Can anyone here please give me some comparisons from their experience?
March - 5 colonies on 3 year old queens
4 on 1-3 seams, very weak
1 on 9 seams, good
In one season to have these do the following:
- average 140lb each
- re-queen all with colony-raised queens
- split each to give 10 colonies early July
- all splits and original colonies now at 15-24 seams full strength.
Other info: queen stock Ged Marshall; at 620 foot altitude, Buckinghamshire, no rape, mostly tree nectar, bean in July at 1 mile, 2.5 acres of immediate clover ley. Countryside, but not good bee country. Not moved to crops this year.
This is a serious question, not bragging. I have been using my type of hive for 5 years and this is perfectly normal for me, but I have no comparison trad beehive alongside and I need to some genuine feedback. Do others achieve this sort of result in conventional gear? How would it rank if you go this out of your apiary?
I am sure some can micro-manage this sort of result, but I have very low input. Inspect brood 4 times a year, they do not swarm (management trick) and use 50lb supers so a new box every other week or so. This 2020 season, above, was off the back of an experimental 2019 winter of no-feed and Ivy stores only (not recommended), so was poor. I have averaged 240lb in some years. Normally a split of a new queen in May or June will draw out 16 national brood frames, back- fill them and be ready to swarm again in 1 month. A June split will give 50lbs surplus good or bad year, excluding their stores.
So to me they seem pretty productive. If you can read the above and tell me if this is within your experience in generally available gear I will be able to gauge better what I have here, as a reference. And I am not selling them. This is research.
Many thanks.
Ted
March - 5 colonies on 3 year old queens
4 on 1-3 seams, very weak
1 on 9 seams, good
In one season to have these do the following:
- average 140lb each
- re-queen all with colony-raised queens
- split each to give 10 colonies early July
- all splits and original colonies now at 15-24 seams full strength.
Other info: queen stock Ged Marshall; at 620 foot altitude, Buckinghamshire, no rape, mostly tree nectar, bean in July at 1 mile, 2.5 acres of immediate clover ley. Countryside, but not good bee country. Not moved to crops this year.
This is a serious question, not bragging. I have been using my type of hive for 5 years and this is perfectly normal for me, but I have no comparison trad beehive alongside and I need to some genuine feedback. Do others achieve this sort of result in conventional gear? How would it rank if you go this out of your apiary?
I am sure some can micro-manage this sort of result, but I have very low input. Inspect brood 4 times a year, they do not swarm (management trick) and use 50lb supers so a new box every other week or so. This 2020 season, above, was off the back of an experimental 2019 winter of no-feed and Ivy stores only (not recommended), so was poor. I have averaged 240lb in some years. Normally a split of a new queen in May or June will draw out 16 national brood frames, back- fill them and be ready to swarm again in 1 month. A June split will give 50lbs surplus good or bad year, excluding their stores.
So to me they seem pretty productive. If you can read the above and tell me if this is within your experience in generally available gear I will be able to gauge better what I have here, as a reference. And I am not selling them. This is research.
Many thanks.
Ted