Saturday 17 September 2011

Second treatment

Had a look at the colonies today, the first colony had no varroa drop so did not put cond sachet on. Gave them a couple of frames of stores. Added a apigaurd sachet to the other four colonies, The monitoring floor on the fifth colony had a lot of varroa on. Colonies 3 & 5 were the largest colonies over summer, 5 is on 2 brood boxes and has enough stores, numer 3 is light, both were lively.
I could not see any brood in the nuc but saw the queen (looking good), there was virtually no brood in any of the colonies, presume it's the time of year but it seems earky. It means the bees alive now will bring it on in spring.

Saturday 3 September 2011

Varroa treatment

All main hive now treated. Small nuc on 3 frames not treated, will try to get it through winter. Will look at colont stores after apigaurd treatment but expect they have plenty.

Friday 26 August 2011

Extraction

I took all supers off earlier this week and had 4 supers with sealed honey, extracted yesterday and it loks around 70 pound. Would have been a lot more if I had not have had 2 colonies on 2 brood boxes. The supers with sealed stores were stacked outside but bees kept finding holes and started to rob. So yesterday I placed on top of crown boards onto the colonies for cleaning. I have one more colony to consolidate onto a single brood box, that will leave me with 20 brood frames of stores which will go into the colonies as there is room.
When the supers are clean I need to remove and start varroa treatment.

Thursday 21 July 2011

Heavy Mistake

I changed the queens by adding a second brood box above paper. I consolidated one colony into one box after a few days. The other was left on two brood, it's now full of brood and stores, and too heavy to lift off. The fifth colony was very strong so I put another brood onto that. A brood box full of stores is too heavy to move.
I MUST NOT DO IT AGAIN. Going to leave for 5 wekks now, when we come back they should be ready to take honey off.

Sunday 26 June 2011

Good weather


At last the weather has turned nice 27degrees outside and sunny. The lime tree at the side of the house was buzzing this morning. The one in the middle of lawn has yet to blossom. Bees very busy.

Sunday 19 June 2011

Re united

I let John have my original queen from the colony I purchased at Lincoln yesterday. I then placed the frames from the strongest nuc into a brood box on it's same location. At 7pm all the bees had found their way into their new box so I sealed the entrance took down to colony 4, put some pin holed newspaper between and left them to unite. This morning the bees in the colony were not running all around the enteance so I presume they have found their new queen. There was also a couple of dozen bees flying around their old location, not sure how you can stop that?
I'll check the colony soon and try to put back into one brood box, then I'll get myself organised to do the same with my next oldest queen (green).

Thursday 16 June 2011

Failed Nuc


Removed frames from failed Nuc tonight, they have been declining since they were made. There was no queen and the workers were laying (see photo). I will leave the nuc box there to see if the bees disperse now there are no stores there.

Saturday 11 June 2011

June 2011


Although the weather has been cold since the nuc were made 4 out of 5 seem to be laying. Just need to confirm it's worker brood.

Saturday 14 May 2011

Cool and wet


Weather turned cooler at the moment, bees are flying from all the newly created nucs but the ones with their enterance facing the sun show most activity. Photo is the left overs from the QC's.

Wednesday 11 May 2011

Splits

Me and John took 5 splits from hive 3 tonight, QC should hatch tomorrow, need to leave for a couple of weeks.

Tuesday 3 May 2011

Bees Queenless

more photos



Queen rearing






I made the strongest colony (number 3) queenless, the bees were running all around the entrance until they were queen right. I then cut the (3 day old eggs/larva) comb and pinned to the bars as shown, placed into hive. Photos are of + 1 day and + 2 day. Made queen right after 1 day. Many QC are drawn touching each other so I destroyed the larva in the adjoining cells, should have around 8 QC for my disposal.

Thursday 28 April 2011

Start Queens




Comb was placed in with my original queen yesterday. The image was taken today and shows eggs. Will make my large colony queenless at the weekend and introduce these eggs.

Saturday 23 April 2011

More Space


Put supers on 3 of the 4 hives, left excluders off to try to encourage bees to move up. Doug and john helped to find the queen in third colony. I'll put some empty comb in with original queen for eggs later this week, getting ready for nuc making. NIck found this hornet up at Longsdon!

Saturday 26 March 2011

Varroa

After 2 days I could only find one Varroa from colony 2. It's a good sign or could mean all varroa are in the brood cells breeding!

Thursday 24 March 2011

Still warm

Removed old Apiguard trays, fondant and checked for evidence of queen, put some syrup on each hive.

Saturday 19 March 2011

Warm wheather



13 degrees, sunny, bees flying. All colonies bringing in pollen, need to do the experiment mentioned in the previous post a little earlier next year. Removed the empty super from under the colonies, cleaned floors (about a cup of dead bees from all), placed monitoring boards in. All colonies seem faily heavy.

Thursday 17 March 2011

Pollen

At the apiary all colonies were bringing in pollen at the weekend, mine were not. I've put monitoring boards into 2 of the 4 to see if colony warmth or local flowers determine weather bees fetch pollen.

Sunday 6 March 2011

Checking stores

I weighed colonies today, but forgot and took roofs off. From left to right 21,19, 21,20. Which means with roofs they would weigh more, plenty of stores.

Saturday 5 February 2011

Fondant Goes On

Yes I made up some bags with around 500 grammes of fondant, cut a small hole in, and placed ontop of the crown board, The small colony was dead, second year on the row I've lost the small one, must do something different!

Saturday 8 January 2011

Not Freezing

Quite nice this afternoon reaching the dizzy heights of 3.2 dregrees.
I took monitoring boards out of the 4 large colonies but will put back if the daytime temperatures sink well below zero. One bee was seen exiting a colony and flew off. Small colony felt light when efted, but it is small!