ESBA Apiarist

I wish I could have taken you all with me. What was one bursting colony two weeks ago went over to making Q cells and was split. The queen-right part lost its queen (judging from the age of the larvae, a few days after I last opened it and while there were only eggs in queen cells) and went over to making Q cells itself. In the meantime it had expanded onto another couple of frames. The other part (judging from the age of the larvae 12 days ago) was due to have its first virgin hatch yesterday. ...

Tools: two hands. Paint brush. Radiator paint roller and paint tray. Hammer and roofing nails to fix mesh.

Time: one minute to assemble a box. Four sessions to complete painting (time depends on the care you take).

1. Admire the sleek outlines, the craftmanship and the light weight compared to timber. Ignore the lack of biodegradability. Note that the brood box pieces come in two types, tapered lugs (front and back panels) and straight-sided lugs (side panels). ...

Queen timings:

Day 0 - egg laid (usually eaten soon after!)
Day 3 - egg hatches
Day 7.5 to 8 - cell sealed
Day 16 (ish) - virgin emerges
Day 20+ - first flights

On Thursday on a flying visit at lunchtime the one and only colony was making queen cells with small larvae floating on a sea of PVA glue. They got the fastest artificial swarm I've done yet. If the furthest on was 2 days old on 12th May, plus three as an egg, it will be capped ...

Nice to see a cloud of bees in the air at the apiary this lunchtime. The new colony's new foragers were out in the sun. There was a lot of activity, the first frenzy of a flow I've seen this spring.



To stabilise as they approach the undercarriage goes down.



Time for a quick ankle rub as they approach the door.
...

Even Dorothy's colony turned drone layer over the winter, so the association apiary site is bee-less. Not any longer! I'm very grateful to the Claverhouse Group for parting with one of their colonies to get us started.

The Claverhouse Group provide training to get people back into work, and last year took on a new worker Forida to work with Wendy to establish apiaries on behalf of the group. I helped them last year, and in return they offered me some unwanted casts to re-stock ...