Joined: 28 Oct 2004 Posts: 7100 Location: Morecambe, Lancashire
Posted: Fri Aug 10, 07 8:19 am Post subject:
And yet Beekeeping is one of the fastest growing hobbies in the country with Beekeeping associations reporting bumper numbers on their courses.
It is true that the Bee Inspection Unit desperately needs more funding and that there has been big losses this year possibly due to CCD but at a talk I went to recently given by our local Bee Inspector - He also seems to think that Drone Culling is not helping as this is leading to smaller numbers of Drones being available on mating flights - A Virgin Queen will usually go on 12 -15 mating flights before starting lay
The extreme weather this Summer hasn't helped either - Alot of the Queen Rearing projects have had bad results this year as the Queen's have emerged and are ready to fly right in the middle of all the downpour and subsequently turned into Drone Laying Queens
This has happened to one of the guys on my Beekeeping Course - He bought a nucleus 6 weeks ago and the colony hasn't grown at all despite eggs being laid - only drones are produced - so he is having to have it re-queened at a time of year when the Queen is supposed to be going off lay as the nectar season comes to an end.
However - I glad to report that my own bees have performed stunningly well - I've currently got super partly capped -which hopefully will be ready to come off in a few days
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