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.

1st of many mistakes

When doing varroa treatment, don't put on a super and then leave it for two weeks otherwise they will make wild comb:

Luckily the queen hadn't started to lay but they did fill it with honey. We were able to take it down and save the hive. Friends of ours haven't been so lucky and now have an unmanageable hive.

With the honey and comb in a plastic bag we take it home and do some googling. We decided after some reading to attempt to separate the honey and the wax in our small flat using a saucepan and sieve. We did not see any problems with this plan.

Despite causing lots of sticky mess we do manage to separate them and get quite a bit of honey and very little wax. Considering how much comb there was we were expecting to be able to get lots of wax with little honey. We have barely enough for a tea light.

Note: Sieves easily get blocked with wax however using a neighbours hair-dryer is surprisingly effective

We've got bees!!!!

August 2011 we received our nucleus of bees at the door.

The bees are kept in my sister-in-laws garden which is five minutes from where we live. We had made the hive up weeks previously in preparation for their arrival. In hindsight if you have the money, buy one ready made it will save lots of arguments and swearing however we like many are on a budget.


The cat was not amused by the arrival of the box of buzz, which we transferred to the hive at dusk.


Our bees are very docile and smoke is not needed for an inspection, we only have one suit between us and I am more than happy to be around them without the protection. 


I am in love!

Our smiling bee hive made up in the living room before being transported to its future home.