SavvySalli
New Bee
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2016
- Messages
- 37
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Devizes, Wiltshire
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 1
Hi, this is my first year so everything that happens is new!
I have a National hive with pitched roof and a calm, happy colony which I obtained in early June. Apart from a couple of stings everything's been going well and we took off 30lbs of honey, still leaving one full super on for winter.
The site is open although protected from the north by a hedge and the hive faces south with frames on the cold way.
To my inexperienced eye the colony is no smaller than it was in July too but according to everything I'm told, and I read (on here, Ted Hooper, BBKA, etc etc) the hive should be decreasing now and winter bees should be appearing.
I have just put the second tray of Apiguard on, and am feeding them syrup using a rapid feeder as advised by my mentor. These are both sitting directly on the brood frames with a spare super as eke, as obviously unless I put on another eke there's no room for the feeder on top of the crown board.
The full super is under the brood box and the qxl is removed. As the hive seemed very full and was a bit of an 'oh good heavens' moment I've put on an empty (ie no frames) super at the bottom, onto the mesh floor. The varroa tray is in as is the anti-invader entrance.
When I put the second Apiguard tray on they began the bearding, not very much at first but today I went to check the syrup level and they're everywhere. There are plenty of bees with pollen walking about on the hive, and probably about 20% of the others around the hive have their bottoms raised but for what reason they would need to be releasing pheromones I don't know..
There are a lot (hundreds) around the entrance, there is a big beard of them underneath the hive hanging, and a couple of little clusters around on the stand.
They seemed more testy today than yesterday when I fed them and they almost completely ignored the smoker!
I keep my mentor up to speed with everything that I do (his guidance, I'd be lost without him - despite doing the first course!) and he's not concerned because others in the club seem to be having similar problems.
Initially the concern was that I'd dropped the queen when lifting off the brood box but they're all very happy on the brood frames, pottering about doing their duties as usual so I think she must be there.
It has occurred to me that the entrance might be blocked by drones because when I moved the QXL there were dead drones stuck in the grid where the house bees had obviously tried to evict/remove them. The narrowed entrance is an 'official' one, not my cobbled together effort.
I like to understand everything that's going on and I was hoping that people could give me some more detailed information on what they're up to with the bearding, and as a combination of factors, why this is their response!
Hopefully I've given enough information to give you the picture.
Thank you.
I have a National hive with pitched roof and a calm, happy colony which I obtained in early June. Apart from a couple of stings everything's been going well and we took off 30lbs of honey, still leaving one full super on for winter.
The site is open although protected from the north by a hedge and the hive faces south with frames on the cold way.
To my inexperienced eye the colony is no smaller than it was in July too but according to everything I'm told, and I read (on here, Ted Hooper, BBKA, etc etc) the hive should be decreasing now and winter bees should be appearing.
I have just put the second tray of Apiguard on, and am feeding them syrup using a rapid feeder as advised by my mentor. These are both sitting directly on the brood frames with a spare super as eke, as obviously unless I put on another eke there's no room for the feeder on top of the crown board.
The full super is under the brood box and the qxl is removed. As the hive seemed very full and was a bit of an 'oh good heavens' moment I've put on an empty (ie no frames) super at the bottom, onto the mesh floor. The varroa tray is in as is the anti-invader entrance.
When I put the second Apiguard tray on they began the bearding, not very much at first but today I went to check the syrup level and they're everywhere. There are plenty of bees with pollen walking about on the hive, and probably about 20% of the others around the hive have their bottoms raised but for what reason they would need to be releasing pheromones I don't know..
There are a lot (hundreds) around the entrance, there is a big beard of them underneath the hive hanging, and a couple of little clusters around on the stand.
They seemed more testy today than yesterday when I fed them and they almost completely ignored the smoker!
I keep my mentor up to speed with everything that I do (his guidance, I'd be lost without him - despite doing the first course!) and he's not concerned because others in the club seem to be having similar problems.
Initially the concern was that I'd dropped the queen when lifting off the brood box but they're all very happy on the brood frames, pottering about doing their duties as usual so I think she must be there.
It has occurred to me that the entrance might be blocked by drones because when I moved the QXL there were dead drones stuck in the grid where the house bees had obviously tried to evict/remove them. The narrowed entrance is an 'official' one, not my cobbled together effort.
I like to understand everything that's going on and I was hoping that people could give me some more detailed information on what they're up to with the bearding, and as a combination of factors, why this is their response!
Hopefully I've given enough information to give you the picture.
Thank you.
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