Yesterday David Ferguson and I, with a potential new beekeeper, checked the colonies to assess their stores. We didn’t carry out an inspection of the hives – it was very windy, only 8 degrees, and rain was threatening. Dead bees were removed from entrances, varroa mite drop recorded, and varroa boards cleaned.
All but one (8, closest to the gate/fur trees) were flying and bringing in pollen.
4 colonies had almost run out of fondant, so these had one or 2 packs of fondant added. 2 further colonies had one more pack of fondant added as a precaution.
Colony 3 had the highest varroa count (though only averaging half a mite day since the last check): this one has consistently had the highest varroa count.
Colonies 5 and 8 (closest to the fir trees) had considerable amount of diarrhoea: colony 5 no longer smelled of fermented stores. 3 and 5 will need remedial action to take out the dirtied frames and put in new frames. I suggest that for this we try a variant of the Bailey comb exchange, on the first warm day. We’ll need 2 excluders, 2 brood boxes, 2 ekes with an entrance slot (or make up 2 C-shaped very shallow ekes), clean deep frames with foundation, feeders and syrup. Sugar will need to be purchased and syrup made up (I can see to that); we have everything else except for one more brood box and the ekes. There should be several more brood boxes at Venlaw that can be made up – I’ll ask Geoff to check. We’ll only need one at the moment. I’ll see if I can find any timber scraps that can be used to make ekes.
Mandy