Bee honest…did you inspect this weekend?

[Erichalfbee]

Going to be pretty cold again as the week progresses

I’m dithering about putting the sweet peas I have sitting under lights in my garden room into the greenhouse

 

[BeekeeperBob]

Duplicate

 

[pargyle]

Why pull a frame? look at the cells - dark, old and propolised - was it actually charged with a growing larva or just old gunk remaining from last season?

It's no use Emyr... there will always be those with itchy fingers ... My view - what are you looking for and what can you do with what you find. If you can't heft a set of luggage scales are cheap as chips and regular weighing - sorted.

Even down here on the Costa del Fareham it's not spring yet. Our blackthorn is still at least a week off and a lot of the other spring trees and shrubs are not even in bud yet.

 

[pargyle]

For most the hives the brood was just in the top box.
A few had chimneyd, we just moved them into one and kept them together.

A good few were honey bound on one side, so we just put the honey on the edges and the brood together next to empty comb.

We find it usually helps them along.

And if it gets really cold ? Isolates the cluster from the stores - potential for isolation starvation and dead brood.

 

[pargyle]

I’m dithering about putting the sweet peas I have sitting under lights in my garden room into the greenhouse

Apart from some broad beans I haven't sowed any seeds yet ...

 

[BeekeeperBob]

And if it gets really cold ? Isolates the cluster from the stores - potential for isolation starvation and dead brood.

And if it gets really cold ? Isolates the cluster from the stores - potential for isolation starvation and dead brood.

They have plenty of food right beside and above the cluster. Literally right beside the brood and all frames have a good honey band on them. We also feed syrup which is right on top.

Also, the weather isn't looking too cold. They may cluster overnight, but will be free during the daytime.

We also added foundation underneath a few colonies which have already started drawing comb.

 

[Garry R]

I have one hive which appeared very weak. Fondant on the top and was tempted to have a look a couple of weeks ago but decided it was too cold. Moved on until today and opened up to find the bottom of the floor covered in dead bees to the extent of blocking the entrance. Cleared them off and scorched the floor and put the brood box back. Had a look at the three frames with the few bees on them and there was her ladyship walking around them with a little patch of eggs. Now wish I had risked it a few weeks back. May or may not survive with some TLC. If they make it I will be thrilled as they were super temper last year and had hoped to raise new queens.

 

[Sutty]

I have one hive which appeared very weak. Fondant on the top and was tempted to have a look a couple of weeks ago but decided it was too cold. Moved on until today and opened up to find the bottom of the floor covered in dead bees to the extent of blocking the entrance. Cleared them off and scorched the floor and put the brood box back. Had a look at the three frames with the few bees on them and there was her ladyship walking around them with a little patch of eggs. Now wish I had risked it a few weeks back. May or may not survive with some TLC. If they make it I will be thrilled as they were super temper last year and had hoped to raise new queens.

I'd put them in a nuc, though i wouldn't have looked yet!

 

[pargyle]

They have plenty of food right beside and above the cluster. Literally right beside the brood and all frames have a good honey band on them. We also feed syrup which is right on top.

Also, the weather isn't looking too cold. They may cluster overnight, but will be free during the daytime.

We also added foundation underneath a few colonies which have already started drawing comb.

8 degrees from Tuesday, colder overnight ... bees cluster at 10 to 12 degrees and tigten the cluster as it drops.

 

[BeekeeperBob]

I have one hive which appeared very weak. Fondant on the top and was tempted to have a look a couple of weeks ago but decided it was too cold. Moved on until today and opened up to find the bottom of the floor covered in dead bees to the extent of blocking the entrance. Cleared them off and scorched the floor and put the brood box back. Had a look at the three frames with the few bees on them and there was her ladyship walking around them with a little patch of eggs. Now wish I had risked it a few weeks back. May or may not survive with some TLC. If they make it I will be thrilled as they were super temper last year and had hoped to raise new queens.

I think too much is made of not doing quick checks early on. We find alot of problems can be resolved quickly. We don't do full inspections, just a quick check for food, space and anything else obvious often saves colonies in my experience.

General rule for us, is if they are flying freely, then a quick early check in March helps alot. Obviously, we only do this when the weather is forecast to be warm the night after.

Seems to work for us....and goes against the "wait untill the shirt weather" mantra.

As said above, we also had one that needed to be put into a nuc from a full hive...which we did. They will do much better as a result. They were flying alot more vigorously a few days later collecting more pollen. I believe this is due to the pheromone given of by brood that stimulates foraging. If its in a smaller more condensed space, I believe it helps concentrate the pheromone which stimulates more foraging. Certainly the bees went from just milling around d to vigorously foraging withing 24hrs.

 

[BeekeeperBob]

8 degrees from Tuesday, colder overnight ... bees cluster at 10 to 12 degrees and tigten the cluster as it drops.

That's external temperatures.....the internals are 30 degrees now. We don't see clustering untill much lower temps...poly boxes that are rammed with bees.

It works for us.

But still...they can cluster around the brood which is still in the same shape and size and like I said....they have food immediately adjacent and above.

 

[Newbeeneil]

It's no use Emyr... there will always be those with itchy fingers ... My view - what are you looking for and what can you do with what you find. If you can't heft a set of luggage scales are cheap as chips and regular weighing - sorted.

Even down here on the Costa del Fareham it's not spring yet. Our blackthorn is still at least a week off and a lot of the other spring trees and shrubs are not even in bud yet.

Philip, I showed you a colony of mine that had starved last week. As I said at the time it hefted ok but that was probably due to the amount of bees piled up on the floor.
I have therefore done inspections on any hives I thought may be in the same state. I found two very large colonies that again hefted ok but were very short of stores and I would rather have a quick look in a period of warm weather than shovel a load of corpses out.

 

[The Poot]

No, but was tempted to. I washed my suits instead.

 

[BeekeeperBob]

It's no use Emyr... there will always be those with itchy fingers ... My view - what are you looking for and what can you do with what you find. If you can't heft a set of luggage scales are cheap as chips and regular weighing - sorted.

Even down here on the Costa del Fareham it's not spring yet. Our blackthorn is still at least a week off and a lot of the other spring trees and shrubs are not even in bud yet.

Just weighing often isn't enough. Especially if the brood is against a wall....

We weigh all our hives, you would be surprised the amount that heft heavy, but don't have full contact with food around the nest.

 

[pargyle]

That's external temperatures.....the internals are 30 degrees now. We don't see clustering untill much lower temps...poly boxes that are rammed with bees.

It works for us.

But still...they can cluster around the brood which is still in the same shape and size and like I said....they have food immediately adjacent and above.

Yes .. all mine are poly boxes with insulation above the crownboard and they are active in the hive when the temperatures are not warm enough for them to fly,

 

[BeekeeperBob]

Yes .. all mine are poly boxes with insulation above the crownboard and they are active in the hive when the temperatures are not warm enough for them to fly,

Then they are not clustered and can freely access food wherever they need too.

 

[Murox]

No. Heft yes. Put fondant on a nuc. Watched pollen n going in. Checked all straps and ground anchors.

 

[Erichalfbee]

you would be surprised the amount that heft heavy, but don't have full contact with food around the nest.

The advantage of poly.

 

[BeekeeperBob]

The advantage of poly.

I actually think it's a disadvantage.

It's not unusual to find the nest against a poly wall as its the most insulated spot. Whereas in wood, they are usually more in the middle of the hive and hence have food either side.

But we only have 3 wood hives vs 46 poly, so it may be a poor sample size.

 

[Penninetrader]

I think too much is made of not doing quick checks early on. We find alot of problems can be resolved quickly. We don't do full inspections, just a quick check for food, space and anything else obvious often saves colonies in my experience.

General rule for us, is if they are flying freely, then a quick early check in March helps alot. Obviously, we only do this when the weather is forecast to be warm the night after.

Seems to work for us....and goes against the "wait untill the shirt weather" mantra.

As said above, we also had one that needed to be put into a nuc from a full hive...which we did. They will do much better as a result. They were flying alot more vigorously a few days later collecting more pollen. I believe this is due to the pheromone given of by brood that stimulates foraging. If its in a smaller more condensed space, I believe it helps concentrate the pheromone which stimulates more foraging. Certainly the bees went from just milling around d to vigorously foraging withing 24hrs.

I also would add. In a smaller space the size of cluster can be smaller to keep the temp correct which would release more bees to forage.