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Little C's seen :-)

OK, just done a quick checking inspection, to see if there's really eggs and larvae or not in those brood frames. Yes, there are! I could hardly see the tiny little things, right at the bottom of the dark cells. Even when the sun shone on the frame for a few seconds, and I angled the frame about to try and see to the bottom, I almost gave up looking - they're tiny! Anyway, assuming I haven't chilled or irradiated the poor things too much, the queen was definitely there recently. I saw the head of a worker, half out of its capped cell, so there should soon be more room to lay in. All's looking good. FG
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Fire up the camcorder, let's see what a week's achieved!

Camcorder on charge, waiting for the sun to come out and the temp to rise a bit. I'll try and do exactly the same inspection, so we can see how much further they've filled out. I will TRY to see the queen this time too, but hopefully there'll be lots of eggs, or more probably larvae, so eye-balling the Head Honcho won't be critical. I'm guessing they'll only have a few frames left to use by now, so I'll have to get an order in for a second storey at Chez Buzz. More later, hopefully with a vid so you can virtually inspect with me :-) FG
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New Bees

Picked up a new hive with bees on Tues 8th June. Was a long drive for the girls and me!! Oxford about 20 mins past silverston. Met Andrew, really nice guy, payed £220. He gave me some frames and a new floor for the first hive. Been raining and windy for two days now, seems the first hive has been busyer even though i know theres 3 times as many bees in the new hive. Been a nice day today both hives look happy and well.
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Cloud of bees

Lots of foraging going on at lunchtime, when it was nice and warm between showers. A lot of the bees seemed to be orienting, rather than coming and going directly. I'm hoping this indicates that lots of that capped brood has now emerged and some of the new bees are learning their home ground? FG
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Bees happy and well

Today's inspection went better than the last - I still forgot everything, but had a video of it this time :-) I've uploaded it to the video section. http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/video.php?do=viewdetails&videoid=73 They seem to be expanding steadily after 2 weeks. I'll try and keep away from them and let them get on with it :-) FG
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First full check

First full check, went well. Didn't see a queen only one closed queen cell. Not starting drawing on the new wax foundation. Sprayed sugar syrup on all the frames. Removed the wax foundation that was suck together, was mostly a honey store but had about twenty sealed brood comb. Put on top of the crown board, will check again in a wk. May need to requeen. Bought another hive today, should pick up on tues. Cant wait!!!
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First Bees

Got four frames off bees, bit of a mess, two frames totaly stuck together. One with brood and honey, two capped queen cells, not sure when there'll hatch? Had another look just after lunch, lots of Drones flying round, bees look busy, fingers crossed.
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Mon 31st May.

The brood box and all supers still full of bees. But still No Queen Cells?? Only few play cups. I put a clearer board on 27th and removed top super. Put the clearer board back on and added another super. Right Hive. Saw the Queen.:) 20 frames of brood. Top super Full. 2nd super 4/5. Almost full 3rd super 1/2. 4th Empty
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First proper inspection - colony good, inspection technique poor

Hooray, they are alive and well! Just done an inspection on the new colony. They had been bringing in pollen and nectar (?) for a while now, so I was keen to see how things looked inside. Removed dummy board; took out untouched first frame; next was being drawn out on the far side; next was so heavy I thought it was stuck in the hive :-) ; next, lots of capped brood, with some big fat white larvae in 100 or so cells in the corner; lots more capped brood in the next, totally covered in bees; brood (I think) in the next with some stores; a bit more stores in the next and 3 untouched frame left. I'm not totally sure about the middle and beyond frames because I was so happy looking at what was going on, I forgot to remember everything...
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Lots of pollen coming in . . .

Yesterday evening they were going great guns. Lots of dull yellowy grey pollen coming in. I couldn't see where they were getting it from, but there's been a total absence of honeybees from the area this year so they currently have a ridiculous list of options to choose from. They seem to be heading off into the woods, despite Mrs FG's lovely garden full of flowers in full bloom . . . Took a look inside (just lifted the roof and observed through the clear plastic cover). They are thick across 3 frames, with a few bees further out, so I guess they are concentrating on making more bees and slowly expanding the brood nest area. I was going to do a proper look-in today but it's currently raining. Tomorrow is lots of fencing work, so I...
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sting

Took home my first Nuke three weeks ago had been fine. I checked and found the outer frames had been drawn out and there was honey in some of them . Stopped feeding them and added a supper. all fine so far, The leather gloves I was using to open the hive got wet. I hung them on the washing line 30 yards from the hive. My wife went to hang her washing the next day and was stung by a bee who attacked her. Is there a link ? I have turned the entrance 180 degrees so they will fly in the other direction. should I need to move the washing line ? Can anyone help on this as I would not want an other incident.
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Cloud of bees, and a bee murderer caught in the act!

Thanks everyone for the kind words, and another big thanks to the Teynham Two for sorting out Mrs FG and me for the second time. Today was my best beekeeping day yet. There was a cloud of very happy bees doing orientation flights, foraging, humming and generally doing the proper bee stuff! The hive sounded like a V12 E-Type jag on tick-over :-) A large bush in my garden (some sort of bushy Honeysuckle, Mrs FG tells me) was still covered in bees at 8.40 pm. Before yesterday, there wasn't a honeybee to be seen anywhere in my garden. Only down-side was the bee killer: just as my sister-in-law and I were sat watching the bees from 10 feet or so away, a bird came down low, missed us by a few feet, flew over the hive and landed on a...
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Whoo Hoo!!! I'll be a beekeeper in 12 hours!

Off to GWW's and Widdershins's secret Kent-based bee factory to collect a small nuc/swarm they've made up for me :-) Mrs FG is coming on the 2 x 3.5 hour drive too so it's a Grand Day Out. Hopefully the extra 5 months this year will give me enough time for them to build up to a strong colony before winter. I'm also using a poly Lang this year to cope with the cold dreary weather at chez FG. Wish me luck, fellow Beeks!!!!! FG
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Hive straps

Can anyone help.....need to move my hive and struggling with how to use a hive strap....the type as at http://www.bees-online.co.uk/view.asp?ID=857 Looks simple but just cannot get it to work, How do I thread it? A
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New to bees

we have discovered some bees inour shed settled in our ferrets carry box. The box contains sawdust and news paper. There are a handful of bees and two or three pods of gold. One is open and all three are the size of an infants fist. There is unfortunatly a large dead bumble bee inside - we have left it - and a huge big mama bumble bee with a white/light yellow/gold bum - sorry but didnt hang around too long to look! bees are all thumb nail size or smaller and bumble bees - not hunny bees! I do not want them disrtoyed - but we do need to look at trying tomove them. Please help us. Hopfully - the Smiths x
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Fresh marking pens

OK, if I remember I think I wrote about the split I did when it started getting warmer in order to make two nucs from a strong colony - and how it went wrong with only 1 queen being produced and the old queen becoming lost. I presumed the old queen was lost after not seeing any eggs in the old brood chamber for 2 inspections, and I (wrongly) presumed that the queen cells I popped in from the nuc had hatched and the other one had been torn down by a new virgin queen. Well, checked this hive yesterday and found.....lots of day old eggs. Success I thought ! Now where is the queen to mark her ? Well she was at the back of the brood chamber, and......well I am blowed, I see the faint outlines of a previous marked queen, which checking my...
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