Thursday 15th April. - Weather was a little cold and therefore we mainly contrasted on feeding the bees. So it was a case of checking the frame feeders did not leak, which some did so we resealed the wax in them using the blow torch. Then out to the bees and on with the spring feeding, idea being to help the bees build up in number. Always being careful to make sure that any spillages are mopped up so as not to cause any problems.
Sunday 18th April - The second practical session for the beekeeping class of 2010. Due to the weakness of colonies 2 & 7 it was decided that we would merge the two especially as they were fairly close to each other. Therefore the first step was to decided which queen was to be left out in the cold.....but not see latter...I decieded that it was the queen in no.7 that was to go and
phoebe(that is the queen in no. 2 to everybody else but the person with the largest personality who numbers are not good enough....)is to stay. Therefore measuring the distance between the two hives with decided as it was about 6m to do it in three steps and the colony would be merged next sunday... see below. Also today was the day that we added out first super to hive 5..... Oh and yes we got all the beginners to show us what they had learned the week before...
Thursday 22nd - This was a much warmer day and it finally felt like spring... So much was happening that I was having difficult keeping track but I do know that we 1) moved hive 7 closer to hive two
2) Marked and clipped two queens.
3) Carried on feeding the bees
4) decided what we might do with the queen from no. 2. and discussed hive no.5 as I thought the comb in the brood was a little dark, and we had various options as to shook swarm bailey comb change, ect.. but more latter. I have to say that the rotor for the tea making in the caravan and the cleaning worked really well and made things easier.
Saturday 24th April - The first one day taster course. My part in this was to help show people the bees at an apiary of our bee gurus in Monmouth. But the great bonus was that it was a free lunch of such wonderful tasted food that I could not believe my eyes. Best of all there was enough left for tomorrow.. Anyway I took three budding beekeepers, two of which had been down in Lydney before, but I managed to get them all to see the eggs, or specks of rice as they so delightful put it, as well as drones, pollen, stores, etc... pretty much everything but queen cups.... then to afternoon tea and delicious cake and scones.... I think everybody enjoyed it and now we have people signed up for next years full course and a few more members.
Sunday 25th April - Back to lydney for the third practical session for class 2010, - this was a busy day and a little hectic to begin with....
Dave Sutton - bee inspector visited us and showed the beginners in two groups how to check the diseases. He inspected hive 5 for us so we could be sure that there were no serious problems so that we can carry out our plan for this colony. He managed to find two wax moth lava using two different methods, one a tap the other by digging it out. Also inspected hive 8 which is been fed to death ready for queen rearing, and I think there was a couple of play cells.
Whilst this was going on; we were taking three frames of sealed brood and bees from three different colonies and with a slight dusting to stop them fighting, and making sure the queen was not present into a nuc. This was then left to settled down for a while. Into this nuc we finally introduced the queen from hive 7 in a butler cage, with three layers of newspaper so that she is realized slowly.... normally you go back in two days and do it but we won't be there...
Now to merge hive 7 into two, to do this we pined down some newspaper onto the top of hive 2 after a quick inspection to make sure all was still okay, and pierced a couple of small splits. Then put hive 7 on top, and the newspaper will give them time to get the smell the same and they won't fight. I think if we had left hive 7 another week they would have been dead so we got there just in time. The Nuc then became Nuc A.... because I fogot to tell you that the 2nd nuc A did not make it, so this is our third nuc A of the season, let hope it is third time lucky.
TO COME NEXT THURSDAY Plan is to be doing a shook swarm on hive 5 into the langstroth hive... our first at this apiary... and then with the 5/6 frames of brood spreading these around the weaker colonies of the apiary...which is why the it was lucky the bee inspector was there because now we are sure we will not spread disease around..... and only a final note, I understand that one of our members had the first swarm I have heard about this year on Friday 23rd April...so I think the fun is just about to begin....
all that and I have not even mentioned the fun and games at my home apiary, ah well another story another time.
