Animal Fun Day 27th June 2010

Today was the first time we have opened the apiary to the public.  We had a stall in the main arena and were due to open the apiary to the public at 1045 1330 and 1445.  The fun day was slow to start and no one turned up for the first session at quarter to eleven.  However one man turned up at half past and was so interested that I took him down to the apary on his own for a look. we did not open any hives on this visit.  At the half past one session we had 6 people and so I opened hives 2 and 4.

Hive 2 is doing OK but nothing special.  I removed the super as it is not being drawn and the bees do not need it at the moment. They have a couple of frames to draw in the brood box.  The queen is laying and there was eggs, larvae and capped brood in the hive.

Hive 4 , I combined both sides into one colony.  The green side had no queen and was just getting weaker.  the Blue side has a laying queen and 2 and a bit frames of brood.

At the quarter to three opening we had half a dozen adults and even more children.  On this visit I opened hives 3 and 5.  Hive 1 was not being opened due to their temper last week and that they are superceding their queen.

Hive 3 is nearly dead.  It has no queen and is dying out.  I have decided not to try requeening as it is too weak.  I will gradually move hive 5 into its place.

Hive 5 is bursting at the seams.  It was in urgent need of more space so the super from hive 2 was added and the queen excluder after Judith had sat and cleaned all the brace comb off it.  There are 8 frames of brood and there is no spare space.  Hopefully they will move up into the super very quickly.

We sold a small amount of honey, but also had a number of people enquire about beekeeping courses for the spring.  All in all a good day with a reasonable amount of interest and quite a number of leaflets distributed.

Routine inspection 15th June 2010

Not a good days bee keeping. Two of the hives have either gone queenless or the queens have gone off lay. By the fractious nature of the bees I would guess queenless.

Started with Hive 2. Super not drawn, but there are still 3 brood frames to draw so I am not worried, in fact there is no use the super being on this hive at the moment. Might take it off next week and give it to hive 1. Queen marked Blue. She was found on underside of the queen excluder, shows you must always check the queen excluder.

Next was Hive 4. This one is divided into two nucs. Green side- Very weak no sign of a queen.
Blue side – Not very strong, only a small patch of one frame with brood. I must merge these colonies soon.

I then moved to Hive 1. Definitely not nice today. Several dozen bees batting my veil and followed me out of the apiary. Appears queenless, but has 2 queen cells. Need to leave them alone for a couple of weeks. Super nearly full, will need a new one next week, I will probably move the one fron hive 2.

Last hive was Hive 3. Small amount of capped brood. No eggs or larvae. What happened to the queen? Did she swarm or was she not properly mated. She is not likely to have swarmed as she was laying in the hive 10 days ago! This is a disapointment as I was about ready to move these bees onto a new bee keeper.

Due to the fact that the bees from Hive 1 were still having a go, I decided not to look at hive 5. They had a lot of wax to draw last week and will be OK until next week.

2nd Beginners Class

The other half of the Hills Road course came to Wood Green this morning. We looked at hives 1 to 4.

We started with Hive 2 which was good tempered and has replaced the queen. There were eggs, larvae and capped brood on 3 frames.

Hive 4 which is split into two colonies had one side with no queen, the other side has eggs so must have a laying queen. These two colonies will be merged, and after the class left, I opened the vents between them so they can get used to each others smell.

Hive 1 was a little anti social. If they are not careful they may get an ASBO! They managed to sting me through my suit and they followed me for some time after the inspection. I wonder if my suit still has pheromones from the check on the nasty colony at Stukeley. They did not go for any of the students so it is probably my fault. Let's face it, most problems with the bees are down to the bee keeper, not the bees. This colony is fine with 7 frames of brood and a nearly full honey super. They will need a new super by next week.

Final check was on Hive 3. This is the colony that appeared queenless last week. We added a frame of eggs so they could create a new queen. Looks like another bee keeper error. All the eggs and larvae have been capped. But on the next frame there are eggs and larvae. Looks like there was a queen in there after all, she just took a short wile to start laying.

The swarm that arrived 8 days ago was not examined. The queen in there was laying last Wednesday so can stay in peace for a little longer.

Check the swarm

Today I have been checking my hives. I have been out looking at all my other hives, not the hives at Wood Green. The swarm that we picked up last Friday and moved to WGAS needed checking though. When I picked them up there had been a frame missing from the hive. I had put a sheet of foundation in a frame earlier in the day and it needed fitting in the hive before the bees started filling in the space.

Judith and i opened the hive and first thing to notice was that the syrup that we had fed them was gone. All one litre had beed used. We opened the hive and saw that the bees had drawn the foundation on about 4 frames. They had also built brace comb across the gap where the frame was missing. I had to cut the brace comb out before inserting the frame with foundation.

Before we closed up, I could not resist having a look at one of the frames of drawn comb. There in the bottom of most of the cells were eggs. Good news, the queen is alive and well and laying. Now to leave her alone and let her build up her colony.

Bee Keepers Class

Not the best of days for bee keeping. Forecast was for showers and it did just that. Judith and I turned up early and put a gazebo over hives 1 and 3. Half the students from the Hills Road Bee Keepers course turned up at 10 am. We had a cup of coffee while discussing hive records and planning the inspection. Due to the weather, we would only look at the two hives under cover. We started in hive 3 which I was expecting to contain a new queen. Wrong, there was no queen. Just a few Drone cells, no eggs, no larvae and workers on 3 frames.

We moved onto hive 1. Much better. The bees were working the super to begin with. We looked at a couple of super frames, but the honey was not capped even though there is honey (nectar) in all the frames. We then examined the queen excluder and then into the brood box. The first frame was mostly stores with a few capped brood cells. The second frame was mostly filled with capped brood. The students then took out a frame each in turn and examined it. We found the marked queen. We saw eggs, larvae and capped brood, both worker and drone. We looked at the bigger body and eyes of the drone.

We took a frame of eggs and young larvae from hive 1 and donated it to hive 3 in the hope that they will raise another queen. We then fed the swarm that arrived yesterday. Finally we examined the varroa trays of hives 1 and 2. Could not find any varroa. Good for the bees, but I would have liked to find one to show the students. We then packed up, took down the gazebo and left the bees alone.

On the way out, security reported that a swarm had been reported in Huntingdon. Judith got the details and we passed that one on to one of the Huntingdon Bee Keepers Association members to collect.

28th May 2010 Swarm Collection

Brought a new swarm in from the quay in St Ives. One of the largest swarms I have seen for some time, they were hanging from a wall behind some offices on the quay. When we arrived at about 2pm the swarm was getting ready to depart. There was a lot of waggle dancing on the surface, always a warning that they may be about to depart. Judith went off to Wood Green to collect the hive while I remained behind and kitted up.

Not wanting to loose the swarm, I brushed them off the wall into a skep. When Judith arrived back with the hive, they had mostly settled back down again. I knocked the bees out of the skep, directly into the hive. I had to place a cardboard ramp up to the door for the stragglers to march in.

At 8pm I returned and collected the hive and moved it to Wood Green. I placed it at the Bluebell Wood end of the apiary, just in case it was the power lines at the other end that caused the last swarm to abscond.

22nd May 2010 Filming with Katie Clarke

Filming an interview for Katie Clarke a media student from Leeds University. She is working on a film about the plight of the honey bee.

During the filming we inspected hive 2. Now no eggs or larvae, we did watch a new bee chewing its way out of a cell.

This Blog is now up to date. Hopefully all hive inspections will follow within a couple of days of them happening. The first half of the Hills Road Bee Keeping course are due here next Saturday so a full report will follow.