Last couple of days!

I'm into my last couple of days here in Missouri; well if you exclude the week I come back for in July! All my bees are gone, my equipment sold, all I have left is a couple of tool boxes, 2 unused mating boxes and an observation beehive (empty). It's sad; the end of a chapter!

But there's a new chapter about to start and there are lots of blank pages to fill! The British Beekeepers Association has an excellent website that I can use to locate a club near me and through their swarm page I hope to find local beekeepers who can help me start up again!  

It's not a bad time of year to start again, but I'll wait until next year to get my bees. Instead I'll spend my time finding an apiary, deciding what type of hive to use,  building the equipment, researching clubs and not least adjusting to a new climate!

I'm really wanting to keep Apis Mellifera Mellifera but we will just have to see how that goes! 

So watch this space for developments!

It's been an absolute blast in Kirkwood, St. Louis. I couldn't have asked for a better group of mentors than I found at the Eastern Missouri Beekeepers Association, and so many thanks (I cant count them all) go to my neighbour who got me started back in April 2009! Little did I realize how much fun it would have been and how much it has changed my life! Thank you Susan!

And as the slogan says...

I certainly will!

Black Locust is flowering

My friend John Pashia posted that the Black Locust tree is in bloom. This is great news as it is a very significant source if nectar in these parts.

 

If I remember correctly it was mid April last year (2013) that the black locust bloomed and it was fantastic then. A full week in bloom with no rain! We can only hope it's like that this year!

So get out there and super up everyone!

Sting in the tail; well the neck actually

I finished beekeeping today at Ladue. My first stop was at the split I made for Jürgen in his beeyard. This is doing very well! You may remember it was basically Queenless in my backyard for quite a while. I relocated it, put in some eggs and brood and a couple of days after that a new queen.  When I looked in today it was filling very strongly with new larvae; probably 4 or 5 frames.  I didn't bother to find the queen!  So I reckon this needs some supers and soon!

At my apiary in Ladue the hive with the week queen I replaced has also taken well. I need to find some frames to complete a second deep and this needs to be done reasonably quickly.

The hive "north" of this was also very strong again containing plenty of brood, eggs and larvae, but no sign of any swarm cells. I put on 2 supers.

The final hive; the one I always do last in this beeyard because they are temperamental, was like the northern hive. There was plenty of brood, eggs and larvae and again no swarm cells or sign of any being made. 

The problem here was that a couple of bees somehow got in my suit and I now have a nice sting on my neck! Anyway they also deserved supers and I put on 3. Two are already drawn out the other is mostly foundation.

A good day's beekeeping and I'm now ready for a nectar flow!

Swarms and Splits.

I handed over, or at least started, the transition of my care of the bees at the Botanical Gardens this morning.

The split I made a couple of weeks ago looks good. The queen has clearly been accepted and she's started to lay. I would have hoped for more progress but at least she is laying now. Maybe the recent cold slowed her up?

The hive the split was taken from however was full of queen cells! Here are three...

I was with Jane Sueme and we decided to take the existing queen away (to simulate a swarm) and also to remove most of the other queen cells. The old queen was marked and put in a nuc box with a couple of brood frames. We left a couple of the queen cells in the remaining hive, having removed most of the others.

The cells in the photo are "spare" and I may use them in another hive, should they be needed. We hope the hive won't swarm now we have removed queen cells and that the old queen can be used elsewhere!

An interesting morning and I've not been to Ladue yet!

I'm confused!

I saw this in my local store...

I've never seen anything like it before! I mean, sugar free imitation honey! What's the point?  What's the purpose?