2018 05 20 International Bee Day picnic and apiary visit.
A great way to celebrate International Bee Bay! Although the sunny weather of the previous days had given way to clouds and the occasional drizzle, it was still a very pleasant day. The colonies were all carefully checked through, and all had laying queens (one queen still proving invisible though). Plenty of drone brood was seen, but the numbers of drones in the hives were low – possibly the cold late spring and the late build-up was a factor there. No queen cells were seen, so there didn’t seem to be any immediate risk of swarming. In a couple of weeks – with a few more drones about and no queen cells – we’ll split these colonies and create nucs for members/beginners.
Varroa: the trays in the open-mesh floors were all checked for varroa mites – several weeks since this was done. We need to calculate the DMD – Daily Mite Drop – the number of dead mites per day indicates the level of infestation, so you can decide whether an anti-mite treatment is needed. We were delighted to find no mites in 2 hives, and just a couple in one – so virtually no varroa! Very many thanks to David for his zealous mite eradication.
Picnic: we had a well-deserved picnic afterwards: celebrated in good style with delicious contributions from Richard, Lynda, Ranald, Gordon, Danka’s mum and all the other beekeepers. Good craic and bee puzzles including the mysterious disappearing queen, the two-queen swap-over, and hive visits from other beekeepers’ swarms. Some over-wintering losses were reported, but mostly losses were light.
Moving the PBKA colonies: a chance encounter Steven-the-gamekeeper towards the end of the picnic gave us an update on the need to relocate the hives. Steven kindly showed us an alternative site, which after a walkover seemed to fit the bill nicely. We’ll be looking for helpers to move the hives to a temporary location for a couple of weeks, and then bring them to their new location. If you can help, please contact Mandy Clydesdale or Peter Stevenson.