Natural Beekeeping in West Wales

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Natural Beekeeping in West Wales
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Tavascarow

Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Posts: 8407
Location: South Cornwall

Posted: Fri Mar 25, 11 4:08 am Post subject:

gil wrote:

Doesn;t Tavascarow have Warres ? He's in Cornwall, though.

ETA : have you had a look at the Sticky at the top of the Apiary forum, 'videos on top-bar beekeeping' ?

Or are you really wanting a real-life bee-keeping 'mentor' in your area ?

No.
I'm in the process of converting to horizontal top bar hives & experimenting with running conventional national & commercial hives with top bars instead of frames (in a Warre style/method) but no Warres.
There is a dedicated Warre beekeeping
Yahoo group besides the Natural Beekeeping forum.
Finding a mentor is the hardest part, but will hopefully get easier, as these alternative beekeeping methods become more popular.

My advice would be to go it alone or recruit others to the cause & learn together, & not be afraid to ask questions online.

hedgerow.crafts

Joined: 21 Jun 2010
Posts: 22

Posted: Fri Mar 25, 11 6:38 am Post subject:
I was ideally looking for a real-life mentor. Given the amount of low impact happenings in this bit of Wales, I thought there was a chance there might be someone using Warre or similar around here! I have joined the yahoo group and will look at the other forum - then probably just go for it!

mochasidamo

Joined: 22 Sep 2005
Posts: 615
Location: Montgomery

Posted: Sat Mar 26, 11 10:49 am Post subject:

https://beekeeper.webs.com is our small-but-growing forum. You don't see sigs if you view as a guest.

I'm not sure about philosophy when it comes to beekeeping...eg. Steiner's beekeeping theories are so off from the reality of how a colony naturally works as to be embarrassing. If you get low-swarming non-aggressive locally-adapted bees to start with and your local drones are similar then you are off to a very lucky start.

The issue that seems to worry many about leave-alone Warre systems is the monitoring for brood diseases, varroa and no doubt small hive beetle soon. And who knows what after that

htbh can be operated similarly "hands off" and with an inspection window you could monitor quite well without even lifting the lid. There are also quite a lot of beekeepers who can offer some help on these hives (including Tavarascow and me). There are also loads of videos around and when you do look inside a tbh especially if you use inspection cloths the bees need hardly know you are there. Any system that uses vertical boxes is less manageable in that respect and squashing bees does upset them.

The bees like the htbh system. We have commercials too which we are moving to foundationless (yes, bees do take time to learn this), the bees are the same but those in the tbh more laid back in general and a puff of sugar or peppermint water depending on the time of year is all that's usually needed.

Mary-Jane

Joined: 13 Jan 2005
Posts: 18397
Location: The Fishing Strumpet is from Ceredigion in West Wales

Posted: Sat Mar 26, 11 12:32 pm Post subject:
There is a group locally to you/me/us h.c but I can't find the details of it at the mo. If you can give me a few days I'll try and dig them out. I don't think they do on-line stuff. I went on one of their basic day-long courses ages ago - it wasn't that far away. Now our scaffolding has finally been taken down, I'm hoping to get bees myself this year. Perhaps we could start our own group?

Cathryn

Joined: 16 Jul 2005
Posts: 19856
Location: Ceredigion

Posted: Sat Mar 26, 11 12:48 pm Post subject:
I'd be up for this. Trouble is you are not that local though.

earthsoul

Joined: 10 Feb 2011
Posts: 320
Location: Ceredigion West Wales

Posted: Sat Mar 26, 11 7:06 pm Post subject:
I am also interested and I am very local.......will pm you

georginasj

Joined: 09 Oct 2017
Posts: 3

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 17 2:05 pm Post subject:
I know this is a very old post but its the closest to what I am looking for. I have just done a warre bee keeping course and am hoping to start keeping bees in this way next year. And I would love to have a local mentor. I am on the west coast of Wales, between Aberaeron and Aberystwyth. Is there anyone nearby who can help me? Thank you!

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46192
Location: yes

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 17 6:22 pm Post subject:
hi and welcome , i cant help with the bee stuff but i think we still have beeks out west.

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 17 9:25 pm Post subject:
I've got jamanda to prod Cathryn who lives round there. Apparently she'll drop in on Friday and enlighten you. Welcome aboard.

georginasj

Joined: 09 Oct 2017
Posts: 3

Posted: Thu Oct 12, 17 11:59 am Post subject:

sean wrote:

I've got jamanda to prod Cathryn who lives round there. Apparently she'll drop in on Friday and enlighten you.

Welcome aboard.

Thank you! That is great

Cathryn

Joined: 16 Jul 2005
Posts: 19856
Location: Ceredigion

Posted: Tue Oct 24, 17 4:41 am Post subject:

Sorry, I was poked about this when I was away so it slipped my mind. There is a local Beekeeping Association that meets regularly in Aberystwyth. A very friendly and informed group of people who are always happy to mentor and help people get going. I haven't been for a year (Bees died this Spring.

) but there was someone with Warre's and some with topbars including me.

https://aberbees.co.uk/cms/

I will probably rejoin soon, see you there!

Tavascarow

Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Posts: 8407
Location: South Cornwall

Posted: Tue Oct 24, 17 11:36 am Post subject:

mochasidamo wrote:

The issue that seems to worry many about leave-alone Warre systems is the monitoring for brood diseases, varroa and no doubt small hive beetle soon. And who knows what after that

I've no experience with Warre hives yet, but one of the Warre beeks on the natural beekeeping forum has been inspected by his local bee inspector, he had no trouble inspecting.
I seem to recall he gave a glowing testament to the bees & the bee keeper.
One of the first signs of brood disease is smell (foul) which will indicate as well in a Warre if not better than in a more open commercial frame hive.
Also taking a box (or skep) of fixed comb & turning it over to inspect is less disturbing than removing frames.
If the bees are less disturbed & less defensive it's easier to inspect IMHO.
It's easy to see between upturned combs & spot abnormalities for an experienced inspector.
The problem with natural beekeeping is generally other peoples biases & ignorance of the facts IMHO.
The more I learn, the more I'm convinced I'm making the right choices for me & my bees.
If you look at the history of foul brood outbreak it's quite telling IMHO that major outbreaks happened just after frame hives became popular here & in the USA.
Swapping frames between hives & the ability to propagate through the creation of nuclei also made it a lot easier to transfer brood disease from hive to hive, apiary to apiary & farther.
The methods of traditional skep beekeeping insured infected colonies where destroyed as part of the normal management process.
Culling of weak (possibly infected) colonies was the norm.
Brood disease spread was very minimal.

georginasj

Joined: 09 Oct 2017
Posts: 3

Posted: Tue Oct 24, 17 3:48 pm Post subject:
Thank you! That is really helpful and great to know. Hopefully see you there Georgina

BeekGuy

Joined: 18 Jul 2024
Posts: 3

Posted: Thu Jul 18, 24 7:50 am Post subject: Re: Natural Beekeeping in West Wales

hedgerow.crafts wrote:

Hi. We are planning on getting our first bees this year and want to use Warre hives. ...

Is there anyone keeping bees in Warre hives near Drefach Felindre / Newcastle Emlyn who might be up for offering a bit of moral support to a complete beginner?

I know a handful of natural beeks in Wales. Most use Warres. PM me for contact details.

BeekGuy

Joined: 18 Jul 2024
Posts: 3

Posted: Thu Jul 18, 24 7:50 am Post subject: Re: Natural Beekeeping in West Wales

hedgerow.crafts wrote:

I know a handful of natural beeks in Wales. Most use Warres. PM me for contact details.

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