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Read Apiaries
Welcome to Read Apiaries. Our hives are situated in Church Crookham, Dogmserfield and Crookham Park.
Like most UK beekeepers (there’s about 44,000 of us) I keep Honey Bees
Another busy day beekeeping. Just in case anyone happens to think it’s a case of just collecting the honey…here’s a summary of tasks I did today to ensure the colonies remain productive and ready for the summer flow in July. This is was just for colonies in ONE of our Apiaries. The other two Apiaries will be visited later in the week…![]()
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*Hive 1*![]()
April – Tried to swarm, I split and kept old queen safely nearby. Left a queen cell for a new queen to emerge and mate. She failed to mate and return to the colony (eaten by a bird or weather?). ![]()
May/Today – On inspection, colony has no queen and is doomed. United with the original queen and her bees. Fingers crossed the unite works. ![]()
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*Hive 3*![]()
April – Tried to swarm, I split and kept old queen![]()
May/Today – new Queen present, but laying pattern doesn’t look good. Will check again on next inspection.![]()
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*Hive 5*![]()
Earlier in May – Old queen was failing. United with another colony along with a new Queen. ![]()
May/Today – A strong colony now, queen laying OK. ![]()
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*Hive 6*![]()
May/Today – Colony has a queen, and seems to be stable![]()
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*Hive 9*![]()
April – Tried to swarm, I split and kept old queen![]()
May/Today – new Queen present, but laying pattern doesn’t look good. Remove Queen (she’s temporarily being looked after in a cage in a smaller hive at my house). United with the original queen and her bees. Fingers crossed the unite works.![]()
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*Nuc*![]()
Kept a queen cell in a small nuc (colony), they should raise a new Queen – a bit of insurance in case any of the above doesn’t work! ![]()
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The colonies on this site produced a decent Spring crop, but for some reason the Queens raised in April have failed or didn’t mate well. Not sure why.
It’s ready! Spring Flower 2025 crop is now available! Same price as last year.