First Inspection Of 2016

First Inspection Of 2016

The bees have had 8 months with little human interference. I’m glad I fed them well in the autumn and that they had their bee cosies.  Last year I had a wipe out but this year I am coming out on top! Happy days.

All my hives are 14x12s.  The two allotment colonies are in good shape.  One of them is very strong with 11 frames of bees and on top of this there are eggs, larvae and capped brood on every frame.  Could this be the colony that produces this year?

The field hive is still weak.  Found the queen and a 2 cups of bees.  I expect this hive to fail but I thought I would give it a chance to come good.

No signs of disease.  Added the Apishield Hornet Trap (external link). You can see it in the photo below on the near hive.

6 May 2016 - Hives still with bee cosies on
6 May 2016 – Hives still with bee cosies on

Section Honey

I am planning on creating section honey this year: see honey sections post.  The rationale is to reduce the extraction workload and also because there is something magical about honey sections.  Many of us tried it as children, but not since as it is not widely available. Hence, one super on now, oil seed rape / wild-flower blend into that and then insert box of sections in time for the 2nd nectar flow … that is if I still have a strong colony at the start of July.  Come on bees!  Come on beekeeper!  Come on weather!

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Author: Roger

regaining my sanity through beekeeping

6 thoughts on “First Inspection Of 2016”

  1. Last year I lost my 2 hives, due to the beetles. It was their first year at my new home, this year I put beetle baffles on the bottom boards and also put in the hives, beetle traps with oil. Upon inspection I found all 3 hives to have 1 beetle in the top feeder boxes. Any suggestions? How to get rid of them permantely? Thanks

  2. Hi Rodger, enjoyed the post, what are you doing with your weak colony? How are u trying to get this good? Since your last post I have inherited a hive in very much the same state off a good friend of mine. Any advise would be great!! Still waiting for swarms!! Got the traps out and that wild colony looks very strong so just hoping!! Missed out on a swarm last Thursday as I had to go to a funeral but these things can’t be helped. All the best.

    1. Advise / help please!!! This is the situation. I inherited a weak hive off a good friend of mine that was giving up bee keeping, the hive is building up in numbers (about 6 frames of bees), doing an inspection today, stores, capped brood found the queen and eggs, how ever the odd cell had 2 eggs in? Is this a laying worker situation? What should I do? All the best.

      1. About 1 in 100 bees is a laying work in usual circumstances. It’s possible the Queen is older/weaker/not many eggs. Personally – I would just let this hive run its course and see what happens. Good luck.

  3. Best of luck with the new season Roger. Despite my best efforts I have managed to start the season with some bees-just. The colony is small but it’s early in the season and we beekeepers are hopeless optimists after all.
    . Thought I had messed up big style last year but after moving them to the new flat concrete space I have created at the bottom of the garden.There seemed to be an awful lot of dead bees and way too much varroa difficult to treat in thee weather we had, but now it is full steam ahead .
    I ordered an over wintered queen in September assuming the one I had would be a dud- turns out she has been amazing- the best laid plans and all that.Decided to stick with the plan and pulled my homegrown and well behaved girl out and put the bought one in. The new queen cost a lot so wasn’t going to waste her and didn’t have a strong enough colony to split it.New queen had better perform! Old queen was put to sleep in the freezer as- despite regularly snuffing out the lives of the workers with my handling skills, she was the queen after all. Why is killing a queen so much harder?
    Anyway I am glad I spent all that time training up my daughter to help me as I have had some unexpected knee surgery which dictates non weight bearing for 6 weeks. I was very glad to have my daughter, and a flat concrete surface when the new queen arrived and I had to talk my daughter through it. She managed brilliantly.
    I have promised her control of her own hive when,later in the season, I am taking delivery of a native black queen bee which I am hoping to provide with a split form this hive. Now all we need is some good weather!

    1. Thanks for the update. Seems like you nearly had my 2014/15 winter wipe out. Bees don’t like being moved in my experience. Nectar flow must be on us now!

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