Honey, Honey, Honey

Its November and we finally get to the bees to take the supers off.

A few quick checks have been done over the last few months so we know that they are still alive and have been building the honey stores up. Before it gets too cold we have to take the supers off. The more space there is in the hive the more energy it takes to keep it warm enough to survive.

A few days previously we put the crown board under the supers with porter escapes in. This allows the bees to go down into the brood box of the hive but not to return up into the supers. It is an easy way to clear the supers without having thousands of bees chasing you for the honey. Because we have taken their food stores (they do still have stores in the brood box) we have given them food in the form of fondant so that they have enough. We will continue to do this throughout the winter to ensure they don't starve.

The supers come off easily with bees not included. I take off a few of the cappings and we along with our 6 year old nephew dip our finger in to taste the honey. It is beautiful, tastes completely different to the store bought honey you can actually taste the flowers.

We have a super and a half of capped honey currently stored in black bin bags in the car. Not owning an extractor we now have to figure our how to extract the honey. We are not doing what we did last year. It was complicated and sticky with inedible honey. http://boydsandthebees.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/1st-of-many-mistakes.html

We haven't done the varroa treatment and now it is too cold for us to start so we will have to leave it this winter. We have been keeping an eye on the varroa numbers and it doesn't seem too bad at the moment so hopefully we haven't damaged them. There is an unproven method of using icing sugar on the bees. I understand the theory behind it is that it gets the bees to clean each other and therefore getting rid of the varroa in the process. It is something to consider if we want to do something.

Supersedure

Again we have been lax with our bees and when we checked them we found 5 queen cells scattered about a couple of frames, the bees were getting quite anxious because of the weather so it had to be another quick check. We couldn't see the queen but there were larvae and eggs so we were confident that there was a queen in there.

Upon reading the bee books (unfortunately the bees don't also read) we find that it is likely to be a supersedure rather than another swarm. A supersedure is when the current Queen isn't performing as the bees would like so they decide to replace her and produce another Queen. The two Queens can actually live side by side for a while before the older Queen is either kicked out or balled and killed.

It is very late in the season to swarm and even with a supersedure it is cutting it fine for the young virgin queen to get mated and successfully take over so we are cautious. We both agree to leave it a week and let the bees deal with it. If it is the case of a new queen taking over then the advise would be to leave them to it anyway.


Meanwhile in the world away from bees we have had our own supersedure.

Naomi Lily  was born on 28th August weighing 7lb 2oz and has taken up most of our time although we are aware that we really need to check the bees have a Queen and take off the supers before winter. It is too much for the bees to keep the hive warm with them on and we want the honey.

We haven't been informed of a swarm so fingers and toes crossed all is well in the hive.

Dodging the rain

We have been keeping an eye on the bees over the past few weeks and things are looking good. Wimbledon may cry of with the slightest bit of rain but our bees know how to work through.

We have healthy bees making comb in all available space even at the bottom of the frames which they are filling with drone brood. A few play cells which were squished but nothing to worry about, there is still plenty of brood and stores so all going well.

Despite the rain which is threatening the whole country the bees are still getting out and have drawn all the comb in the super, they have filled a lot of it with glistening honey. As you can see below at the top right they are also beginning to seal it so that it remains fresh for our consumption.

Looking forward to the possibility of having our own honey this year. Will have to look into hiring an extractor and getting some jars.

Even though it was drizzling there was some lovely foraging going on, managed to get a picture of one of our girls.

It isn't only the honey bees which are out, the bumble bees seem to be getting in on the action. They  love the plant outside our bedroom window.

We have also had an update about the hives on my Uncles apiary in Essex.

The Beekeeper has been down and let us know that the two hives which were full of bugs and moths with no bees have been taken away to be cleaned and blow torched to get rid of any nasties that may be in there. They have been replaced with two lovely new clean hives full of bees. 

The hive which has been taken over by a swarm has built up lots of honey stores but alas there is no Queen. A frame from one of the other hives has been placed in it to see if they will turn that brood into a scrub (emergency) Queen.

All have supers on ready to collect the honey for their September extraction.

Marking the Queen

On Thursday we had an email informing us that there was a starvation risk and if there aren't enough stores to feed the bees. We went along and the supers were still unused so fed them sugar syrup 2:1.

Today we went to check on them, they still had plenty of stores so no risk of starvation at the moment. We went with the intention of taking away the super however they have in fact started to draw out the comb in there with plenty more bees working. We have therefore left the super for them to play with and hopefully fill.

We also found the Queen, huzzah!! and even managed to mark her. Worried about using the cage we just dabbed her slightly with the yellow marker, you may be able to see the yellow mark on her abdomen below. As you can see she is much larger than the other bees with a slightly different colouring. She is also much more tapered to enable her to lay eggs at the bottom of the cells.

I am very proud that I noticed her first, it is the first time that I have managed to find an unmarked Queen so chuffed that I did as she was scuttling around the place.

I also have a video with my rather unsteady hand, you will see lots of capped brood, there is larvae which is pearly white around the edges but not captured well in the video. I haven't worked out the skill of editing yet so you get to see the whole clip unedited.

Outing into Central London

Today we went to have a look at an Apairy in central London. We managed to look through 5 different hives all with their own thing happening.

One was incredibly healthy with 3 supers full of lovely honey and lots of brood.

Another had 12 Queen cells which were all being carefully managed by the beekeeper due to the Queen absconding. A frame from another hive had been added so that the bees could make another Queen.

The last hive we checked were evil, although they were happy to leave us alone while inspecting the others once we opened the hive it felt and sounded like hail with them all flying at us. Even after we had closed them up they followed us halfway back to the building (a good trek away) This was the only hive which didn't have any supers on it and were not very strong. It seems that this is a good thing.

Below are a few pictures taken throughout our trip:

The bees are suspending a nice chunk of comb in mid air, fascinating, not sure what they are planning to do with it but lovely to see them working together.

Plenty of bees with sealed brood visible in this picture and the one below.

I think my clothes need a good few washes due to the last hive I must have blown smoke everywhere trying to keep them away as much as possible.

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.