GW

GW is doing well in Postwick and the bees left behind have settled down well with their new queen but the colony is not big enough to be split in half again this year.

The German queen's bees are still storing sugar syrup away and for the time being they are still drawing out frames of new foundation. If the weather changes and gets colder they may stop making wax and I will start to put in frames that have already been drawn out. I stole two full frames of stores from them today today and put two new ones in to replace them. I will keep a close eye on their feeder bucket and make sure that they never run out of syrup.

Laburnam has been moved to Ringland.

George's bees, Cherry

George's bees are doing fine after uniting with a new queen after his original queen swarmed. The two queens in the nuc boxes that were produced from the queen cells left behind by the swarming queen were OK too.

I took the top brood box off after putting the frame with the queen on into the bottom box. There is still a super on with frames of un-wired foundation in it but there was no honey in any of the frames today. The bees did draw out the wax and start storing honey in the frames but then they ate it all after the queen swarmed. With stores from two brood boxes combined the colony now has a good stock of honey in the brood box and given some fine weather and an ivy flow they could well move some of it up into a couple of the super frames.

Cherry's colony is doing OK in Old Costessy after the Thymol treatment.

Both of the colonies from the hive that had two queens in are doing fine. I switched the brood with the super on the 'supers' one today hoping that the queen will leave the super and move up into the brood box. Given enough food and fine weather she should.

Thorpe, GW in Postwick, Allotment German queen

Out of the three hives at Thorpe the end hive under the hazel has done the best at making honey. I took practically a full super off that hive today. For swarm that had already had half the bees stolen from it before being moved to Thorpe that is not at all bad. One to watch. All three hives there have a bucket of feed on.

GW is doing fine in Postwick with half her bees and a chunk of fondant above the hole on the crown board. Back on the allotment the other half of her bees have accepted a new queen. I moved her to the bottom brood box and took the top brood box off leaving that for the bees to clean out. I will feed these bees now and hopefully build up their numbers.

I spent the afternoon in postwick giving the smaller hives fondant and taking supers off the bigger hives. I have lost one hive since my last visit. The bees had been killed inside the hive even though the entrance was closed right down the half an inch. It was a gruesome sight inside the hive as the bees all had their heads missing.

The skinny queen and the Bowthorpe swarm queen have decided that is time to lay eggs. A bit late in the day. The bees were taking in pollen of several different colours and must be making honey from more than just ivy. It was a hot day with a warm sutherly breeze and there was definitlely a 'flow' on.

It was shame really to have been taking the honey off as there would be more to take in a few days time if this weather continues. Still the bees can have any more honey they make now. Most of the hives have empty brood frames that need filling with stores for the winter.

I gave the largest hive (last year's swarm) another brood box of un-drawn foundation that I put on top of the two brood boxes there. I haven't started feeding that hive yet.

In the allotment the German queen has just about filled the top brood box with stores and has only a couple of empty frames left. I put another bucket of feed on. I will start taking full frames out soon and either put them in store or give them to some of the smaller colonies. The German bees can then fill yet more empty frames.

I moved one of Tina's daughters from Thorpe to the allotment.

Honey Stripes - Thymol, Old Costessy

I took what honey there was stored in Honey Stripes supers off yesterday. The bees had eaten any that wasn't capped and are not making honey from the ivy yet. There were plenty of queen eggs in the top brood box but also signs of a high mite infestation with several bees with deformed wings So today I treated the three hives at that Apiary with thymol and gave them each a bucket of feed. Honey Stripes hive has had two brood boxes on all season and today I put on a third with frames in that need a clean up and switched the two existing boxes around as there wasn't much food stored in the bottom box. I expect they will soon empty the bucket of feed I gave them today and need another in three or four days time.

I was expecting to do much the same at Old Costessy but I found that there was nectar flowing into the hives there and the bees were making honey. The bees were entering the hives with white pollen on their backs and I think they are working the Himalayan Balsom that is growing along the river banks nearby. Certainly there was plenty of Balsom flowering in the pub garden on the river bank just down the road from apiary a week or so back. In just one season it can grow to an amazing height if it has some support to grow through.

I did take a few frames of honey off from a couple of the stronger hives - but I left most of them on as we could get a warm sunny week this week and if we do the bees could well fill a super completely with honey.

I gave Holly's hive three wet supers (above the crown board) to clean up that I had extracted honey from after taking them from Honey Stripes yesterdy.

The smaller hives at Old Costessy need feeding and I gave them each a fist sized lump fondant to keep them going.