Sunday 20 September 2009

Finished feeding



Taken feeders off now, will continue the 4 week treatment of Apiguard. The Varroa drop from my main colony was phenomenal about 500 in a week. The recently queened colony had no drop over the week but had quite a bit of chalk brood! I've fed 19 Kg of sugar to the hive but the combined weight has gone up 8Kg?

Thursday 10 September 2009

Feeding

Have fed 17Kg so far

Saturday 5 September 2009

Varroa




Been checking the last few days:-
First colony 51/4
Middle hive 17/4
Smallest 5/4
Dusted with icing sugar yesterday and todays count :-
First 25/1
middle 8/1
small 11/1
How long does the effect last, what will tommorrows count be?
Need to find a better way to retrieve wax from old comb!

Thursday 3 September 2009

First Honey

John helped me extract my first honey today, 6 frames (2 of them not full).
Finished with around 5Kg, put empties on hives to clean.

Wednesday 2 September 2009

Back home

Had a check on the colonies after our five week break today. They were all OK so John B has done a very good job Bee Sitting.
The Colony which had lost it's queen had 3 frames of bees and lava.
The other colony I started had 5 frames of bees.
And my first colony has 8 frames of bees, I took the supers off today they have 6 frames of honey.
Will feed all colonies with strong 2:1 syrup, the bee were very well behaved today.
Weighed first colony = 19Kg including floor, crown, brood box, bees, stores