lily the pink
New Bee
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2011
- Messages
- 9
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Norfolk
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 2
Firstly apologies if I have broken the rules by copying this query from an existing thread to a new one, but it's a request for help not just a comment.
I'm still a newbee, and here in mid Norfolk the weather for the last three weeks has been mostly cold and wet. Since this is my first spring I've been torn between wanting to see what is going on in my two hives, and not getting them cold.
So in the half hour between 3 and 3.30 that was dry yesterday I tried to do a quick examination.
Both hives are showing the same presentation. Lots of stores still, in the super and some in the brood frames though most appears crystallised. (Is this possibly ivy, not sugar syrup?) Lots of bees. No worker brood. Scattered drone cells, and hatched drones. No sign of the queen but I've never seen either of them long enough to mark them, so I've been relying on evidence that she is there. One or two queen cells but I didn't examine every brood frame.
All together it looks like a bomb site, with the drawn comb having a very uneven level.
Little evidence of varroa last year and testing showed minimal nosema.
We have two fields of OSR within easy reach but it doesn't look as if my colonies are going to be able to take advantage even if the weather dries.
What do I do next? Feed syrup? (Put feeders on both hives yesterday evening in desperation.) Try to borrow two frames of eggs and brood? Borrow one frame and combine the bees? Wait and hope? Or put an ad on ebay for two hives, hardly used?
Thank you.
I'm still a newbee, and here in mid Norfolk the weather for the last three weeks has been mostly cold and wet. Since this is my first spring I've been torn between wanting to see what is going on in my two hives, and not getting them cold.
So in the half hour between 3 and 3.30 that was dry yesterday I tried to do a quick examination.
Both hives are showing the same presentation. Lots of stores still, in the super and some in the brood frames though most appears crystallised. (Is this possibly ivy, not sugar syrup?) Lots of bees. No worker brood. Scattered drone cells, and hatched drones. No sign of the queen but I've never seen either of them long enough to mark them, so I've been relying on evidence that she is there. One or two queen cells but I didn't examine every brood frame.
All together it looks like a bomb site, with the drawn comb having a very uneven level.
Little evidence of varroa last year and testing showed minimal nosema.
We have two fields of OSR within easy reach but it doesn't look as if my colonies are going to be able to take advantage even if the weather dries.
What do I do next? Feed syrup? (Put feeders on both hives yesterday evening in desperation.) Try to borrow two frames of eggs and brood? Borrow one frame and combine the bees? Wait and hope? Or put an ad on ebay for two hives, hardly used?
Thank you.