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I wish...

I had more hives! All the beeks on here are so busy feeding up, treating and getting ready for winter...and mine don't need me! I have fed, and at the moment thay aren't taking any more in - even though there is space in the super. I treated, with a very low drop and as it is a WBC there doesn't seem to be mauch I need to do for winter. They are still making orientation flights most days, and the hive is still really busy. Now if I had more hives...
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Bees not daft - it's official.

All the bees had made it down the porter bee escape - none left in the feeder :-) The wax cappings are all clean and honey-free. Polyanwood seems to be quite right that they won't re-use the wax - it's all left there, most of it beautiful white new wax (just a bit from the half-sheet of foundation). Why don't they re-use the nice bits? FG
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Wax cappings and honey rotivated.

Just checked colony 2, to which I had given the wax cappings (still containing some honey) from the frame I crushed and strained. There were about 20 bees in the feeder, which was a rapid type, with a hole in the middle going down to a hole in the crown-board. They had completely levelled the wax cappings, which had been wet and spooned in randomly to start with. I guess they've had all the honey out and are still looking for more. I don't know if they re-cycle the wax for their own comb building? I couldn't see a good way of getting them all out, so I put in the bee escape and put the feeder back on top so the bees could be 'cleared' back into the brood box. I'll check if any didn't make it tomorrow and try and re-home them. FG
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Tidying up, feeding again - eggs definitely seen in colony 2

Colony 1 is still going strongly. I took out the Apiguard tray, despite crystals still left in it: they were dry and powdery and no longer had a smell. I removed the super/eke and closed everything up to let them get on with it. Colony 2 is now growing again. I saw eggs and very young larvae (I guess the queen started laying again last Monday or so). There had been a play cup on one of the frames last week, but it has been taken down this week - I'm fairly sure. The feeder frame was empty and dry, so I removed it. The first 2 frames (furthest away from the brood nest against the other side), which hadn't really been touched much 2 weeks ago, were now nearly drawn and drawn and filled respectively. If they need more room, they...
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Hive Rules!

At the end of my garden, in the orchard, under the dappled shade of the trees, are two beautifully made cedar bee hives. Jim has clearly not read my hive rules. As I’ve told you before, I have a bee-mate called Jim, who keeps his hives in my garden. I’m helping him with his colonies until I feel confident enough to buy my own. My duck egg blue empty hive still sits directly outside the front door. A better burglar deterrent than poor old Suggs the chocolate Labrador (featured as a bear in my last blog). Just in case you need to know about the animals and insects that live we me, that’ll be Suggs the Labrador, Princess Lily Loobrush the Lilac Colourpoint British Shorthair very expensive gorgeous cat, Pikey the feral cat, about...
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Just fed Colony 2 with some gloopy 2:1

Used the yellow frame feeder from Modern Beekeeping. Found I was missing one of the floats at the last minute, by the hive (!) Had to use some tactical bits of stick on one side :-) 2 x 1 kg bags plus nearly a litre of warm water gave me 2 litres of gloop which filled the frame feeder to withina few inches of the top. The bees were quiet and clustered (about 12 C at the moment) so no smoke was needed. Hopefully, they'll stash the syrup away and process it in the next few days to give them something to fall back on if the weather turns bad (again). FG
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Just checked both colonies

Both Apiguard trays are still half-full of gel (1 week after the second treatment), although it just looked dried-up, rather than taken away by any bees. I really want to get it out of the smaller colony to let them get on with building up for Winter but I guess they'll have to keep it for another week. Colony 2 has LOTS of bees now, the weather was keeping them at home, I guess, so the full population was viewable at once. They have very little stores: the top brood box was very easy to lift off, which can't be good. There definitely ARE stores in there, but only two half frames of so. There were some larvae in there which was great, and I think I saw a few eggs too, but I'm never 100% certain of that. Seems like the queen is...
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Thank you RAB

Many thanks for helpful hint about heating wax cappings. We heated them over hot water and strained through some tights as you suggested and it worked a treat. Next year we'll definitely leave the cappings to drain overnight. It was the first time I'd used this website so next time I'll know to use the Forum. Diana
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Melting the wax cappings

After we extracted our honey, we put the cappings into our Ashforth feeder and left it in the hive. Unfortunately a lot of bees drowned in the honey. The cappings are now full of bits of bees which we need to filter out. What is the best way to melt the wax in order to strain it, please. Can it be microwaved? - Diana
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Last week's inspection

Failed to press 'send' on my last blog entry and only just noticed - duh! Mrs FG and I inspected both colonies last Saturday and gave them new Apiguard. Both trays still had dried up crystals in them. Queen in Colony 2 seemed to have stopped laying - there was lots of sealed brood, but a big ring of empty cells around them that had nothing in at all. I double-checked, in case the eggs were there but I really couldn't see anything this time. Colony 1 is still going great guns - lots of bees and using the lower brood box to put some stores away and do some brood rearing. Colony 2 seems a bit depleted - they are only very slowly building out the top box (still 2 frames of foundation to use). I was probably wrong to give them a whole...
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Mon 16th Aug.

This will be my last post to this blog. Wednesday I extracted and filtered the honey and bottled 44lb. 211lb total, from 1 hive.:willy_nilly: That a record for me. Also put the empty supers on the hive for a clean. Today removed the supers and treated for vorroa. Still got some capping for them to clean and then feed for winter.
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Happy foraging.

Both hives very busy today, and seemed happy. I approached carefully, with full suit on, to see what their reaction would be. No grumpiness at all, even when I was only a few feet from them (but not in their way). I waited there for 5 mins or so, but wasn't 'faced-off' at all. Half-way through first Apiguard session; next week is the last one. FG
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Adam the Wasp Man

So, I promised to tell you about the day Adam the wasp man came over. We’ve had so many wasps this year. A couple of weeks ago rather a lot of them were flying in and out of the eaves of the house. Cue, Adam the wasp man. Adam arrived and thought that there was at least two foolish things about me. First, that I should site a duck egg blue bee hive directly outside the house, facing my front door and second, that my wasps were most probably actually apis mellifera! Wrong twice. My duck egg blue bee hive had just been painted with my neighbours’ soluble kitchen paint and had been left to dry in the garden. No bees inside, only earwigs, and, if you read my first blog, earwig rearing is actually how I started out. I’m still...
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