On Saturday some odd looking brood was detected in one hive at the association apiary. In view of the outbreak of EFB near Leeds the problem was reported to the bee inspector and an immediate lockdown placed on the site. Surprisingly quickly considering the pressure of work because of the Leeds outbreak the inspector visited Tuesday morning.
Happily for the apiary the problem was found NOT to be foul brood, but possibly a symptom of a failing queen. Relief!
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And so yesterday we could stand it no longer and made our first inspection of our hive. We had adopted the swarm on 16 May so this was just over 2 weeks. Having been advised what to look for we were very proud of our girls. All seems to look good.
Check 1 - is there enough food? The bees had stored honey all round the outside of the brood combs.
Check 2 - are they queen right? We couldn't see the queen, or eggs. But the bees are very organised and we saw lots of larvae and covered worker cells. This bodes well for having a good queen.
Check 3 - are they going to swarm? We don't yet have any queen cells or any drone cells. Apparently this means they are unlikely to swarm from here.
Check 4 - so they have sufficient room? They are...
The brood box and all 3 supers were full of bees.
But still No Queen Cells??
The 2 play cups on frame 6 were gone.
Good news honey is now coming in.
Added another super.
Right Hive.
Saw the Queen.:D
20 frames of brood.
Top super 4/5 just the out side frames needs capping.
2nd super 3/4.
3rd super 1/2.
4th Super empty.
I took a look into the hives this afternoon.
No.1 had unfortunately revealed the queen to be a drone layer. Every capped cell had the distinctive domed cap. No point in prevarication so I removed the hive from the apiary and shook the bees out. I placed a container of glacial acetic acid in the hive, closed up and left it for the fumes to sterilise it.
No. 2 is still closed up from last week's acetic acid vapour sterilisation.
No 3 is expanding nicely with good brood pattern and the queen is laying well. The bees are quite defensive but not unhandleable
No 4 is expanding and the queen is prolific.
No 5 is expanding with solid brood pattern
No 6 was not opened to allow development after it swarmed on 5th June. The super which I left...
While collecting cackleberries this afternoon I glanced out at the apiary and realised a small clump (small saucer size) of bees were gathered around something on the floor next to the stand for hive 6 which had swarmed on the 5th, leaving a capped queen cell.
I suited up, went down to the apiary and knelt down to slide a piece of card under the bees. As I did this a young queen walked onto my finger! The only hive I could reconcile with a queen taking a flight from was no. 6 so I placed her on the landing board and she walked straight in with a greeting from the guard bee. Other bees gathered at the entrance and began fanning so I have every hope my choice of hive was correct.
Hi All,
We have a number of nucs with 2015 mated and marked queens for sale along with several full colonies. Please see below for details.
Nuc £160 (plus £40 deposit for the box refundable on return. or transfer to your own)
Full colony on standard national brood
£200 plus deposit as above
Full colony on 14x12 national
£200 plus deposit as above
Collect from Peckham London SE15
Contact Paul the LBKA resources officer on 07951016104
A friend of mine who started beekeeping last year has a colony in a WBC hive. The bees overwintered ok and were expanding well. Her working shift pattern made regular inspection difficult and perhaps unwisely she went on holiday, leaving the colony to its own devices.
I saw her bees a couple of weeks ago when there were opened queen cells, no sign of the queen, angry bees and no brood at any stage to be seen.
I deduced the hive was queenless and it had no materials to remedy the situation. Fortunately another friend said he could probably provide a q+ swarm in a nuc but would check to see if the queen was laying before doing so.
I was passing the Q- owners house yesterday and called to see her. While I was there she checked the hive...
The large swarm I had hived into box 9 had drawn lots of new comb, fuelled by the 2litres of thin syrup I had given. Unfortunately I had used unwired foundation in the frames they had and one sheet had slipped out of the top of the frame, sagged and distorted, leaving a mangled mess of comb, nectar and eggs.
I could see this through the clear crownboard. Rather than allow it to get worse I carefully opened up and brushed the bees from either side of the lump into the box, carefully (if somewhat messily) removed the twisted mass and brushed the adhering bees into the box also. I introduced another frame of foundation, closed up the hive and will give the wax recovered to my son to make furniture polish.
A lesson learned - make sure...
This morning I was collecting cackleberries when I heard the buzz. Looking out I saw no 6 hive swarming. Fortunately the swarm settled in the favoured spot just outside the apiary by the old bonfire. I had judged the presence of one well drawn queen cell to indicate possible supercedure but obviously the bees had other plans :(
As I am prepared for such eventuality with newly built empty hives it was a simple matter to suit up, get the barrow and take the empty hive to the swarm which had coalesced nicely but was the biggest cluster I have had to deal with to date
I put the empty hive on the ground next to the bees, removed the centre frames, clipped away the unoccupied twigs and branches then clipped off and shook the cluster into the...
I took advantage of the good weather and inspected all hives.
No 1 which had been empty until last week when l hived a swarm from the association breeding apiary was busily drawing comb and bringing in nectar and pollen. Only a cursory check of the middle frame as I don't want to disturb the queen if she is/was a virgin.
No 2 continues to disappoint, green queen seen aimlessly wandering over the comb but only a couple of postage stamp size patches of eggs. One more week and she will be squished and the bees shaken out to beg their way into other hives.
No 3 has decided to get going with the warmer weather conditions. It's been slow but may catch up.
No 4 holds a swarm which moved in a couple of weeks ago and has eggs, larvae plus...
I attended the Association breeding apiary this morning to join the team in inspection and manipulation of the colonies in hives and nucs there. We concluded around midday. At 1 o-clock I attended the training apiary where a few of us led this years beginners through inspection of their own colonies then group training on the association colonies. The conclusion of a Bailey change was part of the group works. As the Bailey change was being completed I noted clouds of bees over a set aside margin at the other side of the dyke to the South of the apiary. A large cluster settled in tall weeds while another equally large number continued flying, eventually settling in a hawthorn bush about 50 yards away.
The beekeepers split into two...
Needless to say, researching beekeeping and actually having a hive are two very different animals altogether. After day three, Dad took one look at my face and smiled and said "Beekeeping is more than a notion." No kidding.
So far, after the exciting installation, everything has leveled out, but I still have some questions. I feed the bees one that first night, but after that, the girls have had no interest in the syrup whatsoever, and have been bringing in tons of pollen since day one.
the down side has been the on and off rain, which leaves me wondering when to open the hive? If it doesn't rain again, I hope to go into the hive on Monday. This is important because I need to make sure the queen has been released.
Then there's...
Ideally I would have inspected my hives on Sunday but the weather was not conducive to the task. Today saw periods of warm sunshine alternating with cold and rain, even hail.
By late afternoon we had an extended period of sunshine so I suited up and went for it.
Starting with hive 6 which is most active and has a super on, I found the super held 6 partly filled frames of nectar. The brood held 8 frames of brood and three of nectar/honey. I couldn't see the queen but there were eggs on most frames plus larvae and capped cells. When this lot emerge the colony will be very strong. Likely need another super at the weekend.
Cloud started to drift over so I carried out quick checks on the other hives. Hive 4 (latest swarm) is drawing comb...
Following yesterday's swarm scare and subsequent manipulations, I had removed hive 4, emptied it of frames and scraped it in anticipation of warming my bottle of acetic acid so it would liquefy and I could pour some into a saucer to sterilise the hive. The hive was loosely reassembled and stood in a farm trailer under a canopy.
Around lunchtime today I was going to check the apiary and passed the empty hive en-route. I was astonished to see a swarm arriving and it moved in. I suited up, gently filled the box with clean frames and foundation and fitted a strap round the assembly. I put it in a barrow, transported it to a suitable position and left things to settle. I didn't get chance to sterilise the box so fingers crossed.
I checked...
This morning my son had been collecting eggs (hen) when he heard frantic activity from hive 5 and a whirling cloud of bees could be seen. He immediately sent me a message thinking it was a swarm. I was surprised at this as last week had not revealed any charged queen cells and there was plenty of comb space for laying.
I suited up and prepared a super to take down to the apiary in case space was becoming nectar choked. Having entered the apiary the cloud of bees had abated and inspection showed normal numbers within the hive, still adequate empty space in the comb, new eggs, larvae and sealed brood. As the empty super was not required I placed it above the crown board but below the roof until next inspection.
Hive 2 queen was seen...
I have 8 dadant hives for sale with nicot varroa floors,10 frame brood box,queen excluder, 2x 8frame super, crown board and metal roof.
They have last years buckfast/Derbyshire queens. Only selling due to moving abroad
The association has a breeding apiary located at the back of the lorry park on a warehousing site. Being within the security fencing it is safe from interference and approximately 3 miles from the teaching apiary.
Inspections have been taking place during April, noting the spring build up. Last week one hive had been found to be DLQ and it had been shaken out, leaving ten hives remaining.
This week the brief was to identify hives suitable for sale to new starters plus note those with desirable characteristics for breeding. Conditions were breezy but the hives are located in shrubbery which provides shelter. We found a couple of hives slow to get going but others were expanding, drawing comb, laying eggs, feeding larvae and showing...
did you try a test frame? sounds more like a q- colony...
