hey any bee enthusiasts out there

[TelfTheElf]

Hi Barbara
I'm nearer Middlesbrough than Newcastle in a little village called Seamer.
I got my bees from Bill Bates ( a really cool chap down the road from us) and he has done bees for years and years. He imports queens from Slovenia every three years to keep his strain pure and i was lucky to get one of the pure queens. He only does Carniolan bees and his hives and a 'buzz' of energy all the time. I put a super on about a month and a half ago and they are already starting to draw it out. My bees are only 6 or 7 months old and Bill says they are doing really well. yep...I hope so to!!!

 

[rebrascora]

It is sad that bees are still being imported like this. I understand that you are excited about your Carniolans but shipping bees around the world is how varroa etc were spread and has a significant impact on the local bee populations.

I have supplied a few swarms to people in the Cleveland area.... Yarm and Seaton Carew. The recipients are into Natural Beekeeping, which is something I am quite passionate about. They are using Top Bar hives. I have a mixture of British Nationals and Top Bar hives.
If your bees don't manage to fill that super with honey and it is late in the season now for them to do so, you would be well advised to remove it before winter..... I don't know if you have someone mentoring you..... but empty space above the brood nest can kill a colony as their cluster heat rises into the space above and they have to work twice as hard to keep warm. If there is honey above them, the heat is transferred to the honey but if there is just drawn comb the heat is dispersed and lost.

Do you have your bees in your garden or an out apiary? Being able to watch them every day is a big bonus in my experience. I can see them flying from my kitchen window but I check each hive's activity when I leave the house. My main Top Bar Hives have full length observation windows which are a huge bonus. I can open the shutter and see how they are doing summer or winter, without disturbing them.