I've been mentoring a couple who have a hive at my apiary. A while ago I advised them to put their spare hive out in their back garden as a bait hive. I got a call from them saying a swarm descended into their garden and entered their hive.
Then at about midday my mobile and then my home phone rang, my mum told me about a swarm in one of her friends gardens. 20 minutes later armed with a camera and top bar nuc I'm smiling from ear to ear even though it is only looks like a small cast. (Queen not seen)
Every swarm collectors dream as they were less than 2 feet off the floor.
They swarmed on the 1st May with a similar size cluster which was collected by another keeper, then they tried to swarm again yesterday but returned to the hive after 2 hours which upset the beek who came to try and collect them.
Today
By the time I arrived today at about 12:30 they had been out for about 2.5 hours.
They came from a feral colony who have been in an old decorative chimney pot at the bottom of the garden for about 3 years. Each year they have thrown 2-3 swarms of roughly equal sizes.
To see the movie on YouTube Click here
Friday, June 4, 2010
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
May 24th - Call out
I was called out to look at a colony in a roof space of a front porch which moved in about a week ago. After a quick inspection and a couple of photographs I was happy to tell the owner he had a bumble bee colony. After a quick search on google I think they are Bombus Hortorum.
Even though it wasn't a honey bee colony I was still happy I could let the owner know not to worry.
Even though it wasn't a honey bee colony I was still happy I could let the owner know not to worry.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
May 14th - collecting a swarm
After changing shifts at work and feeling very tired I finally had a day off. I was relaxing whilst reading through several threads on the http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk when the phone rang. I was asked if I was interested in collecting a swarm to which I jumped at the chance.
I took a camcorder and put together this movie.
To watch this movie on YouTube goto http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXSLviALnI0
I took a camcorder and put together this movie.
To watch this movie on YouTube goto http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXSLviALnI0
Saturday, April 24, 2010
April 2010 Part IV - Final Manipulations
Final manipulations to split the strong hives.
Starting on the left and going round clockwise.
Hive 5 (green) - Empty Top Bar Hive
Hive 6 (green) - Empty Top Bar Hive
Hive 1 (blue) - Queenless (recently split double brood box)
Hive 2 (red) - Queenless Nuc
Hive 3 (blue) - Queen right (artificially swarmed - removed 5 frames)
Hive 4 (blue) - Queen right (split from hive 1)
Hive 7 (blue) - Queenless (split from hive 3)
I started with hive 3 and found the queen to ensure she would be kept in hive 3. I then artificially split this colony to create hive 7 by moving 4 frames with plenty of sealed brood, eggs and larvae and also shook in two additional frames of bees. The reason for adding the bees from two extra frames is to ensure when all the older foraging bees return back to hive 3 more than enough young bees remain to tend the brood and naturally rear a new queen.
Colonies 1, 2 and 7 all have suitable eggs and larvae to rear a queencell to replace their old queens. I will now leave these colonies alone so not to upset or disturb them until early June when they should each have a new 2010 laying queen.
I then opened hive 4 and found the queen in this hive, this means hive 1 is queenless and answers why they were overly defensive the last time I opened this hive. Today they were calm and bring in plenty of fresh pollen and signs of nectar as well.
Starting on the left and going round clockwise.
Hive 6 (green) - Empty Top Bar Hive
Hive 1 (blue) - Queenless (recently split double brood box)
Hive 2 (red) - Queenless Nuc
Hive 3 (blue) - Queen right (artificially swarmed - removed 5 frames)
Hive 4 (blue) - Queen right (split from hive 1)
Hive 7 (blue) - Queenless (split from hive 3)
I started with hive 3 and found the queen to ensure she would be kept in hive 3. I then artificially split this colony to create hive 7 by moving 4 frames with plenty of sealed brood, eggs and larvae and also shook in two additional frames of bees. The reason for adding the bees from two extra frames is to ensure when all the older foraging bees return back to hive 3 more than enough young bees remain to tend the brood and naturally rear a new queen.
Colonies 1, 2 and 7 all have suitable eggs and larvae to rear a queencell to replace their old queens. I will now leave these colonies alone so not to upset or disturb them until early June when they should each have a new 2010 laying queen.
I then opened hive 4 and found the queen in this hive, this means hive 1 is queenless and answers why they were overly defensive the last time I opened this hive. Today they were calm and bring in plenty of fresh pollen and signs of nectar as well.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
April 2010 Part III
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.
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.
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.
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