Saturday, October 18, 2008
Students allotment apiary
Students allotment apiary. I gave all of the hives another full bucket of feed today.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Allotment Apiary, Tina's hive, Furgle's hive
Allotment Apiary visit.
As it was a sunny day I opened three of the swarm hives on the allotment to check that the brood was on the frames in the center of the brood box and adjusted two of them. Both of those two need more feeding. I put mouseguards on all of the hives in the row with the WBC hive at the end (the WBC had a mouseguard on already ). I like the look of the third hive in the row. The swarm bees have got well established covering all of the frames bar one in the brood box. The bees came out of the hive as I pinned the mouseguard on to see what was going on and were all over my fingers. They seemed quite un-phased and didn't sting me. I put an empty super on that hive and will watch with interest how it builds up next year. They may be the kind of good tempered hard working bees that I want on the allotment site.
I had a look at the 'feral' colony and cut away a few more twigs and put in some short frames to fill the space above the original brood wax with the twigs running through it. The bees have moved to the frames quite well but I fear it will take them until well into next year before the move up into the brand new empty space of the brood box above them and start to draw out those new frames. I put a full bucket of feed on.
The bucket of feed on Tina's hive was nearly finished I took that one off put and empty super on above the two brood boxes and a full bucket of feed back on top of that.
I put more feed on Furgle's hive.
I took off an empty bucket from the National double brood box hive on the student plot and put an empty super on that hive too. It still needs a lot of feed to fill the second brood box.
I have used one of the three 25 kilo bags of sugar I bought the yesterday.
As it was a sunny day I opened three of the swarm hives on the allotment to check that the brood was on the frames in the center of the brood box and adjusted two of them. Both of those two need more feeding. I put mouseguards on all of the hives in the row with the WBC hive at the end (the WBC had a mouseguard on already ). I like the look of the third hive in the row. The swarm bees have got well established covering all of the frames bar one in the brood box. The bees came out of the hive as I pinned the mouseguard on to see what was going on and were all over my fingers. They seemed quite un-phased and didn't sting me. I put an empty super on that hive and will watch with interest how it builds up next year. They may be the kind of good tempered hard working bees that I want on the allotment site.
I had a look at the 'feral' colony and cut away a few more twigs and put in some short frames to fill the space above the original brood wax with the twigs running through it. The bees have moved to the frames quite well but I fear it will take them until well into next year before the move up into the brand new empty space of the brood box above them and start to draw out those new frames. I put a full bucket of feed on.
The bucket of feed on Tina's hive was nearly finished I took that one off put and empty super on above the two brood boxes and a full bucket of feed back on top of that.
I put more feed on Furgle's hive.
I took off an empty bucket from the National double brood box hive on the student plot and put an empty super on that hive too. It still needs a lot of feed to fill the second brood box.
I have used one of the three 25 kilo bags of sugar I bought the yesterday.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
George's bees, Postwick apiary visit
I checked over Georges bees with him today. Showed him the queen (she is well marked yellow) and fed them some more sugar syrup. I'm not sure why but they were ejecting some of the bees from the hive.
Paid a visit to the Postwick apiary and put roofs on three hives there that didn't have one. I put a super on two of the hives that have a double brood box. I gave the smaller single brood box hives a quick look inside. All have the brood in the middle of the box and they all need to store more sugar. The buckets that I put on during my last visit were half finished.
I bought three more 25 kilo bags of sugar today.
Postwick visits
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Friday, September 26, 2008
Friday September 19th 2008
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Paid a visit to the Postwick apiary and put roofs on three hives there that didn't have one. I put a super on two of the hives that have a double brood box. I gave the smaller single brood box hives a quick look inside. All have the brood in the middle of the box and they all need to store more sugar. The buckets that I put on during my last visit were half finished.
I bought three more 25 kilo bags of sugar today.
Postwick visits
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Friday, September 26, 2008
Friday September 19th 2008
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Old Costessy Apiary
It rained this pm but it is not yet cold.
The last time I visited the four hives at Costessy I topped the feeders on each hive.
On checking the feeders today I found that they were still half full although all had plenty of bees feeding from them.
Without doing a full check it did look as though three of the four hives have most of the brood frames full of stores and it was only the last hive to re-queen that will still need more food after this bucket if the bees are to fill it's two brood boxes full with stores.
Maybe I shouldn't have put a super on that hive but I had taken four supers with me and I put them all on. I like to have one super on all of my hives when they go into the winter. Even if the super isn't used this autumn the bees will clean it and keep it ready to use when they need it next spring.
Each hive had a restricted entrance with an entrance block in and after today they now all have the entrance covered with a mouseguard.
Friday, October 3 2008 topped up feeders
Monday, September 15, 2008 gave the bees more food
Thursday, August 28, 2008 Started feeding unighted two hives
The last time I visited the four hives at Costessy I topped the feeders on each hive.
On checking the feeders today I found that they were still half full although all had plenty of bees feeding from them.
Without doing a full check it did look as though three of the four hives have most of the brood frames full of stores and it was only the last hive to re-queen that will still need more food after this bucket if the bees are to fill it's two brood boxes full with stores.
Maybe I shouldn't have put a super on that hive but I had taken four supers with me and I put them all on. I like to have one super on all of my hives when they go into the winter. Even if the super isn't used this autumn the bees will clean it and keep it ready to use when they need it next spring.
Each hive had a restricted entrance with an entrance block in and after today they now all have the entrance covered with a mouseguard.
Friday, October 3 2008 topped up feeders
Monday, September 15, 2008 gave the bees more food
Thursday, August 28, 2008 Started feeding unighted two hives
Monday, October 13, 2008
Allotment bees
The weather is still warmer than one would expect for this time of year and the bees are still very active.
Most, but not quite all, of the allotment bees have finished the food I gave them (on the 8th) and I have removed the empty buckets. I will give the swarm hives another inspection maybe tomorrow as I want to be sure that the brood is on frames in the center of the box and not positioned off to one side of the brood box. The hive on Furgle's plot also had an empty bucket on.
George has reported back that his new bees are flying fine.
Most, but not quite all, of the allotment bees have finished the food I gave them (on the 8th) and I have removed the empty buckets. I will give the swarm hives another inspection maybe tomorrow as I want to be sure that the brood is on frames in the center of the box and not positioned off to one side of the brood box. The hive on Furgle's plot also had an empty bucket on.
George has reported back that his new bees are flying fine.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Suffolk bees
The sunshine continues.
I paid a visit to the bees in Suffolk and fed three of the four hives there and brought the fourth hive back to Norwich and set it up in George's back garden.
I paid a visit to the bees in Suffolk and fed three of the four hives there and brought the fourth hive back to Norwich and set it up in George's back garden.
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