Association Apiary

David was at the apiary on the 18th to follow up on the queen rearing. He was joined by Ranald and Peter. Here is Davids report:-

During our visit today to place queen cells in apideas, which we managed and are now with Linda who will be taking them to Kate’s, we did the following;

Hive 1 – shaken out and hive parts stacked beside the sheds. 

Nuc 1 – united with hive 2 over paper, so will need sorted into one brood box at the next visit.

Keys are now in the feeder of the poly nuc closest to the sheds.

Thanks to Wilma and David for covering for Peter.

This is the report from Wilma:-

Hive 1 (cell raiser) :  Cell raiser failed, multiple eggs seen in cells. Laying worker.
Next steps : shake bees out and leave them to drift into surrounding hives. 
Hive 2 (cell raiser) : five sealed queen cells
Next steps : Q cells and bees into apideas, weather permitting David and Linda will do this on Tuesday. 
Hive 3 : Q cell hatched/ slightly chewed. Bees quite. 
Next steps : check over the next few weeks for signs of mated queen. 
Hive 4 : Q cell hatched, queen seen and marked green. Q excluder on. 
Next steps :  usual inspection re brood stores etc. 

Nuc 1 next to “hive 4” queen seen and yellow marking touched up. Building up nicely, could soon be ready to sell? 
Nuc 2 this is the Queen from hive 2 which was used as a cell raiser.  Queen seen brood larvae etc. Light on stores so given fondant.
Next steps : check its building up and check stores/ feeding. 
Nuc 3 : Entrance had blown shut, not sure for how long. Bees move to new nuc to clear some dead bees from floor.  Didn’t see queen. Gave it the last of the fondant. 
Next steps : look for Queen, check for eggs and check stores/ feeding. 
All hives/ nucs have now got numbers on them. Hive 2 will need a queen or need united with an established nuc over the next few weeks. 

Davids report from the latest apiary visit.

NB if anyone is checking the hives, from now until Sunday 23rd June, that no-one goes into Hives 1 or 2, as these are currently working as queen cell builders, so please don’t disturb them. 

Hive 1 (nearest sheds) 

Found to be queenless. Thu 6^th June added eggs to raise black bee queens using Cupkit system.

Hive 2 

Queen found and put into a nuc box to make this queenless. Thu 6^th June added eggs to raise queen cells as with Hive 1. 

The nuc was placed down the slope from this hive and Hive 4. It was left closed overnight and opened to fly on Thu 6^th June.

Hive 3

Bursting with bees, on a double brood box, and had 12 or more queen cells plus an empty queen cell. Didn’t think it had swarmed yet, due to recent poor weather. Made 2 nucs from it with a queen cell in one and a queen we saw hatch in the other. Left a queen cell in the main hive, just in case, but there may be a virgin queen already there. Reduced it back to a single brood box.

The two new nucs were placed out in locations where they could be put into permanent hives in the future, if wished. They were left closed overnight and opened to fly on Thu 6^th June.

Hive 4

Had recently been split and has a nuc box behind it. Both were fine. 

Ranald visited the apiary on the 28th May since the weekend visit was a washout. Here is his report:-

Hive 1: (nearest the sheds)A  small amount of activity at the door, I didn’t see any pollen going in.I hefted the hive and it felt quite light.

Hive 2:Lots of activity at the door, pollen going in.Hive feeling heavy.

Hive 3:Lots of activity at the door, pollen going in.Tallest of the hives, didn’t heft it.Screwed metal brackets round back corners of the base,to help stabilize the hive.  

Hive 4: (no number on outside)A small amount of activity at the door , didn’t see any pollen going in.Hive quite light

Poly Nuc:Some activity at the door, pollen going in.

15^th May 2019 1.30pm

(Provisional)

Leader: Jim Bell

Exact date and time will be confirmed by email.

Please contact Mandy Tel: 01721 720563 Mob: 07563 185993 beforehand for details so you can be notified of any changes to the schedule due to weather or other circumstances.

Our regular visit to inspect the association colonies.

All welcome, particularly beginners.

Clean beesuits, gloves and footwear are required. Suits are available to borrow on request.

Very cold day, too cold to go through the colonies properly, but David Ferguson notes the following:

4 colonies, few flying due to the cold weather of the last 10 days.

Fondant was put on Hives 1 and 2; it would be worth having some fondant handy at the next visit, in case hives 3 and 4 need some. Hive 1 needs an excluder.

Hive 3 was rather grumpy on the previous visit, but seemed OK on 5^th May. There were some mouse droppings in Hive 3 (?), but it was noted in the hive record sheet.

All the varroa boards had nice wax cappings over them, some pollen and DF only saw a couple of varroa mites in one hive, which was noted in the record sheet. All the varroa trays were cleaned off, and all 4 hives have one in still.

Sheds: AC

New hive record sheets are in one of the sheds, in a blue plastic folder.

Beware of wasps – you may find them in the empty hives, and there were 3 small binks started in the sheds, these were removed. We should get some draught excluder to cover the edges of the doors, to try to prevent access by wasps and mice. Can anyone suggest a suitable one?

Next visit:

Draught excluder

Fondant (AC has some ready for use)

Queen excluder (and possibly super??) on hive 1

If weather good, dismantle Hive 3 and set it more securely on its base