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sir. porky · Joined: 21 Jun 2007 Posts: 59 Location: west of Ireland

Hi all bee keepers, or wish to be bee keepers.
here at the slieve carha apiary we are hopping this year to supply bees and even mated queens if all goes to plan and a small amount of luck, we put 9 colonys into the winter and still have 9 hives containing bees, when we tried to obtain bees we found it extremely hard to get them, so we would like to help others who find them selves in this situation. A colony with a virgin queen will cost e120 and one with a laying queen e150, all should be available around may to june, you must provide us with the hive and frames to house the bees when placeing a order.
sir, Porky

Camile · Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2009 9:53 am Post subject:

Hi Sir Porky,

could you tell me the difference between a virgin queen and a laying one ?

does that simply mean that the virgin one will take longer to establish a strong colony ? therefore no luck for honey whatsoever ?

and also the impact it would have on their survival ?

and would it be a full hive you provide or simply a "nuck" ?

because we are going to get 2 colonies this year because we lost ours back in September ..

It would be interesting if you don't mind to come and visit your setup one of those days ... and especially see what techinque you use to split your hive ..

Thanks
Camile

dara · Joined: 01 Aug 2007 Posts: 182 Location: Mayo

Hi Sir Porky,
I would also be very interested in this. Lost my hive after my neighbours cattle broke in and destroyed mine back end of last year, though still have supers and frames.
Same Q's as Camille so any further info would be gratefully received.
Dara

sir. porky · Joined: 21 Jun 2007 Posts: 59 Location: west of Ireland

Hi Camile & Dara
A virgin queen will not lay eggs untill she has been on her wedding flight and mated with up to 15 drones, this is not a problem if there are more colonys of bees with in a few miles radius of the hive.
If you are interesed in bees from us we would like you to bring your hive complete with frames and new wax foundation, we will then hive a sworm for you, at this point you can collect them or wait a week or so untill we know the queen is laying well, in one week with good feeding a sworm can draw out a full box of new foundation ready to start and collect honey, so yes weather permiting and a good size early sworm will give you a grop this year.
you are wecome to visit at any time to see our Bees, Pigs or Wild boar.
come on a good day and we can even open 1or2 hives!
sir, porky

dara · Joined: 01 Aug 2007 Posts: 182 Location: Mayo

Sounds good to me. Let me know when you want me to bring the hive to you.

Camile · Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2009 10:29 pm Post subject:

Hello,

We are definitely interested as well .. Melimelo just has to confirm something with her bee guru and will let you know.

CAmile

sir. porky · Joined: 21 Jun 2007 Posts: 59 Location: west of Ireland

We did our first check of the season on our bees today, all seem healthy and queens have started to lay. We would hope to have spare bees around the end of april , depending on some good sunshine, so Dara any time before then you could drop up a hive, preffarably steralised with a blow torch and new wax foundation.

dara · Joined: 01 Aug 2007 Posts: 182 Location: Mayo

No problem, Sir P.
I'll keep in touch...
Dara

Camile · Posted: Mon Apr 06, 2009 9:40 pm Post subject:

Hi Sir Porky,

Sorry for the delay on replying.

Melimelo did check with her bee guru .. and we would definitely be interested in 2 colonies from you .. both with laying queen if possible, if not one with a laying one, and one with a virgin.

We have the hives and all so please give us a shout if you still have some available.

Thanks,
Camile

sir. porky · Joined: 21 Jun 2007 Posts: 59 Location: west of Ireland

Hi camile,
we will book you in for some bees as soon as we have some spare, at the moment we have not been able to open any hives due to the cold wet weather so i,m not sure how they are getting on at this moment in time but will let you know as soon as i see queen cells. In the mean time please get your hives ready with clean drawn out wax or better still new wax foundation and everything clean and ready to go, if you don,t know why your bees died please sterilise everything.
sir. porky