/ 1 7577 Beehives are Here https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2011/03/beehives-are-here/ https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2011/03/beehives-are-here/#comments Sun, 06 Mar 2011 08:29:35 +0000 http://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/?p=7197 The next step in ‘Plan Bee’ has been completed. My parents are here this weekend and my Dad brought the beehives that he has been carefully making. They look brilliant. As they are going to go in the garden we wanted them to look nice as well as be easy to use and functional, so...

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