Suffolk apiary

It's not raining this morning - but I fear there is more rain yet to come. And of course there was.

Welcome to Suffolk. The sign is just a couple of miles from my apiary just over the Norfolk/Suffolk border into Suffolk.

There are four hives at Suffolk. The furthest colony down the line of hives is the latest addition to my Suffolk apiary and was one of the two hives I bought from Bill at the start of the year. I unfortunately left them for too long with honey on and they got tight for space and swarmed fairly early in the season so colony number four has requeened it'self in Suffolk. I will call them Bill's (Suffolk) Bees.

Number three are Suffolk Bees that have been there for some years. Three has a yellow (2007) queen. That queen refuses to lay enough eggs and the colony has remained small all year. They are very docile easy to handle bees - but seemingly useless.

At the start of the year colony number two were Suffolk bees (the queen was the 2006 mother of number three). That hive was queenless on my last visit and I put in a frame of eggs from number four hive into the broodbox. Number two successfully requeened and was queenright today. So number two is now a daughter of Bills (Suffolk) Bees in number four.

Colony number one was taken to Suffolk last year and still has the same queen. I'm not sure how old the queen is. They are Bluebell Allotment Bees that sulked at the start of the year and missed out on the rape. They have built up a bit better since. There were quite a few bees in the hive today and if the summer weather had been good then they may have made a couple of supers of honey. But that wasn't the case.

Tonight I removed the supers from all of the hives taking each hive down to the brood box and put a box feeder on each. I had taken out around 18 pints of sugar syrup that I then split equally between each hive. I will have to take at least the same amount out again in a couple of weeks time. Ben and I took off a very small amount of honey from hive one and two.

It has been a bad year for honey production in my Suffolk apiary. This year Bill's Bees saved the day by making honey from the Oilseed Rape. My bees were useless at that time.

On the plus side each colony was queenright tonight and given that I fill as much space in each hive as I can with sugar before the winter arrives they stand a good chance of getting through the winter OK.

It seems the bees there needed a bit of hybrid vigor. Bills bees were not as laid back as my Suffolk bees they were taken to join. Maybe if the remaining yellow Suffolk queen makes it through the winter I will remove her at the end of April and see if a daughter of hers can take on a bit of Bills Bee's spirit. I will have to ensure that hive four produces plenty of drones.

I put Apiguard on number four hive as I saw some deformation in the bees on my last visit and that is a certain sign that they have a severe mite infestation.

A grey morning that only got worse as it rained all afternoon. No beekeeping.

Duncan has bee keeping equipment for sale

List and all in price below

Bee Equipment for Sale

Duncan Brown

1. Superinox Lega 9 frame manual stainless steel radial extractor (as new).

2. Dadant cedar shallow supers (x8) (as new) with 97 frames which require new foundation.

3. Dadant Queen excluders – x1 wire, x1 slotted.

4. National

- Stand

- Floor

- Brood box with 11 frames (require new foundation)

- Supers (x8) with 89 frames (require new foundation)

- Queen excluders (x4)

- Roof (x2)

- Glass quilt

- Miller type feeder

5. Smoker copper 7 x 3

6. Sherriff Apiarist bee suit (large)

150lb poly settling tank with plastic tap

Around £500

I think that is a good price.

More feed for Postwick bees

Another grey start to the day unlike yesterday that was sunny of and on all day with just the occasional shower.

Yesterday I sorted out the bees on the student plot at the allotments. I last went into those hives on the 3rd August There are three laying queens there now including the original swarm queen from last year (marked yellow). I put feeders on two and took away any small amounts of honey left.

I also made a trip to Old Costessy and fed all four hives and took any remaining honey from 'Sticky'.

Today I made another trip to my Postwick apiary and put feed onto four hives that didn't get fed before. The last time I went out there I didn't feed them. Now there is only one colony not in a brood box and that I havn't yet confirmed has a queen. I need to make some more floors and roofs for some of the hives out there and they all still need treatment.

It had rained heavily earlier on in the day but by the evening it had stopped and by the time I left Postwick the weather was calm with a stunning sunset.The ivy in the lane on the way to the apiary is not in such an advanced state of flower as that in the allotment. Picked some nice blackberries.

It was raining on and off today. I fed one of the two hives on the allotment that needs checking for a laying queen. Their month is up tomorrow.

I think it going to be a poor year for English Honey. My bees are working ivy now but I will take ivy honey off only one hive that still has three supers of half capped honey on. If I time it correctly they will finish capping the frames and top up what is there with ivy. I have to be quick to extract it and get it into jars as it sets amazingly quickly.

All of the other hives I'm quite happy to leave the ivy honey to the bees and I just need to give them enough sugar to mix with it.

After rain in the night the day has started bright and sunny and turned into a nice late summer/early Autumn day.

I spent much of the day re-organising my sheds on the allotment and stowing away empty nuc boxes. I have also begun to stack up the supers that, like the nuc boxes, won't be required again until next year.

I the evening I gave more feed to the three hives at Thorpe

I did no beekeeping yesterday Saturday August 30th as we spent the day at the Maverick music festival

Despite the weather forecast of doom and gloom the day has started warm and still - the forecasters could be right though and there could be thunder on it's way.

Most of the day was warm and sunny - until I got halfway through looking at my Postwick apiary when it started to rain and I therefore didn't check every hive.

All the hives that I gave syrup to before going away have used it all up.
Two hives don't show evidence of a laying queen - but they may do next week as we have just had a perfect mating day.
Eight hives have a 2008 laying queen.
Four hives are now on double brood boxes.
I put Apiguard onto the hive that I put onto a double brood box today.
There is one 'old' queen still going strong that was marked white when I bought her a few months ago. She is the only one left of the three that I bought at the start of the year.

The bees here are:
Norman's Postwick - the three colonies that were there to start with.
Normans Thorpe that were moved there as queen cells.
Descendants from a daughter from Rosemary's (2006) Gentle Greek Queen that I moved there and unighted with one of the three original Postwick hives at the start of the year.
And a Hellsdon squarm that was taken there and re-queened there.