Beekeeping - Short and Sweet

Latest Episodes:

Episode 111: Exciting News and Rising Temperatures Jun 19, 2020

Show notes

Hi I’m Stewart Spinks and welcome to Episode 111 of my podcast Beekeeping Short and sweet. So this week I’ll reveal the exciting news I have for you and with rising temperatures outside clipped queens have been both a blessing and a conundrum, they just don’t always do what you read in the books!
Catch up with my latest podcast here

I’m grateful to Honey Paw hives for sponsoring in part our podcasts for this season.
Honey Paw hives are, as I’m sure you’re aware, Poly Langstroth hives and we’re setting up an apiary full of their hives this season courtesy of Honey Paw. Check out their range of hives and other equipment on their website, I’ll leave a link to their website in the show notes as usual.

Honey Paw Hives - Designed by Beekeepers, For Beekeepers.

Welcome back everybody, especially to everyone who continues to get the very latest podcasts each week as they are released, if you’d like to be first to hear the weekly podcast pop over to my patreon page and check out the podcast tier.

Last week I threw out a teaser about some exciting news and I posted a picture of the event on my patreon page just a couple of days ago. And that news is, I’ve finally got too fed up with falling over my own feet in the honey extraction room that I’ve signed the lease on a small commercial unit here in Norwich and have been moving in over the last seven days. It’s a personal milestone for me and something I’ve been hoping to do for some time. The unit is situated just a 15 minute walk away from my home. It means I can gather up all of my essential equipment together and not end up scratching my head trying to figure out where I left the last box of jars or have to drive to the workshop to count up how many sheets of brood foundation I have for my Langstroth hives.

The very best part is that I can now set out the honey room section of the unit in the best possible configuration to make the process of uncapping and extracting honey as easy as I can and that should really see a lot of time and frustration. The grand plan is to section off the rear of the unit into the honey extraction area so that can be kept clean for honey and food production as I’m hoping to get back on track with some of the other products we used to produce. The front of the unit has a roller shutter door as well as a standard door entrance and that’s been really useful for brining in all of the equipment but will also be great for moving in the heavy honey supers without having to negotiate a doorway that’s not quite big enough without scraping my knuckles on the door frame. I can see it will be quite chilly in the Winter so a portioned wall and teaching room that will double up as an office for me is also on the wish list but that will have to wait as the cost of building the stud walls is beyond me currently. If there are any builders listening that fancy swapping a days work for a days mentoring do get in touch, although I do have a very good friend who is a top notch builder/plasterer so I’m hoping I can get him over to price up the job.

Next week is honey extraction week so I’ll go through putting on the clearer boards and what types I use and why and I’ll report back on exactly how we get on with actual honey extracted in a couple of weeks.

I hope you are also enjoying a Spring nectar flow and your supers are filling up with golden honey to reward you for all your work with your own bees.

Well, that’s it for this week, have a great beekeeping week,

Stay safe and Please do remember to check out my Patreon page where you can access lots more content, that’s www.patreon.com/norfolk honey.

I’m Stewart Spinks and that was Beekeeping Short and Sweet.

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Episode 110: Swarms, Bee Vacs and Cold Weather Jun 12, 2020

Show notes

Welcome to Episode 110 of my podcast Beekeeping Short and sweet. What an interesting week, swarm call outs, a climb onto a roof to vacuum an unwelcome colony and a sudden blast of cold air to slow everything down.
CHECK OUT MY LATEST PODCAST HERE

I’m grateful to Honey Paw hives for sponsoring in part our podcasts for this season. Honey Paw hives are, as I’m sure you’re aware, Poly Langstroth hives and we’re setting up an apiary full of their hives this season courtesy of Honey Paw. Check out their range of hives and other equipment on their website, I’ll leave a link to their website in the show notes as usual.

Honey Paw Hives - Designed by Beekeepers, For Beekeepers.

Well, what a week that was, I’ve done a few interesting swarm collections in my time but this past week provided a first for me using Pete’s patented Bee Vacuum. I say patented, it’s not but it had the feel of one of those Wiley Coyote Acme DIY bits of kit, destined to blow up in your face. It didn’t quite do that but we had some fun with it.

I’ve also collected a swarm from a compost bin and been confronted by a sudden blast of cold air from the north which really put the brakes on things last weekend. By the time you get to listen to this we could be through the worst of the cold and heading back up to Bermuda Shorts and Hawaiian shirts temperatures!

I’ve also got some exciting news to share that has me working overtime this week so do stay tuned to hear all about that.

I don’t know about everyone else, but for me, at this time of year the weeks just seem to mould into one continuous routine of inspections and working on preparing for the next week of beekeeping, I do very often lose track of what day of the week it is, luckily I have the weekly routine of the Friday podcast posting to keep me on track. I appreciate it’s not the longest of podcasts but sitting down in front of the computer and putting out a weekly beekeeping comment is something I’m quite proud of, especially as I’ve now hit 110 podcasts.

So last week saw the first of the swarm call outs, I don’t normally go out to collect swarms, at least not any more. It was something I was desperate to do in the earlier days of my beekeeping career, wanting to get out there and climb trees, fall through hedgerows, clamber across garden shed roofs all with the desire to collect that swarm. You see, I wanted to increase my stock of bees as quickly as I could, little did I realise just how quickly it would increase, there were swarms everywhere it seemed.

If you are looking to increase the stock levels you have then swarm collection is a great way to do it and if you have the time, it can be great fun.................

............ Well, that’s it for this week, have a great beekeeping week, I almost forgot to mention the exciting news I have for you all, but I think I’ll save that for next week, I have a busy weekend ahead of me and I’ll give you a full round-up of what I’m up to next week.

Stay safe and Please do remember to check out my Patreon page where you can access lots more content, that’s www.patreon.com/norfolk honey.

I’m Stewart Spinks and that was Beekeeping Short and Sweet.

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Episode 109: Creating Multiple splits and The Virus Strikes Back Jun 05, 2020

Show notes

Hi I’m Stewart Spinks and welcome to Episode 109 of my podcast Beekeeping Short and sweet. Multiple splits from one hive can help with quick increases in colony numbers, I have just the method to help. Also, viruses it seems are not just the domain of us humans. Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus has struck again and this time I’m taking decisive action, listen in to hear my thoughts and course of action.

I’m grateful to Honey Paw hives for sponsoring in part our podcasts for this season. Honey Paw hives are, as I’m sure you’re aware, Poly Langstroth hives and we’re setting up an apiary full of their hives this season courtesy of Honey Paw. Check out their range of hives and other equipment on their website

Honey Paw Hives - Designed by Beekeepers, For Beekeepers.

Hi Everyone and welcome back to the podcast, it’s been a fairly standard weather week, some nice warm sunshine combined with a day of rain and chilly nights.

The effect of this on the bees can be quite dramatic and is a catalyst for swarming. Colonies building up strongly fid themselves suddenly trapped indoors getting in each others way, just leads to the need to break out and get some fresh air, sounds somewhat familiar to be honest.
I hope that last week’s explanation of the Artificial Swarm without finding the queen was easy enough to understand, remember, if you can’t find the queen you put a sealed queen cell in the new hive with all the flying bees and destroy all the queen cells in the old hive where the queen still hides. It’s really that simple.

This week I wanted to talk about a couple of topics, firstly, creating multiple nucs from one parent colony and secondly the bad news that I have Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus in a colony again and it’s pretty terminal. I discovered this during my regular inspections this last week and it got me thinking about why we inspect our bees. I suspect for the vast majority of beekeepers out there, running a couple of hive or maybe even a dozen colonies, inspecting your bees is the highlight of the beekeeping week so you want to take your time and enjoy the experience. The problem can then become one of looking at your bees in such a way as to not always see what’s right in front of you. What I mean by that is sometimes we can get so worked up about looking for eggs, queens and queen cells that other important issues such as disease can get missed and lead to more challenges further down the road. When you inspect your bees, no matter what time frame or how many colonies always make a point of looking for healthy brood and adult bees. It doesn’t take more than a few seconds and it’s something you can tick off the list of things that need your attention. I’ll come back to the CBPV later in the podcast but first something altogether more enjoyable, creating a multiple increase from one colony to end up with an apiary full of hives by the end of the season.

I can’t stress how much this is a last resort for me, I hate killing colonies of bees but I need to protect the rest of my livestock, it hurts to see them killed but as a responsible beekeeper it’s something I feel I have to do.

The good news is that the vast majority of my colonies are healthy and doing fine, this step hopefully will keep them that way for the rest of the season.

Well, that’s it for this week, have a great beekeeping week Stay safe and Please do remember to check out my Patreon page where you can access lots more content, that’s www.patreon.com/norfolkhoney

I’m Stewart Spinks and that was Beekeeping Short and Sweet.

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Episode 108: Artificial Swarms Part Two May 29, 2020

Show notes

Hi I’m Stewart Spinks and welcome to Episode 108 of my podcast Beekeeping Short and sweet. It’s most definitely swarm season, I’ve lost one, gained two and split another colony. This week, more about artificial swarms and how to perform one without finding the queen.

Check Out My Latest Podcasts Here
I’m grateful to Honey Paw hives for sponsoring in part our podcasts for this season. Honey Paw hives are, as I’m sure you’re aware, Poly Langstroth hives and we’re setting up an apiary full of their hives this season courtesy of Honey Paw. Check out their range of hives and other equipment on their website, I’ll leave a link to their website in the show notes as usual.

Honey Paw Hives - Designed by Beekeepers, For Beekeepers.

This week’s update includes the inevitable news that some of our colonies have decided to swarm. It’s not a total surprise to be honest, we’ve been seeing rudimentary queen cells for some time now, those are the queen cups without eggs and more recently we’ve seen eggs and very young larvae in them making them queen cells in their own right. It was predictable that sooner or later the timing of these queen cells would work against us and I’d miss one or two and a few colonies would get away from us.

By that I mean, with a weekly inspection routine I’ve been removing queen cells regularly which should mean that by the time I come round to inspecting again there still shouldn’t be any sealed queen cells. Sealed queen cells are important because once sealed, the young queen larvae inside has been fed and nurtured as much as it can be by the colony and there is nothing more they can do now until the virgin queen emerges. This then, gives the green light for the colony to swarm as the sudden and dramatic reduction of the number of bees in the colony after the swarm won’t make any difference to the sealed queen cell.

What this means is that if you carry out regular inspections and you remove every queen cell you see it should be possible to prevent them from swarming, right? Wrong!
As I’m sure you either know or are finding out, bees will find a way to circumvent the beekeepers best efforts and find a way to swarm.

I once had a colony that persisted in producing queen cells, week after week until finally they produced 58 queen cells in one week, I methodically went through and removed every last one of them, or at least that’s what I thought I had done but alas, a week later I found they had swarmed, I had removed 57 queen cells and missed the one they had hidden in the midden of some drone brood created art such an angle the queen cell was completely hidden within the mass of drone brood. Fifty-eight queen cells is my record number in one hit I think, it looks quite impressive when you see frame upon frame of queen cells but it really isn’t what you want to see as a beekeeper. Some beekeepers might be tempted to use a great many of the queen cells to produce more queens for expansion but I suspect all you’re going to do with that particular colony is reproduce lots of swarmy colonies, not something I really want to have to deal with.......................

Have a great beekeeping week Stay safe and Please do remember to check out my Patreon page where you can access lots more content, that’s
www.patreon.com/norfolk honey

I’m Stewart Spinks and that was Beekeeping Short and Sweet.

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Episode 107 - Artificial Swarms May 22, 2020

Show notes

Hi I’m Stewart Spinks and welcome to Episode 107 of my podcast Beekeeping Short and sweet. Queen cells have started to pop up in several colonies and last week I touched on the Artificial Swarm technique, this week I’m going to delve a little more closely at this beekeeping staple.

Check out my latest Podcasts here

I’m grateful to Honey Paw hives for sponsoring in part our podcasts for this season. Honey Paw hives are, as I’m sure you’re aware, Poly Langstroth hives and we’re setting up an apiary full of their hives this season courtesy of Honey Paw. Check out their range of hives and other equipment on their website, I’ll leave a link to their website in the show notes as usual.

Honey Paw Hives - Designed by Beekeepers, For Beekeepers.

Well, here in Norfolk in the UK we’re fast approaching that time in the season where colony reproduction will either begin or be in full swing, I’ve already seen several queen cells with eggs and larvae in and one colony got a head start on me and has already swarmed!

It can be a tricky time as we found out last year and there can be a certain amount of panic as colonies throw up queen cells and beekeepers struggle with how to tackle the situation.

Before we get into the details of the so called artificial swarm method of swarm control let’s look back at this week and update you all on how things are going.

As some of you will know I inspect on a weekly basis so at the moment I’m comfortably able to get round all sixty or so colonies and spend time working through them. I really don’t know how sole beekeepers manage to get through 150 plus colonies on their own with weekly inspections but I guess I’ll find that out eventually.

We’ve had about 10% throw up queen cells with the majority now producing rudimentary queen cups, the difference being the rudy’s, as we call them, don’t yet have an egg or larvae in them.

The highlight of the week was undoubtedly the church colony removal, quite a nerve-wracking experience for someone who isn’t used to being around 8m up on a scaffolding platform. The cut out was performed on Friday last week, it turned out to be quite a cold morning and the bees were fairly well tucked away in the corner sheltered from the prevailing Easterly wind. It was interesting to see just how sheltered it actually was in the spot they had chosen. The comb had been built across the corner between buttress and main wall and to be honest I could see why they had been able to survive there. With the overhanging brickwork it really was very sheltered indeed. Just to remind everyone, the reason for removing them was at the request of the church who are going to have some repair work performed to the east wall and wanted the colony removed. They had delayed removal in the hope the colony would die out overwinter and not have to pay for scaffolding, not a particularly Christian approach and they were lucky that we were able to find someone who could provide use with scaffolding free of charge. I say free of charge, I’m actually going to supply Markus the owner of EFL - Roofing Specialists with a nucleus colony to get him started in beekeeping once we’re out of lockdown so it is actually costing me, however, the church is very local to where I grew up and I’m a soft touch it seems.

I have posted pictures and video on the Patreon page of our removal so do take a look at that if you’re interested......................

Next week, as I mentioned earlier, I’ll talk through how to create an artificial swarm when you can’t find the queen.

Well, that’s it for this week, time to get out into the warming sunshine and check some of my colonies.

Have a

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Episode 106 - Preparing for Swarms May 15, 2020

Show notes

Hi, I’m Stewart Spinks and welcome to Episode 106 of my podcast Beekeeping Short and sweet. During my inspections over the past week, I’ve noticed a few colonies starting to prepare for swarming. Stay tuned for my latest update and some suggestions for swarm season preparations.

I’m grateful to Honey Paw hives for sponsoring in part our podcasts for this season. Honey Paw hives are as I’m sure you’re aware, Poly Langstroth hives and we’re setting up an apiary full of their hives this season courtesy of Honey Paw. Check out their range of hives and other equipment on their website.

Honey Paw Hives - Designed by Beekeepers, For Beekeepers.

Welcome back to the podcast, and as lockdown continues we find ourselves in a quite weird world right now, traffic has reduced to minimal numbers, it’s like driving around on an early Sunday morning every day of the week. Something else I’ve noticed as I walk to my allotment each day is more people are inclined to say hello, even though they are keeping their distance, people I’ve seen over the years and never had any interaction with now make eye contact and smile or say hello or good morning. It’s kind of strange. Maybe it’s that feeling of vulnerability that makes people suddenly feel like making contact with others. Personally, I’m as grumpy as ever when I walk up to the allotment and see the slugs have been at the cabbages but that’s a completely different problem.

It’s been a fantastic week for inspecting our colonies, the weather for the last week was fantastic, Easter weekend was sunny, dry and mostly warm, however the forecast if for a return to more Spring like conditions of warm sunshine coupled with cool breezes and cold nights. My inspection of the colonies on the Oilseed Rape is probably the most interesting as there are around 33 colonies there and it was full inspections including adding queen excluders and supers to several. It takes quite a while to go through 30 plus colonies having a detailed look and making sure all is ok. It’s a great time of year to be thorough, not as many bees in the hive just yet so room enough to be able to look closely at frames of brood to make sure all is well and healthy.

Something I did notice and worth mentioning here is what is termed the “through gut” of the larvae, it’s really obvious when you look closely at larvae. In healthy larvae it can normally be seen as a coloured line running along the back of the larvae and is a good sign the larvae are feeding and growing well. The colour is produced mainly by the colour of the pollen so it may well vary quite a bit and, at the moment, for all of my colonies on the oilseed rape the colour of this line is a fairly bright yellow. Larvae stuffed full of Oilseed rape pollen...........................

I’m Stewart Spinks and that was Beekeeping Short and Sweet.

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Episode 105 - Early Season Inspections May 08, 2020

Show notes

I’m Stewart Spinks and welcome to Episode 105 of my podcast Beekeeping Short and sweet. This week I’m in full inspection mode as we work our way through the hives and see how they’ve fared, start adding supers and carry out some vital disease inspections.

Catch up with my very latest Podcasts, Videos and much more here

Honey Paw Hives - Designed by Beekeepers, For Beekeepers.

Firstly, a very Happy Easter to you all. We’re off and running with the new season in what are very difficult times for everyone and I hope that you are all staying safe and taking care of each other.

It has to be said that for me, the current coronavirus situation hasn’t really affected what I do terribly and I’m very grateful for that. I’m still without my usual team of unpaid helpers, Steph and Pete, all of us trying our best to maintain social distancing and not travelling unnecessarily. That means Pete is left in the workshop doing all the essential building work, Steph is helping out with social media posts and I’m out on the bees.

And what a first week of inspections it’s been, it’s all too easy to get carried away with early season inspections but I have to say most colonies have come through the final stages of Spring looking in really fine condition.

Have a great beekeeping week Stay safe and Please do remember to check out my Patreon page where you can access lots more content, that’s www.patreon.com/norfolk honey.

I’m Stewart Spinks and that was Beekeeping Short and Sweet.

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Episode 104: Let The Season Commence! May 01, 2020

Show notes

We have a winner in our Honey Paw Competition and It’s all systems go this weekend and despite the Coronavirus, beekeeping in isolation begins, stay tuned for my latest update and plans for this weekend.

I’m grateful to Honey Paw hives for sponsoring in part our podcasts for this season. Honey Paw hives are, as I’m sure you’re aware, Poly Langstroth hives and we’re setting up an apiary full of their hives this season courtesy of Honey Paw. Check out their range of hives and other equipment on their website, I’ll leave a link to their website in the show notes as usual.

Honey Paw Hives - Designed by Beekeepers, For Beekeepers.
Get The Latest Podcast Release Here

Welcome back to the podcast, and, without further delay, the winner of the Honey Paw Poly Langstroth Hive competition is Ricky Taylor who lives in Gibraltar, he correctly answered the question I posed, along with quite a number of others but he was the lucky one randomly drawn from the list of correct entries and wins the fantastic Honey Paw hive. I’m arranging to send the box of kit over to Ricky and hopefully, once he’s got it made up he’ll send us a photograph or two showing it in action for me to share.

Apart from the excitement of the competition, I’ve had a bit of a nightmare week, I should qualify that by saying anything I do with my beekeeping is totally insignificant compared to the work currently being undertaken by everyone out there helping us all get through the coronavirus outbreak and I really don’t want to make a mountain out of a molehill but what a couple of days I had midweek.

................................

Have a great beekeeping week Stay safe and Please do remember to check out my Patreon page where you can access lots more content, that’s www.patreon.com/norfolk honey.

I’m Stewart Spinks and that was Beekeeping Short and Sweet.

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Episode 103: Beekeeping and Social Distancing Apr 24, 2020

Show notes

Hi I’m Stewart Spinks and welcome to Episode 103 of my podcast Beekeeping Short and sweet. My beekeeping continues despite the challenges of the coronavirus outbreak, listen in to catch up with my latest challenges as we head into the new season.
Check out my latest podcast here

Honey Paw Hives - Designed by Beekeepers, For Beekeepers.

Modern Beekeeping - UK Suppliers of Honey Paw Hives, Apimix & Apipasta foods

Stay safe and keep your distance! Remember for those of you who haven’t yet entered the competition draw, there’s still time, but only just. The final date for entries is next Tuesday the 31st of March.

Head over to the Podcast page on my website where you can check out the details for entry.

Have a great beekeeping week and Please do remember to check out my Patreon page where you can access lots more content, that’s www.patreon.com/norfolk honey.

I’m Stewart Spinks and that was Beekeeping Short and Sweet.

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Episode 102: Keep Feeding Apr 17, 2020

Show notes

Hi I’m Stewart Spinks and welcome to Episode 102 of my podcast Beekeeping Short and sweet. The weather has been fairly constant this past week and I had a message from one of our contacts saying their Oilseed rape is nearly ready for the bees. It’s time to get set up for the new season but don’t be in too much of a rush to open your bees, it’s still cold out there!
Check Out the very Latest podcasts on my Support Page www.patreon.com/norfolkhoney

Honey Paw Hives - Designed by Beekeepers, For Beekeepers.

Honey Paw Hives in the UK - Modern Beekeeping

Well, I never did get to BeeTradex and I’m kind of glad I chose not to go, it seems like it was a good event despite the reduced attendance, but I guess a lot of beekeepers took the same decision I did in staying away. We’ve now been told that the second major event of the year has been cancelled, that’s the BBKA Spring Convention in April and is usually a really good weekend with lots of talks and lectures, hands-on sessions and of course the Trade Show. Lots of suppliers now seem to be offering show discounts online so if you have pre-ordered or were thinking of buying some new kit check out the retailer of choice and see what they are offering. There’s always bargains to be had and I’m sure they will want to mitigate their losses by offering some really good deals online. Sign up for newsletters and special offers to make sure you get notified, although I don’t think any of them are selling toilet paper!

Not going to the Trade Show meant I had time to get a few more plans sorted, I love lists, you can never have too many lists, jobs that need to be done, kit to move, bees to check.

We spent Saturday scraping and washing queen excluders, it’s another task on the IPM or Integrated Pest Management plan that we have. Keeping kit nice and clean makes it easier to use and reduces the risk of spreading pests and diseases to the bees.

Cleaning queen excluders can be a bit of a chore but once done they clean up well and it also helps extend the life of them too. In previous years I’ve shaped and scorched, the technique involves scraping off all the wax and as much propolis as possible and then using a blow torch to bubble up the remaining propolis to kill anything that might be lurking in it. This year I wanted to try using the oil drum to boil them clean and it worked really well. The key once again is keeping the water at near boiling point and adding a decent amount of washing soda and washing up liquid. It has the effect of dissolving the propolis and they clean really quickly.

My main job right now, making sure bees have enough supplementary feed to get them through the cooler weather until there are again enough bees to cover the brood area and keep all of the larvae warm and healthy. They will be in prime condition to be taken to the oilseed rape and that looks like it will happen sometime next week which is really early for us. I’ve just recorded a couple of videos showing both the oilseed rape field and the new apiary site for the Honey Paw hives series of videos so do catch up with both of those.

I hope you’re all keeping safe and healthy wherever you are and looking forward to getting out into the fresh air and starting the new beekeeping season. Remember for those of you who haven’t yet entered the competition draw, there’s still time. Head over to my Podcast page on my website where you can check out the details for entry.

Have a great beekeeping week and Please do remember to check out my Patreon page where you can access lots mo

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