And finally ...
After lunch we headed back over to Green Lane and added a super to the colony over there - mainly to give it space. Maybe they saw me coming and remembered me from yesterday as I came away with a sting in my thumb - not my weekend for avoiding stings it seems as I managed to get stung on my cheek, neck and legs yesterday.
Then over to The Rectory. where we saw the queen (marked blue - 2010), three frames of brood and low varroa. Must remember to take a few spare super frames next time we go. There's a super on the hive but a second one above the crown board just with 7 frames containing a little stores that they bees are cleaning up. They may well need that too in due course.
Posted by Sally on Sunday 13 May 2012 - 23:27:28 |
Another sunny day
We headed over to The Hill first thing. We had shook swarmed the colony over there not long before the weather had turned. We had left syrup on the hive to help them draw out comb but they hadn't taken all of it so we removed the feeder - it was showing signs of fermentation. It's quite a small colony with just one frame of brood. The super we had left on was empty so we removed it but have added a couple of patties of cappings as they don't have a lot of stores.
Then over to Little Piece. Last visit we had shook swarmed colony 2 and had left them with a super with stores above the crown board to be sure they had the wherewithall to draw comb. Well, bees will do pretty much as they please and we found the colony had moved itself up into the super. We saw the queen, who had laid well across 8 of the super frames. We have removed the crown board in the hope that the queen will go down into the brood box but have left the half brood also in place. There are a couple of frames already drawn in the brood box so hopefully the queen will be tempted down. We also added a tub of cappings as a feed.
Then, colony 4. Three good frames of brood and stores in the super. The super we had put above the crown board to clean seemed to be in use so we have moved the crown board up so this colony has two supers.
We've put varroa board in both colonies at Little Piece - it seems as though varroa is under control but we will check again as we may want to pass on these colonies.
Posted by Sally on Sunday 13 May 2012 - 18:14:33 |
Finally - the weather is clear for beekeeping
We just hadn't managed to get over to Green Lane to inspect the colony this season. We tried on a couple of occasions late March but it was just too cold or windy and with the rain we have had through April, we have had to leave all the bees to their own devices. We need not have worried about this colony though. It has done exceptionally well. It was a strong colony going into Winter, with plenty of its own stores left on to over-Winter. The colony was left on a double brood and the queen is now laying on 6 frames in the lower box and 7 in the upper, plus a further 5 half frames in the super above. They need another super, if only for space, and we'll pop back tomorrow with one if we can.
David stimmed the whole of the apairy so we can now see to reorganise and sort the site as we may want to bring further colonies to this apiary soon.
Whilst David strimmed, I sorted the two vacant hives and have cut out all the was from the old frames - at least what the wax moth hadn't already sorted. After flaming the hive parts, I put the empty frames back and have left as bait hives.
Posted by Sally on Saturday 12 May 2012 - 18:33:16 |
Swarming season may be upon us ...
Lots of bees around in the garden - there seems to be a swarm somewhere in the village (not from our hives though!). So, multiple bait hives and skeps both on our flat roof and up the garden but the bees seem to like best the cardboard box containing frames.
Posted by Sally on Saturday 12 May 2012 - 14:04:30 |
Weather continues wet and the bait hive remains empty
Not that we want any more colonies but it is good to have a bait hive around should our own or other nearby apiaries have colonies set on swarming. After a beautiful day yesterday, the rain returned today ... and on it goes.
Posted by Sally on Wednesday 09 May 2012 - 17:49:54 |
A sunny break
Well the weather has just not been good for the bees. With the amount of rain we have had over the last few weeks, and the chill wind, they have clearly been relying on their stores to get them through. We looked through the garden colonies today - the sun was shining and the air was warm so we thought it would be worthwhile. Colony 2 has a long and vertical nest, leaving the lower brood box to what drone brood remains to hatch and concentrating not only on the upper brood but also the two half broods above! Varroa is high so we have sacrificed two brood size and two super sized frames of drone brood. 5 full frames and 8 super frames of brood remain throughout. We added a super to clean above the crown board and have also added a QX above the second half brood as we found the queen in the very top box!
Colony 4 is very small and on only two frames of brood. They have cleaned up the wet supers and we removed those and added a new one for them. I need to see if we have any drawn frames as this colony could do with a little help to get them properly started, especially if the weather stays dull and wet.
Posted by Sally on Tuesday 08 May 2012 - 17:53:46 |
Bait hive
With the weather set to continue cold and damp it is unlikely the bees will swarm - they will be more concerned with consuming their stores. They are likely to act as soon as the weather changes though and as we plan to have some time away, David has set up a bait hive on our flat roof. Better to provide them with somewhere to go rather than nearby tall trees and chimneys, especially if we are not around to retrieve them.
Posted by Sally on Tuesday 24 April 2012 - 18:44:00 |
Garden bees building up well
We were a little unsure about opening up the bees today. The sun was shining but there was a chill in the air. Up in the apiary though, where there is some protection from a chill wind, it warmed up over lunchtime and we decided to take a look. David had put colony 2 on a double brood a few weeks back and they have drawn out all but one side of the new frames. There's quite a lot of drone brood being laid and there were some semi-serious queen cells too. There is a good spread of brood on 13 frames across the nest and the super is getting quite heavy with quite a few frames of sealed stores. We haven't got a QX on this colony and there were eggs in a few of the super frames too. We've added another super and also one to clean above the crown board. The varroa board is now in so we'll do a check as we think we will need to address the varroa soon and, now that the colony is on a double brood, our plan is to do an aritificial swarm as early as the weather allows.
Posted by Sally on Sunday 15 April 2012 - 20:21:37 |
Sorting wax
We've got a lot of frames to sort and melt down wax and as our solar wax extractor has fallen apart over the Winter, I've been trying to sort without it. An invvestment in a dustbin has helped so I've got redundant frames with open stores in there until we can replace the extractor, and I've got a box of dry old brood frames in the bee shed. Yesterday afternoon, though, I went through a lot of frames with cleanish but messy wax and cut it all out. So, last night and this morning I've been melting and cleaning wax. Hopefully that has freed up a fair amount of space in the bee shed!
Posted by Sally on Monday 09 April 2012 - 12:38:49 |
Little Piece
The temperature rose enough during the morning in the sunshine to enable us to complete our tasks at Little Piece. At the very least we wanted to remove the bait frame from hive 4 but it seemed quite warm at the coast.
We opened up hive 4 first and saw the dark queen who was laying on 3 frames. We removed the bait frame we had left so that leaves them with 2 frames of brood. Wing damage is still visible so it's good that we managed to get the shook swarm done when we could. They've got a super on the colony and we added another to clean above the crown board, scoring any sealed stores so that they can use whatever is there.
As it was staying warm, we decided to shook swarm colony 2. Again, we could see wing damage in this colony. We saw the queen, a dark queen with pale on her underside. She was laying on 3 brood brames and 3 super frames so we have put the colony onto new comb with one half frame with open brood as a bait. Some of it was sealed so we will need to get back in a week to remove. We've also left a super above the crown board for them to clean.
We've put a clearer below the supers on the colony which died out. It is being robbed but there is very little in the brood and we will remove the supers next time. That'll give me chance to sort them as we want all our super frames on narrow ends this year.
Then, back home we put an extra super to clean on G4. That should keep them busy when the rain starts ...
Posted by Sally on Sunday 08 April 2012 - 17:22:33 |