Well my one reader...today was a turn up for the books. After my rant about the weather earlier, the day was far better than forecast and I managed inspections of 12 colonies and made 2 nucs too.
The first site - all was calm and sadly one is queenless. One last chance to save them by putting in a frame of brood. There's an outside chance there is an unmated virgin in there but I'm not hopeful. I also gave a litre of Ambrosia as these bees are further behind my main apiary.
The main difference is the forage - lots more open fields and grassland and a fledgling orchard or pear, apple, plum and mirabelles...though none out just yet.
On to the main apiary - where I've been battling with the railway gangs who keep piling spoil on the turning area (with a trailer in tow this is annoying !) but luckily the site was largely clear - albeit the useless newt fence was still there (it's been clobbered so often there are gaps under it. useless ! )
So the most interesting fact of the day was an introduced queen into a nuc from 8 days ago was still in her cage - the bees hadn't released her but they were feeding her through the metal - so I let her out and she was soon being looked after by attendant workers. fingers crossed there.
Somehow, and this was a surprise, in spite of the inclement weather, 2 hives have around a super of OSR honey on them already. Quite a reversal of fortunes. I checked all but 4 colonies and split a double brood chamber into a single and 2 nucs (into two of the new Maisemore nucs) and fed them, and also did a shook swarm on another colony that was making preparations. This one was feisty - really feisty. Re-queening needed for certain later on but a shook swarm for now and I popped on an old round section super I had kicking around for good measure to see what they could do with it....probably not alot !
Switched brood chambers on a 14x12 too that I've been meaning to do for a while.
So with 2 middling colonies, 4 nucs so far and one unsuccessful re-queening it's been an eventful season so far.
Night all,
S
The first site - all was calm and sadly one is queenless. One last chance to save them by putting in a frame of brood. There's an outside chance there is an unmated virgin in there but I'm not hopeful. I also gave a litre of Ambrosia as these bees are further behind my main apiary.
The main difference is the forage - lots more open fields and grassland and a fledgling orchard or pear, apple, plum and mirabelles...though none out just yet.
On to the main apiary - where I've been battling with the railway gangs who keep piling spoil on the turning area (with a trailer in tow this is annoying !) but luckily the site was largely clear - albeit the useless newt fence was still there (it's been clobbered so often there are gaps under it. useless ! )
So the most interesting fact of the day was an introduced queen into a nuc from 8 days ago was still in her cage - the bees hadn't released her but they were feeding her through the metal - so I let her out and she was soon being looked after by attendant workers. fingers crossed there.
Somehow, and this was a surprise, in spite of the inclement weather, 2 hives have around a super of OSR honey on them already. Quite a reversal of fortunes. I checked all but 4 colonies and split a double brood chamber into a single and 2 nucs (into two of the new Maisemore nucs) and fed them, and also did a shook swarm on another colony that was making preparations. This one was feisty - really feisty. Re-queening needed for certain later on but a shook swarm for now and I popped on an old round section super I had kicking around for good measure to see what they could do with it....probably not alot !
Switched brood chambers on a 14x12 too that I've been meaning to do for a while.
So with 2 middling colonies, 4 nucs so far and one unsuccessful re-queening it's been an eventful season so far.
Night all,
S
