canterbury_keeper
New Bee
- Joined
- May 25, 2014
- Messages
- 49
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Canterbury
- Hive Type
- Langstroth
- Number of Hives
- 2
Hi - I did a mini inspection today in advance of a visit next weekend (I'm living an hour's drive from my bees at the moment- so have to try and make the most of my visits).
I lost one colony over winter - (which is why I was up at the apiary - to retreve and clean the hive).
The second hive looks like this:
Saw bees taking in pollen a couple of weeks back, and found brood and larva today (didn't go through every frame - stopped once I found brood, so didnt feel I needed to spot the queen).
The first 4 frames I checked were a mixture of capped stores and what I assume is crystalised Ivy nectar from last year. The other brood frames had bees and some stores. A couple of cells in the stores looked mouldy/white - but most were ok.
I left a super on over winter because it was only 25% full, so I thought the bees would prefer their own stores. There's still a fair bit of capped honey and solid ivy stuff in there.
I didnt spot any queen cells. Although as I said, I didnt do a full inspection.
So - Do I need to do anything about the ivy stores or even move the brood around a bit (I'm worried that the lack of bees on these frames means that they are blocked on the other side of the brood box.
Also should I get rid of the ivy stores in the super?
Thanks in advance.
Marc
I lost one colony over winter - (which is why I was up at the apiary - to retreve and clean the hive).
The second hive looks like this:
Saw bees taking in pollen a couple of weeks back, and found brood and larva today (didn't go through every frame - stopped once I found brood, so didnt feel I needed to spot the queen).
The first 4 frames I checked were a mixture of capped stores and what I assume is crystalised Ivy nectar from last year. The other brood frames had bees and some stores. A couple of cells in the stores looked mouldy/white - but most were ok.
I left a super on over winter because it was only 25% full, so I thought the bees would prefer their own stores. There's still a fair bit of capped honey and solid ivy stuff in there.
I didnt spot any queen cells. Although as I said, I didnt do a full inspection.
So - Do I need to do anything about the ivy stores or even move the brood around a bit (I'm worried that the lack of bees on these frames means that they are blocked on the other side of the brood box.
Also should I get rid of the ivy stores in the super?
Thanks in advance.
Marc