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cLUSTERS

6/11/2017

Have your bees gone into cluster or are they still flying?

AND

How could you tell the difference.

Michael Hughes

do WE nEED TO dEVELOP a qUESTIONS PAGE FOR PROSpectIVE and cURRENt mEMBERS?

A chairde,

I am myself a prospective customer/member of the Irish Beekeeping Association. I'm proposing here that I would volunteer to take genuine questions from other prospective members; edit and moderate the questions given, and pose them to board meetings in a time-limited slot. If this is a step too soon then let me know too!

Le dea-mhéin,
Gearóid Ó Fathaigh

7 Comments

Jacqui Glisson

7/11/2017 16:54:04

Hi Gearóid,
Thank you for the offer and its a valid point to raise.

We are in the process of producing a FAQ fact sheet.
Its hard to anticipate exactly what the questions will be from members before one starts.
Its only once the questions come in can we have a discussion about the answers.
So far on the whole the questions seem to be around insurance, exams, and the magazine.
We will hopefully have answers on those issues in a few days after a board meeting.

If yourself or anyone else has specific questions that you would like presented to the board feel free to post them here.

Thanks again Gearóid

Gearóid Ó Fathaigh

7/11/2017 17:20:20

That's what I was hoping might be developed, thank you!

Gearóid Ó Fathaigh

8/11/2017 20:57:33

There's a gadget you can get which is a thermal imaging kit that attaches to your mobile phone camera - it's not cheap but it is cheaper than getting a thermal imaging camera itself; here's a link to Honey Bee Suite, an American beekeeping blog - https://honeybeesuite.com/tag/thermal-imaging/

Gearóid Ó Fathaigh

8/11/2017 20:59:10

It would come in really handy for dribbling oxalic acid as a varroa treament midwinter as you could know where exactly the colony was before you opened the roof!

Gearóid Ó Fathaigh

8/11/2017 21:19:09

Apparently in their original preferred cavity habitat, they usually had thick insulative walls or were even in temperature static caves; one way for the modern beekeeper to attempt to achieve a similar effect is to use polystyrene, especially for the brood box; or even the trick of modern cavity wall insulation cutoffs just under the roof.

Gearóid Ó Fathaigh

9/11/2017 14:49:48

The bees are flying and mad for the ivy still! Gorging themselves today the 9th of November. They're getting a start for the winter at any rate - good thing I have double-brood left to them for winter!

George Kingston

23/11/2017 10:49:20

A very simple method of telling whether there is brood in the brood box is to put your hand on the crown board to see if you can feel any warmth. For this to be successful you need to have the crown board insulated. The warmer it is the more brood there is, it also tells you where the bees are clustered. This is the poor man's version of a thermal imaging kit.

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cLUSTERS

do WE nEED TO dEVELOP a qUESTIONS PAGE FOR PROSpectIVE and cURRENt mEMBERS?

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Jacqui Glisson

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