I have recently made the plunge into beekeeping. I started with a beginners beekeeping course in 2016. Although the course was a lot of fun I knew I could not get excited about keeping bees if I had to treat them with all sorts of chemicals. After doing some internet searching I found Solomon Parker's website and this forum. Since I thought the expansion model made sense for keeping bees I decided I was going to try a treatment free aproach. I have been learning a lot of stuff from the forum and I thought it was time to introduce myself.
I got excited during the course and bought two nucleus colonies in the fall. I got them through a beekeeper who is treatment free as well (Joost Peschier). They were fairly small but they made it through the winter with some feeding. They seem to be doing well so far. I have not yet made any splits as there were no signs of swarming, but I am planning to so later this season.
As for methods I decided it would be useful to have a uniform size frame and I have gone for a foundationless aproach. Luckily my bees have been following the guides in my frames
. I ended up going with a warre hive with frames. It seemed fairly easy to construct and I thought I might want to try top-bar in the future and this way I would already have the equipment. I also though having a quilt and the warre roof might be helpful.I guess that's about it. If anyone has any questions please go ahead and ask!
Greetings from the Netherlands
Mark
