Slightly Mental Bees

[oliver90owner]

That's all right. At least, there is less likelihood of further disagreement with us old 'uns agreeing.

You can probably remember them drafting the Standard? I am just a tad younger than you!

Regards, RAB

 

[freethorpe bees]

Oh alright then I'll just crawl to the nearest corner while wearing a titfa with a 'D' on it!!

Told you my opinion was humble...

 

[Midland Beek]

Short of time, only had a quick look at this thread BUT are my eyes deceiving me or is that drone base?

Foundation for brood frames comes embossed with a cell pattern on it. Big cells = drone base foundation. Small cells = worker foundation.

In your brood box it really all has to be normal worker foundation.

Hence the mess in your hive.

 

[Ceph]

They went a bit more mental this week.

For some reason I had a brain wave and thought I should try and remove the entrance block to open up their entrance as it might help them in this good flow.

Well they decided that there is a hole in the frame somewhere in the roof and that is a far better entrance to clamber over each other than the nice big entrance below.

I didnt even know there was a hole! Shined a torch up the gap around the roof and it looks like the timbers dont meet in the internal frame of the roof.

Great, now they are open to straight attack from below.

Not a guard to been since I got them.

Saying that Ive never seen any robbing of them or attempts but who knows.

 

[Ceph]

Short of time, only had a quick look at this thread BUT are my eyes deceiving me or is that drone base?

Foundation for brood frames comes embossed with a cell pattern on it. Big cells = drone base foundation. Small cells = worker foundation.

In your brood box it really all has to be normal worker foundation.

Hence the mess in your hive.

Im not sure I'll have a butchers when I open it up this weekend and compare to foundation elsewhere.

As far as I know I dont own drone foundation, but it wouldnt surprise me if the balloon who I bought the hive off supplied drone foundation instead of worker.

 

[Midland Beek]

As far as I know I dont own drone foundation, but it wouldnt surprise me if the balloon who I bought the hive off supplied drone foundation instead of worker.

If you have never seen drone foundation you would not spot it as such. But the cell pattern embossed into the foundation is larger with drone as opposed to worker foundation. Sizes of worker cells and drone cells to be found on internet somewhere.

It is good that you have spotted the hole in the roof. The wasps would have found it in late summer.

I've taken my entrance blocks out - oilseed rape flowering in my district.

And you tend not to get robber bees or many guards in a land of plenty, like we have at the moment. It is summer and when the nectar has dried up in the fields that you can get robbing problems.

 

[Midland Beek]

Cell sizes: http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman/cellsize.html

 

[Tom Bick]

I don’t think its drone foundation from the photos, looks normal worker to me.

Ceph looks like your bees are on a bit of an acid trip to me am I right that they are intent on building the comb at 45* to the frames or is it just masses of brace comb.

I don’t know if this was a wined up but did someone go on about lay lines and bees building comb why not try rotating the hive so the frames line up with the direction they are trying to build if that is what they are up to. At the worst it may give them a bad trip.

 

[Ceph]

Ha haa, you are correct they have built a load at 45 degrees and a mass of brace comb aswell.

I took a load of the comb out and have it in a bucket so Ill take some better pics and post them with some of the original wild nest they built.

I put some of the comb with dead brood on the bird table the other day and had to rescue it off next doors shed this morning. It seems the mental bees are turning the squirrels a bit mental too!

Never heard that about lay lines and comb (could be a wind up!) I dont recall Alfred Watkins mentioning it. Saying that he only went on about old roads I think.


Midland Beek - I will measure it tomorrow, thanks!!

 

[Ceph]

Are you sure you know the difference between a queen cell cup and a queen cell? All colonies contain queen cell cups and they mean nothing.

Err Ive just re-read this and have to put my hand up, no I havnt got a clue what the difference is, please explain.

Or direct me somewhere to read, tried googling and couldnt figure it out.

Cheers

 

[newportbuzz]

srry didnt work.
basicly a queen cell looks like a peanut
and a queen cup looks like a tiny cup(no handle)
google has good images of them.

 

[MuswellMetro]

Err Ive just re-read this and have to put my hand up, no I havnt got a clue what the difference is, please explain.

Or direct me somewhere to read, tried googling and couldnt figure it out.

Cheers

CEPH

where are you in London, i am in Muswell Hill N10, how far are you away from me, if you are close i could come an look

bees in the wild build comb aligned with magnetic lines of force, i have found it is normally north south alignment

we might just be able to solve this with a just shift of the hive through 45 degrees

BUT you are using three types of spacers, stick to one, either hoffman or narrows, ditch the metal castle they are a pain in a brood box as the frames stick and the metal cuts your gloves, in a super it does not matter you do not remove the super frames each inspection, just the whole box of frames

 

[MuswellMetro]

John 'Hawk-eye' Wilkinson,

I thought you may have spotted the top bee space with a bottom bee space box. Bet the crownboard, if one is fitted, is bottom bee space.

Frame spacing appears to be eleven, after a rough measure on the screen.

Regards, RAB

he says he bought it made up so is it top bee space or just the castles are fitted to low down, they don't stick up above the shoulders and it will all get propolised together in not time, he just needs frame runners fitted to lift the frames up and it becomes correct height for a bottom bee space box

AND A BEEKEEPERS COURSE and BOOK, and probably BDI and BBKA membership and probabley local BK association

 

[Ceph]

Ahh I know what you mean now. Thinking about it there was a cell and cups in the wild hive, and have cells and cups in my normal hive.

Funny I never noticed cups last year in the normal hive.

 

[Ceph]

CEPH

where are you in London, i am in Muswell Hill N10, how far are you away from me, if you are close i could come an look

bees in the wild build comb aligned with magnetic lines of force, i have found it is normally north south alignment

we might just be able to solve this with a just shift of the hive through 45 degrees

BUT you are using three types of spacers, stick to one, either hoffman or narrows, ditch the metal castle they are a pain in a brood box as the frames stick and the metal cuts your gloves, in a super it does not matter you do not remove the super frames each inspection, just the whole box of frames

Yeah I know I have different spacers, just havnt removed the plastics ends off some spare frames I got from my mentors when going to collect the wild colony.

My normal hive is next to it and runs West to East and is fine, so dont think it is that, will see what tomorrow brings when I open them up and see what they have done in the past week.

I would put money on one of them trying to get a bet going about throwing a sink through the wall and going to watch the world series, before I caught them I think they flew over a cuckoos nest.

 

[Skyhook]

Here's a thing.

Looked at my girls today (which I split into 2 with queen cells and foundation- its a long story). One half seems to have a virgin emerged, and they'd drawn their foundation beautifully. The other hasn't yet, and they'd built at all sorts of weird angles. Draw your own conclusions.

 

[Ceph]

Got some pics here of how they were when I went to collect them last year.

There was 3 combs on one side of the trellis and two on the other, if you can make that out from the pics.

Ive more pics of the mass I had in the nuc box but cant find them at the mo.

I had to trim all the honey suckle etc before working into the comb to cut and move it into a nuc overnight before collecting the next evening.

 

[Mike a]

great pictures.

 

[Ceph]

Here's a thing.

Looked at my girls today (which I split into 2 with queen cells and foundation- its a long story). One half seems to have a virgin emerged, and they'd drawn their foundation beautifully. The other hasn't yet, and they'd built at all sorts of weird angles. Draw your own conclusions.

Hmmm thats makes something to ponder then.

When I bought my nuc the old fella who sells them was saying to me that you get some bees that are just rubbish at building and some are great. Its just that way he said. Bizarre now I think of it as that was 3 months before I caught my wild colony.

Saying that from my pics you can see these where normal until I tried to 'domesticate' them.

Ill be intrested to see how your come along Skyhook.