The hive is buzzing

Our inspection today was very similar to last week. The last frames in the brood box are now all drawn out and are being filled quickly. There is still no change in the super however the main nectar flow is in July so there is still a chance that we will get some honey this year.

Despite no babies emerging yet the hive looks healthy with bees and the work is ongoing. The hive was literally buzzing. However we have still not seen the Queen. There is sealed brood, larvae and eggs so she is laying well over most of the frames.

The stores are heaving with honey, nectar and pollen. Honey is on every frame and they are incredibly heavy to lift.

Hopefully next week we will see the new bees emerging and some movement in the super.

A worrying discovery

My Uncle has three hives on his land which another beekeeper looks after, it sounded as though they had all absconded without any warning so while we were visiting family we thought we would have a look inside and see what was happening. (If there were in fact any bees inside - while trying not to tread on someone elses toes)

Hive No 1:

This hive was completely empty except for a few spiders, due to the fact spiders have many legs and this one was carrying an egg sack we did not delve further. We had enough information to know that this hive was empty of bees.

Hive No 2:

This hive was a worry on opening it. There were plenty of bees, after further discussion it seems that a passing swarm has taken inhabitant of it, although we have no idea how long they have been there. The hive itself was dirty with black mud like substance on the bottom. The frames were dark and discoloured and the hive smelt strongly of booze. What looked like chalk brood was in there however we have no idea if this has been there for a while.

After leaving and going through the pictures we can see what looks like brood however it is dark and discoloured and in unusual malformed shapes . Unfortunately the zoom works better on the camera than the computer.

We got half way through inspecting these bees before they started to get agitated and we closed up. We haven't seen all the hive but enough to make us worried.

Hive No 3:

This hive was also completely empty except for moths, We tried to take out a frame however they were glued together by what appears to be wax moth.

After much discussion and not being that experienced we have decided to forward on what pictures we have to our bee inspector who we will hopefully be seeing this weekend anyway to get a more informed idea of what we have seen.

Ju-Bee-Lation - Long Live Our Queen

Today we checked our bees and to our delight we have brood. It looks about 5/6 days old to my untrained eye and there is plenty of it. Our hive may not die of old age. We didn't see the Queen but are happy that there is one in there and she has had her wicked way with a number of drones.

Along with brood we have lots of honey stores. They haven't yet started any work in the super but we understand they may transfer some of the stores to the super to make way for brood. There is still room in the brood box especially as we have had a number of weeks with a non-laying Queen.

Even the outside frames have been drawn so they are definitely working through.

An ageing population!

This week I purchased a plastic nuc box in the hope that we don't have to use it. After reminding ourselves how to put together the frames we have the nuc box ready to go at a moments notice.

Note to self: Don't leave wax sheets which have a low melting point in the car on the hottest day of the year.

We did an inspection of our hive today and the sealed Queen cell we left last week has now been chewed open. We know that there should be a Virgin Queen in our hive but still no sign of her.

There are plenty of honey stores however they have not started building in the super yet there is still space in the brood box.

We have seen no eggs or brood which is still worrying but have been informed that it can take up to a month  for a Virgin Queen to start laying. With the bank holiday coming up we hope to check on the hive on Friday, fingers crossed for us that the Queen is laying. We have the marker and cage ready for her once she is ready but aware that if we find her and mark her before her maiden flight she will have a bright yellow mark on her back for all the predators out there.

We also have a large amount of drones in the hive, last week we had a large amount of capped drone cells so this makes sense and is not a change. Currently no capped cells, eggs or lavae.

I think we have to now face up to the possibility that if our Queen isn't laying our hive has potentially only 30 days left. If there are no eggs on Friday we will have to consider making an emergency purchase of a mated Queen.

Where is our Queen?

Guilty over our lack of attention we are now resolved to look after the bees.

Armed with our bee kit we head over, hoping there won't be a round three swarm. The weather this week has been raining and hailing and today is overcast. We decide to do a quick check and to give some varroa treatment.

The Queen cell which was left last week is still there and capped so there has been no movement there. We can't see the Queen anywhere and there are still no eggs. The hope is now that the weather has been so horrible that she hasn't managed to get out for her maiden flight and will either do it today or as soon as the weather is better.

We have a large number of drone cells and even catch some emerging. There is no concern with regards to the number of bees and there are still plenty of workers.

The oxalic acid is applied and a super put on. but the one question that remains is: Where is our Queen!

The swarm part 2

After the excitement of the swarm yesterday we regrouped and decide that we are going to open the hive and squish all the queen cells apart from one in the hope to avoid another swarm.

Armed with all our bee keeping kit and books for reassurance we return to the scene of the crime.

There is another swarm!

This time it is in the tree in my sister-in-laws garden. Thankfully it is not in a neighbours. Again we call BBKA Swarm Collector and this time Karin comes to our rescue.

There looks to be two casts near each other in the tree, throughout the day these move to one large swarm however we do not find out if it is one or two casts.

Using very sophisticated  box system Karin and Richard (Husband) manage to get the swarm down and safely secured in the box.

Disaster part two temporarily avoided although I did get stung for the first time. It didn't hurt but it does sting. Funny that!

In the meantime we check out the hive and can see 11 sealed Queen cells, no eggs or larvae and as far as we can see there is no Queen, virgin or otherwise.

All but one Queen cell is squished and now we wait and see what happens.

The summer begins!

Throughout the winter we fed the bees fondant to keep them going. We felt sorry for stealing honey so late in the season and are worried that we hadn't left them with enough to survive. The weather has been horrible and although we wanted to check the bees from the 1st April ideally (swarming season begins) the weather has been so horrible that we haven't had a chance.

Note to self: If it isn't raining check them rather than waiting for a nice sunny day.

Today we popped over with all our bee kit to do the first inspection of the year on the lovely sunny day. On arrival we are approached by a frantic brother-in-law. They have just been informed by a neighbour that there are bees at the top of a lamp post. ooops!

 BBKA Swarm Collector is called and Camilla comes to save the day. Very efficient she thankfully has a very long ladder to get to the top of the lamp-post and makes it seem so easy.

Meanwhile we check the hive and notice that there are 4 queen cells which have been chewed open and and see 7 other queen cells. There are also no eggs although a few larvae can be seen and capped cells.This is not looking good. Hopefully we have a few days while the bees regroup before another swarm. Our queen is nowhere to be seen, it is obviously our swarm.

Disaster averted temporarily and most neighbours are none the wiser.