Yesterday was a glorious warm and sunny evening so all the beekeeping jobs managed to get done here is a brief list.
1) Two colonies were set up ready for Q. Rearing, this effectively meant doing a vertical split on them, a new technique I learnt this year and will try and put it in a diagram for you at some point, very easy to do, difficult to explain. What at the end of the day we are looking for is a very strong q. less unit for raising our queens which will be doing next Thursday.
2) Swarm on the bottom of the Rose Hive - The swarm on the bottom of the mesh floor was only small most of the flying bees had already returned to the main hive. Therefore it was possible for us to find the marked and clipped queen pull her out and cage her. Once caged we made a nuc up for here (from a different hive, as we don't have a rose nuc box). And reintroduced her using a queen cage and some newspaper.
3) There seemed to be virgin queens flying around everywhere, as it has been two weeks since our inspections many of the queen cells where just popping out.
4) A lot of feeding and removing of empty supers went on because many of the bees were very low on stores, I expect we will have to undo all of that next week.
Finally to show nobody perfect, I had caged one of the queens whilst we were doing the manipulation, unfortunately I chose a queen cage I was not familiar with and whilst the queen was in my top pocket she walked straight out of the queen cage and and when I came to get her out I had to pick her of my suit..... thank goodness the bees never found her and she did not fall on the floor. Lesson to learn always know how a queen cage works before using it.
Friday 3 June 2011
Friday 27 May 2011
windy cold thrusday
Well yesterday was a bit too windy and cold to look at bees. Before going to Lydney I did a little beekeeping at home and it was not fun, at one point all the bees which were bussing around me suddenly disappeared and it was not of their choosing, a BIG gust of wind blew them away. First time I have ever noticed that.
Anyway at the apiary we did some feeding and then it was time for my maiden lecture/talk. As it was the first time that year we had not be able too look at the bees. The talk was on Apiary hygiene and it seemed to be well received for something that really is a dry subject. Covering the use of Washing soda, Acetic Acid, Wintering of Supers (for wax moth). Washing and sterilizing of bee keeping equipment.
Also I conducted a couple of tours of the shed and showed people where all the equipment is kept and how it should be left at the end of each session.
Finally I had a couple of the younger members draw me up an apiary plan so that now we know where each hive in the apiary is without having to wonder around looking at the numbers on the hive. This is now stuck to the door on the shed.
Lets hope we can get on the bees next week.
Anyway at the apiary we did some feeding and then it was time for my maiden lecture/talk. As it was the first time that year we had not be able too look at the bees. The talk was on Apiary hygiene and it seemed to be well received for something that really is a dry subject. Covering the use of Washing soda, Acetic Acid, Wintering of Supers (for wax moth). Washing and sterilizing of bee keeping equipment.
Also I conducted a couple of tours of the shed and showed people where all the equipment is kept and how it should be left at the end of each session.
Finally I had a couple of the younger members draw me up an apiary plan so that now we know where each hive in the apiary is without having to wonder around looking at the numbers on the hive. This is now stuck to the door on the shed.
Lets hope we can get on the bees next week.
Friday 20 May 2011
Swarms, Splits, merges, honey extration - one busy day
Yesterday at the Apiary was one VERY busy day. - firstly let me apologize for the lack of post this yea; the main reason in that I am taking my bee husbandry exam on the 6th June and therefore am taking every available minute to make preparations for it and to do some extra reading but hoping to getting back to publishing weekly after then. Anyway back to the story of the 19th May.
I was not there all day, so I will piece together what I know, and if I get bits wrong then so be it. The day started at 10am with a group of about 10 people and then any honey supers which had any honey had the bees brushed off them (no time to wait for rhombus boards - as it was rape honey.) At some point during the morning a swarm was found sitting at the bottom of a branch of a tree, it is thought that it was either from there from the day before or even a couple of days, anyway they were put temporally into a skep and left for the evening.
The Honey was transported to one of the members homes who had kindly agreed to extract the honey, and with the help of about 5 other people all the honey was uncapped and extracted and the work was all done by about 2.30 p.m. The honey was setting so quickly that it was only possible to put it through a course filter unless it was heated. Into the buckets it went and then offered for sale to members.
Evening sessions started as always on a Thursday at 6p.m. The first task of the evening was to do two separate merges of colonies so that we have two really strong colonies which we can use for queen rearing. This meant that we had two queens which needed a new home. The one queen was placed into a nuc, and the other into a queen cage, for use later.
Then all of a sudden a shout goes up, " has somebody lost any bees" and blow me down, about 30 of us had not seen a huge prime swarm just hanging from a hedge - they were so quite... unbelievable.. and to think every other week one of most first thoughts are to look around the apiary to see if there are any swarms. Well at the time it was really the last thing I wanted to discover as it was by now getting colder and the sun going down yet there was so much still to do.... but needs must into a cardboard box they went... and then off to a new home.
Also a number of hives seemed to be insistent on swarming so about another 3 nucs were made up....
now remember (luckily I did) that I have a mated queen in my pocket... well the thought was that the ROSE hive had gone queenless and we may need a queen, but it was a false alarm as this week there were lots of eggs she must just have gone off lay for a couple of weeks. Therefore no need for this queen in my pocket.... mmm what to do with her... well I decided with one of the splits instead of letting them rear their own queen we will introduce the mated queen, having removed all of the queen cells and the splitting meaning that they now had loads of room... we put a few layers of newspaper over the queen cage and introduced her, hope she is okay.
Well that is the edited version, I know some photos were taken of the big swarm so if I get any I will add them.
I was not there all day, so I will piece together what I know, and if I get bits wrong then so be it. The day started at 10am with a group of about 10 people and then any honey supers which had any honey had the bees brushed off them (no time to wait for rhombus boards - as it was rape honey.) At some point during the morning a swarm was found sitting at the bottom of a branch of a tree, it is thought that it was either from there from the day before or even a couple of days, anyway they were put temporally into a skep and left for the evening.
The Honey was transported to one of the members homes who had kindly agreed to extract the honey, and with the help of about 5 other people all the honey was uncapped and extracted and the work was all done by about 2.30 p.m. The honey was setting so quickly that it was only possible to put it through a course filter unless it was heated. Into the buckets it went and then offered for sale to members.
Evening sessions started as always on a Thursday at 6p.m. The first task of the evening was to do two separate merges of colonies so that we have two really strong colonies which we can use for queen rearing. This meant that we had two queens which needed a new home. The one queen was placed into a nuc, and the other into a queen cage, for use later.
Then all of a sudden a shout goes up, " has somebody lost any bees" and blow me down, about 30 of us had not seen a huge prime swarm just hanging from a hedge - they were so quite... unbelievable.. and to think every other week one of most first thoughts are to look around the apiary to see if there are any swarms. Well at the time it was really the last thing I wanted to discover as it was by now getting colder and the sun going down yet there was so much still to do.... but needs must into a cardboard box they went... and then off to a new home.
Also a number of hives seemed to be insistent on swarming so about another 3 nucs were made up....
now remember (luckily I did) that I have a mated queen in my pocket... well the thought was that the ROSE hive had gone queenless and we may need a queen, but it was a false alarm as this week there were lots of eggs she must just have gone off lay for a couple of weeks. Therefore no need for this queen in my pocket.... mmm what to do with her... well I decided with one of the splits instead of letting them rear their own queen we will introduce the mated queen, having removed all of the queen cells and the splitting meaning that they now had loads of room... we put a few layers of newspaper over the queen cage and introduced her, hope she is okay.
Well that is the edited version, I know some photos were taken of the big swarm so if I get any I will add them.
Friday 15 April 2011
Early Season
With an excellent March, and good weather in early April The bees this year have got off to a flyer.
With three sessions already taken place down at the apiary there has been much activity - but so much more to do some highlights.
With three sessions already taken place down at the apiary there has been much activity - but so much more to do some highlights.
- First splits on a by splitting a double brood into two boxes because of several well formed queens cells on 15/04
- Bailey comb change started on another strong colony 15/04
- one colony has a queen cell capped and ready to hatch - suspect supersedure the queen is not the best 15/04
- one colony sold 07/04
- Many supers added 07/04 & 15/04
- Two samples taken to test for nosema in the weaker hive 15/04 (test to do)
- Some strange manipulation on another double hive to enable us to get rid of some old brood comb - yet to get the full tale. 15/04
- New clean box give to one hive 10/04 - many more to do.
Monday 7 March 2011
Spring Feeding
Visited the apiary today, and all of the hives were out and working. With pollen, I think, going into all hives but one, which looks on the weak side. Four of the hives were on the light side and therefore have been fed some warm weak syrup. I thought by now that you maybe missing the bees and therefore have done a little video tour of the hives, sorry about the poor camera work but it was difficult to see looking in to the sun with my veil on. The bees were all very happy and busy eating their fondant.
Working party on Saturday, as per your email please do help if you can. Off to help the this years beginners course again tonight, also hoping to get the record card for this year done, and updated with feeding and varroa counts.
Working party on Saturday, as per your email please do help if you can. Off to help the this years beginners course again tonight, also hoping to get the record card for this year done, and updated with feeding and varroa counts.
Tuesday 22 February 2011
March Newsletter
The Excellent newsletter for March is now available and you view it at: http://www.deanforestbeekeepers.co.uk/sitefiles/docs/newsletter/March2011.pdf#zoom=90
A big thank you to all the contubtors and especially the grand designer who put the hard work in putting it together. Being biased I like the articles on Bees in Sri Lanka and Bees in the Hall the best.
Enjoy reading it.
A big thank you to all the contubtors and especially the grand designer who put the hard work in putting it together. Being biased I like the articles on Bees in Sri Lanka and Bees in the Hall the best.
Enjoy reading it.
Tuesday 15 February 2011
Clean Floors & Bees Alive
Last week I paid the apiary a couple of visits.
On Thursday I checked the food situation and looked at what else I needed to do.
It turned out all the floors need a clean urgently because of the cold spell the bees had failed to clean out the dead bees, so fully suited I went on Saturday with a helper and lifted all the hives whist helper clean the floors. There were a lot of dead bees, which also explains the low varroa count as the mites were not reaching the boards. As an experienced beekeeper I really should know that they will find the weak point, and they did stinging me through my soaks, should have worn wellys!
The bees are now entering the most difficult part of the year so lets hope they all survive they were okay last week with only one needing a little more fondant. However I got the impression that a couple of failing, it is just a six sense at the moment.
Now for a deluge of photos and videos that I have let build up.
On Thursday I checked the food situation and looked at what else I needed to do.
It turned out all the floors need a clean urgently because of the cold spell the bees had failed to clean out the dead bees, so fully suited I went on Saturday with a helper and lifted all the hives whist helper clean the floors. There were a lot of dead bees, which also explains the low varroa count as the mites were not reaching the boards. As an experienced beekeeper I really should know that they will find the weak point, and they did stinging me through my soaks, should have worn wellys!
The bees are now entering the most difficult part of the year so lets hope they all survive they were okay last week with only one needing a little more fondant. However I got the impression that a couple of failing, it is just a six sense at the moment.
Now for a deluge of photos and videos that I have let build up.
 |
| Proplizsed up nucleaus entrance, they sure don't like drafts |
 |
| This is supposed to show the cheeky blue tit hiding out of the rain and eating the dead bees. |
 |
| New bench in the shed |
 |
| A pile of dead bees that came of the floor. |
 |
| First lots of pollen of the year? |
A video of doing the Oxalic Acid treatment
Saturday 15 January 2011
oxalic acid results
| Hive number (nuc letter) | seams of bees | varroa mites 6 days | Notes | |||||
| 12 | 7 | 1 | ||||||
| 18 | 3 | 0 | lots of dead bees in bottom of hive | |||||
| 17 | 5 | 1 | ||||||
| 14 | 6 | 3 | double | |||||
| 3 | 7 | 0 | Rose double | |||||
| 4 | 8 | 0 | double | |||||
| F | 4 | 1 | not a nuc | |||||
| 11 | 9 | 3 | ||||||
| 13 | 6 | 1 | ||||||
| 5 | 5 | 0 | langstroth | |||||
| H | 5 | (-) | ||||||
| 16 | 5 | 0 | ||||||
| 10 | 3 | 1 | ||||||
| D | 4 | (-) | on top of hive 10 | |||||
| 15 | 7 | 0 | ||||||
| 6 | 5 | 0 | ||||||
| 8 | 15 | 0 | double | |||||
| 2 | 5 | 1 | ||||||
| 20 | 5 | 0 | ||||||
| 9 | 4 | 0 | ||||||
| 19 | 3 | 0 |
Friday 7 January 2011
First Lecture of the Year
Well we are only just into the new year and we have already had another winter meeting. This months topic was
Swarming - Opportunity or Problem
A straw pole of the around 50 members present showed that a few honest soles thought that it was a problem and the majority thought that it was an opportunity. However a few more thought that swarming caused them a problem.
Anyway there were many interesting photos, of swarms and I thought a very even balances lecture which tried to cater for anything from the beginning to the most experienced beekeeper. I believe nearly everybody came away with some new ideas, the few which stuck in my head are:
1) When collecting a swarm in a difficult place for example in the centre of a conifer hedge, you could remove a frame of brood from a hive, shaking all the bees of it and then place it as near the swarm as you can, and the bees will look after the brood and hopeful you will be able to gradually move the swarm out, as the bees will always look after brood.
2) When supering in the spring, it is always best to super early so the bees have plenty of space but sometimes this can cool the hive down, so you can simply seperate the supers with a sheet of newspaper and then the bees will go through it when they are ready.
3) There is a theory that when bees are building wax they are much less likely to swarm, therefore rather than go through the hive each week, you have broad chamber, drawn comb super, crown board - with holes open - another super with just foundation in it another crown board then roof. Then all you do for your weekly inspection is look and see if the bees are building wax. If they are building wax, they are not getting ready to swarm... if they are not building wax then you investigate further.... something we might try at the apiary this year.
We are hoping to do the oxalic acid, this Sunday 9th January at 11am at the apiary. Will report back.
Swarming - Opportunity or Problem
A straw pole of the around 50 members present showed that a few honest soles thought that it was a problem and the majority thought that it was an opportunity. However a few more thought that swarming caused them a problem.
Anyway there were many interesting photos, of swarms and I thought a very even balances lecture which tried to cater for anything from the beginning to the most experienced beekeeper. I believe nearly everybody came away with some new ideas, the few which stuck in my head are:
1) When collecting a swarm in a difficult place for example in the centre of a conifer hedge, you could remove a frame of brood from a hive, shaking all the bees of it and then place it as near the swarm as you can, and the bees will look after the brood and hopeful you will be able to gradually move the swarm out, as the bees will always look after brood.
2) When supering in the spring, it is always best to super early so the bees have plenty of space but sometimes this can cool the hive down, so you can simply seperate the supers with a sheet of newspaper and then the bees will go through it when they are ready.
3) There is a theory that when bees are building wax they are much less likely to swarm, therefore rather than go through the hive each week, you have broad chamber, drawn comb super, crown board - with holes open - another super with just foundation in it another crown board then roof. Then all you do for your weekly inspection is look and see if the bees are building wax. If they are building wax, they are not getting ready to swarm... if they are not building wax then you investigate further.... something we might try at the apiary this year.
We are hoping to do the oxalic acid, this Sunday 9th January at 11am at the apiary. Will report back.
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