Bees are doing amazingly well!-from Ursula

Dear James

Just a note to say that the bees are doing amazingly well, they`ve built out almost 5 frames already and the queen is certainly doing her thing!!!

Unfortunately our colony from last year (not from you) is sadly in fast decline, so we were wondering if we`re too late for another nuc. I`ve reccommended you to several people on my practical course so you`ve probably sold out.

Many thanks in anticipation

Dear Ursula

Really great to hear the nuc you got from us is doing so well. We have a few nucs still left. When we nurture the nuc for you we do not release them until they are really strong and healthy, so it's no surprise that you now have a full on colony. They are now in a position to collect you surplus honey now- rare in the first year!

Remember- you get what you pay for.

Many people offering 5 frame nucs for sale really just make up 2 frames of brood & bees, then 1 frame of eggs and stores with 2 frames of partly drawn foundation if that. Not what professional bee breeders consider a viable full 5 frame nuc, nor should you.

If you buy from elsewhere in the future a word of advise.

1 Always ask of the 5 frame nuc what will you actual get within the frames.

2 Have they been treated for Varroa? (we do)

3 Will they go through the nuc with you, showing you the queen, eggs, brood? (we do)

4 Is the queen this years queen, marked and clipped? (we do)

5 Has their apiary/breeding area been recently checked by DEFRA/FERA (ours has)

6 Is the queen from a known pedigree or from their stock. This is important as many will catch a swarm and once the queen is laying, sell it on. This is not of a known source, could carry disease, bad tempered and of a swarming nature. If they make up nucs from swarm cells from their bees, then perhaps the trait of those bees lean heavily towards swarming!- not what you want from a paid nuc.

Many new comers to beekeeping see that there is money to be made in selling bees. As professional breeders we are concerned the general public will be taken advantage of and that unsuitable, rogue bees will begin to mass populate, passing on undesirable genes to free mating queens.

Our golden rule is: Buy the best bees and beesuit you can afford!

Hope this helps and please pass this around to others thinking of buying bees.

All the best

James

Beeswax Collection- How to do it!

There are many ways to collect and clean your beeswax. A simple solar beeswax melter is a handy hobbyist solution. It consists of a simple box with glass double glazing in the lid. Angled towards the sun it uses the suns rays to melt and naturally bleach the colour of the wax back to its light golden colour. Many large wax refineries use acid to bleach the wax which is not great if you wish to make cosmetics with your beeswax or candles.

The other method is using steam to melt your wax through muslin cloth. We use a large stainless steel steam melter to sterilise our frames and reclaim the wax. The high temperature of the steam kills nosema spores, wax moth eggs and other moulds and yeast's that could be harbouring in the wood or wax. We use our large steam extractor for the first crude filter followed by our smaller steam extractor for the final fine filtering.

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