Saturday, September 27, 2008
Friday, September 26, 2008
The day has started bright and sunny a perfect early Autumn day. And the forecast is for more to come.
I gave the old queen on the students allotment a new base, brood box and roof and put the old brood box on top of the new one so that is another double brood hive put together. I saw the queen and she still has some of her yellow mark on. If they are going to fill the top brood box they will need feeding. I put on a mouseguard and put in some thymol crystals.
I checked the other hive (a daughter of this swarm queen) and saw eggs and again put on another brood box and mouseguard and gave them crystals.
I did the same with Furgal's hive and put on another brood box . There was a super on and that is getting very nearly full of honey. Now the second brood box (brand new with new frames and undrawn foundation) is sandwiched between the original brood box (a very old one) and the super which is now on the top. If I can get the bees to eat up the ivy honey and make wax in order to draw out the foundation that suits me fine. I'm sure that I will need to feed them as well if I want the new box full of stores.
Yesterday I made a visit to Postwick to check the two hives that I didn't have time to go through on my last visit.
The end hive tucked away in the bushes was, as I feared, queenless but the hive next door did have a queen. I had introduced a queen cell to that hive some months back from bees I brought in from Costessy. That queen was a daughter of Rosemary's 2006 (gentle) Greek queen. I saw her she is still unmarked quite small and dark. I put the two brood boxes together and gave the top box a dose of thymol crystals. The queenless hive did have a tray of Apiguard on allready. I put in an entrance block so that hive just needs a mouseguard now to be ready for the winter.
I did a quick check of the hive that I put frames of bees into on my last visit and saw a marked brown queen that was laying well.
There are now five hives there on double brood and five on single brood.
I gave the old queen on the students allotment a new base, brood box and roof and put the old brood box on top of the new one so that is another double brood hive put together. I saw the queen and she still has some of her yellow mark on. If they are going to fill the top brood box they will need feeding. I put on a mouseguard and put in some thymol crystals.
I checked the other hive (a daughter of this swarm queen) and saw eggs and again put on another brood box and mouseguard and gave them crystals.
I did the same with Furgal's hive and put on another brood box . There was a super on and that is getting very nearly full of honey. Now the second brood box (brand new with new frames and undrawn foundation) is sandwiched between the original brood box (a very old one) and the super which is now on the top. If I can get the bees to eat up the ivy honey and make wax in order to draw out the foundation that suits me fine. I'm sure that I will need to feed them as well if I want the new box full of stores.
Yesterday I made a visit to Postwick to check the two hives that I didn't have time to go through on my last visit.
The end hive tucked away in the bushes was, as I feared, queenless but the hive next door did have a queen. I had introduced a queen cell to that hive some months back from bees I brought in from Costessy. That queen was a daughter of Rosemary's 2006 (gentle) Greek queen. I saw her she is still unmarked quite small and dark. I put the two brood boxes together and gave the top box a dose of thymol crystals. The queenless hive did have a tray of Apiguard on allready. I put in an entrance block so that hive just needs a mouseguard now to be ready for the winter.
I did a quick check of the hive that I put frames of bees into on my last visit and saw a marked brown queen that was laying well.
There are now five hives there on double brood and five on single brood.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
Ferral bees
Picked up a colony of bees that had made their home in the shrubbery of an office car park. They were found by the groundsmen strimming the shrubs.
It's the first time that I have found honey comb in the open.
The comb is now in a two suppers with it's twigs sticking in it and through it and with two or three brood frames on either side. I gave them one of my brood frames from my store that had honey in but even so I think it may take some time to entice the queen from their comb onto my frames and I may well have to leave these bees like this until next spring before I can get them set up in a regular brood box.
I have only just about sorted out the bees from Thorpe that set up home under the floor of the National hive there.
The car park was in Thorpe so I also paid a visit to the three WBC hives there. The large white hive hasn't taken all of the last bucket of syrup I gave them on my last visit so I gave to it to hive at the other end of the row that had been short changed with less than a full bucket last time. I put in a entrance block (provided by Norman who I also visited) and a mouseguard on that hive.
It's the first time that I have found honey comb in the open.
The comb is now in a two suppers with it's twigs sticking in it and through it and with two or three brood frames on either side. I gave them one of my brood frames from my store that had honey in but even so I think it may take some time to entice the queen from their comb onto my frames and I may well have to leave these bees like this until next spring before I can get them set up in a regular brood box.
I have only just about sorted out the bees from Thorpe that set up home under the floor of the National hive there.
The car park was in Thorpe so I also paid a visit to the three WBC hives there. The large white hive hasn't taken all of the last bucket of syrup I gave them on my last visit so I gave to it to hive at the other end of the row that had been short changed with less than a full bucket last time. I put in a entrance block (provided by Norman who I also visited) and a mouseguard on that hive.
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