Over the years my blog has led to many unexpected opportunities and serendipitous meetings. This has happened yet again since moving to Cornwall – the editor of Cornwall Today came across my blog and now I feature in this month’s issue.
Cornwall Today – Full PDF article
I’m hopefully getting closer to having bees again – Drew and I have been discussing the best place to keep bees in our back garden, which is a little awkwardly shaped and also north facing. He has kindly offered to build me a hive stand. The going rate locally for a nucleus hive seems to be around £200, which is a little eye-watering as I’ve never had to buy bees from a supplier in the past. When I do get them I shall be looking to do a split as soon as they create queen cells – I have no intention of buying bees more than once.
Adventuresinbeeland's Blog 
Regarding serendipitous: We live in The Netherlands, we do have a Dutch nephew who lives in Truro. Visiting him in December 2014 we also went to the Farmers Market at Truro Plazza. There I had a most exciting and totally serendipitous meeting with Rodger Dewhurst he had a honey stall there. We got talking and it was an amazing experience. I know if I lived where you do he would be my first port of call. If you can get bees bred by him they probably are worth every farthing of your money. Best of luck
https://theecologist.org/2010/oct/22/photo-gallery-breeding-bees-resistant-varroa-mite
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I might have missed a post or something, but what happened to the bees you did have?
Is moving them not an option because relocating them puts the hive in jeopardy? I can see where a new environment might be stressful, but isn’t it also stressful for the ones you might buy?
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Emma is still looking after our old bees in Ealing. It’s about a six hour drive – small by USA commercial beekeeping standards – however I’m still learning to drive and it would be a big ask for Drew. Would any non-beekeeper want to work all week then spend their weekend doing a twelve hour round driving trip – six hours of that being motorway driving in a small car with a hive of bees in the back? I don’t want to put either Drew or the bees through that! Better to start here with local bees accustomed to Cornwall’s wetter climate I think. The journey home for the local bees would be an hour max.
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Thanks very much Lindy, I shall take a look into getting the bees from Rodger 🙂
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Bait hive … there’s a sufficient density (numbers per square mile, not a comment on their intelligent use of swarm prevention) of beekeepers in Devon you cannot fail to attract a swarm. They might not be Varroa-resistant, but it would be a start.
Good luck.
PS Don’t worry about the North facing … our association met this evening and the biggest UK commercial beekeeper said it didn’t matter which way the hives face 😉
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Thanks, I’ll have a think about setting up a bait hive. Interesting about hive direction. What about shadiness though? I saw in the Ealing apiary that the hives which got more sunlight tended to do better. Our back garden is pretty shady.
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Very nice! Just FYI, the image does not actually link to anything – did you intend to link to the story or a larger image? I couldn’t seem to find the article on the web site – perhaps it is not online?
It’s a shame you can’t take a split from your old hives. Much cheaper way to go. Nucs in the U.S. seem to run around $175 or more this year. Not cheap to start off new. Good Luck!
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Sorry, I tried to add it as a pdf last night but couldn’t get it to work at the time. Web editing fail! This should work now: https://adventuresinbeeland.files.wordpress.com/2018/02/moving-story-feb-181.pdf
So $175 would be cheaper than here, but like you say, not cheap!
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Look forward to see you tend your hive and read about it again.
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Thanks 🙂
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Fame at last!
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“Fame” 🙂
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Great news that you can manage a hive in your new garden! I agree with LindyLou that if you could get a nucleus from a hive of a varroa resistant strain it would be a good start. We had hoped to breed from our very clean hive but when it requeened it was not as clean. Conversely, the hive that had higher numbers of varroa the previous year was cleaner this year. All treated the same way. Amelia
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Thank you Amelia. Frustrating about the clean hive changing character. I think this is the challenge with buying varroa resistant bees, unless you can do artificial insemination or are prepared to buy a new queen each time inevitably outside drone influence comes in.
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Emily. It is nice to hear you are now well settled in your new home. As for bees, last April Amelia and I collected ten swarms, that we gave away. I can always keep one swarm for you. BUT you must come and collect (and a spend a few days with us).
All the best
Kourosh
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Spend a few days… sounds divine! But it is a little way to bring the bees back. You don’t do delivery? 😉
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Is there a local beekeeping group near you? Someone may have a swarm or nucleus to spare this year.
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There is and I’ve joined – unfortunately they meet on a Tuesday evening when I don’t have a babysitter.
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That is unfortunate, at least you have made contact, you never know a swam may still come your way.
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Ah yes, saffron buns!!
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Well done for settling in.
I’d get the swarm lures up from early March. You never know!
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Thanks! I bet swarms can be earlier than usual down here as it’s so warm.
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