Episode 110: Swarms, Bee Vacs and Cold Weather

Welcome to Episode 110 of my podcast Beekeeping Short and sweet. What an interesting week, swarm call outs, a climb onto a roof to vacuum an unwelcome colony and a sudden blast of cold air to slow everything down.CHECK OUT MY LATEST PODCAST HEREI’m grateful to Honey Paw hives for sponsoring in part our podcasts for this season. Honey Paw hives are, as I’m sure you’re aware, Poly Langstroth hives and we’re setting up an apiary full of their hives this season courtesy of Honey Paw. Check out their range of hives and other equipment on their website, I’ll leave a link to their website in the show notes as usual.Honey Paw Hives - Designed by Beekeepers, For Beekeepers.Well, what a week that was, I’ve done a few interesting swarm collections in my time but this past week provided a first for me using Pete’s patented Bee Vacuum. I say patented, it’s not but it had the feel of one of those Wiley Coyote Acme DIY bits of kit, destined to blow up in your face. It didn’t quite do that but we had some fun with it.I’ve also collected a swarm from a compost bin and been confronted by a sudden blast of cold air from the north which really put the brakes on things last weekend. By the time you get to listen to this we could be through the worst of the cold and heading back up to Bermuda Shorts and Hawaiian shirts temperatures!I’ve also got some exciting news to share that has me working overtime this week so do stay tuned to hear all about that.I don’t know about everyone else, but for me, at this time of year the weeks just seem to mould into one continuous routine of inspections and working on preparing for the next week of beekeeping, I do very often lose track of what day of the week it is, luckily I have the weekly routine of the Friday podcast posting to keep me on track. I appreciate it’s not the longest of podcasts but sitting down in front of the computer and putting out a weekly beekeeping comment is something I’m quite proud of, especially as I’ve now hit 110 podcasts.So last week saw the first of the swarm call outs, I don’t normally go out to collect swarms, at least not any more. It was something I was desperate to do in the earlier days of my beekeeping career, wanting to get out there and climb trees, fall through hedgerows, clamber across garden shed roofs all with the desire to collect that swarm. You see, I wanted to increase my stock of bees as quickly as I could, little did I realise just how quickly it would increase, there were swarms everywhere it seemed.If you are looking to increase the stock levels you have then swarm collection is a great way to do it and if you have the time, it can be great fun............................. Well, that’s it for this week, have a great beekeeping week, I almost forgot to mention the exciting news I have for you all, but  I think I’ll save that for next week, I have a busy weekend ahead of me and I’ll give you a full round-up of what I’m up to next week.Stay safe and Please do remember to check out my Patreon page where you can access lots more content, that’s www.patreon.com/norfolk honey.I’m Stewart Spinks and that was Beekeeping Short and Sweet.Support the show