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Thu 2nd June.

Still no honey coming in. Not so many frames of brood in the left hive. I put 1 frame of foundation in near the middle and they have not drawn it out. Also the Queen will not pass it to lay eggs. So moved to nearer to the edge. Queen cell still capped in right hive. Removed 2 new Q/Cs. Right Hive. 4 frames of brood Top Super 3/4. Left Hive. 10 frames of brood Top super 4/5 just the outside frames needs capping. 2nd super. Empty.
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Looking for queens, filming and demonstrating

Went to find another forumite's queens on Friday. The good news what that there were eggs and brood in both colonies, which they hadn't seen, and I found and marked one queen, but the other, disappointlingly, evaded me. Today the Burt's Bees/Adopt a Beehive people came to film the artist's hive. The bees were queenless, and it was starting to rain, so they were a bit grumpy. I was talking about varroa and what was on the frames and took some stings to the neck and face because I had left my veil open and they had all crawled up inside. Doh. In the afternoon some people from the recycling company came to look at the bees that are going to go to them. They said the bees were awesome. It is nice to introduce newbies to bees.
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Mutual advantage

I realised that one the forumites lives just round the corner from me, so having worked that out we arranged to meet up to find and mark his queen and to move the fancy painted beehive to the apiary where they want to film it in its splendour for the Adopt a Beehive scheme. Both operations went smoothly. It is brilliant not to have had to move the hive on my own. Where might the film crew want the hive placed to show it off to its best advantage? I asked forumite, but then we realised that this was not something either of us had much of a clue about.
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Big fat LIE

With 3 of the kids in the car...they are not kids they are great big adults who seem to persuade me all too easily to drive them all over the place... I set off to collect the bumble bees at almost 9pm. I liked the woman who was frightened of the bumbles. She works in the charity shop with my niece, and my niece had given her my number, and she thinks St Christopher's is brilliant and so do I, and she had given me a box of chocolates and some wine when I said I would remove the bees, even though they weren't honey bees. I had given her the line about bumble bees being gentle and fantastic pollinators and told her that some species are endangered and that they would leave the nest/bird box in September, but she was quite scared of...
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Clipping

I went out on a swarm call to find a bird box full of white tailed bumble bees. The homeowner was keen for me to remove them, so I've said I'll go back later and just take the whole box and put it in my garden. Doh! No eggs in hive that is supposed to be filmed next week, but loads of bees and queen cells. I think they tried to swarm and because she was clipped, they just came back. She is probably dead. It is 9 days since the last inspection. One of the nucs at the wasteland is not so strong and I looked for the queen again, but I suspect that the robin or blue tit that are eating the bees, got the virgin when she went out on her mating flight. I put in a frame with a queen cell and some brood, so see what happens. One of the...
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Artificial swarm, combine, artificial swarm

I was feeling like a warrior goddess today, fresh from the Park Run 5k where I shaved more than 7 minutes of my best ever time. Obviously still full of that.....but this is mostly about beekeeping. Looked at the allotment bees with the 3 students today. The nucs all looked OK, save for one, where the queen cell appears not OK... she should have emerged by now, so I cut out a QC from the colony that I only just recombined last week after an AS. It is the only monster colony with 6 supers and 2 jumbo broods and the queen was still in there fat and laying, but there were 2 charged queen cells. I suppose that being a new queen her pheronomes might not have been enough to suffuse the whole tower. A bit irritating as it is not great...
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Overcast

Crept out in my PJs this morning with a butter knife, not wanting insectophobe neighbours to realise I now have a few bees back in my garden. Another diplomatic incident needs to be avoided. I've put a lump of fondant in the roof of the nuc that I had been living in the brace comb in the roof space (destroyed the brace comb and forced bees back into the box this week). They have almost no stores and I gave them just a tiny bit of brood to encourage them to not abscond. I would have preferred to put on weak syrup, but I couldn't find the small feeder. Now they shouldn't starve.
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Hello Mum!

I think of myself as enthusiastic and energetic in pursuing my passions, but some people have said that sometimes I go a bit too far. Blogging about beekeeping allows other beekeepers to share my dilemmas and sometimes people also give a really useful second opinion and point out a mistake, so it helps me learn. Gwan, gwan, gwan... make a comment. :) I'm not sure who reads the blogs apart from my Mum, but since she is my most avid follower, I've decided to stop drivelling on about beekeeping in the other place and to do so here instead. (The other forum has closed its doors to those who do not have a special membership number.) So, back from hols in Turkey last weekend and off to check the bees at the allotment with a couple of...
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Thu 25th May.

Don't seem to be any honey coming in. Found eggs in the Left Hive and removed the Q/Cs. Left 1 capped Q/C in the Right Hive. Right Hive. 4 frames of brood Top Super 3/4. Left Hive. 16 frames of brood Top super 4/5 just the outside frames needs capping. 2nd super. Empty.
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Fri 20th May.

Had a look on Monday 16th. But I could not find the Queen. The 6 queen cell were bigger and found 2 more on frame 3. So thought I leave it till Friday (today.) Again I could not find the Queen. This is the 3rd year in a row I have split the hive without finding the Queen. Moved the hive (left) and placed a new hive with foundation and a few drawn comb in old place (right). Moved the frame with the 6 Queen cell on to the right hive and moved an extra frame for luck. Left frame 3 in the left hive. Will find out next week witch Hive has the Queen, by finding eggs. Also added a Super. Right Hive. 4 frames of brood Top Super 3/4. Left Hive. 14 frames of brood Top super 4/5 just the outside frames needs capping. 2nd super. Empty.
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It Worked .... But Not How We Expected :-)

(this article is a re-post from my main blog Link removed by admin and is aimed at simplifying beekeeping for those who have more than a passing interest ... so please don't shoot me if it's not technically perfect So, back to my article post...) In my last posting I mentioned that we had split one of our hives in Wakering. Well, today I went back to the hive with one of our trainees to see if the bees in the nuc have created a queen cell. So, with much anticipation, the lid of the nuc hive was removed and there was indeed a lot of activity and the flying bees all had pollen on their legs (which is a sign of larvae being in the hive). Looking at the frames, Mark (the trainee), spotted a queen bee on the first frame. Normally...
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JA.bee

Could any one advise please. I have recently came across a product which is an elecrical brood , that can perminently placed like a normal board in the brood compartment. The cells are bigger than normal, therefore eges can develop to drones only. As we know the Varroa mites would mostly get into Drone cells just before it is capped. she lay eges, mites will develop,mate inside the cells,male will die and the females continue the process again and again. Once the majarity of the cells are caped. 23 days after the board is in the hive, The board will be connect to 12V electricity for 5 minutes. Heat generated will go over 40D, drones and all the mites will be killed. It is claimed that useing this product wouldkill 85 to90% of the mites...
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Fri 13th May.

The 3 Queen Cells on frame 6 are still there but empty. I was going to split them but could not find the Queen. Plus I don’t like doing a split without a Queen Cells. I don’t think emergency Queen Cells make good Queens. I need to add another super. So will have another look after the weekend. Right Hive. 18 frames of brood Top super 4/5 just the outside frames needs capping. 2nd Super 3/4.
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nigelsbees

This is the second week with no Queens in two of my hives both overwintered well and No1 hive has half a super of honey No 2 has a full super but no brood. Both have supersedure cells with the caps hanging loose so am I o k to assume that the Queens failed for some reason and I am waiting for the virgin Queens to get started? 4 weeks ago I made up an artificial swarm hive No 3, when Queen cells found on hive No 1 this appears to be progressing well. Did I miss the swarm? All hives have a lot of activity but no signs of pollen being collected.
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Fiesty Bees

Does anyone have experience of over protective bees? It is early in the season so is it due to the abnormal hot weather in April. We have only kept bees for 2 years but have not experienced this before. The bees appear to be patrolling several days afer being worked on. Perhaps we just have a fiesty bunch of stingers!
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Thu 5th May.

The play cups are all gone. Saw the start of 3 Queen Cells on frame 6 and the honey flow has started. But as I want them to swarm I did not add a super. Right Hive. 17 frames of brood Top Super 3/4. 2nd Super 1/2.
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Stumbles accross a little interesting event

oh, so apparently i cant share that it's a Burt's Bees / BBKA charity thing as far as i can tell. Its through the British Bee site then slash 'butrsbeesauction' think the exclusive bbka hives are on Ebay too. All raising money for the British Bee aparently. nice to see retailers doing good and caring about our trusty honey bee :)
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