Thorpe

I opened up and put thymol in the three hives at Thorpe. All three had laying queens but none of them were large colonies.

What I did 10th April last year 2009

Ringland. Honey Stripes

I opened up and put crystals in three hives at Ringland. That's all four hives there treated now.

I gave treatment to Honey Stripes colony in George's back garden. George's garden is quite small with a third taken up by a patio. The hive is sited to one side of the garden next to the patio. When bees die in George's garden they seem to choose the patio to die on and today there was a fair number of dead and dying bees on it. Some may have been deformed bees. Certainly one bee was being carried out of the hive as I inspected it. Maybe some were old bees from last year.

Honey Stripes was there and still marked red and laying but there must also be quite a high mite population in the hive too. There was also some chalk brood. There was no shortage of stores. Hopefully the crystals will knock out the mites that are there now and give the bees a bit of a chance and we can treat them again in a couple of weeks and knock out the new emerging mites.

Thymol

I put thymol crystals or a tray of Apiguard into every hive at the allotment today including the remaining hive on the student plot.

The hive on the student plot has been upsetting the plot holders who share the water tap. The bees have claimed that water I don't like to share it. I will have to move them soon.

I also treated and finished inspecting the bees at Old Costessy. I put supers on several of the hives there too.

As I put crystals into Tina's hive I took a quick look at the small cluster of bees there. Tina was still there and had started laying. Maybe I can give her little colony a boost by uniting some brood and bees from the student hive.

Postwick

I gave six hives at Postwick a sprinkling of thymol crystals today after buying a new tub. By the time I had finished (4pm) the weather had turned back to winter again. As soon as the sun shines again I will give all of my hives treatment now either as crystals or a tray of Apiguard.

First full inspections

The weather was warm enough (at last!) for me to start open up and inspect the bees.

What a mixed bag. From booming to nearly bust.

The hive on bricks at Old Costessy was booming and had brood on five frames in the brood box and had started laying in the super. It's the only hive so far that i've found to be on brood and a half. It's no longer on bricks as I've moved it a couple of feet sideways to station one where Holly's hive was.

Nearly bust was a hive in the allotment with an area of brood not much bigger than a fifty pence piece. The queen was there and marked green but what a sad little colony. They won't survive.

Tina, was still in her box and still marked yellow - but sadly there was no brood there and the few bees that are still there with her must be old and on on their last legs.

Most of the hives I inspected had old solid bases and most needed a clean up. I plan to replace them with new stainless steel open mesh floors in the next few weeks.

I gave a tray of Apiguard anti Varroa treatment to the hive at station three at Old Costessy and to the double brood box hive at the top of the row in Ringland. I didn't open up the other three hives at Ringland but they all had bees eating fondant.

All of the hives need treating with Apiguard now

Holly was dead in the middle of a cluster of bees in the brood box. I'm not sure why but fear it was the second spell of cold weather that finished them off. There was plenty of frames with stores in the brood box and a super with stores in above it and a block fondant that I did see them eating at one point. There wasn't much food around the cluster and fear that a large cluster had contracted to a smaller one in space where the stores had been eaten and they had to stay there too long. I don't know. There were certainly hives with thriving bees that seemed to have much less to eat than Holly's bees. Maybe she was already an old queen or the strain was just not hardy enough for the cold weather. I don't know.

Whatever, I still feel responsible for here demise as I do for all of the other colonies that didn't make it through the winter. I think I will try to build up bigger colonies and leave them with more of their own honey this year. Although a large colony can soon eat a lot of honey and will still need feeding. Those colonies that are on double brood boxes and were fed buckets of food early in the season seem to have done well. But even those are not as strong as the hive on bricks. It seems that some queens are just better than others.

New floors - box 5, Tina

I replaced the floor on box 5 today and moved the hive back a couple of feet onto a new level paving slab so that it no longer looks like a leaning tower. The floor was a bit of a mess and very wet on one side. No wonder the bees are on the other side.

I did the same with the hive next door (Tina's hive) replacing a solid floor with an open mesh floor.

The weather is gradually improving and I should soon be able to give the hives a full inspection.