More nucs
Well we should have known.
Both colonies at Green Lane had shown signs of swarming at each inspection and colony 2 was probably only a little behind 1 from which we created a nuc last week.
Not unexpectedly, when we opened up colony 2 we found numerous queen cells, sealed and unsealed, across the two broods. We do have a bait hive in the near vacinity but we clearly had to take action.
There were a total of 14 frames of brood so we first created a nuc in one of our travelling boxes with the queen and five frames with brood in all stages and some stores - with queen cells removed of course! We took that over to our new apiary - Little Piece - and hived it together with a couple of additional frames with starter strips.
Then we made up another 5 frame nuc with some sealed and unsealed queen cells in the hopes that we will raise a new queen. We brought it home in a travelling box and hived it in the garden with a couple of additional frames, one with full foundation and the other with a starter strip.
The original colony has been left to raise a new queen too.
Even with this three-way split each colony seems to have a good number of bees so lets hope they do what they are meant to and we end up with two additional colonies. That makes a grand total of 14!
Posted by Sally on Sunday 07 June 2009 - 23:35:26 |
The May swarm - first inspection
We gave all starter strips rather than full foundation to the swarm collected end of May and they're drawing out the frames very nicely right across the brood. We saw the queen and eggs and she is laying across 6 of the frames. Very nice. We didn't mark her on this occasion but will probably do so next time we see her.
Probably a bit low on stores so we had thought we would feed this evening but, as we inspected hive 1 at the Rectory and found that it was doing really well and building up stores, we took out a brood frame with unsealed stores and gave it to hive 2 (the swarm).
A nice couple of colonies there.
Posted by Sally on Sunday 07 June 2009 - 22:05:06 |
A new out-apiary
We had thought we'd move hive 4 from the garden to the new out-apiary once it was set up and we went through that colony today with that in mind. It's certainly in need of space and we wondered if we'd have the same situation as the hive at Green Lane from which we created a nuc. But then, it would be easier to move a smaller colony, especially as that one already has a super on it.
Well, in the end, and following an inspection, we decided to move the nuc instead. We had to remove the QX from beneath the brood box anyway and it needed additional frames so we put it into a national body and prepared it for the move.
Then this evening we took it over to "Little Piece", our new apiary by the sea - very nicely strimmed and the site prepared by David on Saturday and today. With the extra couple of frames, they've got a bit more space in the brood box although we will probably add a super soon.
We'll still need to move some of our other hives from the garden but that's a task for another day!
Posted by Sally on Friday 05 June 2009 - 23:04:00 |
And now we are 12 ...
We went through hives 2 and 3 in the garden today and yes, queen cells abound.
We knew that hive 3 could be running short of space and had only delayed adding a brood box because we wanted to move it. Well, the bees always seem to have the upper hand don't they. There were 8 or 9 queen cells and 9 frames of brood in one WBC brood box of 10. We wondered about making up a nuc to raise a queen but as we saw the queen on one frame, we decided to move that (with queen cell removed of course!) plus four other frames with brood in all stages and stores into our nuc box.
That box is now over at Green Lane (well over 3 miles away) - our twelfth colony.
Colony 2 in the garden is already on 8 frames of brood so we haven't delayed with that one and have added a brood box with a mixture of full foundation, starter strips and part drawn comb.
Posted by Sally on Thursday 04 June 2009 - 19:29:28 |
Productive colony
David had a look at colony 1 today. She's on 14 frames in a double brood now - doing nicely. A bit flighty that hive but lots of bees, very productive and a lovely laying pattern. Only play cups so far so hopefully they'll concentrate on making more honey!
Posted by Sally on Monday 01 June 2009 - 15:20:42 |
First swarm of the year ...
Almost at the end of May and we have our first swarm of the year.
Some pictures will follow of our collection and also the "walking into the hive" during the evening when we hived the swarm over at The Rectory.
Thanks for the call Shane.
Posted by Sally on Saturday 30 May 2009 - 23:17:00 |
And another one
We visited our two hives over at Green Lane today and, as expected, they've been busy and there are queen cells.
This time we had gone prepared! We had our two travelling boxes ready in case we needed to make up nucs. And we remembered to take the queen excluder with us so that we could add a super to hive 2.
Hive 1 had brood across 14 frames in the two brood boxes and we had obviously missed some queen cells in the last inspection as there were 3 sealed queen cells plus a few others that looked very close. We saw the queen so decided to remove her along with 5 frames with a range of brood in all stages plus some stores and replaced those 5 frames with foundation. We came away wondering if we should have removed some of the queen cells. There is a risk they could still swarm if more than one queen hatched out but we have decided to set up a bait hive as soon as possible in the near vicinity.
The nuc we brought home and have set up in a WBC hive in the garden. We placed a QX under the brood box "just in case" so that the queen won't abscond. We'll remove it when we do an inspection.
Hive 2 had also produced lots of queen cells and has brood on 13 frames in two brood boxes. No queen cells were capped and, as we saw the queen and eggs, we removed all queen cells. We added a queen excluder and super so hopefully she will realise she has enough space now - but we'll see.
Posted by Sally on Friday 29 May 2009 - 20:08:37 |
New queen laying nicely
We checked our hives 3 and 4 in the garden today and all looks good.
The new queen in hive 5 has a good pattern of brood, nicely capped and it is across 8 frames in the two brood boxes. We've added varroa traps to both boxes to manage the varroa (count is running at less than 7 a day right now). Lots of stores in the brood boxes and one of the supers is half full too.
The original qeen in hive 4 is also on 8 and we've delayed putting a second brood box on as we plan to move across to our new apiary so we'll need to make sure we give her room soon.
Posted by Sally on Friday 29 May 2009 - 15:45:21 |
David has a new toy!
This could mean our path through the stinging nettles at The Rectory can be eased.
Posted by Sally on Friday 29 May 2009 - 00:11:48 |
Weekly inspections
All seems to be progressing well. I went through hives 2 and 3 in the garden earlier this week and David and I visited The Hill and The Rectory today.
We plan to move hive 3 to our new Apiary by the sea so, although it's just about ready to go on a double brood, I left that so that it'll be easier to move. We'll try to do that soon ...
The colony on The Hill is taking time to get going after a shook swarm. It is a bit exposed over there but really she just seems to be confining herself to three frames as she just doesn't have enough bees to expand further. That colony seems to have enough stores now though so let's hope it builds up soon.
And we really have to tidy up the colony at The Rectory. That was the one that came from Devon end of last season and when we found the queen a few weeks back, we put her into the single brood box with some new frames. Well the super that she had laid in is now almost empty of brood - just a few drone cells to hatch - and they are pretty well bypassing that box. They are filling the other two supers though - one is being capped nicely so we might even get some honey for ourselves!
Posted by Sally on Thursday 28 May 2009 - 22:58:26 |