My Apiary

My Apiary

Welcome to my beekeeping records.

I use 14×12 brood boxes (including a Beehaus) and am based in Gloucestershire (UK). The apiary varies up to 5 colonies is set up as per photo below. I record my honey yields and colony losses on separate pages.

My Apiary In Farmer's Field
My Apiary In Farmer’s Field

14 May 2022

Nuc is doing well.  Did not inspect. Will look at in 2 weeks time and if they have drawn out half the comb I’ll put them in full size hive.  With a hands-off approach, I’ll just heft the hives in September to check they have enough stores for winter and then put a bee cosy on them. Aim to collect some surplus honey next year.

New swarm in a nuc
New swarm in a nuc

5 May 2022

Caught a medium-sized swarm in neighbours garden. Brushed about 1/3 of bees into my bag and then placed in nuc. Immediately the bees were fanning their wings and gave impression I might have got lucky and landed the queen.  When I returned at 9pm, all the bees were in the nuc. I took to farmers field and they stayed. Taking hands-off approach, so did not feed them.

6 June 2020

Inspected colony: no eggs or capped brood. Some pollen coming in.

Put Swarm Lure in a nuc box (note: Vita are a sponsor of this blog) in order to attract and catch a swarm..

24 April

A swarm, not mine:

Not My Swarm - April 2020
Not My Swarm – April 2020
v=Swarm Has Found A Home - April 2020
Swarm Has Found A Home – April 2020

23 April

Inserted 2019 mated queen (green dot) into right hand hive.

Marked Queen 2019
Marked Queen 2019

11 April 2020

20C, Sunny

  • Right Hand Hive – Hundreds of flying bees. 6 frames of bees in hive. No eggs, larvae or capped brood. LIttle pollen.  Plenty of stores.  Found marked queen (blue dot, 2018 or 2019 Queen). Assume queen not laying and no laying workers

I added frame of eggs from a friend.  Hopefully, the queen and the eggs will keep colony from becoming laying workers.  Ordered Queen.

Hive April 2020
Hive April 2020

13 October 2019

20C, sunny

  • Right Hand Hive – Hundreds of flying bees.  Brood box was wall to wall full of bees and upon hefting seems like enough stores to get through the winter.  Removed Apivar

17 August 2019

22C, sunny

  • Right Hand Hive – Treated hive with Apivar.  Looked healthy. 11 frames of bees.  Bringing in pollen.  Did not search for queen or eggs.  Need to remove before 26 October or when its getting to 15C – whichever is earlier.

3 August 2019

22C, sunny

  • Removed the 3 supers (about 10lb of honey, made 30 tubs of cut comb) from right hand hive.
  • All the other hives had been taken over by wasps – they were weak due to my splits earlier in the year
  • Lesson learnt: I will split or artificially swarm when colonies stronger
2019 Honey Haul
2019 Honey Haul

4 July 2019

22C, sunny

Caught tiny swarm in neighbour’s garden.  Had green dot.  Possibly mine from what was left hand poly nuc and now facing uphill.

  • Beehaus, left hand side – Empty
  • Beehaus, right hand side (June 2019 Queen, blue dot) – Bees evidently rejected the green dot Queen but I found unmarked Queen and marked her.  3 frames of bees, some stores, some brood.  Saw quite a lot of eggs … but several eggs per cell in some cases.  Think I have queen and laying workers at same time. Assume the few brood present below was used to create a new queen.  Weak but will leave to see how develops.
  • Left hand poly nuc, now facing uphill (April 2019 Queen, green dot – but cannot find her – she could have swarmed see swarm note above): 5 frames of bees, some stores, 7 brood cells (yes, only 7).  Could not find Queen.  Possibly there is a new queen in here that hasn’t started laying yet? Turned 180 degrees to face uphill so that flying bees go into the new nuc that does have a queen.  See how this colony develops.  Needs stores and queen.
  • Left hand poly nuc, facing downhill (April 2019 Queen, green dot): Swarm I caught today.  1/2 frame of bees.  See how this colony develops.  Needs stores.
  • Right hand wooden 14×12 hive (Found and marked the queen with a blue dot.  Either new queen or from Summer 2018 Queen): Bees not aggressive.  9 frames of bees with eggs, brood etc..  The queen stuck to my queen marker pot due to the drying ink – afraid I might have damaged her. Put the 3 supers back on to give them space. Monitor.

Overall: unhappy – might finish season with just the one right hand wooden hive.Need to use B401 [link opens in new window] more regularly to stop wax moth.

27 May 2019

17C, sunny and windy

  • Beehaus, left hand side – Put laying workers in nuc, drove 5 miles and left bees in hedge
  • Beehaus, right hand side (April 2019 Queen, green dot) – 2 frames of bees, some stores, some neat brood, hence think Queen accepted, but could not find Queen or a green dot.  Possible that I transferred queen from right hand wooden hive.  Bees look to be dwindling. Removed some frames that had wax moth larvae.
  • Left hand poly nuc (April 2019 Queen, green dot): 2 frames of bees, some stores, some neat brood, hence think Queen accepted, but could not find Queen or a green dot.  Possible that I transferred queen from right hand wooden hive.  Bees look to be dwindling. Removed some frames that had wax moth larvae.
  • Right hand wooden 14×12 hive (Definite Summer 2018 Queen, but cannot find her): Did not open hive as the bees came at me agressively.  Aggressive because queenless, in process of making queen, windy? Looked to be about 9 frames of bees.  Fear that they have been bringing in stores and are queenless. Put the 3 supers back on to give them space.

Overall: unhappy – wax moth, dwindling hives, not sure of state of queens.

12 May 2019

20C, sunny, 2 new 2019 (bought) queens with green dots

  • Beehaus, left hand side (probably laying workers, or May 2017 Queen) – Again only some drone brood. Will leave to dwindle.
  • Beehaus, right hand side (April 2019 Queen, green dot) – 3 frames of bees from right hand wooden hive plus added bought new queen
  • Left hand poly nuc (April 2019 Queen, green dot): 2 frames of bees from right hand wooden hive plus added bought new queen
  • Right hand wooden 14×12 hive (Definite Summer 2018 Queen, but cannot find her): Not progressed since 22 April.  10 frames of bees.  Worker brood and frame of drone brood.  Eggs. No action in the 3 supers.
My Apiary - 12 May 2019
My Apiary – 12 May 2019

Video:

22 April 2019

22C, sunny

Took my daughter with me again. She wanted to get stuck in! I gave her preamble about walking away if is she is disturbed by the bees and keep walking if bees follow.

  • Beehaus (May 2017 Queen) – Again only some drone brood. All the worker brood and eggs have now hatched out that I put in on 30 March (i.e. 3 weeks ago).  No sign of eggs or worker brood. If lucky then perhaps will have a mated queen but expect if there is a drone laying queen she will kill the 2019 queen anyhow. Will order queen in the post.
  • Right hand wooden 14×12 hive (Definite Summer 2018 Queen): Great.  11 frames of bees.  Worker brood.  Eggs (so I didn’t lose the queen last time!).  Added 3 supers with either thin foundation or no foundation but with a starter strip.

30 March 2019

17C, warm, lovely

Took my daughter with me (aged 6) for the first time:

  • Beehaus (think it’s a May 2017 Queen) – Single colony on left wide – Not good.  Some drone brood. No worker brood. Assume queen stopped laying worker brood or have laying workers.  Quite a few bees.  Lots of stores. Add frame of eggs from the other hive in hope they make queen.  Removed wasp guard
  • Right hand wooden 14×12 hive (Definite Summer 2018 Queen): Great.  9 frames of bees.  Worker brood.  Saw eggs.  Mistake was I shook bees off the frame I put into Beehaus and forgot to check if Queen was on the frame.  Hopefully she wasn’t.
Looking at frame of bees
Looking at frame of bees
30 March 2019 - Hive Inspection
30 March 2019 – Hive Inspection

Lessons Learnt for 2019:

  1. Add supers earlier – in 2018 I used Apiguard to reduce varroa and delayed adding supers
  2. If see aimless bees – as in Left Hive in 2018 – inspect earlier. I thought they were bearding – but none of the other hives were bearding at this time
  3. If beehive is weak and queenless late in the season just remove the hive (I ended up with thousands of wax moth in Left Hive at end of 2018)
  4. Keep better notes! I missed making notes for a couple of inspections in June.

11 October 2018

Added Bee Cosy to the wooden 14×12 hive.

10 October 2018

22C, windy, just observing

Lots of flying bees in the Beehaus and Right Hive.

The Beehaus is doing well.  It’s had a queen through out the season after artificial swarm.  It produced honey and has plenty of stores for winter:

The Right Hive, 14×12 has done well.  It was queenless for some time after split and I sealed it up in June to just look after itself with no supers.  It is now good going into winter:

Beehaus 10 October 2018
Beehaus 10 October 2018
Beehaus With Wasp Guard
Beehaus With Wasp Guard

If interested in the Beehaus, please read my Beehaus Review.

14x12 Hive on 10 October 2018
14×12 Hive on 10 October 2018

9 October 2018

Removed Apivar (it has been there 8 weeks) from all hives.

Beehaus and right hand hive have lots of stores and are full of bees.  Flying bees bringing in yellow pollen.  I did not inspect.

Left hand hive had thousands of wax moth larvae.  There was 1 cm deep of cocoon, thousands of larvae about 3cm long each, the frames were destroyed, the brood box had deep marks from the larvae.  I burnt all of this and flamed the rood, stand, floor.

I didn’t have my camera.  A remaining larvae below that I filmed the next day.

Greater wax moth, Galleria mellonella
Greater wax moth, Galleria mellonella

I couldn’t find any photos online as bad as the infestation I experienced, but here are a couple of sample photos from Bee Aware in Australia.

Kathy Keatley Garvey, UC Davis Department of Entomolog
Kathy Keatley Garvey, UC Davis Department of Entomolog
Wax moth cocoons stuck onto frames. Chantal Forster
Wax moth cocoons stuck onto frames. Chantal Forster

Read my post on: Wax Moth Infestation.

31 August 2018

  • Left hive – quick inspection. Found larvae. Assume Queen accepted.  But 100 bees on outside not doing much and no bees coming and going. Check for bees bringing in pollen.

16 August 2018

20C, sun/light cloud, middling wind, bees not aggressive (but not happy)

  • Left hive – added Queen (red dot)
Queen Cage
Queen & Workers In Queen Cage

Read my post on Buying & Introducing Buckfast Queen Bee.

11 August 2018

20C, sun/light cloud, slight wind, bees not aggressive (but not happy)

Inspected all hives.

  • Left hive – Bees aimless at entrance. Some drone, no eggs, lots of stores (8 full 14×12 frames of stores). Removed 3 heavy frames of stores and gave to right hive [bought Buckfast Queen today]. What happened? Drone laying Queen?
  • Right hive – A few frames of brood, saw larvae but didn’t see eggs – assume Queen not laying much now.  This is the first time I have inspected this hive – so first proof that they produced a Queen and she’s laying. They had some good stores –  added 3 frames of stores as per bullet above.
  • Beehaus – Single colony – Full of bees and bringing in pollen. Unable to pull frames out, so just left it all.  There is a QE between the two sides of the colony and they have stores on that side too. Added wasp guard
  • All hives – added Apivar (slow release Amitraz strips). Should give at least 93% reduction in varroa. Need to remove 6-10 weeks time, i.e. by end November.  Will remove whilst it’s still above 15c
  • All hives – none of these colonies will need feeding as they are already looking good for stores.
  • All – feel like they are getting ready for winter.

Plan:

  • Add Queen to Left Hive
  • Remove QE from Beehaus
  • Remove Apivar when temps start to approach sub 15C
  • Do not expect that I will need to feed
Apivar Packaging - Front
Apivar Packaging – Front
Apivar Packaging - Back
Apivar Packaging – Back
Apivar Leaflet - Front
Apivar Leaflet – Front
Apivar Leaflet - Back
Apivar Leaflet – Back

10 August 2018

Took the honey:

  • Left hive – 7 frames.
  • Beehaus – 6 frames

Produced 13 frames and made 84 cartons. Typically a super frame holds 3lb of honey and some of the frames were not complete, so I will reduce my total by 20%.  Hence, I made 31lb.  Success!

Honey Super Frame 2018
Honey Super Frame 2018
Cutting Comb
Cutting Comb
Cutting Comb - 2
Cutting Comb – 2
Comb Cutter Full Of Honey
Comb Cutter Full Of Honey
Cut Comb In Container
Cut Comb In Container
Ikea Box Full Of Honey
Ikea Box Full Of Honey

Read my post on A Successful Honey Yield?

9 August 2018

Added bees escapes to Beehaus and left hive so that can take honey tomorrow.

22 July 2018

Just went to check honey production:

  • Left hive – Bees meandering – lack of Queen? 7 frames in the super looking good, but not much activity
  • Right hive – No super
  • Beehaus – Single colony – 5 frames in the super, lots of bees

Rest of May & June 2018

Work was busy and I ended up not recording what I did exactly.

  • Left hive – I am sure I inspected and found eggs at some stage (but maybe I didn’t check)
  • Right hive – I remember there were no eggs and I added a frame of eggs (from Beehaus or Left Hive). At this stage I thought this is not going to produce honey, so I removed the supers and left them to requeen themselves and build stores for the Winter. This worked well as it turns out.
  • Beehaus – All looked OK from outside – I don’t think I inspected. This worked well as it turns out.

20 May 2018

22C, sunny, no wind, bees incredibly gentle

  • All – No colonies bringing in much pollen
  • Left hive – Found two queen cells, culled one.  Lots of stores, drawn most of the first super and filled 1/2. Added second super. Not bringing in much pollen.
  • Right hive – No inspection except to check super. A few bees in super but not drawn.
  • Beehaus – Single colony – They have accepted the queen from the left hive! Result! And the colonies have blended. Result! I moved all brood to left side and added queen excluder.  Queen is in the left colony. Rationale: in 2 weeks will close right entrance and make sure both sides are separated … this provides extra capacity for a swarm or for an artificial swarm next year

Lesson Learnt: A split colony accepts their old queen a week later plus managed to combine 2 colonies at the same time.

Plan:

  • All – check if need additional supers
  • Left hive – Check in 3 weeks for eggs (by 11 June)
  • Right hive – Check in 2 weeks for eggs (by 4 June)
  • Beehaus – Aim to make sure 2 sides of colony 100% separated in 2 weeks (by 4 June)

13 May 2018

16C, sunny, no wind, bees incredibly gentle

  • Left hive – lots of eggs and stores. Found queen, marked her, popped her into Beehaus left side (rationale: I could not find any queens or queen cells in the Beehaus and hoped the left colony would accept their old queen back one week later)
  • Right hive – 7 queen cells, no eggs, no visible queen. Not sure if queen present and they she has just stopped laying eggs before they swarm, or just no queen. Cut out 5 queen cells and left 2 on the same frame. Rationale: with 2 cells on same frame, hope new queen easily finds and kills the queen that has not emerged.
  • Beehaus – Left colony – Lots of stores no eggs. Popped in queen from the left hive.
  • Beehaus – Right colony – Lots of stores, no eggs, no queen cells.
  • Beehaus – Removed insert and installed newspaper to let colonies combine. Rationale: Need to create single colony; on reflection there is a risk that queen is in right colony and might kill my left hive queen. SIngle colony will allow me to put swarms in the other side of hive

Lesson Learnt: Despite cold weather until late April, they have been piling in nectar. Wish I had put supers on earlier.

Plan:

  • Left hive – Cut queen cells out in 1 week
  • Right hive – Leave for queen to emerge and mate – expect to see eggs in 3 weeks (by 4 June)
  • Beehaus – Create single colony in Beehaus; close one of the entrances in 3 weeks time when new bees start emerging from cells and the older bees should be dying off
Beehaus
Beehaus
Beehaus In Field
Beehaus In Field
Beehaus With Flying Bees
Beehaus With Flying Bees

Beehaus thoughts:

  • Top boards slide a bit, but afterwards you can see that it is bee tight
  • Need to make newspaper separator wider than I estimated

5 May 2018

21C, sunny, no wind, bees incredibly gentle despite the splits

Moved my two 14×12 hives round 90 degrees with aim of artificial swarm. Inspected: eggs, larvae, pollen, lots of stores in both hives.  Unable to find either Queen. Did a split.  Moved 3-4 frames from standard hives into each side of the Beehaus. I.e. went from 2 to 4 colonies in farmer’s field. No idea where Queen is.

Will inspect in 1 week to see where the eggs are, remove Queen cells and leave 1 in each of the hives raising queens, add supers if frames drawn out.

It was 5C last week … but the bees have been busy. There was wild comb in the eke and stores and larvae.  Regret that I did not put supers on earlier … but I did not want to chill them.

Read my post on: Beehaus Up & Buzzing.

14 April 2018

16C, sunny

  • All gentle bees
  • Colonies all bringing in pollen, except one (near, allotment) that I suspect is Queenless.
  • Added eke and Apiguard
Bees With Pollen
Bees With Pollen
Beehives Back-To-Back
Beehives Back-To-Back
Honeybees Laden With Pollen
Honeybees Laden With Pollen

31 March 2018

Cloudy, 5C

I have sold the 2 Thermosolar hives and they will be collected tomorrow.  Rehived the bees in these hives into a full size hive and a nuc. Saw eggs in both hives.

Also opened the middle hive and saw cluster of bees.

Feb/March 2018

On warm days – bees flying from all hives in allotment expect for the middle one.

14 October 2017

Removed all jumbo feeders. Removed supers on top of Thermosolar hives and the fondant left over. Cosies on … all wrapped up for winter.

30 September 2017

  • Fed 2 hives in farmers field and 2 14×12 hives in allotment with a further 6Kg sugar as a Thick Syrup, each. 6Kg of sugar will create 7.5Kg (16lb) stores.  The bees need 20Kg (44lb) of stores to get them through the winter. Read Feeding Bees for more info. So fed them 12Kg. Will not feed them anymore.

28 September 2017

Fed 6 Kg fondant to each Thermosolar Hive.

23 September 2017

17C. [It’s been a cold, wet summer, not going much above 20C for the last few weeks.]

  • Fed 2 hives in farmers field and 2 14×12 hives in allotment with 6Kg sugar as a Thick Syrup, each. 6Kg of sugar will create 7.5Kg (16lb) stores.  The bees need 20Kg (44lb) of stores to get them through the winter. Read Feeding Bees for more info.
  • Most of fondant has gone in the Thermosolar Hives.  Need more.
  • Changed Apiguard in the 2 Thermosolar Hives.
  • Plan: keep checking syrup level and feeding the bees

18 September 2017

  • Fed 6 Kg fondant to each Thermosolar Hive.  This fitted well plus allowed me to treat with Apiguard at same time.

10 September 2017

  • Removed MAQs from all hives.
  • Do not think temperatures are going to reach 20C, so added Apiguard to Thermosolar Hives.  Thought the formic acid in MAQs could react with the metal inside the hives.
  • To wet again to find time to install bees in Beehaus.
  • Will need to feed bees thick syrup in a few weeks time.

1 September 2017

  • Added MAQs to all hives, except Thermosolar Hives.

18 August 2017

All feed gone. Fed the 6 colonies further, 20Kg sugar dissolved in water as thin syrup. I.e. 4Kg for the standard hives and about 1.5Kg for Thermosolar hives due to smaller feeder.

Effort: 2 hours.

Plan: Start MAQs treatment after feeding and do Thermosolar treatment as soon as I can.

11 August 2017

Fed the 6 colonies 15Kg sugar dissolved in water as thin syrup. I.e. 3Kg for the standard hives and about 1.5Kg for Thermosolar hives due to smaller feeder.

Effort: 3 hours.

10 August

Found colony that had starved (middle hive, allotment). Need to stop Apiguard treatment and feed.

30 July 2017

Related post: “Cut Comb Honey Success

Plus added Apiguard to all hives except the Thermosolar Hives.

Apiguard 30 July 2017
Apiguard 30 July 2017

Effort: 6 hours.

17 June 2017

  • Blue Thermosolar Hive – No eggs. Attempts to make queen cell from frame of eggs I put in – but did not look of good quality.  Put in another frames of eggs.
  • I did not implement plan below at all.
  • I added supers to all hives.
  • Surprisingly the supers in the farmers field have had no action – despite the brood box is full of bees.

Plan For 17 June 2017

Daytime:

  1. Inspect Thermosolar Blue for eggs and middle hive for eggs
  2. Move supers from Thermosolar Blue to Thermosolar Green which is busier
  3. Far hive brood frames to Thermosolar Blue
  4. Far hive, replace with super so can then combine onto Thermosolar hive

Evening:

  1. Combine far super colony onto Thermosolar Blue
  2. Combine near hive onto middle hive

Result:

  1. Thermosolar Blue will have queen and be busier
  2. Thermosolar Green will have drawn supers to put down honey
  3. Middle hive will be stronger
  4. Near and far hives gone
  5. So just 3 hives left in allotment apiary

I am making cut comb and section honey.  In the UK it is a challenge to get the bees to draw out the comb and lay down the honey, which is why most beekeepers extract their honey, i.e. their bees don’t have to draw the new comb each year.  But I am determined to make comb honey as it is quick to cut and put in cartons (as opposed to spinning the honey out) and makes the most delicious form of honey. Current honey expectations:

  1. Thermosolar Blue – possibly 1 super
  2. Thermosolar Green – 2-3 supers
  3. Middle hive – perhaps 1 rack of Ross Rounds
  4. Field hives – 2-4 supers

I think I can expect at least 4 supers (120 sections) and 16 Ross Round sections.  By the end of July I will be able to look back at this estimate and see how realistic it was.

11 June 2017

19C, sunny, windy, calm bees

Allotment – Near Nuc (August 2016 queen. Marked.): Put in hive from nuc. Saw queen. Possibly starving. Emergency fed. Added Ross Rounds which have stores in as don’t fit Thermosolar Hives.

Allotment – Middle Hive (Suspect now May 2017 Queen (not sure if mated yet. Unmarked): Capped brood. Did not see eggs but comb is dark.

Allotment – Far Nuc (June 2016 Queen. Marked): Saw queen.

Allotment – Blue Thermosolar Hive (no queen): no eggs or brood. Two supers on top that will move to green hive.

Allotment – Green Thermosolar Hive  (May 2017 queen): Eggs, brood.

Out Apiary – North Facing Hive (May 2017 queen): Did not inspect but could see 11 frames of bees on brood box.  No action in super.

Out Apiary – South Facing Hive (Suspect virgin May 2017 queen from south facing allotment hives): Did not inspect but could see 11 frames of bees on brood box.  No action in super.

My feelings: Good news that the 2 field hives and green Thermosolar Hive are doing well.  Sad that blue hive is queen-less and that other 3 hives in allotment look weak. If I had more time I could be a better beekeeper but the day job is busy, the kids need some attention, I have a regular to-do list to keep everything together and then the bees get what is left of me. Overall I’m feeling a bit sad about all of this.  But perhaps with 7 hives, it is normal to have 3 good ones, 1 queen-less and 3 weak. But after I implement the plan above I should have 5 good ones. Still feel a bit sad. But with 7 weeks left of prime beekeeping, there is still opportunity to make the 2017 haul a good one.

10 June 2017

Installed bees into Thermosolar Hives.  I had to turn hives round 90 degrees to face South-South-East. Lots of confusion and couple of hundred dead bees at end of day – due to fighting or unable to find entrance? Also discovered brood box only takes 8 frames, so definitely need a super below. Need to understand what this means for anti-swarm method and drone comb.

Thermosolar Hive (Blue) With Bees
Thermosolar Hive (Blue) With Bees
Thermosolar Hive (Green) With Bees
Thermosolar Hive (Green) With Bees

1 June 2017

This is the day I expect my two new Thermosolar Hives to arrive, according to the “track and trace” function on the transport company website. These are much needed.  I can then put the 2 nucs in the allotments into 2 full 14×12 hives and put the south facing colonies into the Thermosolar hives!  Very, very exciting.

28 May 2017

I’m just trying to digest what I found today.  I need to look back at my records for the dates I put in frames of eggs and when colonies might have had mated queens.

18C, overcast on cusp of rain/thunder, calm bees

Allotment – Near Nuc (August 2016 queen. Marked.): Did not inspect. A week ago it was not too busy. Inspect in one week with view to put in a hive ASAP.

Allotment – Middle Hive (Suspect now May 2017 Queen (not sure if mated yet). Unmarked): On 24 and 25 May, work was very busy.  At the end of those days I only had time to put newspaper in between and add the swarms, in supers, on top of this colony. I picked this colony as I suspect the swarms are casts from the allotment south facing hives and I felt it would be better to try and not get these casts to combine into the hives from whence they came (any comments on this?). I also thought that as this middle hive had a 2016 queen, as a result of the combining the colonies might kill her off and choose one of the virgin queens to lead.  I hoped it would not lead to further swarms or casts.  At one point this hive stack 3 separate colonies, separated by newspaper. By 28 May they had eaten through paper and combined.  They had laid down a bit of honey in the super comb that Senen and I ate. Yum!

Roger & Senen Eating Honey From Comb (28 May 2017)
Roger & Senen Eating Honey From Comb (28 May 2017)
Enjoying Spring 2017 Honey From Comb
Enjoying Spring 2017 Honey From Comb

Allotment – Far Nuc (June 2016 Queen. Marked): Did not inspect. Plan: inspect in one week for eggs.

Allotment – South Facing Left Side Hive (no queen – will be May 2017 queen.): I peered into the supers.  I have 2 supers with thin foundation plus 1 Ross Round super.  I was delighted to see bees in the RR super and I think the 2 other supers are on the way to being filled.  Plan: inspect for eggs and add supers ASAP. I am thinking to do one harvest at end July and to leave this honey for the colony for the Spring gap.  Also if its Oil Seed Rape honey, I am thinking there is no harm in the bees consuming some of this and/or mixing it with other nectar so that it is not rock hard comb honey!

Allotment – South Facing Right Side Hive (no queen – will be May 2017 queen): I peered into the supers.  No action. Just 6 frames of bees in the brood box.  Just has 1 RR super on top at present. Plan: inspect for eggs and add supers ASAP.

Out Apiary – North Facing Hive (May 2017 queen): This was combined on 22 May with the south facing hive. All the newspaper had disappeared. Found sealed worker brood in top brood box (had been south facing) and sealed worker and drone brood plus 2 capped queen cells in the bottom brood box. Worker brood does not get capped until day 9 and drone brood on day 11.  Hence both boxes had laying queens before I combined 6 days ago. I shook bees from top box into front of this hive and used this now spare brood box to put into the south facing position.  Added QE and super with thin foundation. Plan: inspect and add supers and then put into the Beehaus when it arrives early summer to make loads of honey!

Analysis – North facing hive, farmer’s field: on the 2nd May it swarmed and on the 7 May there were no eggs or brood.  I had concluded it was queen-less and and so I put in frames of eggs. For the north facing hive to have got capped drone, it must have had a laying queen since at least 17 May. Conclusion: the queen stopped laying mid-April … but she was laying eggs long enough to create a queen. This new queen then started laying after the 7 May which was why in inspection on 10 May they had not tried to convert eggs into a queen cell. Hence, there was a new May 2017 queen.

Analysis – South facing hive, farmer’s field: This was a swarm from the north hive on 2nd May that I suspected the queen was sterile. They looked to be converting eggs from another hive into a queen cell on 10 May. To have capped worker brood the queen must have been laying since 19 May. Conclusion: the old queen must have been still laying as there was only 12 days from 7 May (new eggs) to 19 May (laying queen) and that is not enough days to mature and mate.

Outcome – hopefully the 2017 queen has survived.

Out Apiary – South Facing Hive (Suspect virgin May 2017 queen from south facing allotment hives): This was a large cast swarm caught in the allotment. Inspect for eggs in 2 weeks. I added frames from the combined hive some of which had eggs and brood. Added QE and super with thin foundation. Plan: inspect and add supers and then put into the Beehaus when it arrives early summer to make loads of honey!

10 June 2017

Installed bees into Thermosolar Hives.  I had to turn hives round 90 degrees to face South-South-East. Lots of confusion and couple of hundred dead bees at end of day – due to fighting or unable to find entrance?

Thermosolar Hive (Blue) With Bees
Thermosolar Hive (Blue) With Bees
Thermosolar Hive (Green) With Bees
Thermosolar Hive (Green) With Bees

1 June 2017

This is the day I expect my two new Thermosolar Hives to arrive, according to the “track and trace” function on the transport company website. These are much needed.  I can then put the 2 nucs in the allotments into 2 full 14×12 hives and put the south facing colonies into the Thermosolar hives!  Very, very exciting.

28 May 2017

I’m just trying to digest what I found today.  I need to look back at my records for the dates I put in frames of eggs and when colonies might have had mated queens.

18C, overcast on cusp of rain/thunder, calm bees

Allotment – Near Nuc (August 2016 queen. Marked.): Did not inspect. A week ago it was not too busy. Inspect in one week with view to put in a hive ASAP.

Allotment – Middle Hive (Suspect now May 2017 Queen (not sure if mated yet). Unmarked): On 24 and 25 May, work was very busy.  At the end of those days I only had time to put newspaper in between and add the swarms, in supers, on top of this colony. I picked this colony as I suspect the swarms are casts from the allotment south facing hives and I felt it would be better to try and not get these casts to combine into the hives from whence they came (any comments on this?). I also thought that as this middle hive had a 2016 queen, as a result of the combining the colonies might kill her off and choose one of the virgin queens to lead.  I hoped it would not lead to further swarms or casts.  At one point this hive stack 3 separate colonies, separated by newspaper. By 28 May they had eaten through paper and combined.  They had laid down a bit of honey in the super comb that Senen and I ate. Yum!

Roger & Senen Eating Honey From Comb (28 May 2017)
Roger & Senen Eating Honey From Comb (28 May 2017)
Enjoying Spring 2017 Honey From Comb
Enjoying Spring 2017 Honey From Comb

Allotment – Far Nuc (June 2016 Queen. Marked): Did not inspect. Plan: inspect in one week for eggs.

Allotment – South Facing Left Side Hive (no queen – will be May 2017 queen.): I peered into the supers.  I have 2 supers with thin foundation plus 1 Ross Round super.  I was delighted to see bees in the RR super and I think the 2 other supers are on the way to being filled.  Plan: inspect for eggs and add supers ASAP. I am thinking to do one harvest at end July and to leave this honey for the colony for the Spring gap.  Also if its Oil Seed Rape honey, I am thinking there is no harm in the bees consuming some of this and/or mixing it with other nectar so that it is not rock hard comb honey!

Allotment – South Facing Right Side Hive (no queen – will be May 2017 queen): I peered into the supers.  No action. Just 6 frames of bees in the brood box.  Just has 1 RR super on top at present. Plan: inspect for eggs and add supers ASAP.

Out Apiary – North Facing Hive (May 2017 queen): This was combined on 22 May with the south facing hive. All the newspaper had disappeared. Found sealed worker brood in top brood box (had been south facing) and sealed worker and drone brood plus 2 capped queen cells in the bottom brood box. Worker brood does not get capped until day 9 and drone brood on day 11.  Hence both boxes had laying queens before I combined 6 days ago. I shook bees from top box into front of this hive and used this now spare brood box to put into the south facing position.  Added QE and super with thin foundation. Plan: inspect and add supers and then put into the Beehaus when it arrives early summer to make loads of honey!

Analysis – North facing hive, farmer’s field: on the 2nd May it swarmed and on the 7 May there were no eggs or brood.  I had concluded it was queen-less and and so I put in frames of eggs. For the north facing hive to have got capped drone, it must have had a laying queen since at least 17 May. Conclusion: the queen stopped laying mid-April … but she was laying eggs long enough to create a queen. This new queen then started laying after the 7 May which was why in inspection on 10 May they had not tried to convert eggs into a queen cell. Hence, there was a new May 2017 queen.

Analysis – South facing hive, farmer’s field: This was a swarm from the north hive on 2nd May that I suspected the queen was sterile. They looked to be converting eggs from another hive into a queen cell on 10 May. To have capped worker brood the queen must have been laying since 19 May. Conclusion: the old queen must have been still laying as there was only 12 days from 7 May (new eggs) to 19 May (laying queen) and that is not enough days to mature and mate.

Outcome – hopefully the 2017 queen has survived.

Out Apiary – South Facing Hive (Suspect virgin May 2017 queen from south facing allotment hives): This was a large cast swarm caught in the allotment. Inspect for eggs in 2 weeks. I added frames from the combined hive some of which had eggs and brood. Added QE and super with thin foundation. Plan: inspect and add supers and then put into the Beehaus when it arrives early summer to make loads of honey!

25 May 2017

Medium sized swarm found by Trevor. Caught swarm straight into super (10 mins) and then combined with newspaper on to the super stack that is the middle hive in the allotment at the end of the day.

Again, I suspect was a cast swarm (for same reasons given on 22 May 2017).

No photos of this one.  All the swarms have been pretty low and almost touching the ground.

24 May 2017

Apologies allotmenteers for savaging more black current bushes and apple trees in my attempts to capture this swarm.

Another swarm arrived that I suspect was a cast swarm (for same reasons given on 22 May 2017). Colonies can create a few casts and I hadn’t removed any queen cells since my artificial swarm as I had recently read an article in BBKA journal that said something along the lines of the bees know best and don’t cut out the extra swarm cells.  I think I may review my approach to this in the light of 2 cast swarms.

I chased this swarm around the allotment.  Caught it 4 times in a super and it escaped 3 times.  Final time it stayed in as it was dark by this point (10pm-ish).  Remarkably found virgin queen during the first swarm capture attempt and marked her.  In the second attempt I used QE to keep her in the super.  It was definitely a queen as she was the only bee remaining in the super box.  I also found another virgin queen on its last legs that I assume was killed off by the bees. There appeared to be 3 or more virgin queens in this cast.

I only had spare supers, so I caught this swarm in a super and then combined with middle allotment hive using newspaper method.

Swarm In Apple Tree
Swarm In Apple Tree

I know this is a single swarm that I have been chasing around the allotment but now it appears as two swarms?  Is this because of multiple virgin queens? Or just because sometime swarms just do this before deciding on one location to hang from?

Two Swarms In Apple Tree?
Two Swarms In Apple Tree?

Series of videos on the day:

22 May 2017

One of my colonies swarmed today into a bush on the allotment.

I suspect this a cast swarm from one of the south facing hives. I artificially swarmed these hives on the 7 May and they were queenless at that point.  They would since have raised at least one queen and in this case, evidently more than one.  This was 15 days ago.  It takes 16 days for queen honeybee to hatch from an egg, so if they created a emergency queens with an egg that was already laid, we are in the right time frame, or if they had already started a queen cell we are also in the right time frame.  Worker bees can hide virgin queens from other queens so that they can then create a caste with that queen up to a few weeks after they have hatched out.

I have now peaked with 5 hives and 3 nucs – no equipment left.  I combined the 2 hives in the field and put the swarm I collected today into the south facing position in the field, 1m from the hive I had just combined. I put the south facing hive on top of the north facing hive and separated with newspaper. I figured that at least one of these colonies was queen-less due to notes in previous weeks and I did not want to combine the hives in the allotment as I felt they are progressing well without intervention.

Swarm in nuc box - Steve/Suki allotment
Swarm in nuc box – Steve/Suki allotment
Beard Of Bees On Nuc
Beard Of Bees On Nuc

They were still “bearding” at 6.30pm.  Should all be in the box soon.

10 May 2017

I need to open some of the hives to assess the situation in the aftermath of 7 May.  From the outside some hives unexpectedly busy and others quiet after my artificial swarms and splits on 7 May.I say Beehaus in clip – I met Thermosolar hives – as these need to face South.

17C, sunny, calm bees

Allotment – Near Nuc (August 2016 queen. Marked.): Found queen and marked her.  Phew. So my artificial swarm worked well.  3 frames of eggs and brood. Happy bees.  Not very busy.  Took frame of eggs out and placed in Out Apiary – North Facing Hive.  Inspect in one week with view to put in a hive ASAP.

Allotment – Middle Hive (June 2016 Queen. Unmarked): Found queen and lost her so unmarked. 10 frames of bees but could only find 2 frames with eggs and brood. Happy-ish bees.  Busy hive.  Inspect in one week for more eggs.

Allotment – Far Nuc (June 2016 Queen. Marked): Could not find my marked queen.  I am a bit worried that I might have injured her somewhat on 7 May, though she had walked happily into the nuc. No eggs or brood. Inspect in one week for eggs.

Allotment – South Facing Left Side Hive (no queen – will be May 2017 queen.): Did not open.  This is the busiest hive. Inspect in 1 week for swarm cells.

Allotment – South Facing Right Side Hive (no queen – will be May 2017 queen): Did not open.  This is quiet.  I suspect the house bees have not started foraging yet so the bees are just inside looking after the brood. Inspect in 1 week for swarm cells.

Out Apiary – North Facing Hive (Queenless -aiming for May 2017 queen): It did not look like they converted eggs into an emergency queen cell.  Added frame of eggs from Allotment – Near Nuc.  Inspect for queen cell in 1 week.

Out Apiary – South Facing Hive (Suspect unmarked queen from 2014 or 2015 who is no longer laying): Early signs of queen cell with egg inside. Inspect for queen cell in 1 week.

7 May 2017

17C, sunny, calm bees

Allotment – Near Hive (August 2016 queen? Or future 2017 queen?): Moved entire hire so it now becomes South Facing Right Side Hive. This near hive is now a nuc. Could not find queen so added 3 frames of bees and 3 frames worker comb.  I.e. a split. This may or may not now contain queen – need to check for eggs ASAP.

Allotment – Middle Hive (June 2016 Queen): 6 frames of bees.  Eggs, larvae, brood. Quite weak as was starving a few weeks ago. No manipulations.  However, after todays manipulations this hive became very busy.  Suspect bees from near and far hives tended to this hive. Added QE.

Allotment – Far Hive (June 2016 Queen): Was very strong. Moved entire hire so it now becomes South Facing Left Side Hive. This is now a nuc. I found the Queen, so completed artificial swarm successfully. All new flat frames.  Need to feed nuc.

Allotment – South Facing Left Side Hive (no queen – will be 2017 queen.): This was the allotment far hive.  I moved the entire hive to this location in an attempt to artificially swarm. I found and marked queen and popped her back in the far hive location which is now a nuc.  Added 5? new frames. Lots of brood, eggs, bees. 2 supers + 2 Ross Round racks.  Bees have avoided the RRs and put down honey in the regular thin foundation frames. Added QE.

Allotment – South Facing Right Side Hive (August 2016 queen? Or future 2017 queen?): This was the allotment near hive.  I move the entire hive this location in an attempt to artificially swarm – but I could not find queen.  Added 3 new frames. Lots of brood, eggs, bees. 1 super + 1 Ross Round rack. Added QE.

Out Apiary – North Facing Hive (Queenless -aiming for 2017 queen): My first inspection as it had looked busy.  This was the colony I suspect swarmed on 2 May. Actually there was no sign of brood or eggs.  So queen must have stopped laying some time ago.  Popped in frame of eggs from south facing left allotment hive.

Out Apiary – South Facing Hive (Suspect unmarked queen from 2014 or 2015 who is no longer laying): No sign of eggs.  Popped in frame of eggs from south facing left allotment hive.

Plan: All hives need further inspection to see what has happened, i.e. where there are queens, if nucs need frames of drawn comb.

Lessons learnt: (1) bees are avoiding the Ross Rounds and going up into regular frames with the thin foundation – see how season progresses – might stop using RRs; (2) need to inspect all hives earlier.  Could have realised that farmer field hive was queen-less sooner – even though the activity from outside looked normal.

Beekeeping effort: 5 hours

Apiary - 10 May 2017
Apiary – 10 May 2017
Apiary With 2 Nucs & 3 Hives
Apiary With 2 Nucs & 3 Hives

2 May 2017

16C, sunny.

Hive in farmers field swarmed.  Collected it and it is now in a hive awaiting transfer to the Beehaus when it arrives.

Swarm Of Bees On Fence Post
Swarm Of Bees On Fence Post
Swarm Of Bees - Close Up
Swarm Of Bees – Close Up
The Remaining Bees In Swarm Find Nuc Box
The Remaining Bees In Swarm Find Nuc Box
Ready For Arrival Of Beehaus
Ready For Arrival Of Beehaus

With 2 colonies facing in opposite directions I am ready for the Beehaus. The plan is to put both colonies in the Beehaus, whilst keeping them separate. Exterminate the old queen and then combine the hives with the new Queen.  I am hoping this will become a honey factory with possibly 20+ frames of brood by end May that will become foragers during the main nectar flow in July! I am ever hopeful!

Beekeeping effort: 1 hour

I also took a series of 4 video clips:

Part 1/4 – Found Bee Swarm On Fence Post

Part 2/4 – Some Bees In Box Others Remain On Fence Post

Part 3/4 – All The Bees Find The Nuc Box

Part 4/4 – Close Up Of Bees Going Into The Nuc Box

Related post: Beautiful Swarm For The Beehaus

9 April 2017

19C, sunny, bees calm

  • Bees flying all hives
  • The near hive in the allotment has Ross Round box on but not much activity so left alone
  • Middle hive – the starving hive – I inspected and it now has lots of eggs but very few bees.  Fingers crossed.
  • Added supers with thin foundation to the 2 strong hives: far hive in allotment and hive in field
  • Moved hive in field to centre of square so that cows can’t push it forward and in preparation for the Beehaus arriving (see Beehaus review)
  • 1.5 hours beekeeping effort

6 April 2017

Added Ross Round supers to near and far hives in allotment and to the hive in the field.  Rationale: I don’t want to use queen excluders with Ross Rounds, hence, create a layer of honey in RR (so the Queen does not go further up) and then add regular thin foundation supers on top of RR boxes.

1.5 hours beekeeping effort.

Related post: Supering-Up With Ross Rounds

26 March 2017

Middle hive looks OK from outside with normal activity, if somewhat depleted bee numbers.

25 March 2017

Middle hive still starving.

Related post: Emergency Feeding Bees – Part 2

All other hives very active and looking good

Beekeeping effort: 1 hour

24 March 2017

Middle hive was starving and I did some emergency feeding.

Related post: Emergency Feeding Bees

All other hives very active and looking good.

Removed MAQs from all hives and added entrance reducers.

Beekeeping effort: 1 hour

17 March 2017

Allotment – Near Hive (August 2016 queen. Trying anti-swarm method this year): All OK. Some stores. 7 frames of bees.  Eggs, larvae, brood. Added 2 frames of drone comb to brood box and put super below. Treated with MAQs.

Allotment – Middle Hive (June 2016 Queen – Trying anti-swarm method this year): All OK. Some stores. 7 frames of bees.  Eggs, larvae, brood. Added 4 frames of drone comb to brood box and put super below. Treated with MAQs.

Allotment – Far Hive (June 2016 Queen): Very strong. Lots of stores. 11 frames of bees.  Eggs, larvae, brood. To strong to add drone comb and an additional super. Treated with MAQs.

Out Apiary – North Facing Hive (Swarm from 2 June 2016, unmarked queen, 2014 or 2015 Queen probably): Very strong. 9 frames of bees.  Did not inspect. Did not add drone comb or additional super. Treated with MAQs.

Beekeeping effort: 2 hours

Related post: March In The Apiary

12 March 2017

Removed mouseguards.

Bees flying in all 3 hives in allotment and the North facing hive in field. Far hive in allotment and North facing hive in field are heavy upon hefting. The near and middle hives in allotment are light but I expect they will make it through the next couple of weeks.  I’ll keep an eye on them and feed if necessary.

I am not surprised the East facing hive has died as it was doing nothing for the last 2 years beyond having a handful of bees on 3 frames.  This colony was basically for me to see if such a colony could reverse it’s fortunes. I won’t include it in my 2016/17 winter losses as it was essentially an experiment.

Plan: add MAQs and 4 drone frames to all hives as soon as 15C.

18 November 2016

Added mouse guards.

21 October 2016

11C, some sun and cloud

Took some photos and videos.  Bees flying a little bit, not as much as on the warmer days last week.

Hefted the two nucs and they were heavy. Only fed them a little when they were new swarms, so this will all be honey they have brought in.

Apiary - 21 October 2016
Apiary – 21 October 2016
Green Nuc - 21 October 2016
Green Nuc – 21 October 2016
Orange Nuc - 21 October 2016
Orange Nuc – 21 October 2016

September / October 2016

Was quite mild (circa 15C in day to 10 October).  All colonies flying strongly.  Lots of activity.

11 September 2016

Second application of Apiguard.

Green nuc – quick inspection, found eggs.

29 August 2016

23C, sunny, bees all calm.  Removed feeders from all hives.

Relevant post: August In The Apiary

Allotment – Near Green Nuc –  (Swarm caught on 7th August 2016, suspected 2015 queen marked blue, otherwise it’s 2016 Queen). 3 frames of bees, some capped brood (don’t remember looking for eggs). Some capped stores. OK-ish. Searched but could not find Queen. Will inspect in 2 weeks and look for eggs!  Applied some Apiguard on waxed paper.  Could benefit from further feeding.

Allotment – Far Orange Nuc (Swarm caught on 12th August 2016, I suspect this might be an after swarm and hence contain a virgin 2016 Queen (otherwise it is one of the June 2016 Queens)). 6 frames of bees. Brood, larvae, eggs, stores. Did not look for Queen. OK. Applied some Apiguard on waxed paper.

Allotment – Near Hive (Swarmed on 27 May 2016 from what was the near hive, 2015 queen, marked blue. Suspect swarmed again on 7 August 2016, hence now contains 2016 virgin queen – backed up by no eggs in colony): Down from 11 frames of bees 2.5 weeks ago to 7 frames. Wax moth flew out of roof and I killed it. Lots of stores.  No eggs. Added frame of brood, larvae and eggs from middle hive. Can they raise emergency queen so late in the year? Need to inspect for mated queen by end September.

Allotment – Middle Hive (June 2016 Queen): 8 frames of bees.  Inspected one frame and found brood, eggs, larvae and stores. OK. Treated with Apiguard.

Allotment – Far Hive (June 2016 Queen): Very strong colony with 11 frames of bees. Did not inspect. Treated with Apiguard.

Out Apiary – East Facing Hive (April 2015 nuc that expanded 2014 queen with green dot): Bees coming in and out. Hive very light. Did not inspect for reasons given in previous notes. Fingers crossed.

Out Apiary – North Facing Hive (Swarm from 2 June 2016, unmarked queen, 2014 or 2015 Queen probably): Very strong colony with 11 frames of bees. Did not inspect. Treated with Apiguard. There is space for a dummy board.

Apiguard Application August 2016
Apiguard Application August 2016

12 August 2016

Big beekeeping afternoon. Removed all 3 Ross Round supers (I placed clearer boards on yesterday). Plan was to add eeks and Apiguard. However, (A) at least one (probably two) of my hives is queenless due to swarming, and hopefully will have mated queen soon; (B) at least one colony low in stores.  Decided to feed colonies and the two recent swarms so that when all hives are Queen-right I can apply Apiguard, secure in knowledge that they have stores. I am aiming to not have to feed colonies and in future will remove honey sections at end July. Found wax moth larvae and chalk brood.

Relevant post: What I learnt from making Ross Rounds

Beekeeper Lighting Smoker
Beekeeper Lighting Smoker

Also – another swarm. This one caught in green nuc.  Assume virgin queen?

Hive record card update below.

Apiary - 12 August 2016
Apiary – 12 August 2016

Allotment – Near Green Nuc – This is the box marked 4 in foreground of above photo (Swarm caught on 7th August 2016, suspected 2015 queen marked blue, otherwise it’s 2016 Queen). Behaviour looks normal. No inspection. Fed thin sugar syrup.

Allotment – Far Orange Nuc (Swarm caught on 12th August 2016, I suspect this might be an after swarm and hence contain a virgin 2016 Queen (otherwise it is one of the June 2016 Queens)). Behaviour looks normal. No inspection. Fed thin sugar syrup.  Need to check by end August that has laying queen.

Allotment – Near Hive (Swarmed on 27 May 2016 from what was the near hive, 2015 queen, marked blue. Suspect swarmed again on 7 August 2016, hence now contains 2016 virgin queen – backed up by no eggs in colony): Inspected. 11 frames of bees. Could not find eggs or queen. Found some capped brood. Found 1 wax moth trail and larvae (2cm long) and cut out of comb. Need to find what to do with this wax moth.  Need to inspect for mated queen by end August. Not much stores. Fed 6Kg sugar as thick syrup.

Allotment – Middle Hive (June 2016 Queen): 11 frames of bees, eggs, larvae and capped brood, but not much stores. Looked great. Fed 6Kg sugar as thick syrup. Could have treated with Apiguard, but not urgent and I want to treat all colonies at same time, and I cannot treat the hives with virgin queens.

Allotment – Far Hive (June 2016 Queen): Behaviour looks normal. No time, no inspection. Fed 6Kg sugar as thick syrup. For a variety of reasons was not able to add jumbo feeder to hive until the evening. When I did , found 11 frames of bees in a strong hive, and put the jumbo feeder on with a crunch of bees as the bees rushed towards me. Did not enjoy this.  Must remember to always and only put jumbo feeders on hive during the day. Do not want to crunch bees and risk infection as a result.

Out Apiary – East Facing Hive (April 2015 nuc that expanded 2014 queen with green dot): Quick inspection, found Queen still with the queen dot, 2 frames of bees, 4 frames were mouldy and chalk brood. Replaced these 4 frames with 4 new frames. Some chalk brood still on the frames with bees on. Removed bottom floor to improve ventilation. Cross fingers and hope. Did not feed.

Out Apiary – North Facing Hive (Swarm from 2 June 2016, unmarked queen, 2014 or 2015 Queen probably): Behaviour looks normal. 11 frames of bees.  No time, no inspection. Fed 6Kg sugar as thick syrup.

7 August 2016

One of my colonies swarmed. Probably near hive. Caught it in nuc box. So near hive will now get 2016 queen (hopefully) and nuc contains 2015 queen marked blue.

29 July 2016

On 28 July there were reports that one of my hives looked swarmy.  On 29 July there was a swarm in the allotment – presume it was mine. I was not around. It was reported in the hedge and Dad looked for it, but it had gone.

22 July 2016

No varroa on the boards for near and middle hives. Some strange stuff/fluff on near hive varroa count board (what is it – wax cappings? Could have been something to do with the 34C temperatures we had plus the Bee Cosies still on?):

Near Hive - July 2016 (1)
Near Hive – July 2016 (1)
Near Hive - July 2016 (2)
Near Hive – July 2016 (2)
Middle Hive - July 2016
Middle Hive – July 2016

18-22 July 2016

We had heat wave for a few days, 30-35C.

16 July 2016

Sunny/light cloud, 17C

Did not inspect “out apiary” hives as I am letting them get on with it.

All hives below had plenty of stores but no movement into the Ross Round sections. There have been alerts in the UK to feed bees, so guess I am lucky that I have not needed to feed them.  All hives below are 14×12 with Ross Round sections on top.  Middle and near hives have Bee Cosy on.

Allotment – Near Hive (Swarmed on 27 May 2016 from what was the near hive, 2015 queen, marked blue): 10 frames of bees, including eggs.

Allotment – Middle Hive (June 2016 Queen): 5 frames of bees, some eggs and capped brood, but not much. Hence, mated (June 2016) Queen.

Allotment – Far Hive (June 2016 Queen): 11 frames of bees and 10 slabs of brood. Bees had take nectar from top super and put into brood box.  Removed standard super.

12 June 2016

Balmy, cloudy 19C.  Bit windy at out apiary.

Allotment – Near Hive (Swarmed on 27 May 2016 from what was the near hive, 2015 queen, marked blue): Did not inspect. Bees bringing in pollen.  Configuration: Bee Cosy, brood box plus rack of Ross Rounds.

Allotment – Middle Hive (June 2016 queen, swarmed on 2 June 2016, originally large swarm hived on 6th June 2015): I expect this hive swarmed on 2 June 2016 (see below). Did quick inspection to see if I could find any eggs (if no eggs – verifies that hive swarmed).  Ross rounds being drawn.  Bees on all 11 frames.  Inspected 4 frames – no eggs.  Bees a bit aggressive – followed me 15m. Configuration: Bee Cosy, brood box plus rack of Ross Rounds.

Allotment – Far Hive (This was the hive that swarmed on 27 May 2015.  Will create 2016 queen): Did not inspect.  Not many bees going in and out.  Expect that my spare swarm cells created further swarm. Configuration: Bee Cosy, brood box plus rack of Ross Rounds plus super on top from the May nectar flow.

Out Apiary – East Facing Hive (April 2015 nuc that expanded 2014 queen with green dot): Quick inspection.  I expected I was going to terminate this hive … but it seems to be expanding, albeit slowly.  Configuration: Bee Cosy, brood box.

Out Apiary – North Facing Hive (Swarm from 2 June 2016, unmarked queen): Quick inspection of the nuc containing this recent swarm.  Bees on all 6 frames. Expanding some of comb. Did not take frames out as it was a bit too windy. Will need to go into full size hive at some point. Configuration: 6 frame nuc.

2 June 2016

20C, sunny

Neighbour alerted me that one of my hives had swarmed. I found it about 80m from hives in hedge in farmers field. Placed polynuc below, dropped them in then placed nuc on top of hedge.  Saw the unmarked queen 3 times and finally picked her up by wings and placed her near entrance.  She walked in.  8.30pm moved nuc (now full of bees) to field allotment.

I hope this swarm came from the middle hive.  Either way, still maintaining my 100% record of catching my own swarms this year (2 out of 2).

Swarm Was In Centre Of Photo, Now In Nuc
Swarm Was In Centre Of Photo, Now In Nuc
Nuc Gathering The Swarm
Nuc Gathering The Swarm
Nuc Installed In Field
Nuc Installed In Field

30 May 2016

Very exciting.  I assembled Ross Round racks to make honey sections and placed on all 3 hives in allotment. Oil seed rape (which granulates and goes too hard for cut comb honey) should no longer be an issue – and it has not been an issue for any of my honey here since I started.

Section Honey Assembly
Section Honey Assembly – May 2016

Post on assembling the Ross Rounds.

27th May 2016

20C, sunny.  All bees excellent temperament.

Went into allotment to find a swarm in the air.  It later landed on near hive.  More below.

First Swarm 2016 - From Near Hive
First Swarm 2016 – From Near Hive

Allotment – Near Hive (April 2015 nuc that swarmed, 2015 queen, marked blue): This hive swarmed.  I put a nuc and then a new hive for this swarm on the same spot and moved the entirety of this hive to the far hive position (so read there to continue this note).

NEW SWARM – Allotment – Near Hive (Swarmed on 27 May 2016 from what was the near hive, 2015 queen, marked blue): Captured swarm and put in a nuc and then 2 days later into a new hive with mostly drawn comb.  Could not find queen at the time, but 2 days later I found the queen with the blue dot.  Covers about 6 frames.  In 2 days it had started bringing in good stores.

Allotment – Middle Hive (large swarm hived on 6th June 2015): Bees on all 11 frames, with eggs, larvae, capped brood on those frames. Can not find queen. Plenty of stores and pollen on the frames. Cut some drone comb off a standard frame.  Drawn out 4 frames and put some nectar on one frame.  Left bee cosy on.

Allotment – Far Hive (This was the hive that swarmed on 27 May 2015.  Will create 2016 queen): Bees on all frames, with eggs, larvae, capped brood, stores on all frames. Drawn out 6 frames in super and put stores in 3 frames.  Left bee cosy on.

Swarm Caught In Nuc
Swarm Caught In Nuc

Out Apiary – East Facing Hive (April 2015 nuc that expanded 2014 queen with green dot): Did not inspect.

Read more: Swarm Control – The Rhythm Method!

6th May 2016

20C, sunny.  It was snowing 2 weeks ago!

First inspection in 2016 and first one in 8 months. 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. I am planning on creating section honey this year: see honey sections post. Hence, one super on now, then will put section box below the super in due course.

Allotment – Near Hive (April 2015 nuc that swarmed, 2015 queen, marked blue): 2 frames in I spotted the queen and marked her (blue dot). Bees on 11 frames, with eggs, larvae, capped brood on all frames. This hive is going to get busy over the next few weeks. No sign of any disease and no varroa visible on the bees. All looks very healthy.  Only inspected 5 frames as I had seen all I needed to. Removed floor and added Apishield hornet trap/floor below. Added QE plus one super with flat foundation.  I thought I would keep them busy wax building. Bee temperament excellent. No attacks.  All winter stores consumed. Sufficient stores and pollen on the frames.  Left bee cosy on.  Will remove soon.

Allotment – Middle Hive (large swarm hived on 6th June 2015): Bees on 7 frames, with eggs, larvae, capped brood on those frames. Did not see queen. No sign of any disease and no varroa visible on the bees. All looks very healthy but colony weaker than other one.  Inspected all frames. Added QE plus one super with flat foundation.  Bee temperament excellent.  All winter stores consumed. Sufficient stores and pollen on the frames. Cut some drone comb off a standard frame.  Left bee cosy on.  Will remove soon.

Out Apiary – East Facing Hive (April 2015 nuc that expanded 2014 queen with green dot): 2 cups of bees. Found queen. Eggs and larvae. Some cells had 2 eggs in. Possible chalk brood. Will probably die.

8 May 2016 - Near hive now with hornet trap
6 May 2016 – Near hive now with hornet trap
6 May 2016 - Hives still with bee cosies on
6 May 2016 – Hives still with bee cosies on

Relevant post: First Inspection Of 2016.

15th April 2016

My first opening of the hives in 2016! The crown boards were well sealed down as I had not opened the hives since 18 October – 6 months ago.  I might have seen wax moth trails between the hive bodies and the Bee Cosies, but it also might have been spider webs.

Quickly opened the 2 allotment hives. Did not inspect. Both had 7-9 frames of bees and I could see some stores.  I put on an eke, added 2 MAQs strips to each and removed entrance narrowers.

With up to 3,000 varroa in each hive I need to do something. The forecast highs for the next week vary from 8-13C and the nightly lows from 0-6C. So temperatures are not ideal, but I am hoping the Bee Cosies will raise the temperature enough inside to make the formic acid work effectively.

One needs to record medical treatments:

MAQs treatments 2016
MAQs treatments 2016

The field hive only had a few bees flying in and out, so did not open or add treatment.

Related post: It’s Emotional!

3rd April 2016

Removed mouse guards. Bee Cosies still on.

Lots of flying bees bringing in pollen in both allotment hives, a few flying bees in the field hive (but I had not expected this to survive winter). Observed deformed wing virus (DWV) in at least 2 bees outside the hive in allotment.  The treatment for this is to reduce the varroa that carries the virus.

I am also pretty sure I saw a bee with k-wing (which is due to tracheal mites). The treatment for this is to requeen as the queen might be producing bees that are susceptible.

Plan: MAQS when it arrives as it is now 10C maximum temperature during the day.  Need to research and consider shook swarm to reduce DWV.  Not planning on requeeening yet for the k-wing, until I see more evidence of it when I do an inspection.

Honeybees flying on 3rd April 2016 bringing in pollen (near hive, part 2)
Honeybees flying on 3rd April 2016 bringing in pollen (near hive, part 2)

See post – Honeybees – 3rd April 2016. More videos and photos of the bees.

26th February 2016

Allotment – Near Hive (April 2015 nuc that swarmed, 2015 queen): No flying bees even on warmer days but could see cluster of bees when I look in entrance. Mouseguard and Bee Cosy still on.  Did varroa count drop from 19-26 Feb and counted 56 mites. Calculator says:

  • Average Daily Mite Fall = 8.0 varroa mites
  • Estimated number of adult varroa mites in the colony = between 400 and 3200
  • Treatment is recommended in about 0 to 2 months time (counting from day of first monitoring).
  • ROUGH ESTIMATE: Monitoring mite-fall around the start or end of the brood rearing season can give poor accuracy. Results should be treated with caution

I.e. a big range, high, need to do something.

Photos of varroa board below. It was nice to see there is activity in the hive, if not out, and despite the varroa.

Varroa mite board - 25 Feb 16
Varroa mite board – 26 Feb 16
Varroa mite board - 25 Feb 16
Varroa mite board – 26 Feb 16
Varroa mite board - 25 Feb 16
Varroa mite board – 26 Feb 16

Allotment – Middle Hive (large swarm hived on 6th June 2015): See lots of flying bees on warmer days. Mouseguard and Bee Cosy still on.  Did varroa count drop from 19-26 Feb and counted 34 mites. Calculator says:

  • Average Daily Mite Fall = 4.9 varroa mites
  • Estimated number of adult varroa mites in the colony = between 240 and 1900
  • Treatment is recommended in about 0 to 3 months time (counting from day of first monitoring).
  • ROUGH ESTIMATE: Monitoring mite-fall around the start or end of the brood rearing season can give poor accuracy.  Results should be treated with caution.

Photos of varroa board below. There was more debris on this board than the other and the debris covers full width of board.  I guess Bee Cosy is helping bees get to all the stores in the hive.

Varroa mite board - 25Feb16
Varroa mite board – 26 Feb 16
Varroa mite board - 25 Feb 16
Varroa mite board – 26 Feb 16
Varroa mite board - 25 Feb 16
Varroa mite board – 26 Feb 16

November 2015 – Late February 2016

No beekeeping activity. I did not use oxalic acid for two reasons:

  1. Very mild winter = higher levels of brood and oxalic acid less effective
  2. Scientific article on 5th January 2016 in which Professor Francis Ratnieks, Head of Laboratory of Apiculture and Social Insects (LASI), University of Sussex, says “that beekeepers should cease using the other two methods (“trickling” and “spraying”, in which a solution of oxalic acid is used) as they are harmful to the bees and less effective at killing Varroa”. Article: Scientists determine how to control parasite without harming bees

Will use Apiguard (if temperatures warm and not a honey flow) or MAQs (if colonies strong and honey flow) as soon as I can. If colonies weak and temperatures low … I guess I’ll use Apiguard or perhaps just 1 MAQs strip.  Not planning to use oxalic acid at all now.

Gave them a good feed in October, so have not fed since.

18th October 2015

Removed MAQs strips from two allotment hives. Do not seem to have been used at all. Look like they did when I put them in.  Hives wonderfully active. 11 frames of bees in each hive and each side hefts at more than 18Kg. Think the Bee Cosy is doing it’s job!

Honeybees - End October 2015
Honeybees – End October 2015
Beekeeper With Insulated Hives
Beekeeper With Insulated Hives

10th October 2015

14C, sunny morning.

Out Apiary – East Facing Hive (April 2015 nuc that expanded, 2014 queen with green dot): No action. Current config: fed with Bee Cosy on. Removed varroa board. 4 mites fell over 10 days = “30 mites in colony and no treatment required for 9 months” according to Beebase. I’ll probably still treat with oxalic acid at Christmas.

Allotment – Near Hive (April 2015 nuc that swarmed, 2015 queen): Removed feeder, they had now consumed all syrup. Added MAQs – just one strip. Removed entrance narrower so has full entrance. Temperature forecast for 12-14C highs for a week. Hive very busy. 100s of flying bees, carrying pollen. Bee Cosy back on.

Allotment – Middle Hive (large swarm hived on 6th June 2015): Added MAQs – just one strip. Removed entrance narrower so has full entrance. Hive very busy. 100s of flying bees, carrying pollen. Bee Cosy back on.

MAQs evidence

4th October 2015

15C, sunny morning. We have experienced a week of 18-20C and sunny weather.

Out Apiary – East Facing Hive (April 2015 nuc that expanded, 2014 queen with green dot): No action. Current config: fed with Bee Cosy on.

Allotment – Near Hive (April 2015 nuc that swarmed, 2015 queen): Had consumed half the syrup Varroa board has been in for 7 days. Left feeder in place. Counted 52 mites. Eek. Varroa mite calculator says I have 520 mites in hive and need to treat ASAP. I gave Apiguard as per instructions in August. What treat with now? I have some MAQs strips left over? Put Bee Cosy back on. Hive very busy. 100s of flying bees, 100 at entrance, carrying pollen.

Allotment – Middle Hive (large swarm hived on 6th June 2015): Had consumed all the syrup (7kg of sugar as a syrup in 4 days!!!). Hefted: 18Kg and 16Kg each side. Removed feeder and QE. Varroa board has been in for 7 days. Counted 60 mites. Eek. Varroa mite calculator says I have 600 mites in hive and need to treat ASAP. I gave Apiguard as per instructions in August. What treat with now? I have some MAQs strips left over? Put Bee Cosy back on. Hive very busy. 100s of flying bees, 100 at entrance, carrying pollen.

30th September 2015

18C, sunny. We have experienced a week of 18-20C and sunny weather.

Out Apiary – East Facing Hive (April 2015 nuc that expanded, 2014 queen with green dot): Not consuming much syrup. Opened hive. 4-5 frames of bees. Can see liquid stores in outer frame. Removed feeder. Hefted: 12Kg one side, 9Kg the other side. Put Bee Cosy back on. I don’t have much hope for this colony. It’s an exposed hive. It was my strongest during the summer. I should have put Bee Cosy on a month ago. Inserted varroa count board. Few bees at entrance.

Allotment – Near Hive (April 2015 nuc that swarmed, 2015 queen): On advice of Chris Wray (Bee Cosy inventor), to take advantage of the warm, dry weather, I started feeding again. 7Kg of sugar as a syrup (I had intended 3Kg but as out apiary hive did not need syrup decided to feed to the allotment hives – hope I don’t over feed – I had already fed 8Kg sugar plus this 7Kg = 15Kg). I put on Bee Cosy as nights are 7C and to help them take down syrup. Aim to get hive to 15Kg each side by end October.

Allotment – Middle Hive (large swarm hived on 6th June 2015): Same notes as Near Hive.

27th September 2015

20C, sunny. We have experienced a week of 18-20C and sunny weather.

Out Apiary – East Facing Hive (April 2015 nuc that expanded, 2014 queen with green dot): Half of syrup consumed and 20 dead bees in feeder. Put on Bee Cosy to make it warmer for them to taken down the syrup.

Bee Cosy To Help Bees Feed
Bee Cosy To Help Bees Feed

Allotment – Near Hive (April 2015 nuc that swarmed, 2015 queen): They had consumed all syrup. Weighed 14Kg on each side of hive. Removed feeder. Saw 10 frames of bees. Aim to get hive to 15Kg each side by end October. They can feed on ivy now. Inserted varroa count board.

Allotment – Middle Hive (large swarm hived on 6th June 2015): They had consumed all syrup. Weighed 13Kg on each side of hive. Removed feeder. Saw 10 frames of bees.  Aim to get hive to 15Kg each side by end October. They can feed on ivy now. Inserted varroa count board. Bees active:

Bees On 27 September 2015
Bees On 27 September 2015

22nd September 2015

Most empty hives stored in garage. 1 in the farmer’s field.

Bee hives stored
Bee hives stored in garage

21st September 2015

Froze brood frames for 48 hours to kill any wax moth eggs, scraped down hive boxes and used hot air gun at 600C to reduce levels of potential disease. Finally sprayed all used foundation in brood chamber and supers with B401 (also known as Certan) from Vita.

B401 is a preventative treatment that controls wax moth (Galleria mellonella). It is a safe and environmentally friendly product based on a concentrated solution of Bacillus thuringiensis, a micro-organism. B401 is used after the honey harvest when the frames are stored and kills young wax moth larvae. It must therefore be used before a wax moth infestation. A single application will provide 100% efficacy against wax moth right up through to the following season.

It is harmless to man & honeybee.  For more information follow this link: B401 Certan.

Certan B401 Wax Moth Preventative
Certan B401 Wax Moth Preventative

Read more about cleaning and storing hives: Bee Hygiene.

18th September 2015

Bees have been active these last few days with the warm, sunny weather in range of 16-19C.

Out Apiary – East Facing Hive (April 2015 nuc that expanded, 2014 queen with green dot): Most of syrup still there and 20 dead bees in feeder. Not sure why? Hive more exposed and colder? Hive under attack from wasps? Disease? They have enough stores?

Allotment – Near Hive (April 2015 nuc that swarmed, 2015 queen): They had consumed all syrup so fed further 3Kg sugar as Thick Syrup.

Allotment – Middle Hive (large swarm hived on 6th June 2015): They had consumed all syrup so fed further 3Kg sugar as Thick Syrup.

Relevant how-to guide: Feeding Bees (includes thick syrup recipe).

Insulated all hive roofs, see below, with polystyrene type insulation material from builders. Cost £3 for the 4 hives. 2.5cm thick. Cut with a bread knife. Was quite easy. 30 minutes to insulate 4 roofs.

Hive roof insulation
Hive roof insulation
Apiary 18 September 2015
Apiary 18 September 2015
Hive September 2015
Hive September 2015

13th September 2015

16C, sunny, bees calm

Out Apiary – East Facing Hive (April 2015 nuc that expanded, 2014 queen with green dot):  9 frames of bees. Minimal inspection. Found some stores, eggs, larvae and capped cells. Spring balance weighed 10Kg each side. Removed Apiguard. Fed 5Kg sugar as Thick Syrup. Aiming for 15Kg each side.

Allotment – Near Hive (April 2015 nuc that swarmed, 2015 queen): 9 frames of bees. Minimal inspection. Found some stores and eggs. No capped cells or larvae – perhaps the Apiguard put Queen off laying for a period. Spring balance weighed 10Kg each side. Removed Apiguard. Fed 5Kg sugar as Thick Syrup. Aiming for 15Kg each side.

Allotment – Middle Hive (large swarm hived on 6th June 2015): 8 frames of bees. Minimal inspection. Found some stores, eggs and capped cells. No larvae – perhaps the Apiguard put Queen off laying for a period. Spring balance weighed 8Kg each side. Removed Apiguard. Fed 5Kg sugar as Thick Syrup. Aiming for 15Kg each side.

RIP – Allotment – Far Hive (small swarm hived on 16th June, I marked Queen blue): Hive wiped out by the wasps. There was a Queen and 20 bees. I exterminated so as not to cause potential problems in other hives.

27th August 2015

Removed feeders as found dead bees in the syrup. Presume thymol plus syrup might cause a solution that the bees don’t take to?

I also found the far hive in allotment had bees on one side and wasps on the other. Do not expect this colony to survive.

26th August 2015

19C, sunny, all bees calm, lots of wasps (fed in evening)

Plan was to add second dose of Apiguard and check they have enough food with only a minimum of inspection so as not to disturb the bees whilst they have the Apiguard. A lot of my blog followers are commenting that they are feeding bees at present and through the summer.

I made up Thick Sugar Syrup, using 4Kg sugar, 2.5L water and 25ml Vita Feed Gold (external link).

Apiguard FAQ:

Q: Can I feed my colonies whilst using Apiguard?
A. Yes and No. The recommendation is not to apply Apiguard whilst feeding simultaneously in case the  bees spend all their time taking the feed and not bothering to clean out the Apiguard gel. This is not a high risk and will vary between different colonies, so if you have to feed and treat at the same time, try  it in a few colonies first and see how the bees react.

Out Apiary – East Facing Hive (April 2015 nuc that expanded, 2014 queen with green dot):  9 frames of bees. Checked first frame and it had some stores. No need to feed. Removed QE as bees had again propolised it thoroughly. Added 2nd dose of Apiguard. Turned entrance narrower around so it’s at smallest setting.

Allotment – Near Hive (April 2015 nuc that swarmed, 2015 queen): 10 frames of bees. No evidence of any stores. Added Apiguard. Placed jumbo feeder on top of the eke with 1.5L Thick Syrup. Is it OK to put jumbo feeder over an eke, i.e. there is a space between the brood frames and feeder?

Allotment – Middle Hive (large swarm hived on 6th June 2015): 10 frames of bees. Removed super that was below the hive. Every frame was covered in bees but no stores or eggs. Threw bees from super in front of hive. Checked first frame of brood box and it had some stores. No need to feed. Added 2nd dose of Apiguard.

Allotment – Far Hive (small swarm hived on 16th June, I marked Queen blue): 4 frames of bees. No evidence of any stores. Did see what looked like bald brood or perhaps this is evidence of brood removal due to Apiguard. Added 2nd dose of Apiguard. Narrowed entrance to 3cm with some cardboard. Placed jumbo feeder on top of the eke with 1L Thick Syrup. Should I remove Apiguard? Will this weak hive get robbed?

Vita Feed Gold
Vita Feed Gold

12th August 2015

22C, sunny, all bees calm

Put 4 frames with some nectar in out for bees and wasps to clean up before they go into the garage (where they would attract more wasps).

Out Apiary – East Facing Hive (April 2015 nuc that expanded, 2014 queen with green dot): Removed supers. Added Apiguard.

Allotment – Near Hive (April 2015 nuc that swarmed, 2015 queen): Removed supers. Added Apiguard.

Allotment – Middle Hive (large swarm hived on 6th June 2015): Bees had started filling super on top, so put underneath the brood box. Added Apiguard.

Allotment – Far Hive (small swarm hived on 16th June, I marked Queen blue): Added Apiguard.

I took a few photos in early August.  You can see the bees carrying grey pollen on their legs in the photos below and wasps trying to enter the hives.

Close up bees entering hive
Close up bees entering hive (Aug 2015)
Honey bees entering hive
Honey bees entering hive (Aug 2015)
ApiShield entrance
ApiShield entrance (Aug 2015)
Hornet trap entrance
Hornet trap entrance & wasp being evicted
2nd Apiguard Treatment
Apiguard Treatment

8th August 2015

22C, sunny

Out Apiary – East Facing Hive (April 2015 nuc that expanded, 2014 queen with green dot): Removed 1 super of honey. It yielded 2.5lb of honey. Put empty super back on plus cappings. Related post: Honey Yield 2015

Allotment – Near Hive (April 2015 nuc that swarmed, 2015 queen): No honey supers. Cleaning up super that wasps had been attracted to in garage.

Allotment – Middle Hive (large swarm hived on 6th June 2015): No honey supers. Cleaning up super that wasps had been attracted to in garage.

Allotment – Far Hive (small swarm hived on 16th June, I marked Queen blue): No honey supers.

Bee Clearer Board
Bee Clearer Board
Rhombus clearer board
Rhombus clearer board

11th July 2015

23C, sunny

Out Apiary – East Facing Hive (April 2015 nuc that expanded, 2014 queen with green dot): 9 frames of brood (incl eggs, larvae), 1 full super (not capped), 2 empty supers. Found Queen for the first time – she had Green dot, so still Jeff’s queen. MAQs strips still there. Photo of this Queen below, click on photo to enlarge.

Queen Marked With Green Dot
Queen Marked With Green Dot

And here is the Queen running round the comb:

I found this bee carrying this strange orange globule. Is it pollen? Or nectar? Or propolis?
I found this bee carrying this strange orange globule. Is it pollen? Or nectar? Or propolis?

How do you stop brace comb on the Queen Excluder?  There is so much on photo below it must be slowing down the honey production. Note: MAQs strips still in evidence. Postscript: I have read on internet forum you just have to live with it. I think I will take a spare, cleaned up QE with me and replace QEs with excessive brace comb.

How Stop Brace Comb On Queen Excluder
How Stop Brace Comb On Queen Excluder?

Allotment – Near Hive (April 2015 nuc that swarmed, 2015 queen): 6 frames of brood, incl eggs and larvae (expanded from 5 frame 2 weeks ago). 1 frame of stores.  1 empty super, flat foundation.

ApiShield Hornet Trap - In Hive
ApiShield Hornet Trap – In Hive

Related post: Review of ApiShield Hornet Trap.

Observing the bees:

Allotment – Middle Hive (large swarm hived on 6th June 2015): 6 frames of brood  incl eggs and larvae (expanded from 4 frame 2 weeks ago). 1 frame of stores (down from 3 frames 2 weeks ago).  1 empty super, flat foundation. Culled drone on a standard national frame (see photos below) to remove varroa mites which are attracted to drone brood more than worker brood.

July 2015 - Middle Hive - Brood Frame
July 2015 – Middle Hive – Brood Frame
Drone Comb Ready Full Culling
Drone Comb Ready For Culling
Culled Drone Comb
Culled Drone Comb
Varroa Mite on Culled Drone Comb
Varroa Mite on Culled Drone Comb

Video of culling the drone comb below:

Allotment – Far Hive (small swarm hived on 16th June 2015, I marked Queen blue): 4 frames of eggs and larvae and 1/2 frame of stores.

27th June 2015

20C, sunny

Out Apiary – East Facing Hive (nuc that expanded, 2014 queen with green dot): 8 frames of brood (incl eggs), 3/4 super, did not see Queen. Saw varroa on 2 bees and 2 bees with DWV. Culled the drone brood on the 2 standard national frames that they had drawn to 14×12 (as part of varroa management). Used MAQs strips.

One has to keep records of medicine treatments used on bees:

MAQs June 2015
MAQs June 2015
MAQs evidence
MAQs evidence

Allotment – Near Hive (nuc that swarmed, 2015 queen): 5 frames of brood (expanded from 1 frame of eggs last week). 1 frame of stores. 6 frames of bees.  The larvae are fine after last weeks worries. Added 1 super, flat foundation.

Allotment – Middle Hive (large swarm hived on 6th June): 4 frames of brood. 3 frames of stores. Added 1 super, flat foundation.

Allotment – Far Hive (small swarm hived on 16th June, I marked Queen blue): 3 frames of eggs and 1 frame of stores. I saw my first queen of the year and marked her blue. She looked big and fat.

20th June 2015

20C, sunny.

Out Apiary – East Facing Hive: I did not inspect as all seemed well last time and I did not want to disturb it.

Allotment – Near Hive: 1 frame of brood (mainly eggs) – hurrah – the Queen has mated. 2 frames of stores. 6 frames of bees. This hive swarmed 3 weeks ago. No swarm cells. Could not find Queen. The larvae looked a bit milky but I hope this is the Royal Jelly that the worker bees feed the young larvae.  The hive floor had come apart at the back and there were a lot (50) of bees using it as an entrance/exit. Seemed like a good time to install the Vita Hornet Trap which they have called Apishield. Also protects against hornets, wasps, wax moth and robber bees.

Allotment – Middle Hive: This was the swarm and after 2 weeks I can see the queen has now started laying. 3 frames of brood (mainly eggs). 3 frames of stores, 8 frames of bees, 3 frames of space. Again, larvae looked milky but hope this is the Royal Jelly. Saw a bee with crippled wing, but as this colony is a recent swarm the varroa should be low.

Allotment – Far Hive: I did not inspect as only just hived this swarm.

16th June 2015 – 7.30pm

Wow. One of the swarm traps with pheromone worked. Don’t think the swarm came from my colonies. Hived and fed. This is now “Allotment – Far Hive”. Video below.  Read post: Swarm Trap Success.

13th June 2015

20C, sunny

Hopes: East Facing Hive makes lots of honey; both allotment hives get mated/laying queens.

Out Apiary – East Facing Hive: 9 frames of  brood (including eggs, larvae), 1/2 super of stores. Did not see queen. No swarm cells. Moved 2 frames of brood to the other 2 hives where no eggs. Got my first sting of the season – on my back when I was bending over. They weren’t that happy with me for stealing the 2 frames and I went in twice (inspect and remove 2 frames) and then back again with 2 drawn frames.

Allotment – Near Hive: 1/2 frame of brood (no eggs), 1 frames of stores. This hive swarmed 2 weeks ago. No swarm cells. Put frame of eggs from East Facing Hive and frame of drawn comb. Put frame of eggs in as precaution, expect there is a queen and that she will start laying soon.

Allotment – Middle Hive: This is the hive which I put a large swarm in a week ago. Now I know my East Facing Hive contains eggs (and hence must have a queen) I have deduced that this swarm must be from another beekeeper or wild. Big surprise was no eggs. I have now researched and found that the queen might not lay straight away. As a precaution I put a frame of brood/eggs from East Facing Hive. 5 frames of bees, 1/2 frame of stores. No brood.

6th June 2015

19C, sunny.

Found large swarm in allotment (Read: Catching & hiving large swarm). Am sure it is from East Facing Hive in the field (post-script: turns out it can’t have been from my hives).

Swarm From East Facing Hive June 2015
Swarm From East Facing Hive June 2015

Out Apiary – East Facing Hive: 9 frames of  brood, 2 frames of stores, putting nectar in supers. Saw eggs but not queen. Same story as 30th May, except I think it is quieter.  I didn’t see any swarm cells but will check in a week.

Allotment – Near Hive: 2 frames of brood, 2 frames of stores. This hive swarmed a week ago, so no eggs. Saw swarm call that had been uncapped so there could be a virgin queen in the colony. I also found 2 other swarm cells and I killed one but kept the other as it looked big and juicy and either the new queen might have stung it in situ or the colony might need it. Hive struggling to expand so I’ll put some drawn foundation in when I get a chance.

Allotment – Middle Hive: This did have the small swarm from the Near Hive, but they had gone. It now has the large swarm covering about 5 frames of bees and also has drawn comb and flat comb plus syrup.

Allotment – Far Hive: This is being robbed as we speak.  I could still see eggs in the frames but the queen is no longer there. Lesson: just because you can see eggs does not mean they are alive and well. I know robbing is not to be encouraged but I would like these frames tidied up a bit … though a robbed frame is not that tidy.  Found wax moth, so have started transferred 4 frames at a time to the freezer.  I’ll then use hot air gun at 600C on the brood box to kill of any moth eggs.

30th May 2015

16C, sunny, bees calm.

Out Apiary – East Facing Hive: 9 frames of  brood, 2 frames of stores, putting nectar in supers. Saw eggs but not queen.

Allotment – Near Hive: 3 frames of brood, 2 frames of stores. Saw eggs but not queen. Found swarm on leg of hive, size of 2 mugs. Saw queen with green dot so assume from this hive. Put in hive box with 2 frames of stores from the “Allotment – Far Hive” which is not doing well. Not sure whether to add brood from out apiary hive? Or to reunite with near hive?

Allotment – Middle Hive: 2 mug fulls of bees that swarmed from near hive.

Allotment – Far Hive: Saw queen and eggs. Not expanding.

23rd May 2015

Out Apiary – East Facing Hive: Bees poured out when I turned the entrance narrower around to make it on a wider setting.  Added three supers, as per advice described in Supering Up. The oil seed rape is dying off now, so not planning to extract now till the end of July.

Three supers strategy
Three supers strategy

Allotment – Near Hive. Took a short video.  Looks busy.

Allotment – Far Hive: Sandwiched the 2 frames of eggs with a couple of other frames between 2 dummy boards. This might help them expand. I would have put them in a nuc, but my nuc is currently with Darren who is going to very kindly put some bees in there.

16th May 2015

Out Apiary – East Facing hive: 10 frames of bees, eggs, pollen, stores. Add 3 supers next week.

Allotment – Near Hive: 5.5 frames of bees, eggs, pollen, stores. Allow to expand before adding supers.

Allotment – Far Hive: 2 frames of bees. Queen, eggs, pollen, stores. Multiple eggs in 10% of cells. Photo below, showing single eggs in cells and some small larvae. Plan: see if it recovers.

Eggs in cells
Eggs in cells (16/05/2015)

Multiple eggs in cells could be due to (a) laying workers, (b) a failing queen or (c) not enough workers to properly clean the cells hence queen lays more than one egg in cell. Perplexing.

25th April 2015

Bought 2 nucs from Mr Bee (yes – really).

Out apiary – East Facing hive: 5 frames with big slabs of brood on all of them, 1 frame of food. Bees are lovely and quiet, the queen is last year’s and marked green. Nuc was very strong. Mr Bee expected them to expand rapidly because there is so much brood to emerge.

Allotment – Near Hive: nuc was taken from a massive colony as a swarm prevention measure, incredibly quiet bees. 3 frame nuc, good comb, last year’s queen marked green, and 3 frames of foundation. It should expand rapidly because two of the frames are solid brood.

Allotment – Far Hive: 2 frames of bees. Queen, eggs, pollen, stores. Multiple eggs in 10% of cells.

6th April 2015

  • It’s been a disastrous winter.  I have lost 3 hives out of 4. I lost the two I moved – I think the bees got too cold as they were exposed to the wind and had no insulation, plus the move did not help and one of the two hives had a lot of varroa. The other hive had a five year old queen so I assume she ran out of eggs.
  • Key lessons:
    • Insulate the hives
    • Put new swarms into the new “out apiary” so as avoid a move over the winter
    • Seal the hive when using Apiguard
    • Re-queen at least every 3 years
  • Related posts:
  • I have cleaned up the hives with the dead bees by getting rid of any comb and frames that might have had Nosema spores and using a hot air gun on the boxes and crown board. Read Bee Hygiene
  • My last remaining hive looks a bit low on bees but there were larvae and eggs .. and I found the queen that eluded me last year and marked her with a blue dot. Note: she was born in Summer 2014.
  • I record My Colony Losses and contrast with UK and South West losses

14th March 2015

  • I counted 4 mites after leaving board on Hive One for a week, results below. Very little in the way of debris on the board. Looks like a weak colony.
    • Average Daily Mite Fall = 0.6 varroa mites
    • Estimated number of adult varroa mites in the colony = 30
    • Treatment is recommended in about 4 month(s) time (counting from day of first monitoring)

7th March 2015

  • Warm day (12C) and plenty of flying bees in Hives One, Two and Three. I am feeling more optimistic. It might not have been a disastrous winter

28th February 2015

  • Read February In the Apiary for more information
  • Hive Five – died of mites and cold (post: Colony Post-Mortem)
  • Hive Two – going great guns and no varroa to be seen
  • Hives One and Three – some bees but look weak

26th December 2014

  • Blue sky, 1C, no wind
  • Moved two hives to “out apiary”
  • Used oxalic acid trickle on all 4 hives

In 2013 and 2014, I put my records online for the individual hives (Hive One, Hive Two, Hive Three, Hive Four / Poly Nuc and Hive Five). I now use paper hive record cards and put a summary on this page.

6 thoughts on “My Apiary”

  1. i have a nest of honey bees in my garden can you help? They are ok at the moment but won’t survive the winter thanks.

  2. The MAQS stripes won’t have been “used” in the same way apiguard is, formic acid vaporizes from the strip the bees tend to give the strip a wide berth. You should check your hives are queen right, I lost one queen (1 of 4) this autumn to MAQS.

  3. Very good website and good to see people getting involved with beekeeping. I am a beekeeper based in Suffolk and have been hooked for over 30 years.Each new season brings its own challenges and rewards, you never stop learning.

  4. I cannot thank you enough for the incredible wealth of educational information you’re providing with this blog.

    I live in the States, in piedmont North Carolina on the eastern seaboard. I’ve taken the basic course twice from my local association, and I read everything I can get my hands on about the art of beekeeping to try to stay current. But I’m still a wannabeek, too intimidated yet to give beekeeping a start. However, I’m working my nerve up to have a go next year and, having found your website, I feel so much more optimistic about seeing the little golden folk in my future.

    From the photos you provided, I see you are a Langstroth man. I’m an elderly woman living singly, and I don’t have a lot of upper body strength, so I think I will go with a top bar of some sort–traditional or Warré or maybe even the newer “small urban beehive”. Besides, IMHO, I think the top bars are all much more attractive than the Langstroth.

    Please keep your wonderful blog flowing, both for yourself and for the rest of us. We are all benefiting enormously from your generosity of time and information. Many, many thanks!

    1. Hi Portia
      Many thanks for your wonderful comments and look forward to hearing from you again.
      I have tried to google and find the “small urban beehive” but I cannot find it. Grateful for any links.
      Even though I am 43, I do wonder how I will keep bees when I am older. Hopefully there will be some innovations in the 30 years.
      Have you heard of the Beehaus? It’s a bit like a top bar hive. That might be worth considering? Seems fairly ergonomic?
      Please let us know how it goes.

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