Postwick apiary is now down to 7 hives. The bee hive that had the rodent rip open the crown board didn't make it after all. Of the seven hives remaining one has an old queen that is not laying. I saw her in the box but there were no eggs or brood I put a frame with some eggs in from one of the other hives and will put more frames of eggs in now on each visit until the bees decide to supersede her. Two of the other hives are strong and thriving on double brood boxes. The hive at the back is on a double brood box but may as well have the bottom box removed. I moved the hive and it a plastic box to stand on and an open mesh base. The old hive floor was in a bit of state. The bees found the move a bit disoriantating but I guess they will get used to it in a couple of days. The swarm hive has a small but strong colony and a light queen. I think they will build up well during the year. One hive had signs of a bad Varroa infection with a couple of young bees with deformed wings. I gave it a tray of Apiguard. They will all need 2 trays each in the next few weeks.
All three hives at Thorpe seem to be doing well but I haven't opened them up yet.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Allotment apiary
In the allotment apiary. It was warm enough today to light up the smoker for the first time this year take a quick look under the crown board of the hives and make a few adjustments to some of them.
The feral bees that still have bits of twigs in the honeycomb needed a brood box that the bees can move into put on top of the makeshift arrangement that they have had for their winter quarters. The hive has a feeder on that the bees were taking food from today. I put that back on above the empty brood box. So long as there is some warm weather the bees should relocate the feeder and keep feeding from it. I will keep feeding these bees until they have moved the queen up into the brood box and left their old comb behind. I think they will eventually vacate the old comb entirely and leave it empty.
I also doubled up the brood box on the hive under the greengage tree. They were quite a small colony last year but have come through the winter OK and were very busy today.
Tina's hive has two brood boxes and a super on and still some of the bees were at the top of all of that lot feeding on fondant. I put the contents of an Apiguard tray on the lugs of the top brood box. This is not recommended practice but the old style crown boards just don't have enough space to take an Apiguard tray.
Furgle's hive has plenty of stores and the bees there are not showing any interest in the fondant.
The bees in the swarm hive near the small pear tree were the only ones to kick up a fuss at my intrusion of their space. They will have to be moved and I will have reduce the hive down to one brood box first. They are a strong hive and whenever I was working near the hive I could smell the fermented honey that they were uncapping inside the hive.
All the three hives on the student plot had flying bees.
The feral bees that still have bits of twigs in the honeycomb needed a brood box that the bees can move into put on top of the makeshift arrangement that they have had for their winter quarters. The hive has a feeder on that the bees were taking food from today. I put that back on above the empty brood box. So long as there is some warm weather the bees should relocate the feeder and keep feeding from it. I will keep feeding these bees until they have moved the queen up into the brood box and left their old comb behind. I think they will eventually vacate the old comb entirely and leave it empty.
I also doubled up the brood box on the hive under the greengage tree. They were quite a small colony last year but have come through the winter OK and were very busy today.
Tina's hive has two brood boxes and a super on and still some of the bees were at the top of all of that lot feeding on fondant. I put the contents of an Apiguard tray on the lugs of the top brood box. This is not recommended practice but the old style crown boards just don't have enough space to take an Apiguard tray.
Furgle's hive has plenty of stores and the bees there are not showing any interest in the fondant.
The bees in the swarm hive near the small pear tree were the only ones to kick up a fuss at my intrusion of their space. They will have to be moved and I will have reduce the hive down to one brood box first. They are a strong hive and whenever I was working near the hive I could smell the fermented honey that they were uncapping inside the hive.
All the three hives on the student plot had flying bees.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
The allotment hives
The allotment hives were all busy in the middle of the day today. They all have fondant on although most of the colonies have bees that have eaten just a little of this latest batch. But there was one hive where the bees were very busy eating it. These were the bees from Thorpe. I will keep an eye on them and make sure they don't run out.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Georges Bees, Old Costessy, Bluebell
Georges Bees have died.
It hard to know why some bees don't make through the winter. Georges bees were one of the hives in Suffolk at the start of 2008. They were moved to his garden last autumn and fed in October and were the first to have fondant on in December. On inspection today it was clear that they had eaten half the fondant before they died. I will take George some more bees in April.
The bees in the four hives at Old Costessy were working hard. I gave them all more fondant removing any of the old fondant left (on two hives) .
I gave more fondant to the hive that was knocked over at the UEA Bluebell road apiary in the winter and removed the now empty feed bucket. I also gave the hive next to it fondant ( the original swarm queen).
I checked all the hives on the Bluebell allotment site and gave fondant to any hive without feed and removed several empty feed buckets.
It hard to know why some bees don't make through the winter. Georges bees were one of the hives in Suffolk at the start of 2008. They were moved to his garden last autumn and fed in October and were the first to have fondant on in December. On inspection today it was clear that they had eaten half the fondant before they died. I will take George some more bees in April.
The bees in the four hives at Old Costessy were working hard. I gave them all more fondant removing any of the old fondant left (on two hives) .
I gave more fondant to the hive that was knocked over at the UEA Bluebell road apiary in the winter and removed the now empty feed bucket. I also gave the hive next to it fondant ( the original swarm queen).
I checked all the hives on the Bluebell allotment site and gave fondant to any hive without feed and removed several empty feed buckets.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Allotment apiary
In the allotment apiary the sun was shining again today and everything was flowering at once and making up for lost time. The snowdrops, aconites and crocus were all open for business today.
I noticed at the end of the day that there were hungry bees about and any old stores that can be got at had bees going for it. My swarm hive in the allotment had some super frames exposed where I removed the super to put the fondant on top of the second brood box. Some of the frames haves stores in and the bees had found them. I have put the super back under the crown board now.
I don't know if they were my bees or not, but I am going to do some more feeding next week. There are some hives that I'm pretty sure are not starving as the bees are still not taking much notice of the fondant I gave them weeks ago. But those that have finished the fondant I am going to liquid feed just to be on the safe side. Those that had liquid feed on have all emptied their buckets recently.
Some of the hives that are a single brood only or have a brood and a half I am going to add another brood box to and feed the bees constantly until I can open them up in March.
I noticed at the end of the day that there were hungry bees about and any old stores that can be got at had bees going for it. My swarm hive in the allotment had some super frames exposed where I removed the super to put the fondant on top of the second brood box. Some of the frames haves stores in and the bees had found them. I have put the super back under the crown board now.
I don't know if they were my bees or not, but I am going to do some more feeding next week. There are some hives that I'm pretty sure are not starving as the bees are still not taking much notice of the fondant I gave them weeks ago. But those that have finished the fondant I am going to liquid feed just to be on the safe side. Those that had liquid feed on have all emptied their buckets recently.
Some of the hives that are a single brood only or have a brood and a half I am going to add another brood box to and feed the bees constantly until I can open them up in March.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Old Costessy, Postwick, Thorpe
My Old Costessy apiary hasn't had a visit for some time now. It was fairly early in January (Jan11th) when I made a trip out there to give them all a fist sized lump of fondant.
Today they were buzzing! The bees were really active with a traffic jam at the mouse guarded entrance to each hive. They were taking in pollen - a positive sign of a laying queen inside. Two of the four hives had completely finished the fondant. So should I start feeding these hives with syrup now?
The hives a Postwick were also pretty active with the exception of two of them. The two inactive hives had bees in there OK (I checked) but the bees did not want to fly.
All three hives at Thorpe had flying bees.
It was late by the time I got to check the Bluebell Road UEA bees. Too late to see them flying. The hive that was tipped over in the winter has used up a bucket of feed already this year.
I was introduced to a single frame traveling box for the first time today. I will have gotten used to using them later in the year once I have finished shaking bees into the ten of them. The ten boxes are now sitting in the allotment with my spare supers.
Today they were buzzing! The bees were really active with a traffic jam at the mouse guarded entrance to each hive. They were taking in pollen - a positive sign of a laying queen inside. Two of the four hives had completely finished the fondant. So should I start feeding these hives with syrup now?
The hives a Postwick were also pretty active with the exception of two of them. The two inactive hives had bees in there OK (I checked) but the bees did not want to fly.
All three hives at Thorpe had flying bees.
It was late by the time I got to check the Bluebell Road UEA bees. Too late to see them flying. The hive that was tipped over in the winter has used up a bucket of feed already this year.
I was introduced to a single frame traveling box for the first time today. I will have gotten used to using them later in the year once I have finished shaking bees into the ten of them. The ten boxes are now sitting in the allotment with my spare supers.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Winter losses
At last we have had a warm enough day for the bees to really get out and about. It gave me the chance to begin the grim process of assessing my winter losses. On the allotment site there was one hive that showed no activity and on inspection was found to have failed. At Poswick there was also a failure and in Suffolk one of the three there had also failed.
I checked 28 hives today and out of those I have definitely lost three colonies.
I checked 28 hives today and out of those I have definitely lost three colonies.
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