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wayland · Joined: 14 Dec 2006 Posts: 1163 Location: Campile. Wexford

Talking to the local Bee keepers it would seem that 30 lbs is the average with some hives yealding none at all. A few colonies have been lost with that vanishing bee syndrome. I was saddened to hear this as I had lost colonies to this in the UK, and hoped that Ireland was clear of the problem. Have any of you guys had this problem?. The so called killer wasps were about in the UK. They are a north european species but recently moved further north. The differance can be clearly seen if you see the native and the new side by side as the black stripes are much wider in the newcommer. To call them killer is a little drematic IMHO. They are more aggressive and kill the local wasps and would kill a large number of bees before they are themselves killed, so the trick is to get strong colonies and work hard to protect the weaker ones. I shall be back into bees next year as a dear old lady bee keeper has asked me to deal with her swarms Very Happy

. Well done Mel. Good luck next year.

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Camile · Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2008 8:27 pm Post subject:

Bonsoir Quarryman,

Thanks for the comments ...

Indeed you have seen the 4 x supers on the one hive ... and it's true that I am a messy gardener, so I have all the weeds and all going to flower .. so the bees wouldn't have a hungry gap whatsoever I think ...

as for the wasps, we didn't check the hive again ... but none are flying inside or around .. so I think they might be all dead by now .. so with a bit of luck the bees will be fine ..

and Melanie was indeed exterminating them .. and the bees were fighting them off too ..

with a bit of luck we shalll have 2 hives next year because the beekeepers association is organising a winter workshop on how to make one ..

Happy days,
Camile