And the lesson for today is ...
I was sure we hadn't forgotten anything. We remembered to put an extra super in the car when we headed over to Green Lane today and we had the travel boxes and extra frames just in case we needed to make up a nuc. What was it we said last week? Always check the notes before leaving the house incase something is needed. Well, if we had done that, not only would we have remembered the queen excluder but we might also have remembered the notes themselves! Luckily we had a note pad in the car!
Posted by Sally on Saturday 23 May 2009 - 22:02:00 |
A new queen ... and she's green
Well today we continued our inspections going through hives 1, 4 and 5 in the garden and also added some feed to the colony on the hill. I'm pleased to report all looks well. David went through hive 1 and the queen is going great guns returning to lay in the frames in the bottom brood box. They're starting to draw the frames in the top brood so we hope she will go up soon and expand her nest. Then I went through hive four - didn't see the queen but she continues to lay in a good pattern.
We both went through our new colony 5 - that was the one where we did an artifical swarm from hive 4. We removed the bait frame which we hope will have trapped a good proportion of varroa and continued our inspection, hoping to see evidence that a new queen had been raised. Well clearly she emerged and mated as there were remains of queen cells and brood of all ages - even some just capped. We have left the two brood boxes - she is laying in both and were delighted to find her in the top brood box and have now marked her green ... our first new queen of the season.
Posted by Sally on Wednesday 20 May 2009 - 22:51:35 |
After the rain ...
The weather had improved so today we were able to take a look at some of our hives.
David had an appointment this afternoon so I went through hives 2 and 3 in the garden - both doing nicely and building up after a shook swarm. I added supers to both so hopefully they will continue to build and I suspect that before long they'll both be on a double brood.
David and I both headed over to The Rectory, keen to see that all was well as we had abandoned our inspection due to rain last week. She's continuing to do well and we were reassured to see just some old queen cups.
We also managed a quick visit to The Hill to see how that colony was doing. That's the one that is taking a little time to build up but the location is somewhat exposed so I guess they have to work harder. She's still on three frames but they are pretty full but they seemed low on stores and there is still foundation to be drawn so we'll feed that colony later tonight or tomorrow.
Posted by Sally on Tuesday 19 May 2009 - 19:27:52 |
More signs of the swarming instinct
As we had seen and removed over twenty queen cells from our two new hives at Green Lane last week, we were keen to do an inspection as soon as possible. But the weather has been really wet. Evenings have been great - clear blue skies - but that's hardly the time to open up a hive. Most days have unfortunately been wet and windy with just the occasional short gap for sunshine. We saw a potential gap today and decided to try and get a look at the Green Lane apiary and The Rectory.
Well, we were right to suspect the two new hives of wanting to swarm. Not only did we remove a couple of dozen queen cups but several were primed and with eggs laid. None were capped so just in case we missed any (we were pretty thorough but we've missed them before!) we should be OK as long as we get another look within a week and hopefully the weather will improve. Both hives are now on a double brood so we'll see how we get on there. David did have to plug up some substantial gaps between the national brood boxes so we'll need to watch that - oh how different to the wonderful WBCs!
It would be a good idea to get a bait hive set up nearby so that's now on our to do list.
We tried to do an inspection at The Rectory but no sooner had we removed the super and queen excluder but the rain clouds began to unleash their load so we quickly put the hive back together and made a hasty retreat.
Posted by Sally on Saturday 16 May 2009 - 18:47:11 |
The shook swarms seem to have worked
Our reason for doing shook swarms was for one reason only: to reduce the level of varroa mites in the colonies. It is distressing to have to sacrifice all that early brood in the hope that they will make up the loss and be freer from the ravages of varroa and the increased possibility of other diseases it brings.
We did leave some varroa boards in after we did the shook swarms and didn't know what to expect. I was a bit disappointed that early readings weren't as low as I hoped and tried to believe that the mites dropping would decrease. Well yesterday we took readings for the last few days and we were delighted to find that there were hardly any mites at all. Fingers crossed!
Posted by David on Wednesday 13 May 2009 - 12:38:42 |
Pagden with a twist
Today was 21 days after we first started the process to artificially swarm hive 4 in our Garden Apiary and it was the first chance we have had to look through it since placing the queen on one of her frames plus all new frames and foundation. That frame was sacrificed a week later as it had been set as a varroa trap.
Well today we planned to remove two further frames and place those into hive 5 which houses the original colony from which the queen was removed. They would act as a varroa trap in the "new" colony which we hope has now raised a queen and who is perhaps embarking on her mating flights and will start to lay in the next week.
Well, when we looked through it was very difficult to find suitable frames. They were either already capped or filled with eggs. The idea is to find frames with larvae that haven't yet been capped which the varroa will go into and this point in time is just right because the new queen will not have started laying yet. We found one candidate and I had a quick check through colony 3 to see if I could see another suitable frame but in the end we decided to add just one frame from hive 4. Fingers crossed that's enough only we didn't want to risk adding eggs in case they decided to raise a new queen and started to get the urge to swarm. We'll remove that frame in eight days and it will be discarded, by which time we hope that both colonies will be viable and greatly reduced of varroa.
Posted by Sally on Tuesday 12 May 2009 - 23:02:13 |
A New Apiary - what are we thinking of?
It makes perfect and logical sense.
Honest!
Not only will it be wonderful to gaze across the hill to the sea whilst carrying out inspections but we will also be on hand for a cream tea afterwards. Oh, and it's over three miles away and gives us that extra flexibility to move bees from any one of our apiaries.
So, watch this space ... the Apiary by the Sea will be coming soon ...
Posted by Sally on Tuesday 12 May 2009 - 22:05:28 |
Garden checks
We've checked through the three colonies in the garden now - each of which are building up after a shook swarm.
Yesterday we went through hives 2 and 3. It was really good to see how they were going, particularly as the shook swarm on 3 was done on the same day as the one on The Hill but it is doing much better. It has double the brood but then it is in a much more sheltered situation. Colony 2 was shook a week later and even that has four frames of brood.
Today we looked at colony 1. We did that shook swarm just 20 days ago and it now has brood on 10 frames! The brood box has loads of brace comb too as we didn't had a dummy board so more lessons there! We've put her on a double brood and left the super on so let's see how she does. Colony 1 is probably a little more flighty than our other colonies but it certainly seems to know how to work.
Posted by Sally on Sunday 10 May 2009 - 23:22:00 |
Checking the out apiaries
We're learning to plan for our out-apiary visits now rather than leaving it to the last minute and dashing around to find the various bits of equipment that we need. Notes are great but much better consulted well in advance.
So, we actually did check through at the beginning of the week to see what needed to be done where. The weather forecast was a little uncertain so we knew we'd have to take the opportunities when they arose and made sure that brood boxes, supers, crown boards etc were at the ready.
Today we visited each of the out-apiaries ...
[ Read the rest ... ]
Posted by Sally on Thursday 07 May 2009 - 23:53:44 |
Better than we could have hoped
We hadn't looked at the bees at the Rectory for some time. We were a little worried as they had been a late swarm we supposed and had got off to a very slow start this spring. Sure they had very little varroa but they also had very few bees. To top it all we had not seen the queen since we moved them from their previous home in Devon.
Well we had a good look through them today and although we didn't see the queen, she has been a busy girl over the last few weeks. Our fears of laying workers (multiple eggs in some cells) have been replaced with thoughts that she just hadn't got going. She is laying beautifully now with an excellent pattern and healthy brood. Only trouble is that she is on a brood and a half and the half is wide spaced! So we have some sorting out to do! We have replaced some of the old frames with very dirty wax with fresh foundation so hopefully we can get them working down there and when we find the queen we can start to sort things out.
We also had a look through our new nucs at the Green Lane apiary. They are doing just fine drawing out fresh comb and rearing lots of brood. They are pretty as well as calm. Let's hope they turn out to be productive too.
Posted by David on Wednesday 29 April 2009 - 18:06:18 |