I managed to get a swarm out of an oak tree today with the help of the kind people (and their ladder) who lived opposite. If it stays and turns out to have laying queen I should take it to Thorpe and put it in the empty hive there.
I split a brood box into three chambers today and put a queen cell and a frame of brood in each from the hive at Old Costessy that had double brood box and was the youngest of Old Costessy's 2008 queens.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Friday, May 8, 2009
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Tina, Cherry , Holly and South facing hive
Tina is laying very well in her 'Hire a hive' garden WBC hive. There were no more queen cells. Could have a second brood box.
Maria is laying well but hasn't moved onto the deep frames yet
I marked Holly before she was laying. She is now laying very well and I marked her some more.
Old Costesey's South facing hive is full of queen cells. I have made up four nucs so far but could make more.
I'm still not sure what is going on inside the brood box of the hive on bricks but think I should make up nucs with the bees.
Cherry has been put to work in Thorpe to get bees out of the wall.
Maria is laying well but hasn't moved onto the deep frames yet
I marked Holly before she was laying. She is now laying very well and I marked her some more.
Old Costesey's South facing hive is full of queen cells. I have made up four nucs so far but could make more.
I'm still not sure what is going on inside the brood box of the hive on bricks but think I should make up nucs with the bees.
Cherry has been put to work in Thorpe to get bees out of the wall.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
WBC, Cherry, Feral bees, Honey Stripes, Willow.
I took the queen out of the WBC hive last week and today made up five queen cells in Bee Briefs and left one in the brood box. We will see how they have got on in a month's time.
I inspected the last swarm that I collected and it had a marked queen so I took out all the old frames (except the one the queen was on and the one next to it) and replaced them with brand new frames and foundation. The old frame do seem to hold viruses and once the bees draw out the new foundation they do much better on it. This is the swarm from Attlebough with a queen that I will now call 'Cherry'.
The feral in the bush bees are slowly moving into the new brood box but have not taken the queen up there to lay yet.
Honey stripes on inspection was laying OK today.
I made a concerted effort to find Willow by going through both brood boxes but to no avail. Anyway she is laying very well with no signs of queen cells yet.
I inspected the last swarm that I collected and it had a marked queen so I took out all the old frames (except the one the queen was on and the one next to it) and replaced them with brand new frames and foundation. The old frame do seem to hold viruses and once the bees draw out the new foundation they do much better on it. This is the swarm from Attlebough with a queen that I will now call 'Cherry'.
The feral in the bush bees are slowly moving into the new brood box but have not taken the queen up there to lay yet.
Honey stripes on inspection was laying OK today.
I made a concerted effort to find Willow by going through both brood boxes but to no avail. Anyway she is laying very well with no signs of queen cells yet.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Permaculture
I took the queen from the single brood box on the Permaculture students allotment to Postwick.
I took the swarm queen in the nuc box to Postwick yesterday.
I took the swarm queen in the nuc box to Postwick yesterday.
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