I have been lucky enough to fall on my feet with nice queens this year. There has been some breeding (by which I mean selection of the best stocks and taking their swarm cells), some culling of mean queens and some successful rearing (cells to mated queens in mating nucs).
I’ve had a few queens go without permission, but its all turned out pretty well. Even the mean hive that I tried to requeen has lost its queen and become queenless and yet strangely still become less agitated and aggressive than when it had a queen.
Yesterday I sold a couple of queens to a friend at the bee club. He had some mean hives and wanted to do something about it – just as well as they were sited on an allotment. When I was there I stood across the apiary from them, about 15-20ft, and even without approaching never mind opening those hives I was attacked by a couple. Now I have had some rough hives, but never one with a guard radius like that. Either way those queens should be lovely and whether it takes a day or a month or two they should change those hives for the bettter. They were introduced to a hive of other bees from mixed hives to allow introduction before merging with the target colonies.
Oh the only queen rearing issue I have had is that my sky blue queen marker is a bit flakey. The ‘ink’ keeps separating and becoming watery and the queens keep rubbing it off around the hive. Hey, it ain’t all that bad if that’s all you have to worry about.
New Apiary
Good news !! I got the go ahead to have bees on the allotment. The start of a new era, beekeeping close to home.
Now I need to clear out the shed and paint it, then finish the netting enclosure, create a level base of the hive (currently on a slight slope), etc, etc… Then I need to swap hives around to get some friendly bees on site; the last thing I need is to move bees in that are less than compatible with nearby people.
Wish me luck
Surprise visitors.
For the past few weeks I have been wondering where all the swarms were, others on the swarm collection list were picking swarms up from around me, but I’d not seen one.
Friday, I am just on a lunch break and working from home I had popped to the allotment to have a look about. My better half calls and says there are bees all over the garden – which is not usual because I don’t keep bees at home. I went home to look and true enough they had perched themselves in a hedge by the side of the road. For added fun it was right by the local primary school and there was about 30mins til the kids got out and the road would be swarming with home time mums, dogs, prams, etc. I called the school to warm them but they said there wasn’t much they could do. This is where facebook comes in handy. My better half is on the school group and drops them a line warning them. The result of that was very effective in the end.
Anyway with the use of wheelie bins a neighbour and I blocked of the path on the swarm side of the road and I got on with collection. It was only a small swarm but better to take it than leave it there to nest in someone’s roof later. I snipped away some of the bush (must sharpen those secateurs) and dropped them in a temporary home then put 4 frames with them; smoking the bush heavily afterwards to lose the queen scent. I left them til it was dark, as is the way to do it unless you want to leave some behind, then took the to the new allotment apiary.
I checked on them Sunday and they seem healthy and happy. In the end, surprise but not unwelcome visitors.
Damn, escaping queens
So week before last I did two artificial swarms and a demaree. Now both old queens on the artificial swarms have put up new cells and swarmed even with loads of room to expand, and it looks like the demaree’d one has too.
What is it with these bees, they need to read the books more. I did my part and they skipped a chapter and swarmed anyway.
Arghh!
At least I have some nice queen cells in nucs and a couple of hatches.
The queen in the demaree hive wasn’t one I wanted; her children keep giving be a bit of a hard time – during the demaree quite a pasting, swollen for 3 days afterwards. But the other two were very nice. Fortunately it’s their children I have in mating hives.
New Apiary (hopefully)
For a few years now I’ve wanted to have bees on our allotment plot. Couple of difficulties with the public fear of bees meant that I was blocked from having bees there – long story that I have told far too many times. Either way pending a (so far) 6 week council review period I am hoping to have bees on my plot.
Keeping bees on an allotment plot would generally be advised to be in an enclosure, to prevent bees interrupting gardening activities; driving the bees up above head height to prevent bee-line collisions on their way to forage. I had planned one before and got as far as put posts up in preparation for a netting enclosure. This then became a rose garden and an asparagus bed (which didn’t work out), which then became overgrown.
I decided to have a clear up preparing for the bees. Fortunately on most of the area I had put down weed blanket; less fortunately I had put down wood chip which seemed to have a habit of turning to soil covered in weeds. Luckily I had used decent weed blanket which has survived underneath and was up to some sustained trauma while I pulled and scraped weeds off the top.
After a fair few hours of work the area now looks a lot better, cleaned of weeds, a nice spot for a hive, with wood chippings on the floor. One post had rotted had to be replaced. Along the top of the posts I put a wire in place to hang the mesh from for the bees to fly over. Also in the area there is a water butt fed by the shed roof; I plan to float something on the water surface, as otherwise bees make a habit of drowning. Having a water source so close by should be good for the bees also, with shorter flights; also it should be good for other allotment holders as bees visiting water sources can be a cause for conflict.
So, cross fingers that I can start using the space for its intended purpose soon.
Using pollen patties
Regarding pollen patties, I made a discovery. I had been putting them on with some cuts in the paper to allow access, over the crown board hole. Some loved them, others ignored them pretty much completely.
Then I put some on the top bars; there was more interest and they were getting into them.
Then I pealed them completely and pushed them down on the top bars. This resulted in them being rapidly consumed in all hives.
(At least I assume they were eaten – and not just thrown out.)
Lesson learnt.
Also I have artificial swarmed two hives, so I am going to add additional patties to those to build up the numbers.
GOLD …gold
…just to paraphrase Spandau Ballet and in celebration of some of my lovely honey… well the bees honey really.
It always looks so nice by the light of the warming cabinet – so I thought I would share the experience.
Not the best photo, but the experience of opening the cabinet door is somewhat similar to the scene in the diner in Pulp Fiction when they open the briefcase. Balmed in a warm golden glow of luxury edibles – at least thats how I see it … the other half shrieks that it is too bright.
There is a interesting point luxury edibles. Is honey a luxury item or a basic foodstuff ? Discuss…
Varroa destruction
Late last year I did apply varroa treatment in the form of Apilife var as is my usual choice, erring on the natural side of ‘remedies’ with thymol (thyme oil). Earlier in the year I had tried predator mites, with unknown success or otherwise given I could not get a mite drop from which to start measuring.
This year I’ve started with a slightly stronger tack, following methods discussed by LASI, using oxalic acid vapourised with heat into the hive. I’ve kept away from oxalic before, as while it is ‘relatively natural’, existing in rhubarb leaves for one, dribbling it over the brood has some rumors of being far from effective and more of being damaging to bee mouth parts; right at the time when they are in low numbers, they need to use their mouth parts with most urgency and also not being in a position to being readily replaced.
The process is relatively easily facilitated with a varrox vapouriser, the process being to put oxalic acid powder, put in the hive entrance, seal up the hive relatively well and then stand well back and connect the battery. The bees will be somewhat aggravated and will try to fan the vapour out so leaving open the varroa floor is a bad idea. The vapour being a white misty gas can be seen after 20 seconds or so escaping from cracks and joints. DON’T BREATHE THE FUMES, they cause irreparable lung damage. A face mask and keeping up-wind of the hive is strongly suggested.
After two and a half minutes the oxalic will all of have been vapourised, disconnect the battery and wait a further 2 mins. On taking the vapouriser out be aware it will be hot – oh and watch out for upset bees when you are unblocking the hole.
Remember I said it was hot, well that means letting it cool before putting more oxalic in the heating dish – from personal experience – stop adding more and back away.
Oh and also when it is inserted be careful not no having it touching any handing wax or the whole hive could set on fire… One way to avoid this, and something you will likely have to do on a WBC (as they have floors that slope up to the frames) is to put an empty super under the brood to give enough height clearance.