Newbees don't panic!

[nelletap]

Has enrico been sitting on my shoulder? This is uncannily correct (ie teh first post in this thread!)

 

[CB008]

Whilst year 2 is definitely a different experience it is just as fun. In year one I too was in "love with my bees" and took 2 colonies carefully and worryingly through the winter. This year all hell broke loose with multiple swarms etc. All that love and attention and the b....ards left me ! Once I got over the "no longer" perfect situation it is great fun having 1 true colony on a snelgrove (it actually worked) and 4 Q- colonies that may or may not produce queens, need uniting or whatever. I consider year 2 the "learning by experince" phase.
All I can say is that there must have been a monumental increase in feral bees in thsi part of Surrrey.

 

[picton farm]

Not seen the Q in a fortnight and they are really pretty upset. Not as bad as last week, but yesterday when I was in there they started going nuts at the end of the first brood box.


If you are struggling to inspect a double brood it might be the amount of time you have the colony open for. You can do a quick look by tipping the top brood up and looking for queen cells. if you find none then you can assume they are not in the mood to go. If I find no queen cells on the bottom of the first brood then i will do a quick inspection of the top brood and then close up if I still find no cells.
Do you need them on a double? You could take the opportunity to split the colony and let the queenless part re-queen. A single is definately easier to handle. The queenright part of the split may well still build up to a double again this year.

 

[SixFooter]

Spot on my experience year 2, but also the terrors of Q marking

 

[busybee53]

Have you been looking in my hive Enrico?

I find year 2 raises questions that the books cover but not in a simple form for my newbee head. No wonder I keep posting questions on this forum. Thanks all of you who reply.

Please can anyone get the bees to read the same books as me.

 

[plumberman]

Whilst year 2 is definitely a different experience it is just as fun. In year one I too was in "love with my bees" and took 2 colonies carefully and worryingly through the winter. This year all hell broke loose with multiple swarms etc. All that love and attention and the b....ards left me ! Once I got over the "no longer" perfect situation it is great fun having 1 true colony on a snelgrove (it actually worked) and 4 Q- colonies that may or may not produce queens, need uniting or whatever. I consider year 2 the "learning by experince" phase.
All I can say is that there must have been a monumental increase in feral bees in thsi part of Surrrey.

Whereabouts in Guildford are you?

 

[RoseCottage]

The view from our world...

I guess in year 1 we became familiar with the hive, the bees, and basic prep for winter. We played with honey extraction.

Year 2 we learnt the value of a second hive, the test frame and trying to stay calm. We learnt the basic signs of supersedure and how to overcome the challenge of moving hives less than 3 miles. We also learnt the value of a 9 frame extractor. We tried to read the hive better.

Year 3 we are reading the hive a little better, we understand the basics of a naughty queenless hive, and how to bring a colony back from the nearly dead. We have learnt how to lose a queen to an unruly mob too. We have yet to do an AS or to lose a swarm but we know our turn will come...probably in Year 4.

We hope that year 4 will be fun, that we continue to stay calm as bees disappear all around us, and that we think clearly and see accurately what our colonies tell us.

All the best,
Sam

 

[frenchbees]

Reassuring to know other bees are not behaving according to the rules.
After loosing a swarm a few weeks after the hive arrived last year followed by weeks of "Am I Queenless?" I was determined to do an AS this year and have 2 colonies.
Bees had other plans.
Big plus though, they have remained very sweet natured.
I am ignoring the temptation to give up and will try to do better next year!

 

[CB008]

West Horsley - there are a surprising number of beeks in E & W Horsley

 

[For want of a better word]

West Horsley - there are a surprising number of beeks in E & W Horsley

I used to look after some commercial hives up on Ranmore Common, but they all got sold on when the owner went into wine production and wanted wine beetles to pollinate the vines or something!

Wine should be made in France in the Rhone Valley as far as I am concerned, and they can keep their Golden Delicious apples too !!!


NOT LOOSING THE THREAD....

I will be for ever a NEWBEE... as I forget what I did yesterday, let alone last year!!!!

 

[psafloyd]

Do you need them on a double? You could take the opportunity to split the colony and let the queenless part re-queen. A single is definately easier to handle. The queenright part of the split may well still build up to a double again this year.

All good advice and I concur 100%. I have wanted to split, but as I wasn't sure where the queen was, I was unsure how to do it if I couldn't find her.

The typical A/S without the queen is to split the brood and bees into two boxes. Should I therefore do it across four or could I get away with three? I wouldn't fancy four as the quadrupling of my hives on a half plot at my allotment might cause a few (and they are the few) who have concerns, to panic. What do you think?

The trouble is, with two successive sets of dodgy QEs, the brrod box has become heavily congested with stores. And though I have bruised combs to encourage the removal of honey upstairs, they seem reluctant to do so.

They haven't a lot of drawn comb in the additional super to be honest, but there is still spare space in the top one, so perhaps I'll move that down to directly above the BB next time.

Oh, and I wouldn't say these are particularly aggressive at all. Certainly not over-zealous guards. More than likely the brood is open too long the other evening as it was cooling (around 15-16C).

 

[picton farm]

I had a similar problem a week or so ago and managed a 3 way split. The number of strong hives you can make from it will depend how much is stores and how much is brood. I found they were not as full of brood as I had hoped.
Firstly, take out a frame of stores from the end of the top box to give you space so that you dont upset them too much. It helps to have a nuc box or travel box next to you to put things in and in case you need to do an A/S.
I did a 3 way carefully without finding the queen. I simply set up 2 new hives and moved a third of the brood into each of the two new ones, taking care to make sure that some new eggs were present in all of them. I went back 2 days later and it was clear that the queen was in one of the new boxes. I would have preferred her to be on the original site but it doesnt really matter as it just means the original hive is queenless and very strong with all the flying bees and so it is continuing to give me some honey whereas the other two need feeding as they have no foragers.
Once they are settled and the queenright one has flyers again you might find she builds up to a double again and therefore you can do another split later in the season. I think you are better to have three strong colonies from a double split rather than risking scrub queens and therefore poor colonies. I hope this is helpful. You need to make sure you have plenty of emerging brood in each split if you dont know where the queen is but if you find her, I tend to leave her in the original hive along with the flying bees so that I keep the honey flow and then remove a lot of the emerging brood so that the splits will have as many new nurse bees as possible asap. I try to make sure she has plenty of room to lay.
THe thing is that most of the time I split before I see proper queen cells. If you do have charged queen cells then go back to the 3 colonies after a couple of days and it will be clear which hive HM is in will find it much easier to find her with the reduced no of bees in the box. You can then remove her and one frame of brood and you will have your fourth colony and you will have done your A/S

 

[Gardenbees]

A very thoughtful thread topic! My bees here are now in their second year, and some of this applies whether the actual beek is in their second year or just the apiary itself. The first year really isn't that typical even if you've kept bees before and are setting up a new apiary for the first time.

This season has been quite hectic anyway, so no-one should be beating themselves up over the occasional unexpected swarm or difficult behaviour. Mine threw a wobbly at the end of March, didn't like being disturbed too close to swarming, and were very bad-tempered for a few days. But they have now settled down nicely. I also had an early couple of queens hatch, only one of which mated successfully, leaving me with a recent batch of drones to sort out. But they're all fine at the moment - I got one extra colony out of it, plus a caught swarm, they're all busily producing brood and honey, and it's not even June yet.

Newbees shouldn't worry too much about scary sessions with apparently out-of-control bees. Brave out the splits and swarm-chasing and occasional bad moods, and they should sort themselves out eventually. They're good at that. If in doubt, I always found that the best solution was to find a more experienced person e.g. to help find queens or do splits. Their relative calmness is very reassuring...

 

[psafloyd]

I had a similar problem a week or so ago and managed a 3 way split. The number of strong hives you can make from it will depend how much is stores and how much is brood. I found they were not as full of brood as I had hoped.
Firstly, take out a frame of stores from the end of the top box to give you space so that you dont upset them too much. It helps to have a nuc box or travel box next to you to put things in and in case you need to do an A/S.
I did a 3 way carefully without finding the queen. I simply set up 2 new hives and moved a third of the brood into each of the two new ones, taking care to make sure that some new eggs were present in all of them. I went back 2 days later and it was clear that the queen was in one of the new boxes. I would have preferred her to be on the original site but it doesnt really matter as it just means the original hive is queenless and very strong with all the flying bees and so it is continuing to give me some honey whereas the other two need feeding as they have no foragers.
Once they are settled and the queenright one has flyers again you might find she builds up to a double again and therefore you can do another split later in the season. I think you are better to have three strong colonies from a double split rather than risking scrub queens and therefore poor colonies. I hope this is helpful. You need to make sure you have plenty of emerging brood in each split if you dont know where the queen is but if you find her, I tend to leave her in the original hive along with the flying bees so that I keep the honey flow and then remove a lot of the emerging brood so that the splits will have as many new nurse bees as possible asap. I try to make sure she has plenty of room to lay.
THe thing is that most of the time I split before I see proper queen cells. If you do have charged queen cells then go back to the 3 colonies after a couple of days and it will be clear which hive HM is in will find it much easier to find her with the reduced no of bees in the box. You can then remove her and one frame of brood and you will have your fourth colony and you will have done your A/S

Muchas gracias, Picton.

 

[BBK]

A very timely thread posting enrico. I'm in Year 2 as well having nursed a varroa infested colony through the winter. No varroa to report so far (although I've learned my lesson from last year and will be keeping a close eye out this year).

The girls are building up nicely - apart from building brace comb everywhere, but biggest fear is that I'll loose them in a swarm I miss - the weather at the moment is making regular inspections an impossibility.

I pick up my second hive tonight and need to get it kitted out pdq. Revised my AS procedure in my head 101 times - just hope to goodness I get the opportunity to carry it out and they all stay put.

Second super going on tonight or tomorrow. If I don't get a few jars of honey off this year the nearest and dearest will consider me a failure!!

Challenging but rewarding.

 

[enrico]

Whatever you do the bees will want to do the opposite! I did an AS and have had two casts in two days, just the type of bee! My biggest problem has been having to get the casts from high trees as they were seriously thinking of lodging in my stone house walls. Far better to chain saw the tree than end up killing them because they were in the house wall! Not moaning just saying that however good or experienced you are the b*****tards still surprise you with their cunning. Just as well I love the challenge. Thanks for everyone who has said thankyou for the thread. It is too easy for the more experienced to forget how we felt when we started. Fortunately I remember it vividly!!
E

 

[Mandeville]

I'm not panicing so much as having a depression!!

None of my colonies have got brood or eggs, Mr M is complaining about how much space the kit is taking up in his shed, and if he has to go up a tree again after yet another swarm, he will probably start divorce proceedings!

 

[enrico]

Made me smile!!!

 

[Cazza]

I'm not panicing so much as having a depression!!

None of my colonies have got brood or eggs, Mr M is complaining about how much space the kit is taking up in his shed, and if he has to go up a tree again after yet another swarm, he will probably start divorce proceedings!

You need to get your own shed and climb the tree yourself, then marital harmony will be restored.
Personally I wait for HWMBO to pop off for his Sunday lunchtime pub visit so I can beek in peace.
Cazza

 

[Juststarting]

, Mr M is complaining about how much space the kit is taking up in his shed,

Unfortunately I found the phrases " this old dress - I've had it years" or "it was in the sales", just dont seem to work with bee kit - but I'm working on them