An informal chat about what’s happening at the association apiary, and beekeeping in general.
If you have any ideas for the association or questions about bees and beekeeping this is a great way to get information from other beekeepers.
The meetings are now at 7.30pm on the first Wednesday of the month in the back bar of the Neidpath Inn in Peebles.
A group of us visited the association apiary on Sunday 29th May.
The weather was lovely sunny and warm, about 18C, so a good afternoons beekeeping was had.
In attendance were Mandy, David, Emma, Daniel, Jo, Eric, Helen and Peter.
We went through the hives in the usual order, weakest to strongest. We were looking to see that they were building up well and there was no signs of swarming.
This was true and all the colonies were looking well, with fully laid up brood frames and busy foragers.
The only puzzle came with the last and strongest hive. Last inspection, 3 weeks ago, this had had almost wall to wall brood and a second brood box had been added in the meantime. Now there was no brood at all in either of the brood boxes, except a solitary charged queen cell! This puzzled us for a while until we looked in the supers (3 of these (its a BIG colony)) and discovered that was where the brood was, and presumably the queen, although try as we might, we couldn’t find her. Since we want to split this colony asap now we put queen excluders between each of the 2 full and 1 half brood boxes so that we can narrow the search and hopefully find her next time.
In retrospect, I remember that we put a queen excluder in at the last inspection without seeing the queen and assumed she was in the main brood box. So not a good assumption and compounded by the fact that this wasn’t in the hive notes. I’ll plead guilty to that because I’m pretty sure it was me who was writing the notes. So must try harder at keeping good notes, especially in a communal apiary where folk doing the inspection may only have the notes to go on for the history of the hive.
A last interesting point as Helen pointed out at the time – the queen cell in the brood box, charged with royal jelly, could not have been laid in by the queen because she was trapped above the excluder and had been for 3 weeks. So the only way the queen cell could have been started was that the bees had transported an egg or young larvae into that queen cup.
Hopefully we can get out to the apiary again this Sunday 5th June, catch that elusive queen and split our bumper colony to avoid them swarming.
Peter.
The bees were generally doing well. The colonies get stronger from one end of the row to the other.
Supers and queen excluders were added where needed. We saw a couple of the queens. John did well to catch one of the queens and move her under the queen excluder.
Photos courtesy of David.
Apiary 8th May 3
Apiary 8th May 2
Apiary 8th May 1
An informal chat about what’s happening at the association apiary, and beekeeping in general.
If you have any ideas for the association or questions about bees and beekeeping this is a great way to get information from other beekeepers.
The meetings are now at 7.30pm on the first Wednesday of the month in the back bar of the Neidpath Inn in Peebles.
BEEKEEPING FOR BEGINNERS
Starts 23rd APRIL 2016: £35.
An all-day session of theory and practical,
followed by supervised hands-on beekeeping through the year.
For £35 we offer the course, one year’s membership of Peeblesshire Beekeepers Association, and the opportunity to look after a hive of bees for a whole year at the Association apiary.
We will provide a mentor for you, so you can build on your skills throughout the year, and gain confidence.
We can lend all the equipment you’ll need – just bring boots and gloves!
For further information and an application form, contact:
Mandy Clydesdale, the PBKA Secretary via our website: https://www.peeblesbeekeepers.org.uk
Remove mouseguards – it’s still cold but the bees are active. However colonies will still be under strength, so reduce the size of the entrance so it’s easy to defend.
If it’s too cold for them to fly, check have enough stores, or out fondant on, then syrup as the weather warms up.
We will be meeting at the association apiary on Sunday 10th April at 2pm to do the first inspection of the year.
Weather permitting !
If you need directions or more information contact Mandy Tel: 01721 720563 Mob: 07563 185993
Informal chat about what’s happening at the association apiary and hopefully find some volunteers to help with any jobs that need doing.
Also if you have any ideas for the association or questions about beekeeping in general this will be a good place to get information from other beekeepers.
The meetings will be at 7.30pm on the first Tuesday of the month in the back bar of the Neidpath Inn in Peebles.