Natural Beekeeping International Forum

[ladyrose1956]

Hi any TBH groups in and around Walsall in the West Midlands look forward to hear from any body

[jeffo]

Hi Ladyrose,

Just come across your post from October - have you found a TBH group in the Walsall area yet?

I guess from your profile that you are based in Pelsall- interestingly, so am I!

I have one TBH at the moment plus one under construction and my Brother-In-Law also has one - he is in the Walsall Wood area. They are all unpopulated at the moment but we have nucs over-wintering so hope to get them set up come the warmer weather.

If there is not a local group maybe we three should meet and swap notes?

Hope to hear from you soon.

Cheers,


Jeff.

[jeffo]

Here we are, end of July, nobody near to Walsall wants to meet up with me

My first season of Natural Beekeeping has been a blast.

After starting the year with an empty TBH and an over-wintered polystyrene nuc of locally purchased bees, I now have 3 populated TBH's, two at an out-apiary (how posh!) and a rustic TBH nuc, all of which seem to be going great guns.

Have picked up several swarms locally, had a couple abscond, given a couple to my brother in law for his TBH's, rehoused two colonies of bumble bees and talked a dozen householders into letting bumble bees stay in their roof/shed/bird boxes for the summer -

And I am off to look at two possible cut-outs next week!!!

We'd have lots to talk about.........

[barkingmad]

We have a TBH in Norton Canes, so not a million miles away. Just started the colony off with a swarm 3 weeks ago and hoping the queen has started laying since the last inspection. It'll be week 4 this Friday.

[jeffo]

Great, there is someone else out there

Is this your first foray into TBH's?

[barkingmad]

It's our first foray into any kind of hive.

We are coming to the end of a beginners course at Shugborough and the rest is a bit like "on job training".

I don't know how many beeks are in our area. There's 2 of us on the course with diy tbh though.

[jeffo]

Is that with South Staffs Beekeepers?

I did the course at Shugborough in about 1984, first time I had seen an opened beehive - I was amazed by the bees.....still am.

Do SS&DBA have any TBH's?

What do they think about them?

[barkingmad]

There is mixed opinion. There's an empty tbh at Shugborough I was told last Saturday. A group also went out to Africa working with and building tbh.

One of the members from Wolverhampton way has 3 hives and he was saying how fantastic and resilient they are as colonies during his lecture on swarming the other night.

The only "sour" comment came last week when one of the other members told us to we'd be better off getting rid and getting a proper hive.

So yeah, mixed opinion

[barkingmad]

Jeff

This is a bit cheeky but do you have a frame of brood you could spare?
I collected a cast back at the end of May and after 3 days realised they were starving and dying due to the bad weather. (Last time I ever hold back feeding)

I have checked each week for brood and/or signs of a queen and nothing until 2 weeks ago when I noticed some larvae. They looked a little randomly spaced to be honest.

This weekend just gone I have inspected again and I have multiple eggs in a few cells whilst others have a single egg, dead centre. Capped cells are domed in places so I'm thinking I've got laying workers or an infertile queen.

I don't have another colony to dip into and I'm a bit stuck.

Cheers

Dean

[jeffo]

Have PM'd you......

[barkingmad]

Thanks Jeffo

[barkingmad]

Are there anymore joiners? I've still got the one colony that you gave me Jeffo. I split them last year but they didn't come out of winter. I've split again today so lets see eh. How's your hives?