I decided as the weather was a beautiful 16C today to bite the bullet and split the double brood box hive. I may regret this but as the colony size was massive I was concerned they would suddenly swarm if I missed just one of the queen cells in the next week or so.
After checking both brood chambers had eggs and larvae I removed the top brood chamber and placed it onto a new floor then lifted the two together and set them up a stand 15ft away. As most of the flyers will return to their original site I gave the upper half the super which is about 3/4's full of mostly crystallized honey. It doesn't matter which half have the queen but I will check them both again in a week or so to see which has built queen cells then leave that one alone for the next few weeks to let them bring on a new queen.
These bees are very defensive compared to the carni's I have, these girls go all out to sting as soon as they land. Thankfully a small amount of smoke and they will fly off again with their stingers intact.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Thursday, April 8, 2010
April 2010 Part II
Another very busy day dealing with the bees.
A few weeks ago I learnt one of the members of my association had ordered two queens however one of the colonies that was due to be requeen suddenly failed to nosema meaning they had a spare queen. I offered to give them some bees so we made up a four frame nuc from the colony I have just taken over.
This was the first time I'd had a chance to look inside the hive, so I was shocked to see it was brimming with bees even though its a double national colony. The super was 3/4's full of capped honey already and plenty of bees as well so I've added another of undrawn comb to keep them busy until I can get back to check for the first signs of queen cells before I split the brood boxes to make up another colony.
We also went to see our other colony to inspect them, my fears were correct they are struggling and we only found a small patch of sealed brood and eggs. Although they still had plenty of sealed honey some of it looked pretty crystallized and at a guess only about 1000 bees in total. So we returned home and made up some feed and grabbed a nuc and went back to the apiary and moved the Dartington hive 20 ft away then frame by frame transferred them in to the nuc using the same process as shook swarming as most of the brood frames had mould. I poured a fair amount of the feed into the top portion of cells of two of the frames.
Now its a waiting game, we'll give the colony a couple of weeks to see if they survive and hopefully the queen will begin to lay a frame or two of eggs.
Pictures to follow
A few weeks ago I learnt one of the members of my association had ordered two queens however one of the colonies that was due to be requeen suddenly failed to nosema meaning they had a spare queen. I offered to give them some bees so we made up a four frame nuc from the colony I have just taken over.
This was the first time I'd had a chance to look inside the hive, so I was shocked to see it was brimming with bees even though its a double national colony. The super was 3/4's full of capped honey already and plenty of bees as well so I've added another of undrawn comb to keep them busy until I can get back to check for the first signs of queen cells before I split the brood boxes to make up another colony.
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| From pic |
We also went to see our other colony to inspect them, my fears were correct they are struggling and we only found a small patch of sealed brood and eggs. Although they still had plenty of sealed honey some of it looked pretty crystallized and at a guess only about 1000 bees in total. So we returned home and made up some feed and grabbed a nuc and went back to the apiary and moved the Dartington hive 20 ft away then frame by frame transferred them in to the nuc using the same process as shook swarming as most of the brood frames had mould. I poured a fair amount of the feed into the top portion of cells of two of the frames.
Now its a waiting game, we'll give the colony a couple of weeks to see if they survive and hopefully the queen will begin to lay a frame or two of eggs.
Pictures to follow
Sunday, April 4, 2010
April 2010
Had a real busy weekend, as a result this post is a reasonable length.
Saturday - I removed all the equipment from my new apiary site and the garage of the bee keeper who has had to retire and he donated to the association (see previous post) and took it to a safe lock up. This took a couple of trips despite using a long wheel base transit van.
Sunday - I arranged an early meeting for the three others who won bids for hives + colonies to come and see their hives. We walked into the apiary to see only the odd one or two bees were cautiously testing the weather conditions before flying out, we all stood around talking all things bee keeping for about an hour by which time the sun came out and warmed the air. We watched the entrances and the amount of foragers coming and going with bright yellow pollen. Although each of the hives is at different states of spring build up its a great way to show new bee keepers want to expect from thier bees according to the weather and the size of the colony.
Later in the afternoon my wife and I went back to the new apiary to drop off two new top bar hives I made over winter (see tbh project OCT 21, 2009 post) and we were very pleased to see all four hives were now out flying. My hive had a been busy cleaning house and removing the dead and had about 30 odd bees out sunning themselves on the front of the hive and a constant stream of bees who had been out collecting water and pollen.
We then drove to our other site and after watching the entrance for 5 minutes to only see a few bees coming and going. I decided to take another quick look inside under the crown board and once again I was still surprised to see about 40 bees sat on top of the frames, I honestly thought I had lost this colony or I would of only seen a few bees left. I guess they are just slow at building up but until I make a frame by frame inspection its hard to say exactly how they are doing.
Saturday - I removed all the equipment from my new apiary site and the garage of the bee keeper who has had to retire and he donated to the association (see previous post) and took it to a safe lock up. This took a couple of trips despite using a long wheel base transit van.
Sunday - I arranged an early meeting for the three others who won bids for hives + colonies to come and see their hives. We walked into the apiary to see only the odd one or two bees were cautiously testing the weather conditions before flying out, we all stood around talking all things bee keeping for about an hour by which time the sun came out and warmed the air. We watched the entrances and the amount of foragers coming and going with bright yellow pollen. Although each of the hives is at different states of spring build up its a great way to show new bee keepers want to expect from thier bees according to the weather and the size of the colony.
Later in the afternoon my wife and I went back to the new apiary to drop off two new top bar hives I made over winter (see tbh project OCT 21, 2009 post) and we were very pleased to see all four hives were now out flying. My hive had a been busy cleaning house and removing the dead and had about 30 odd bees out sunning themselves on the front of the hive and a constant stream of bees who had been out collecting water and pollen.
We then drove to our other site and after watching the entrance for 5 minutes to only see a few bees coming and going. I decided to take another quick look inside under the crown board and once again I was still surprised to see about 40 bees sat on top of the frames, I honestly thought I had lost this colony or I would of only seen a few bees left. I guess they are just slow at building up but until I make a frame by frame inspection its hard to say exactly how they are doing.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
New Apiary Site
On Friday I put my name into a bid for an apiary site, as sadly one of the members of my association has had to retired and he decided to donate his site and all his equipment back to the association. I was the lucky winner of the site and a double brood box national hive with a strong colony. So this year I will forge ahead with my plans to start several new top bar hives and also start on a small scale queen rearing operation as well. I intend to breed from my colony that has over wintered as they were gentle and well tempered all last year. Clare my wife said I haven't stopped smiling since I found out.
Some pictures to follow when I've had a chance to visit the site.
Some pictures to follow when I've had a chance to visit the site.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Quick Peek
As the air temperature was about 10'C and no wind I went to see the girls today. I lifted the roof off and could hear the gentle hum from inside. As this hive is a Dartington style hive I lifted off the crown board from the unused end of the hive to reveal the block of fondant which has hardly been touched which is great news and I put in about 150grams of a pollen patty. I quickly lifted the crown board from above the colony and could see about 100 bees on top of the frames. As they appear to be in good shape for now with plenty of stores to see them through I don't need to return again until the end of March or early April when hopefully the weather will be warmer and the colony will be expanding very quickly.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Feb 2010
First signs of life from the Dartington hive the other day, the air temps got upto 8'C which is still dam cold but there was very little wind. I watched several bees exit the hive and spiral upwards so I walked round the back and pressed my ear to the hive and gave it a tap and could hear a quick roar from within. Roll on the warmer weather so they can get out and forage some of the early spring pollen.
I'll warn you now this blog is going to become top bar heavy in content in a few months, I have 3 full sized hives waiting to be filled and a 6 bar nuc ready.
I'll warn you now this blog is going to become top bar heavy in content in a few months, I have 3 full sized hives waiting to be filled and a 6 bar nuc ready.
Monday, February 1, 2010
TBH Guide
Thank you to all of you who have emailed me about my Hive Guide and I am pleased to tell you I've written a new guide about Top Bar Hives
This year I am converting to using Top Bar Hives as I've built four full sized hives and two nuc's. I also made one for a friend and I'm looking forward to setting them up and starting a colony in them. As I'm currently off work with a bad back (honestly) I decided to write a simple guide on Top Bar Hives to help explain to all bee keepers there is no reason not to build your own hive and use it instead of paying unreasonable amounts on a brand new hive. Included in the guide is a section on how to become a bee keeper for less than £100.
This year I am converting to using Top Bar Hives as I've built four full sized hives and two nuc's. I also made one for a friend and I'm looking forward to setting them up and starting a colony in them. As I'm currently off work with a bad back (honestly) I decided to write a simple guide on Top Bar Hives to help explain to all bee keepers there is no reason not to build your own hive and use it instead of paying unreasonable amounts on a brand new hive. Included in the guide is a section on how to become a bee keeper for less than £100.
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