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 on is very heavy. I will probably extract this next week.
No 7 is not in use
No 8 is expanding with a solid brood pattern
No 9 is the queen and bees that swarmed out of no 6 on the 5th. The colony is expanding rapidly, it has solid brood across 9 frames with a very prolific queen. The bees are working in the super.
If I can stay ahead of the swarming impulse in this colony they will set an example for the other colonies. This queen arrived in a swarm last year and overwintered in a 14 x 12 plywood hive with a hive cozy.
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 on is very heavy. I will probably extract this next week.
No 7 is not in use
No 8 is expanding with a solid brood pattern
No 9 is the queen and bees that swarmed out of no 6 on the 5th. The colony is expanding rapidly, it has solid brood across 9 frames with a very prolific queen. The bees are working in the super.
If I can stay ahead of the swarming impulse in this colony they will set an example for the other colonies. This queen arrived in a swarm last year and overwintered in a 14 x 12 plywood hive with a hive cozy.
