October Roundup

October comes around so fast each year and with it our annual Sale and Open Day at our factory and head office in Rand, Lincolnshire. We always try to listen to our customer feedback so this year we tried something a little different with our 3rds - and we starting selling at 9am. This gave our keenest customers time to load their 3 rds and still get into the queue for the main sale starting at 10am. I hope most people found this better, we certainly supplied a lot of 3rds to some happy beekeepers.

This is the 3rds queue which started forming at 6.30am.

Just after we opened the main sale at 10am.

Another good sale day, with happy customers, capacity cars and full tummies – after selling out of bacon butties!!

Thanks goes to all our fantastic staff who made the day such a success.

We also attended the National Honey Show this month, at the new venue of Sandown Park Racecourse. What a fantastic place, with plenty of space and top notch facilities for lectures, workshops and the trade show. The annual Bees for Development quiz, hosted by Bill Turnbull, was great fun - why not take on the challenge at next year’s show? More details to follow nearer the time.

The National Honey Show really is the best honey show in the world and well worth a visit. Congratulations to all involved and of course all the winners of the many honey and wax classes.

October roundup can’t be complete without a mention of a Thornes wedding. Lee and Maria got married on Saturday 29th October. Lee has been with us for over 13 years and works in the wax plant. He has also been in assembly, the engineers and can make a pretty good empire smoker! Many of you will have chatted to Maria over the phone when ringing the office, or seen her at our open days. She joined us in 2011 and quickly became an integral part of the office team. We wish them both, and their adorable daughter Maisie, a long and happy life together.

Equipment Focus………

As the days get shorter and the temperature drops the beekeepers focus turns to overwintering the hives and specifically the winter varroa treatment.

Recent research shows that oxalic acid sublimation is the most effective way to treat the bees; superior to either the trickling or spraying method.

Our affordable, £35, Vapmite may just be for you. Simply place 2.3g of oxalic crystals (e.g. Api-Bioxal) in the pan, seal the hive with a foam closure and attach to a 12V battery. Vaporising will take approximately 3 minutes.

 

 

Ask our Expert

Please email us at sales@thorne.co.uk if you have a question for our experts.

The age old question of what to feed and when is asked time and time again. All colonies are different but the answer below may be of interest to beginners and experts alike.

In the past the English black bee would happily survive the hardest of winters in a 10 frame standard brood box, on about 30 pounds of honey. The more vigorous hybrid strains available today require more in the way of sustenance.

An average colony without brood requires about 300g (~ 1lb in old money) of honey a week. If they are still brooding, this figure will more than double to around 700g (or 2lb) a week.

Disturbance of the colony will more than double the rate of consumption for that week, so it is best to leave well alone.

Colony condition. Honey g/week.

no brood & disturbance <300 g

no brood but disturbed ~700 g

Brood & no disturbance. ~1 kg

Brood & colony disturbance. ~1.5 kg

The colonies requirement changes as the winter progresses. The lowest point is the brood less period in December/January. The nest then starts again for the following season.

Month. Stores total (in old money)

Oct - 4 kg 9 lbs

Nov - 2.5 kg 5.5 lbs

Dec - 2 kg 4.5 lbs

Jan - 2 kg 4.5 lbs

Feb - 2.5 kg 5.5 lbs

Mar - 2.5 kg 5.5 lbs

Apr - 3.5 kg 7.5 lbs

Total. 19 kg. 42 lbs

On average 20 kg of stores should be adequate to see a colony through winter. (This is always dependant on the weather; unseasonably mild years like 2015/16 cause the bees to be more active than usual, consuming stores at a much higher rate than if they were clustered properly.

Overfilling the colony with stores can cause the Queen laying issues in the spring, so they can have too much of a good thing!

The best way is to assess the stores in the combs the bees are to be left with. Allow a count of 2.5 lb per full capped BS super frame, 5 lbs per fully capped BS brood frame, and 8 lbs per BS 14”x12” frame. Having assessed the weight of stores in the hive, you may / or may not need to feed.

Bees will take sugar water throughout August into September (2:1 Sugar to Water) while they have the warmth and bees to drive off the water and process the supply. When they stop taking feed in this form (usually mid-September temperature dependant) they will often take inverted syrup (practically honey) for another month until around mid-October.

If they still require feed at this point you will have to resort to paste on the crown board.

I have a hook/eyelet fitted at the back of the hive floor, allowing a luggage scale to be hooked on to the hive. This gives an accurate weight of the hive/bees/stores in total. From this I subtract the weight of the stores (I assessed above) giving me the weight of the bees and hive. If at any point in the spring the weight drops close to the empty weight I put on candy.

Weekly monitoring of the floor insert lets you know what the bees are doing, without disturbing them. Clean the floor inset off. Next week pull it out and check it. You will see cappings in rows on the floor showing where the bees are in the nest, and that they are still feeding. Clean off and replace, repeat... If the hive weight stops dropping and the litter on the floor insert stops, you may have set Ivy in the comb that the bees can’t use, and they could be starving, in which case further intervention may be required.

In the spring stimulate with a weak syrup, (1:2 sugar to water) suggesting a nectar flow, the water helps the bees clean out old cells ready for the build-up. You can also stimulate with a pollen supplement to really get things going.

Bees for Development

As many of you will know we support the wonderful charity Bees for Development, in fact our MD – Paul Smith, is Chairman of the Trustees. This month BfD are taking part in the Big Christmas Challenge. They are aiming to raise £24,000 to support disadvantaged young people in Ethiopia to earn a living through beekeeping. From Tuesday 29th November through to Friday 2nd December any online donation will be doubled. So please if you have anything you can spare please donate to this worthwhile cause. For more information go to thebiggive.org.uk and search for ‘Bees for Development’.

Upcoming Events

Polycarbonate candle mould and selected TS moulds and candle making equipment Flash Sale – Friday 11th to Monday 23rd November.

Black Friday Weekend – Amazing bargains on some of our best-selling equipment. Friday 25th to Monday 28th November.

Bees for Development -the Big Give. 29th November to 2nd December.