Friday 25 December 2020

Merry Christmas

My copy of the latest edition of BBKA News arrived in the post on Christmas Eve and I was pleased to see a bee I recognised on the front cover.  Although January is a bit early for snowdrops this far north it is a reminder of things to look forward to next year.  In the meantime I wish you a merry Christmas.





Thursday 1 October 2020

Three out of four ain't bad

I thought I recognised the bee on the cover of the latest BBKA News magazine.  It is the third time in the last four months that one of my photos has been on the cover, although I didn't know about this one in advance.  I think there are one or two more in the pipeline.



Saturday 25 July 2020

Keeping me guessing

This is the swarm I caught in a bait hive early in the summer, not from one of my hives.  The queen was unmarked but she laid immediately so it was a prime swarm.  I marked the queen green (2019 colour) although I obviously didn't know how old she was.  Two weeks ago the colony was thriving but had put up three charged queen cells.  With only three I thought there was a chance they might be for supersedure.  However, as the colony was short of space, with brood on all 11 frames plus a fairly full super, I took out the queen cells and put in an extra brood box full of foundation.

A week later the bees had drawn out all the new frames and nearly filled them.  Five new frames also had eggs and I found no more queen cells.  I didn't spot the queen but wasn't really looking for her.

Today, another week later, I found brood in all stages, including plenty of eggs.  Then on the 14th of 15 brood frames I found two sealed queen cells.


And on the 15th brood frame I found an unmarked queen!

I went back carefully through all the other frames but couldn't find a marked queen.  I also found no sign of a recently opened queen cell.

So now I am not sure what is going on.  There is obviously a laying queen in the hive and the queen I saw today is probably a new superseded queen, although it could be that all the green paint has been chewed off the original queen (who was still well painted when last seen).  If this is a new queen it is odd that there are two new queen cells.

This time I have assumed the bees know what they are doing.  I have left things as they are and haven't yet marked the new queen.

I presume a prime swarm will have to supersede at some stage because it can't keep swarming with an older and older queen.  I shall be very interested to see what I find next time.

Saturday 11 July 2020

Bad timing

More adventures.  I did a split earlier in the year, putting the queen and some bees into a six frame nuc.  They built up well and I added a second six frame box.  I expected they would continue to thrive but the subsequent cool, windy and wet weather meant I didn't get to look at them again.  I did, however, order some more foundation and I was happily making up frames yesterday, planning to give them more room today, when I heard the roar of a swarm.  It had been raining in the morning and they chose a brief sunny spell on a very showery afternoon.  I walked round to my neighbour's garden to check where they had landed and found them in a mahonia.

I saw black clouds coming in from the north and moments later it was pouring with rain.  Plenty of time for a cup of tea and a check on England's (lack of) progress in the Test.  When I got back an hour or so later there were a lot of very soggy bees, including quite a few on the ground.  I wedged a nuc into the top of a stepladder under the swarm and gave the bush a good shake.  A lot of bees fell in and I put a crown board partly on top and watched.

Some bees were fanning but most were mooching around.  Then I noticed a flash of green amongst the throng. The queen was wandering around, mumbling and grumbling, asking whose idea it was to swarm on a day like this.

So I tipped her into the box and the others set about following her in, with lots of fanning at the entrance.

I put the box on the ground to encourage the bees there to go in and came home for another cup of tea and a check on the cricket (not good news).

After another heavy shower I looked again and most of the bees were inside.  Later that evening I brought them home and set them up right next to where they started from.  I just had time to pop in the frames I had made up earlier before it started raining again.  This photo was taken under the shelter of an umbrella.

It is said that a swarm in July is not with a fly but this one is a fair size.  If it builds up well it may go into the winter.  If not I can unite it with the parent colony.

Tuesday 30 June 2020

Bees on viper's bugloss



I am not sure how many readers of this blog also look at my main wildlife blog, Trogtrogblog.  I have just published a post there about bees on viper's bugloss.  Although it is mostly about bumblebees and solitary bees it may be of interest to beekeepers.  You can see it here.

Tuesday 2 June 2020

The one the got away

This is a follow-up on my previous post about the swarm in the bait hive.  It seemed at the time that there may have been two swarms on the same morning.  The one that arrived in the bait hive is nicely settled in and has been doing well.  Today, 12 days later, there are six frames of brood and, as there were already three only five days after they arrived, they obviously came with a mature laying queen, ie they weren't from my hive.

I also looked in my hive that may have swarmed.  There are noticeably fewer bees so I think they have gone. There were already lots of drones and it now seems as though half the bees in the hive are drones.  When checking through 20 days ago, a week after a split, I found 37 queen cells and removed 36, remarking at the time that there is always the nagging fear that there might have been 38.  Today I found the beautiful cell that I had chosen to leave.

I carried on checking and right at the end of the frames, two clear of where any other brood had been I found this.

I think this must have been another queen cell and it doesn't look good.  It isn't even raised from worker brood.  I think the queen I had chosen went off with most of the bees and all that was left was a pretty second-rate queen cell.  The chance of a good quality queen having come from this is small.  I feel a bit hard done by - I suspect I may not even have checked this frame carefully as it didn't contain brood.  A lesson worth learning.

I suppose all is not lost as I don't know the age of this cell.  It is 12 days since the swarms but this could have been a younger cell and there may yet turn out to be a laying queen.  I'll leave it a couple of weeks before having another look.  If there is no queen at least these bees are next to the new swarm so it will be easy to unite them.  Or I could give them some eggs from next door and let them have another go.  We'll see.

Thursday 21 May 2020

Taking the bait

In the end I missed it.  I have been waiting for this swarm since I first saw scout bees investigating the bait hive four days ago.

Fourteen days ago I inspected my booming colony and found several queen cells containing estimated 3-4 day old larvae.  I split the colony, putting the queen in a nuc with a couple of frames of brood and some extra bees, leaving the queen cells alone.  (I already had a bait hive on top of a compost bin across the kitchen garden from my hives with an old empty frame and a frame of old dark comb and a couple of drops of lemongrass oil.)  I had another look in the hive seven days ago and found 37 sealed queen cells and removed 36.  There is always the nagging worry that there were really 38 so I kept an eye on things, predicting that a new queen should emerge last weekend, four or five days ago.

Four days ago there were bees investigating the bait hive and the numbers increased the next day and again the next day, probably peaking at around 100 or so.

It was difficult to tell but I thought the scouts were coming from over the house rather than from across the kitchen garden.  Nothing happened and the number of bees diminished.   Yesterday there were fewer and I thought perhaps there wouldn't be a swarm.  This morning there were still a few bees nosing about the bait hive but fewer again and I had given up hoping for a swarm by then.  I was out until about 2pm and when I got home there was a swarm on the front of the bait hive!

The bees seemed quite happy filing in so there was nothing to do except watch.  Quite a few were carrying pollen although there would be nowhere to put it.  I didn't see any drones in the swarm which is interesting as my own hive has many many drones.  I noticed several bees waggle dancing on the surface despite the fact that they had arrived at their destination.

I went next door to talk to the gardeners who had been there all day.  They had seen a swarm at about midday in the next door garden and had assumed it had come from mine.  When they looked later it had gone.  So it looked as though I must have missed a queen cell and the bees had swarmed with a virgin queen, although the timing was odd - four or five days later than I would have predicted.

Then another neighbour called in to tell me she had had a swarm in her garden (about 100m away) at about 10am and that it had come out of the woods.  It settled in an apple tree and had gone by late morning.  So the plot thickens.

Late this afternoon the bees were in the box so I had a look in.  It is difficult to judge the size of the swarm when the bees are all over the sides and the roof.  It will be easier once they have populated the frames.


They had already started building comb, presumably recycling some wax judging by the colour.

I added nine new frames of foundation and left them to it.  As it got dark just now I moved them across the garden to a hive stand in the apiary so I don't have to manage a colony on top of a compost bin.

This is my first success with a bait hive.  Having been in all week until this morning I was disappointed not to see it arrive.  I am also uncertain about several things.

If there were two swarms, which one is in my bait hive?  I suppose if the queen is laying within a few days then it isn't from my hive.  If she takes longer it will be difficult to know.

If the swarm is from my hive it is odd to occur several days after the predicted emergence of a new queen. Perhaps the best looking queen cell was younger than the others.

Why did it take until the 5th day from the first scouts to the swarm?  It seems a long time planning ahead wherever the swarm came from.

Could it be that the swarm had moved from one garden to another before moving into mine?  Any comments will be welcome.

Friday 24 April 2020

Boom time

This afternoon was my third inspection of the season on a beautifully warm sunny afternoon.  My strong colony was upgraded to a double brood box last week as it was rapidly running out of space.  I moved three brood frames (with the queen as it happened) up to the centre of the new box and left five in the centre below.  In the week the bees have fully drawn out half a dozen new frames and the queen has been busy laying.  The top box now has seven frames of brood, including four which are nearly completely laid with eggs.  The bees have gone from foundation to this in a week.

Elsewhere they are still hard at work making comb.  This shows how they build on a foundationless frame.  You can see some of them don't have far to travel for forage.

The other colony was downsized to a nuc two weeks ago and is still small although it seems happy.  I wondered about giving it a frame of eggs from the neighbouring hive but I wasn't sure there were enough nurse bees to cope.  It is something the think about in the next week or two.  Let's hope this lovely weather continues.

Wednesday 8 April 2020

First inspection

My bees have had six months of peace and quiet but the weather was so good today I decided to take a quick look to see how they have been getting on over the winter.  I could tell quite a lot from watching the hives over the last few weeks.  Hive 2 has been very active with lots of bees coming and going in all weathers and lots of pollen being taken in.  Hive 1 was quieter and hive 3 often showed very little activity - the bees seemed to come out only when it was very sunny.

Hive 1 was my best hive over the past couple of years.  The queen laid well - up to 14 frames of brood - and they never showed any signs of swarming.  At the last inspection last year I found two unmarked queens, presumably in the process of superseding.   The lighter coloured of the two may have been the resident two-year-old queen with her yellow paint missing so I marked both green.  Today I found a small colony led by the darker queen.  There was brood in all stages but on only two sides of part of one frame.  This is one of my foundationless frames.

Hive 2 started last summer with a queen cell from the next door hive and was doing well at last inspection last year.  Today they are thriving with seven frames of brood, including lots of eggs.


Interestingly there is already sealed drone brood where the queen has laid in drone comb on the foundationless frames.

Hive 3 had a new queen last July and she seemed to be doing well although I made a comment in the records that she wasn't so big.  Things were OK until the last inspection in late September when I found a new small unmarked queen and no eggs.  I assumed the colony had superseded but too late in the season as there would have been no drones around.  I left the queen unmarked.

When I looked in today there was a small colony with only two seams of bees.

The unmarked queen was still present.

There was only a small amount of brood and it was all drone brood.


I marked the queen although she is easy to spot in a small colony.  I wondered about removing her and adding a frame of eggs from hive 2 but I think it is too early in the season because if the hive raised a new queen from a queen cell there would be no drones to mate with.  I could unite them with hive 2 or just let them fizzle out. Either way this colony has no future.

So it was an interesting start to my beekeeping season.  I'll have to keep an eye on hive 2 which is booming and will soon need more room.  And I wonder about downsizing hive 1 to a nuc for a few weeks.  In the current restrictions everything else I do is cancelled so it was a great pleasure to spend time with the bees.

Friday 31 January 2020

A bit of a puzzle

I blame this on my aunt Wendy.  When she saw one of my photos of a swarm of bees she suggested it would make a good jigsaw puzzle.  So I gave her one but so far I don't think she has finished it.  I recently thought I would have a go myself and this is as far as I have got.  There are 500 pieces and I have managed 86 (17.2%). Only 414 to go.

I also gave one to my sister Cherry.  A couple of days later she sent this photo.

And another four days later she had finished it.  She didn't tell me how much of those four days it took to do it.

So it can be done.  This was the original photo.  I am just glad now that I only ordered the 500 piece version and not the 1000 piece.