The allotment apiary

The day has started with bright sunshine and continued to become a really warm if not always sunny day.
I checked and confirmed six hives for laying queens. Put another tray of Apiguard on one (swarm2).
Put feed on the white WBC after doubling it to two brood boxes.
Doubled the brood box on the hive next to the WBC and gave it more feed
Put feed the hive on Furgles plot
Put the cappings back on the hive at the end (re-queened swarm1)
Swarm3 is still in a temporary box - saw the queen - very dark

Old Costessy apiary visit

Another grey start to the day. Extracted honey that I removed from 'Tinas' hive yesterday. The day brightened as the sun came out after lunch and in fact it became quite a warm day.

I went to sort out the bees at Old Costessy at around tea time. Out of the five hives remaining in that apiary there one that was queenless. I united that one with the youngest queen with the smallest colony. As a result that hive is now on double brood box.

Out of the four hives remaining two are on double boxes. I put entrance blocks in them all and left the three that have 2008 queens with a feeder on. The ivy is beginning to bloom and if we get a warm spell the bees will make some ivy honey. I like them to mix ivy honey with sugar syrup and store it for the winter.

Just one colony in Old Costessy was left with 2007 queen and I have nicknamed her 'sticky' as her offspring are making more propolis than my other bees. Sticky is a very gentle queen bred from Bluebell allotment bees. Her hive didn't make a particulary large amount of honey this year so she is not favourite to breed from but I will keep her going for as long as I can because the bees are so easy to handle. Maybe they will do better next year. At least Sticky's colony can provide some gentle drones to add to Old Costessy's genetic mix. They will be needed for mating with next years 2009 virgin queens once the current 2008 queens have been moved on.

I hope they will all survive the winter OK.

Another grey yet warm start to the day. As the day progressed it warmed and occasionally the sun shone. In the afternoon I took down 'Tinas' hive to the double brood box at the bottom. I put on the second (top) brood box few weeks ago (see picture). When I put it on it was brand new with all un-drawn new foundation. It is now fully drawn-out and full of eggs and brood. The were five supers on before I started. I left three on and removed a super and a half of capped frames. Later in the evening I put on four supers of 'wet' frames that I had been keeping in the shed since extracting the honey before leaving to go on holiday.

We got back from Normandy yesterday pm and made a quick visit to the allotment and picked beans, blackberries and dahlias.