March Inspection

Had a great day today. 

March Inspection 
First time I've opened them up to look inside properly. Lifted the crown boards and was glad to find four of my six colonies looking good and building up nicely although a little light on stores. The other two colonies not shown in this video will need to be combined and put into a nuc if they are to survive as one of the queens has failed, the other is only laying a small patch of eggs as the colony is very small.

February Inspection

As the weather was very nice for this time of the year and not a cloud in the sky so Clare and I went to see the girls. All but the poly hive were out flying and making the most of the warm day and collecting the first spring pollen.

We quickly lifted the roof of each hive to check the amounts of fondant they had and were pleased to see most of the colonies have hardly touched it since last month.

January 23rd - Winter Check

After the last inspection I thought I'd quickly check the girls again today to see how much of the fondant they had been given had been consumed. I'm pleased they are all still alive, although a little concerned they are high in the hive and most of them are taking the fondant so early in the year. 


Funtley - 
Hive 1 - Gave them 3kg's worth as they were clustered up high in the super, this was the first time I felt the need to feed them as previously when hefted they seemed ok.
Hive 2 - Clustered reasonably high but hardly touched the fondant I'd given them already and the hive still felt reasonably weighty.
Hive 3 - Most of the fondant they had has been taken so I've given them another 3kg's and the hive felt a little light.
TBH - Not too confident they will pull through as they were a small colony in the Autumn, signs of lots of pale brown streaks on the landing board, tray and legs.




Local Apiary  (* see below)
Nuc - (small colony) Most of the fondant they had has been taken, so I've given them another 3kg's.
National - Hive is light, most of the fondant they had has been taken, so I've given them another 3Kg's.
Poly - Difficult to gauge how they are doing, but just to be safe gave them another 3kg's.


* Back in November 2010
I was made aware of a bonfire within 20 ft of my hives, the wind was blowing the smoke across the apiary and to top it off some kids decided to throw several car tyres on as well once the party was almost over. Two of the three colonies had at least 30-35+ lbs each before November and were a good size prior to the bonfire. All three colonies had far more dead bees piled up near the entrances and on the floor below the entrance hole than the last few of years. 

Winter Inspection

Time to start planning for the year ahead, paint the new poly hive chambers and wax coat the new batch of plastic frames ready for when I shook swarm some of my colonies. The Last couple of days have been a mild 8-10'C plenty of bees are emerging and taking a quick flight to relieve themselves before returning to their hives.

Of the six colonies and a nuc I had going into winter they all appear to of survived although several of them have taken a large amount of the fondant I gave them. I will need to get some more fondant to help see them through the next few weeks although it's far to early to tell what state they are in and if the queens are being to lay yet, but fingers crossed I hope this year will be a good year for them.

Hive Guide 2011

I'm pleased to announce I've updated the Hive Guide

Hive Guide 2011
I've added several new hive types and a section on plastic frames and how to use Thymol as an effective varroa control in Spring and Autumn.

The purpose of the guide is to help new bee keepers decide which hive to use and some helpful advice on where to start. Click on the link above or the picture in the side bar. The guide will take awhile to download.

Closing down for winter 2010

Once again we are having an Indian summer and its lovely for us, temperatures are a barmy 14'C for this week so far which is way above the seasonal average for October - November. As a result the girls have all been working solidly collecting as much pollen and nectar as they can for winter. During September I fed them then treated them with Apigard, however as of next year I will solely use thymol for varroa control on the recommendation of a very good bee keeper and friend.

Closing Down
On Tuesday Clare and I went to visit the two apiaries to removed all the queen excluder's and any other excess equipment I had stored above some of the colonies. The main reason for this is to reduce the hives down to minimal size and profile. We sliced up a 12.5Kg lump of fondant into about 2 KG lumps and wrapped it in greaseproof paper and cut a slit and placed the slit over the hole in the crown board and finally wished them each good luck.

I may need to buy another box of fondant, although they will be loosely clustered at the moment they are still fairly active, ideally I would like the temperature to drop to around 4'C which is said to be the optimal temperature to ensure the colony remains clustered.

Honey Harvest - Summer 2010

After allowing a few days for the honey to settle I filled 64 hex jars (340grams - 12oz) to sell at my association Honey and Bee Weekend Show at a local country farm. Then filled 10 x 1Lbs jars and left another 10 Lbs in the bucket so I could mix it with a couple of jars of my OSR honey to make soft set honey.

Honey and Bee Show
Over the two days I sold 19 jars which I was very happy about as several members also had their honey up for sale as well.

Some pictures from the show


You may notice it looks a little quiet... It was busy but as I was manning the honey sales table and couldn't take tons of pictures.