January 2019
By Dafydd Pett
Pant Derwen Apiary
Welcome to a look into Pant Derwen Apiarys January 2019. Christmas had gone too fast and it was time for us to get back to work in the apiary. Its been a busy month on the apiary with lots of jobs needed to be done in a short amount of time. We kick-started the year with cutting out old wax from the frames giving the bees fresh wax.
In the photo above we are putting wax into a steam wax melter. This heats up the wax and lets it strain through the filter leaving us with clean wax to be sold.
We then had to boil down the frames removing any excess wax.
Our next job of the month was to put insulation on all of the hives. We have never put insulation on the hives however we believe that this can give the bees an advantage as not as much heat is lost. We bought three sheets of 50mm insulation at a good price from our local builder's merchants and got straight to work cutting the insulation up into the right size. Of course, the next job on the list is applying the insulation to all hives and nucleus.
During a visit to the apiary to check on the hive stores, my dad clocked a tree limb that looked dead and was overhanging a hive. We got the rope out of the van and we took the limb down easily. If we didn't take it down then it would have easily flattened a hive. That was a close call.
Unfortunately, not all of the beekeeping is fun. I'm sure that many other beekeepers can agree that opening a hive and finding it dead is the worst part of beekeeping. In this case, we went to check on our hives when we discovered a mouse has killed a large colony.
One major problem that we face in our apiary is the lack of storage. During the winter we store all supers indoors which takes up a large amount of room. We installed new shelves to maximise the space that we have. While we were rummaging through the boxes, we decided to look through to find any boxes that need repair.
To mark the end of the month, we paid a visit to a bee farmer in Monmouth. Gareth showed us around his apiarys and also his extraction and processing facility. Unfortunately, we haven't got the equipment like Gareth but at least it's something to work towards!
Finally, check this video out of founder of Pant Derwen Apiary, Mike Pett in 2014.
One major problem that we face in our apiary is the lack of storage. During the winter we store all supers indoors which takes up a large amount of room. We installed new shelves to maximise the space that we have. While we were rummaging through the boxes, we decided to look through to find any boxes that need repair.
To mark the end of the month, we paid a visit to a bee farmer in Monmouth. Gareth showed us around his apiarys and also his extraction and processing facility. Unfortunately, we haven't got the equipment like Gareth but at least it's something to work towards!
Finally, check this video out of founder of Pant Derwen Apiary, Mike Pett in 2014.
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