We had a visit today by a couple of people from Godmanchester in Bloom. They are setting up an apiary in Godmanchester and came along to see what our apiary looked like. They donned veils and joined me in the apiary and we had a quick look in hive 5. After they left I did a full inspection of all the hives:
Hive 1 - Now has a new queen. She is laying well and already has 4 frames of brood. The colony has used some of the honey in the lower super so it is now about 1/2 full. They have not needed the extra super I gave then a few weeks ago.
Hive 2 - Saw the Blue marked Queen. 5 frames of brood, just a little room at the edge. If they fill that I may need to think about a super?
Hive 3 - Down to one frame with bees. I am moving hive 5 to take over this slot. Any bees form this hive will be merged with hive 5.
Hive 4 - Only 2 frames of brood. Still not very strong. They still have some room on a couple of frames of foundation that are not drawn.
Hive 5 - Moved a couple of feet closer to the hive stand and put on a pallet. When I opened the hive there was no capped brood or larvae, but there were eggs on two frames. It looks like this queen has been superceded. I am very glad I left a queen cell in the hive when I moved the others to hive 1! As a result we can expect this colony size to reduce over the next couple of weeks before picking up again. this will probably mean no honey this year from them.
Friday 23 July 2010
Tuesday 13 July 2010
Inspection & Training
We have had Ricky Kather on site for a couple of days. Ricky is a PhD student from Sheffield studying Varroa and why bees tolerate them. This week she is working with various bee keeping associations who are teaching her bee keeping skills. Yesterday we went through the material that is covered in the theory sessions of the basic bee keepers course. Today we visited a number of apiaries including Wood Green.
Inspections today:
Hive 1 - we did not go into the hive as we wanted to give any new queen some space. Last week the hive was queenless so I added a frame with queen cells from hive 5. We looked at the varroa tray and found a distinctive domed cap of a queen cell under where one of the queen cells had been. Looks like one emerged. Let's hope she gets properly mated.
Hive 2 - I thought it might be in need of a super this week. Wrong, they have not progressed much more from last week. I suppose the dry weather has stopped the nectar flow. We did change the landing platform (see picture). Hive 2 and Hive 4 being side by side had identical doors, which could encourage drifting, where bees return to the wrong hive. We put on a different door so the colours are the other way around. I was going to do this on hive 4 but that hive is not very strong. If bees return and don't recognise the new platforn, i would rather they drift into 4 than from 4!
Hive 3 - Not examined other than the varroa tray. There was no varroa drop seen.
Hive 4 - Not very strong, brood only on 2 frames.
Hive 5 - we only checked the super to see if they had started drawing the foundation. Not yet.
Inspections today:
Hive 1 - we did not go into the hive as we wanted to give any new queen some space. Last week the hive was queenless so I added a frame with queen cells from hive 5. We looked at the varroa tray and found a distinctive domed cap of a queen cell under where one of the queen cells had been. Looks like one emerged. Let's hope she gets properly mated.
Hive 2 - I thought it might be in need of a super this week. Wrong, they have not progressed much more from last week. I suppose the dry weather has stopped the nectar flow. We did change the landing platform (see picture). Hive 2 and Hive 4 being side by side had identical doors, which could encourage drifting, where bees return to the wrong hive. We put on a different door so the colours are the other way around. I was going to do this on hive 4 but that hive is not very strong. If bees return and don't recognise the new platforn, i would rather they drift into 4 than from 4!
Hive 3 - Not examined other than the varroa tray. There was no varroa drop seen.
Hive 4 - Not very strong, brood only on 2 frames.
Hive 5 - we only checked the super to see if they had started drawing the foundation. Not yet.
Doors now opposite colours
Examining for Varroa
Ricky examining Hive 4
Tuesday 6 July 2010
Queen Inspection
Looked at all the hives this morning. I worked up the field, so here is what I found in each hive.
Hive 2 - Saw the blue marked queen, 6 frames of brood, 3 of stores and one of foundation not yet drawn. I moved this frame in one from the edge, to encourage the bees to draw it out. Will probably need a super next week.
Hive 4 - This is the two small colonies that were combined. they have centred on the 2 left hand frames, they have 4 frames of stores and 2 frames not drawn. There were eggs, larvae and capped brood, so there is a queen but this colony is still weak.
Hive 1 - This is the queenless colony. They were a bit fractious again today. The queen cell has still not hatched, so must be a dud. I took a frame with 3 queen cells from hive 5 and put it in here.
Hive 3 - This colony is not viable, there are a few bees on 3 frames, but no brood or queen.
Hive 5 - The brood box is full. There is no more room for the queen to lay. The bees have not started on the super, but have raised 8 queen cells. 3 of these were transfered to hive 1. 4 queen cells were removed, but I did leave the best looking one just in case there is no queen in this hive. I hope she is still here and just gone off lay, because they are nice little dark bees.
Hive 2 - Saw the blue marked queen, 6 frames of brood, 3 of stores and one of foundation not yet drawn. I moved this frame in one from the edge, to encourage the bees to draw it out. Will probably need a super next week.
Hive 4 - This is the two small colonies that were combined. they have centred on the 2 left hand frames, they have 4 frames of stores and 2 frames not drawn. There were eggs, larvae and capped brood, so there is a queen but this colony is still weak.
Hive 1 - This is the queenless colony. They were a bit fractious again today. The queen cell has still not hatched, so must be a dud. I took a frame with 3 queen cells from hive 5 and put it in here.
Hive 3 - This colony is not viable, there are a few bees on 3 frames, but no brood or queen.
Hive 5 - The brood box is full. There is no more room for the queen to lay. The bees have not started on the super, but have raised 8 queen cells. 3 of these were transfered to hive 1. 4 queen cells were removed, but I did leave the best looking one just in case there is no queen in this hive. I hope she is still here and just gone off lay, because they are nice little dark bees.
Thursday 1 July 2010
1st July check Hive 1
Hive 1 did not get checked last Sunday as I was worried that being queenless on the last check, they might be a bit fractious again. So taday as part of my round robin looking at all my other hives, I called in to check hive 1.
They still look to be queenless. There is no brood but there is a sealed queen cell. I am beginning to think that it must be a dead cell though. It should have emerged by now. Workers sometimes close the door on a queen cell after the queen has emerged, but there is no sign that this cell has been opened. I will give it until next week. If things don't look up, I will add a frame of eggs from hive 5.
The bramble has started to flow, the bees are bringing in loads of nectar, even if there is no queen. I added an extra super to giver them more room as the hive is quite full.
They still look to be queenless. There is no brood but there is a sealed queen cell. I am beginning to think that it must be a dead cell though. It should have emerged by now. Workers sometimes close the door on a queen cell after the queen has emerged, but there is no sign that this cell has been opened. I will give it until next week. If things don't look up, I will add a frame of eggs from hive 5.
The bramble has started to flow, the bees are bringing in loads of nectar, even if there is no queen. I added an extra super to giver them more room as the hive is quite full.
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