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Wind up

Off to put the clearer boards on at the park, only to find they have been seriously tucking into the supers, so just put the supers below the brood boxes on all but one hive. Not much for me to harvest. Disappointing. On top of that the queen rearing is not going brilliantly. Using cupkit system and in the hive I looked into today. 4 out of the 10 eggs I put on the cellbar have nice sealed queencells. Seems a low strike rate. Struggling to remember if that is normal. My mate reckons its the time of year, but I'm not convinced. Thinking about it the two issues are probably related. I did put Neopoll on the cellbar, and it was all gone. but I reckon if there had been a better flow on I would have had greater success. Went to look at a...
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Studley Agricultural College - photos

Having learnt the rudiments of beekeeping from my father, he has recently told me that his father was the beekeeping teacher at Studley Ladies Agricultural College in Warwickshire. The college ran from the turn of the 20th century until the 1960's. I have kept bees with a bit of a break in the middle for over 35 years and I am as keen now as when Dad first established a hive at our family home, when I was a young child. Sadly my father is in poor health at the moment and I am really keen to find a photograph of hives, ladies beekeeping, or (the holy grail) a photo of my grandfather. There are many photos scattered far and wide of rural skills taught at the college and many of their records held at the Museum of Rural Life refer to...
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Beekeepers Questionnaire.

I am currently writing a dissertation paper that researches bee decline and explores conservation strategies for bee keeping within cities. I am trying to understand why people become interested in beekeeping and make the decision to start practicing it. I also need to discover the difficulties that people face in beekeeping. If beekeepers could answer the questionnaire in this link I would be very grateful, any additional information is also welcome, thank you. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DGK5Y82 Ronnie
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Inspire a generation

So in our first year of bee-keeping we have two hives live now. The first one is our swarm which we collected in Jubilee year, now named Jubilee hive. It's a bit temperamental - by which I mean, we occasionally have to use smoke to move the bees. But none have 'pinged' us. The second hive includes bees from a nucleus we got off a friendly supplier in Surrey. He put together 5 frames for a new bee keeper and we were given clear instructions for how to progress. This queen (Mags) has been laying in every cell as soon as it is drawn and we now have a healthy volume of bees. And this colony is even more calm than Jubilee hive. I've seen Queen Mags laying eggs on more than one occasion - literally finding a cell, reversing in, laying...
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Friday 31st Aug

I put C/B on the right hive Monday and removed the top super. The 2nd super now look almost empty. The left hive was not that happy. I think it’s because there is not much food around for them. The 2 outside frame were empty. But there are a few capped frames in the 2nd super. So I put a C/B under both supers. Will remove them Monday and treat for vorroa. Also give them a good feed. Right Hive. 8 frames of brood Top Super Full. C/B 2nd Super. empty. Left Hive. 8 frames of brood Top super Full. 2nd Super 1/2.
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Tuesday 21st Aug

Been on holiday and had a quick look at the supers only. Both 2nd supers seem to be filling up. But the left top super still needs more capping. With all this good weather there seems to be a small flow on. Going to put C/B on Monday Right Hive. 8 frames of brood Top Super Full. 2nd Super. 1/2. Left Hive. 8 frames of brood Top super Full. 2nd Super 3/4
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No neonics in the handlotion

One of my kids works up town in a shop that sell lotions and potions. She's come back today with an anti neonics t-shirt. They are all wearing them at work. Couldn't post a picture. I thought it funny that the campaign which has been close to the hearts of lots of beekeepers has gone mainstream. The honey is off at most of the apiaries. Going down to the park tomorrow to put the clearer boards on the last lot. A new beekeeper has said he'll come with me so that afterwards I can go to look at his bees with him. He's been so keen to get me to look in his hive. I guess it works out Ok as he'll do most of the lifting and it seems that he won't stop worrying unitl I've actually looked at his bees. Looks like less honey this year...
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And onto the next generation...

We had our supercedure and in our last post we had seen our new virgin queen. She wasn't a virgin for long as 10 days ago our hive was flooded by drones. Every other bee entering the hive was a drone and when opening the hive they were all over the combs. We didn't witness the mating flight but suddenly around 8 days ago the drones all left. Job done. Having been warned that the queen could be laying immediately, soon or even up to 6 weeks.... so we entered the waiting game. And at the weekend we had eggs. There were eggs on frame 4, on frame 5 and on frame 6. This queen is laying. There were other tell tale signs too... firstly the bees were back to their calm attitude. We didn't need any smoke to move them around. They just...
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Tuesday 1st Aug

The Right Hive now has eggs and brood.:willy_nilly: This hive doesn’t seem to be bringing any honey in. But the left Hive is bringing some honey in. Right Hive. 8 frames of brood Top Super Full. 2nd super. 1/4. Left Hive. 8 frames of brood Top super 4/5. 2nd Super 1/2.
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Our queen was gone... long live the queen!

It's amazing how quickly you get attached to your bee colony, and your queen. After having our swarm for around 4 weeks, we made our inspection 14 days ago. And there were no eggs. Very small larvae, but no visible eggs. So our queen had stopped laying, or she had left. We felt so disappointed and having inspected the number of bees we are fairly confident she had left. A week later, we had 8 queen cells. And life was complicated. The advice we got was to artificial swarm (which seemed complicated for a new beekeeper), knock the queen cells down to 2-3, or leave the bees to sort themselves out. It's not so easy without experience to understand which were the top 2-3 queen cells. After 24 hours deliberation we decided that the bees...
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how to deal with a swarm

Hi. I picked up a swarm in May having lost my bees over the winter. The swarm colony has done well and then on 1st July, despite checking every week it swarmed again. I managed to retrieve it and considered re-integrating it but found two frames with queen cells on so decided to re-hive it with new foundation (Bailey comb change?) I put the queen excluder on the bottom to keep the queen in while they draw out the foundation. One week on and the bees are going well 9 out of 11 frames drawn out and being filled with nectar and some pollen but no brood. Have I lost the queen? would they stay if I have? When do I take the QE off the bottom of the hive. Any help appreciated
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Thursday 5 July

There is some honey coming in. No eggs in the Right Hive, so look like I lost the queen. Did find 1 capped Queen Cell on the test frame I put in. Right Hive. 2 frames of brood (test frame) Top Super Full. 2nd super. 1/4. Left Hive. 8 frames of brood Top super 1/2. 2nd Super 1/2.
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