Something or Nothing.

It's been just over a week since the Students came to view the hives. All was well then - well kind of.

I went through the hives today and had another detailed look.  Things have changed; just a little:

Hive 1: During the week Dave put a second super on this hive (above a queen excluder).  I went through the hive this morning and found there had been some further nectar/honey collection in the hive but nothing too much.

The hive looks busy and I found the queen in the top deep.  I reversed the deeps, if nothing else than to make the queen move up again and not feel boxed in up in the top deep.  This probably makes no difference if you listen to what some people say i.e. the queen goes where she likes, when she likes.  I feel that's probably true but the likely trend is that she moves up, and besides it makes me feel proactive!

While going through the hive I did notice both the queen, lots of brood and larvae and a single uncapped Queen Cell which I removed.  I saw just the one but I will make contingency to do an artificial swarm next week when I can next get back in to inspect.

Hive 2: This has been busy and has remained very active over the past week.  The brood I found in the top super has largely all emerged and nectar is now filling the vacated cells.  The new supers I put on over the past couple of weeks are being drawn out, so that is encouraging, and there is a lot of brood in the deeps.  I decided after a while to stop the inspection as things were getting a little agitated and the bees were getting a tad stressed!

At least I have the equipment to do an artificial swarm; all I have to now do is swat up on what to do!

Hive 3:  The swarm hive has been getting more established.  The super has been filling and I replaced 3 old frames with new foundation.  The bees in the deep are still only on about 3 or 4 frames but nevertheless these have some brood and larvae on them.  I removed the feeder and let them get on with gathering nectar.  I did not see the Queen despite looking fir some time!  I hope, and trust, she is there!  Again, an inspection next week should determine that.

So now what I need to do - apart from considering undertaking an artificial swarm - is to consider making a split (or even two).  I feel there is sufficient brood etc. in the 2 large hives to manage making a split at some point in the next couple of weeks.

If I go to the hives next weekend with the required equipment prepared then at least I can have the option of doing something, or nothing!

Swarms and Students

I had a really great day on Friday! I gave three very enthusiastic students from the Jamia Ahmadiyya in Haslemere a tour around the apiary. They were extremely keen to learn about beekeeping and I only hope I was able to answer all their questions fully!

I met up with them mid afternoon and gave them a quick briefing - about the bees, the equipment, the protection and most importantly to stay calm, don't worry and have fun!

Fortunately the bees for once were similarly briefed and cooperated beautifully!

We had quite a lot to cover as I now have 3 hives that are all at quite different stages of development. However, the first thing for us to notice was what was going on outside the hives.  There was a lot of activity!  It was a very warm spring day and from what I could tell there was a good nectar flow on; lots of bees flying in and out, not so much pollen being carried. So what did we find?

Hive 1:  This is the long established hive.  It needed no mite treatment a week or so ago but I went through the hive with the students, showed them brood, pollen, capped honey, eggs and larvae - it has everything you could want for a teaching hive!  We left it after adding a super of drawn comb - there's a flow on!

Hive 2:  This is the combined hive which had just had a course of MAQS mite treatment. I wasn't sure how this hive would have coped as my experience in the USA (where admittedly it was much hotter) was not good. But my fears were unfounded.

When I opened the hive I found the queen had been busy laying in the super!  Not too much brood, but enough!   But by way of compensation there was also a lot of honey and nectar in the super as well!  Anyway, I was sort of prepared for this as I had a super of undrawn foundation with me.  I checked that the queen wasn't in the in-situ super and then put the new super under it; the theory being that the queen won't cross the undrawn super, the brood will hatch and the bees will then fill the brood cells with honey - well, that's the theory!

Again we looked through the rest of this hive saw there were no queen cells but saw there was a lot of nectar in the cells.  So I felt quite good about putting a second super on.

I'll also do another mite count in a couple of weeks.

Hive 3:  The new Swarm Hive.  Last Wednesday evening Dave got a call from someone local who said she had swarm in her front garden.  And what a swarm!  It filled the skep.  Sadly there are no photos, but Dave reckons it's as big a swarm as he has ever caught.  He put the swarm into a new deep, added a queen excluder and a super.  Unfortunately he didn't have any new foundation available so the bees went into a box of old comb.

The good news however was that I have plenty of frames and so I planned, with the students, to relocate the swarm onto these new frames.  It was all ridiculously easy! 

Most of the frames were in a bad state so we just checked if the queen was there before we gently shook the bees into the hive.  We left just 3 original frames of decent half drawn comb; the rest was new foundation.  We also fed the bees some 1:1 syrup in order to stimulate some frame drawing.  But given the size of the hive and the activity in and out of it this may not really have been needed!

So the 3 students and I left the apiary happy and excited for pretty much the same reasons!  They had been through three hives, handled bees, seen the stages of growth and even tasted a bit of honey/nectar direct from the comb!  Very cool! I had seen the hives looking strong and calm!

I went back into the apiary today (Sunday) just to see the swarm hive again, but ended up looking at all 3, and I'm glad I did!  There wasn't much change to Hive 1, but the second super in Hive 2 was being drawn out, fast.  I didn't want the queen rushing back up too soon so I dashed home to get another super of undrawn foundation and popped that under the other 2.  

Three supers on - nectar flow - feeling happy!

I went this morning mainly to feed up the swarm and found they had taken about 1/3 of the feed from Friday.  So I topped it up.  I also found the queen and saw she had been laying - all very encouraging!  It would be nice to put some new super foundation on the hive soon.

All in all its been a brilliant weekend!  You just have to love spring!

A PVC Queen - you just can't make this up!

I'm up and running again! Albeit with a lot of help from a new beekeeper friend.

I was lucky enough to be at a friends garden party yesterday afternoon in Pine View Close (PVC to the initiated) when a swarm decided to settle in a hedge just over the road!

Much excitement; a huge cloud of bees was reported to be flying all around. It was abundantly clear this was a swarm looking for somewhere to settle, and sure enough within 30 minutes they formed this beautiful cluster:

It was super calm and about 2.5 m up in a beech hedge.

I put a post on the "Haslemere Swap and Sell" Facebook page hoping it would be found a home, and within an hour I had a post from someone who said their dad was interested.  

We chatted and he asked me if I wanted to keep them for myself.  I told him yes I'd love to, but that I had no equipment or anywhere to keep them.  Dave very kindly said that he would happily loan me some equipment and he also offered to host them at his apiary. I jumped at the opportunity! Top man!

We decided to meet up the next day equipped with our swarm catching equipment; so long as the bees hadn't gone!

Now I haven't seen my stuff for about a year, so I surprised myself that it was all together. 

Bee suit? (Including holes) Check!

Gloves? (Covered in Missouri propylis) Check!

Boots! Check!

Step ladder, pruning shears, branch loppers? All check!

...Good to go!

We met at 6pm and found the bees just as (and where) they were the previous night!  Interestingly we were almost identically kitted out, even down to the make, age and model of our cars? What is it about beekeepers and 1999 Peugeot 406s?

However, crucially, Dave also had a large sheet and a skep which was put to excellent use:

Once the swarm was safely wrapped up and popped in the boot of his car all that we needed to do was install them.

I've never installed a proper swarm before (I once found a swarm on the ground which didn't survive; queenless I think) and it's a truly remarkable thing to watch. 

Dave had already set up a hive with frames of foundation and he had prepared the entrance by laying an old cupboard door up to it like a ramp. 

The bundle of sheet and skep were then placed at the bottom of the slope and then unwrapped.  The sheet was quickly laid over the ramp and tucked in under the entrance opening.  

All we needed to do was lift the skep, give it a tap to dislodge the bees, and in double quick time they all marched up the slope and into the hive. 

All done in about 10 minutes.  Brilliant!

There's a feeder on top of the hive now, so all we need to do is feed them tomorrow to give them a kick start.  I'll make up some syrup as well and I'll go along on Thursday or Friday to feed them again. 

I'll keep feeding them but leave them a good week on their own before I inspect them properly.  I remember the first package of bees I got in St. Louis drew out bare plastic foundation and started to lay within 5 days. 

This looks to be a very strong swarm (I reckon 20,000 bees?) so I think they will be really buzzing!  I'm really really excited to get back in the bee game again! 

A Brilliant Day, and to cap

It all have PVC Queen to brag about!

It now looks like I need to buy National sized equipment; Langstroth stuff is available but is just not common.  Anyone got any suggestions?

An Extended Day Beekeeping!

The weather was so bad this weekend that I didn't manage to get any beekeeping in, yet again.  Instead I took Monday off (May 6) and went round my hives.  This activity actually started on Sunday as I needed to plan what I was going to do at each hive location so that I wasn't unnecessarily running about.  Broadly my planning worked! Broadly, but not quite...

So what follows are my plans and notes of what actually happened - a few surprises came my way!

Equipment needs:
Tool box - 2 empty drawn frames + mating box frames.
Spare deep - no frames.
Supers with cut comb x 2.
Supers x 10.
Dolly.
2 nuc boxes for possible splits.

Should have taken my back support!

Home hive:
Check for queen cells and/or queen.
Perform artificial swarm if cells present! or simply reverse if not.
Need excluder and deep of drawn comb for AS.
Add 1x super with cut comb.

Didn't see the queen, but saw Swarm cells were present on two frames. Relocated one frame to mating box (centre compartment) left one in the hive but removed 2 of the 3 cells on it. If the queen in the hive doesn't take maybe the one in the mating box will.

I think it may be likely this hive will swarm!

Bottom supered with frames for cut comb. Three supers currently in place.

Diane Hive:
Check for queen cells. Remove any queen cells to tool box then to mating box in yard.
Reverse.
Add supers x 2 (max).

Didn't see the queen, no sign of supersedure cells or swarm cells. Didn't reverse. 

Bottom supered a single super. Two currently in place.

Ladue Hives:
Check two hives for queen cells. Remove to tool box/nuc box if present.
Perform reversals.
Add supers x 4.

Down to one hive, but combined the hives.

Swarm cells removed from the one surviving hive (removed a total of 4 frames) to make up a nuc at home.

Added 2 supers.

Mating box:
Check queen cells.
If not hatched relocate to nuc box/tool box, take to Gdns for swarm hive, otherwise leave.

Swarm cell present in western compartment. Decided to leave it in place!

These cells (and those in the centre compartment from the home hive) were subsequently all relocated to the "swarm hive" at the gardens.

Garden Swarm Hive #2:
Check for queen. If present OK. If not use frame from mating box.
Reorganize and reduce to 2 deeps.
Add supers x 2.

No queen! Swarm was either Queenless or they killed her! 

Reduced bees into 2 deeps added 2 supers (3 total now). Put in queen cells from the mating box. A couple were damaged in transit (at the bottom of frames) but hopefully either the healthy capped cell or the viable uncapped cells will develop. Check back in a couple of weeks!

Should have taken my swarm cells to the gardens as planned. The "swarm hive" was queenless and needed these cells and I had to drive home to collect them!

Garden Hive #1:
Check for queen cells. If present relocate to swarm hive or nuc box.
Reverse.
Add supers x 2 - check garage!
Add one super with cut comb.

All ok! Added two supers. Total of two in place.

A montage from the Botanical Gardens of some lovely brood,
pollen and a very prominent Queen Cell.

Another montage from the Botanical Gardens,
including the delivery of the Queen Cell!

Another Queen...

Well the hive in my back yard has got some capped Queen Cells in it! But the existing Queen is still there. So I removed the Queen Cells and put them in my mating box! I'm not sure if the hive will swarm - probably it will - unless I can perform an "artificial swarm" on it. However, given the weather forecast I think this is unlikely before Sunday. And by then it might be too late!

Still, I hope I'll have another Queen to raise which I can use to split another hive! I'll check in the mating box in a week or so to see what's happened!

Preparing my Observation Hive

Now that I know I have a Queen in a mating box I just have to decide what to do with her! Well I have now decided; she's going into my Observation Hive.

I took two frames of capped brood from the hive that is located next to the mating box and put them in the OH. Tomorrow I'll put my new Queen (and her two or three frames of brood) in with the bees that have stayed with the OH. I'm hoping the nurse bees that don't go back to the parent hive will happily accept their new queen.

I'll try and develop the OH into a nuc that I can use later on, once its done a tour of the local schools!

Swarms!

I checked the "swarmed" hive at the gardens yesterday. No sign of any brood or eggs so I reasoned they were Queenless still. It's nearly 2 weeks since I was in and found what I assumed was a post-swarm hive. So what to do now?

I put in a call to a couple of folks and I got a lead to a swarm of bees that was on Craigslist. Quite how they got Internet connectivity I don't know; that's another avenue to explore I guess! Anyway the swarm of bees was located on the ground at a house 20 mins from home.

I called the home owner last night and arranged to look this morning. It looked like rain so I went out without being able to check if they were still there. But they were, still on the ground.

Now this is the first swarm I have ever caught. I was a bit nervous, but the bees were every bit as docile as you're told a swarm should be. I simply picked them up and put them in the new "Pershing" box I have. My apologies to those (bees and humans) that didn't make the trip!

So once in the box I drove them to the gardens and installed/combined them with the existing hive. I dumped the swarm in a new box with drawn comb, put a sheet of newspaper on top and then placed the Queenless hive on top of this. I hope they will get along together and get cracking with all the nectar that's about to explode from the trees and flowers (I hope). I will check to see how they are on Sunday and remove one if the deep boxes so I get back down to 2.

I don't know if there was a queen in the swarm, and I don't know if there was a queen in the "Queenless hive. I guess if both are there there'll be a fight!

It was an excellent first swarm experience! Can't wait to do it again!

Swarm on the ground

Into the "Pershing" box!

At the Gardens

Combined with the "Queenless" hive.