That Reminds Me

Today it was time to have a mid-winter check on the bees, and do an oxalic acid trickle as a preventative measure to keep mite numbers low.It took a good long time to get into Poly, as the brick had frozen to the roof with snow, and the strap wouldn’t budge. However, once inside I found a nice healthy colony, who had lots of stores, had hardly touched the sugar bags. I did the oxalic acid trickle, then sealed them back up again, having cleared away some dead bees and snow from the entrance.

Heather was much the same - a slightly smaller colony, but with plenty of stores, and also forming a good cluster. Oxalic Acid trickle done then also sealed up again.

The nuc, Alice, has sadly not survived. On inspection the bees were all dead - spread all over the frames, in what looked like normal activity. There was plenty of capped stores, which was untouched, and the bees weren’t all buried headfirst into the cells, as you usualll get with starvation. Their being all spread out implies that they were queenless and had lost the instinct to bundle together. Given the lack of any other obvious cause, I’m going to assume this is the reason for their demise.

Still, 2 out of 3 is a good number to be at at this stage - now to hope all stays well until spring when I can start them off with a spring feed!

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Today I finally finished off doing all the last-minute tasks for the winter.Poly and Heather both got 2 sugar bags put on - which given that they’re both almost completely full of stores should see them well. Alice got a single bag in their nuc, but I’ll keep a closer eye on them as their stores are lower than I’d like going into winter, but their colony is too small to store and cap any more syrup.

The sugar bags are made by taking a bag of sugar (in a paper wrapping), dunking it in a bucket of cold water (anywhere between 15-60 seconds), then leaving it to harden into a giant sugar cube. Its something I first found in the EMBA Basics of Beekeeping document at their downloads page, attributed to Archie Ferguson and it worked well last year.

All 3 hives have had mouseguards fitted.

A brief reckoning makes it:

Alice - 2kg, plus 1 kg hard sugar

Heather - 3kg, plus 2 kg hard sugar

Poly - 4kg, plus 2kg hard sugar

Assuming I can still extract 4-5kgs of honey from Poly’s supers, a net increase in value, if not in volume…

Todo

Beginning of January - check stores levels. - DONE - no signs of them going hungry!

Oxalic acid trickle (when the colony is broodless). DONE

Spring 1:1 feed when its warmer.

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Time to start the initial changes to get things going for winter.Poly have capped over around 4 frames in their super, so its probably time to take it off. I’ve put a clearer board underneath this, so the bees will leave it over the next 24 hours. Then I can run off with the honey! Its not enough to extract, but I can always try pressing it or doing cut comb. Just have to warn people about the wired foundation!

Alice is looking very small, down to just one frame of capped brood and larvae, with little food left. I’ve migrated them into a nuc, and will be giving them a heavy feed tomorrow, once I get a feeder sorted out for that nuc box.

Heather I’m leaving alone for another week, to make sure their requeening goes ok. However the high number of flying bees implies that the cells were indeed for supersedure, not swarming, so I’m less panicky about them now.

I also saw Heather’s guard bees kicking out drones, so they obviously know winter is here!

Todo

Take super off Poly - DONE

Feed Alice, Heather and Poly 1:2 syrup. - DONE

Fit Mouseguards (need to make one for the nuc!) - DONE

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Finally a sunny day, and time to see what my recent machinations have resulted in.Alice seems to have hatched that supersedure cell, as there was a scattering of well-placed eggs in the middle of the brood frame. The colony is very weak and needs some feeding, but I can hopefully take them through winter - even just as a ‘backup’

Heather is still laying in perfect brood patterns, and is packed to the gunnels with bees and honey. However there are 2 uncapped queen cells with royal jelly and larvae in them - no idea if this is supersedure (ok), or swarming instincts (not ok), but I guess I just have to leave them 2 it!

Poly is still doing well, with around 2 or 3 full capped super frames. Not enough to bother spinning off, but definitely worth cutting out for some eating with a spoon! At least they’ve drawn out all the other frames, so they should get off to a faster start next year.

Todo

Feed Alice soon. - DONE

Check Heather in 10 days for signs of being post-swarm - DONE

Take super off Poly when the weather turns bad -

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A quick inspection today showed that not all is going well in the apiary.Poly is still doing nicely - good population size, and drawing out of the second super, but still not much honey storage - only about 5 frames - due to the sunshine and showers weather of the last few weeks.

Heather was doing well - lots of honey, and a good brood pattern (only on 2 frames) - but a supersedure cell on the outside frame. I decided that it was too risky to allow a supersedure this late in the year (although have subsequently been advised otherwise). I took off this cell, with plans to destroy it.

However, on inspecting Alice, it turns out that its queenless, with only capped brood and no eggs or larvae. This isn’t unexpected, as they’ve superseded twice in the last 3 months. As a result, the supersedure cell from Heather is now in there - it might have been chilled or damaged, but its still a possible new queen for that colony.

I plan to merge Heather and Alice in a few weeks, and see if 2 slightly broken colonies can limp through the winter as one. As a starter, I’ve moved Heather a foot or so towards Alice, so I can merge them when they meet up.

Todo

Merge Alice and Heather in a few weeks. Hope and pray they come through the winter with either Heather’s queen, or the supersedure queen. - Change of Plan, try to take both through winter!

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Having put varroa trays in on Tuesday last week - today I decided to do another count.After scanning the trays from Heather and Alice several times with a magnifying glass, I made the count 3 in Alice, and 4 in Heather. Being a pessimist and rounding up to 10 each, that makes the daily mite drop 10/6 =1.67. The table given at the Spring Varroa Count shows the danger level for July as 16 - so nowhere close, which is a good sign. Probably the artificial swarming of Heather, and the repeated supersedure and break in brood laying in Alice accounts for this. I didn’t do a count in Poly, as its a swarm of flying bees, so should be much lower than in Heather.

I also added a feeder to Heather - they’d started filling brace comb under the coverboard with honey.

Alice is a relatively weak colony now, but the frames were packed with brood and eggs, so she seems to have a good queen now, and should recover well before Winter.

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Since the lime and Rosebay Willow Herb are both now coming out in force, some more supers were needed.A second super went on to Poly - she’s only filled about a half of the current one, but better to get it on and them do nothing with it, than have them run out of space. Heather also needs one, but she’s still got 2 empty brood frames at each side, so they’re as well filling those before filling a super. With a bit of luck I might get some honey this year!

I also discovered that a fellow beekeeper (who I went to help with a Pagden Swarm) has black bees not far from us in Marchmont, so we’ll hopefully have more genetic diversity to cross-breed with next season.

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It was finally time to inspect the wooden hive to see what the aftermath of the second supersedure attempt was.On inspection, the supersedure cell had hatched normally (the bottom was nicely chewed open, not damaged from the side). There was also signs of eggs, larvae and some capped brood. Its difficult to know whether these were laid by that recently hatched queen, or by her ‘failing’ mother, or even a situation of having 2 active queens. However, the eggs at least let me know that laying is ongoing, which means someone is keeping the line alive.

With the extra confusion, I’ve decided to stick with the name Alice, and not come up with another one.

Poly and Heather were also both doing nicely, with Heather having taken down a gallon of feed in 3 days! However there were signs of bright orange pollen (probably Rock Rose) coming in to both hives, and lots of flying bees, so I’m confident the June Gap has indeed finished.

I also added division boards (kindly made for me out of foamex plastic) to all three hives. This should stop the buildup of brace comb at the edges.

Todo

Keep an eye on the super in Poly, see if they need a second one. - DONE - added 10/07/09

Check Alice to look for continued queen health. - DONE: Good brood pattern and eggs laid on 20/07/09

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The June Gap is upon us, with very little stores in any of the hives. However, things are coming into flower now that will provide the much-needed food for the bees.I inspected Poly and Heather today, leaving Alice to her supersedure and new queen development until some time next week.

Poly is doing well, although is quite lacking in food. But there are good brood patterns, and small honey stores in the corner of brood frames and some in the super, so I’m hopeful that if the weather stays good this week they won’t need a feed.

Heather I’m a little bit more concerned about. Again, there’s good brood pattern, and signs of both upright and laying down eggs, showing a recently active queen. However, a single queen cell with an egg in it loomed large in the centre of the hive, despite there being no problems of a lack of food or lack of space to move or lay in. I’m hoping they’re just being over-eager with their emergency queen cells, but I’ll need to check they’re not planning supersedure for some reason at the end of this week, or the beginning of next.

Todo

Tues 30th onwards - check Alice for an active queen. - DONE

Feed Poly and Heather if the weather turns bad this week. - DONE Fed Heather

Check for supersedure in Heather by Tues 30th at latest. - DONE - just play cells…

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Today I inspected to see what state all the hives were in and to see if they were settling in nicely. How wrong I was!Poly first - the queen is laying well, good brood pattern, and around 7 brood frames drawn, and maybe 3-4 super frames, with a small amount of storage in the super. The rest of the brood frames should be drawn out over the coming week.

Heather - also laying well - although no need to put a super on just yet. 2 or 3 frames unused at each edge.

Alice - they’re superseding again. I think that perhaps she took so long to lay, that her fertility is in question, so they’re superseding to be on the safe side. I didn’t see the queen anywhere, but I did hear her quacking, so hopefully they’ll manage to supersede. I might have to put in eggs from another hive though if this new queen also doesn’t take - although that will be getting a bit late in the year for my liking. There are enough eggs and larvae recently laid that the population will keep going, but I have no hope for any honey from this hive this year.

Todo

Add a super to Heather in a week or two, after the June Gap. - DONE

Add division boards to both Poly and Heather to stop them filling the gap at the edge - DONE - foamex boards made in the workshops!

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