Texas Beekeepers want to visit Greek and Hungarian Beekeepers

Hello!  My husband and I will be in Greece and Hungary in August, September and October this year and would like to meet some beekeepers. We would like to see how you keep your bees, share some ideas and maybe a beer, make friends.  We will be on Corfu and Paxos, as well as in  Zagoria and everything between Ionnina and Arta area.  In Hungary, we will be everywhere west and north of Budapest.  Is there anyone on this forum who would like to meet with us?

Hello from Athens. Can you send me your email address or your Facebook ?

Beekeepers in all the world...

UNITE!!!

Unfortunately I'm a little out of your route but still: Wellcome!

Welcome JodiBee, welcome to our forum. Unfortunately I'm living in south of Greece in island named Crete. I hope to find someone here to meet when you are gonna visit our country.

I have joined as a member so that I can share my contact information with you. My email is lucinda.d@cheerful.com. I hope that we are able to meet some day. This is our second trip to Greece. We visited once before for 7 weeks, including Crete, Athens, Kalambaka, Skopelos, Skiathos, and all around Peloponese. We are in love with Greece and the Greek people!

My husband and I have only 12 hives. We lost one earlier this year during swarming. This is a bad year for honey production in my area (South Central Texas). We had an early Spring with the trees and flowers blooming in February before the bees had increased their numbers. Then the blooms stopped when they were at peak population. Many beeks are having to feed their bees to prevent starvation. Usually we harvest in May or June but many beeks are not able to harvest this year or they are taking very little. We are putting robber screens on the hives to prevent the stronger colonies from robbing the weaker ones.

JodiBee έγραψε:

 We are putting robber screens on the hives to prevent the stronger colonies from robbing the weaker ones.  

Dear colleagues what do you mean with the phrase "robber screens"?
Have you any photo of this one?

thanks

milmos this is a typical robber screen. JodiBee we usually reduce the hive entrance or we remove the weak hives to another bee yard.


https://i.servimg.com/u/f11/19/61/72/18/image11.jpg

monarchis έγραψε:

milmos this is a typical robber screen. JodiBee we usually reduce the hive entrance or we remove the weak hives to another bee yard.

Από πού μπαίνουν οι μέλισσες?
Από πάνω που βλέπω ένα κενό?

Ναι milmos.

Monarchis,  yes we also reduce the entrance in addition to placing the robber screen.  Many of my beek friends don't have another location to move them too.  We usually keep them on our own property. We get a discount on our property tax because beekeeping is considered agricultural use so many beekeepers have the bees for that reason.  Plus there are many feral bees living in our area and they will take advantage of the hives no matter where they are located.  We have a long dearth.  The mesquite trees are blooming right now but not a lot else.  The mesquite tree is a "trash tree" that is invasive but the bees love it so we need it.  

Milmos, yes as you noted, there is a gap at the top of the robber screen which allows the resident bees to enter and leave.  When the screen is put there during the night, the field bees find the way out when they leave to forage the next day and then they know how to get back in.  But any bees who don't live there will only follow the scent of the honey and will simply bump into the screen over and over in front of the normal entrance.  The picture that Monarchis posted is one design, but there are other designs as well.

Dear Lucinda you can also sent p.m. (π.μ. second button down left) to our members in order to exchange phone numbers ect in private.


Note that many young people in Greece have found owning a few beehives rewarding, thus if you take a drive in the country side you will find many amateur beekeepers. It will be also worth it to look up some traditional beehives ect at local folk art museums since Greece has a long tradition in beekeeping.


I hope you manage to meet some of our beekeepers and looking forward to reading/receiving news from your stay in Greece.
 
Best wishes from Melissologia H.B.F.