Tag: beehaus

Beehaus Up & Buzzing

Beehaus Up & Buzzing

In May 2018, with 3 weeks of great sunny weather, I set-up my Beehaus (external link to Beehaus), dragged it up the farmer’s field and installed bees.  Exciting times.

Before The Beehaus

Two 14×12 colonies, back to back, lots of bees.

Beehives Back-To-Back
Beehives Back-To-Back

After

Beehaus
Beehaus

Installing Bees Into Beehaus

Key points:

  • Turned  the two 14×12 wooden hives 90 degrees and moved them 1m away (see photo above)
  • Allowed flying bees to enter the Beehaus
  • Unable to find the Queens in my busy 14×12 wooden hives, I made two simple splits, making sure eggs in all 4 colonies (2 colonies in the Beehaus)
  • Both 14×12 hives had brought in loads of nectar

Result

No idea where the Queens are but all should be OK.

One Week Later

  • Left wooden hive – Found Queen (and eggs, brood, stores), marked her and walked her in to the left side of Beehaus
  • Right wooden hive – Found 7 Queen cells (but no eggs) and removed 5.  I left 2 queen cells right next to each other, so hopefully first Queen out will kill the other rather than creating additional swarms (both queen cells looked a bit on small side, so I wasn’t confident to kill them both)
  • Beehaus – No eggs and no queen cells (and hence walked in the Queen from left wooden hive). Put newspaper between 2 sides of the Beehaus in order to combine
  • I added supers to all hives as they had continued to pile in the stores despite a cold start to the Spring
Beehaus With Flying Bees
Beehaus With Flying Bees

Further One Week Later

  • Beehaus – The bees in Beehaus had accepted the Queen and combined
  • Beehaus – I saw Queen in left side of Beehaus, moved any frames with brood into left side of Beehaus and added QE so that Queen stays in left. In 30 days I will close right entrance and put blocker between left and right so that I have spare hive for a swarm
  • I added the Beehaus entrance narrowers – “wasp” setting – as the number of flying bees is decreasing as they die off
  • Left wooden hive – Found 5 Queen cells and removed 4 leaving 1 large Queen cell
  • The left wooden hive had drawn most frames in super and filled half (uncapped) – so I added additional super
  • I did not disturb the right wooden hive as it may have virgin Queen now
  • None of the colonies bringing in much pollen
Beehaus In Field
Beehaus In Field

Lessons Learnt

  • Add supers by end April – even if think it has been cold
  • Queen from split hive can be walked back into her old colony one week later and accepted

Plan

  • Not expecting swarms for next few weeks
  • It’s 17C and rainy for the next week … so just as I want good weather for queen mating the weather is not conducive
  • All colonies – I will leave for 2-3 weeks to inspect for eggs
  • Beehaus – in 4 weeks, seal and close right hand side so that this is a spare hive for swarms

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Beehaus – Breaking News

Beehaus – Breaking News

There is a 10% discount on the Beehaus right now – it might just be for Easter.  Please follow this link to find the sale: Beehaus 10% Discount.

I have previously written about the Beehaus: Beehaus Review.  Basically – I think they’re great.

They have provided me with one that I will start using shortly.

14×12 Nucs For Sale & Downsizing

14×12 Nucs For Sale & Downsizing

Location: Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, GL12, UK

My honeybees have so far survived the winter. They are a flying and a very quick inspection in a couple of the hives has revealed eggs.

Efficient Beekeeping

Life is very busy at present and I am going to make my beekeeping more efficient through the following changes:

  1. Remove bee hives from allotment, so a bit less to worry about with neighbours and swarming
  2. Reduce my number of colonies to 2 – 4 (max) and keep these in the farmers field
  3. Use my new Beehaus which will make swarm control easier (due to some nifty techniques it enables) and gives other flexibility, e.g. sometimes using half the Beehaus to hive a swarm and then later combine into the main colony

By the way, there is a 10% discount on the Beehaus right now – it might just be for Easter. Please follow this link to find the sale: Beehaus 10% Discount. Please also note that Omlet (the manufacturer) is an affiliate of this site and has provided me with a Beehaus.

14×12 Nucs For Sale

This means I have bees and equipment for sale:

I have 6 nucs for sales (in 14 x 12 poly hives, photo below), that are either available now with 2017 Queens or by end May 2018 with 2018 Laying Queens for £200.

Please contact me now using Contact Form. First come first served. Please leave your phone number so I can call you back if needed.

Other Items For Sale

  1. Six 14×12 nucs for £200/each
  2. 14×12 cedar hives (assembled, brood, 2 supers, stand, roof, crownboard, good condition) – £180

I am located in Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, GL12, UK.

Please contact me (via contact form) if you are interested and leave a phone number.

Videos & Photos Of Nucs (Feeder On Top):

Orange Nuc - 21 October 2016
Orange Nuc

The Beekeeper

Beekeeper With Insulated Hives
Beekeeper With Insulated Hives

I look forward to hearing from you.

Chaos In The Apiary

Chaos In The Apiary

Grateful for thoughts on my analysis below.

The Events

  • Big week at work: which left me only 15 mins to catch swarms during the day, no time to analyse and just having to combine colonies during the evening without too much thought
  • Swarms (that I suspect were casts from south facing allotment hives) on 22, 24 and 25 May – but I had no time to count days since artificially swarming and since the combining to analyse what was going on
  • Ran out of nucs on 22 May
  • Combined two farmer field hives of unknown queen state using newspaper method to free up a 14×12 brood box
  • Put two separate swarms in to two supers and combined on top of a hive that in the end had 3 separate colonies separated by newspaper
  • I peaked at 10 colonies for a few days but am back down to 7 colonies
  • I’ve done my analysis in the last few hours and feel a bit more in control and that I know what might have happened

24 May Swarm

Swarm In Apple Tree
Swarm In Apple Tree

This swarm escaped 10 minutes later and appeared 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:

My Last Nuc Box On 22 May

Swarm in nuc box - Steve/Suki allotment
Swarm in nuc box – Steve/Suki allotment

The Analysis

I had family obligations Saturday and Sunday and so it is only today, Monday 29th May, that I can actually read back over my hive notes and understand what happened.

The Swarms

Please read My Apiary notes for 22 May to 28 May 2017 for all the detail.

I had a quick look in the middle hive that had not been artificially swarmed as it had been starving earlier in the season and was in recovery.  I could not find the unmarked Queen but this hive had new eggs in it.  If this hive had swarmed it would have been the first large swarm on 22 May which I put in the nuc box n the farmer’s field.

I suspect all three, or at least the other two swarms, were casts, headed by virgin queens, from both of the two south facing hives.

At least the swarm on 24 May was a cast as I found two virgin queens and there could have been more.

I artificially swarmed these south facing hives on the 7 May and they were queen-less at that point (I know this as the queens were definitely left in the nucs). 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.

The Combined Hives In Farmer’s Field

Please read My Apiary notes for 22 May to 28 May 2017 for all the detail.

In summary, I discovered that both boxes had laying queens before I combined 6 days ago and that the North facing hive must have always been Queen-right and the South facing hive must also have been Queen-right … when I had been sure both colonies had been Queen-less due to no eggs or brood.

Is My Analysis Correct?

Have I drawn the right conclusions? Were they more probably prime swarms rather than casts? Were the field hives always Queen-right?  Please comment.

The Outcome

  • The field hives look to have combined OK and I hope will have let the 2017 queen survive. (Though I am a bit concerned why they are already raising more queen cells – which I removed)
  • The stack of three colonies on one hive … looks to have combined OK, again, hopefully with a 2017 Queen leading the colony
  • I have a spare nuc box again! Phew!
  • One of the allotment hives looks to have complete 2 supers of honey with thin foundation! Wow! My hopes are once again raised for a large summer harvest!
  • All colonies look on course to be productive in July
  • Senen and I scraped out some honey from the supers where the swarms had been captured:
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

Plans

  • According to the “track and trace” function on the transport company website, on the 1st June I can expect my two new Thermosolar Hives to arrive. 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.  I will then be able to fully try out killed varroa without chemicals in these two hives.  I will also be able to free up a further 2 nuc boxes.
  • I have got the two field hives into a good position to put into the Beehaus when it arrives early summer
  • Add supers and put my feet up in June and July??? I guess not!

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Beehaus – Free Bees with Every Beehaus

THIS OFFER HAS NOW CLOSED.

Newsflash.

Buy any beehaus before July 2012 and you  will receive a colony of honeybees, worth £180, absolutely free. To claim your bees, simply add your beehaus to the shopping basket  and enter this promotional code: FREEBEES2012 Valid until 30th June 2012.

For other offers visit Beehaus promotions and if you don’t what a Beehaus is, please visit Beehaus review.

Beehaus Tip #1: Installing Bees Into Your Beehaus

Please read my beehaus review for more information on the beehaus.

The Problem

The beehaus uses 14×12 frames and your nuc is likely to arrive on standard National frames.  The problem is that the bees will lay wild comb below these frames and they are unlikely to do this in straight rows, hence, inspecting these frames will be tricky, but it will not be the end of the world.  This is challenge for all beekeepers who use 14×12 brood boxes and is not unique to the beehaus.

So, if you have been unable buy a nuc on 14x12s or catch a swarm of bees, I have asked Omlet and posted questions on various beekeeping forums and the best options seem to be as below.  My preference is option B. Continue reading “Beehaus Tip #1: Installing Bees Into Your Beehaus”