Neils

It's good to be back.

Rate this Entry
5 Comments
by
Neils
, 27-03-2011 at 11:48 AM (3545 Views)
After 6 months of watching the cabin fever set in across the various forums where some exploded more frequently and spectacularly than others over the winter it's great to finally get out and up to my elbows in bees again. I've missed you ladies.

Despite the weather inevitably turning yesterday compared to all of last week, I opted to carry out a quick inspection of the two colonies on the allotment apiary. One in a 14x12 the other in a Double National.

The plan was to get the Double National down to a single brood box. It's the smallest, from watching the entrance, of my three colonies and I really don't like using double brood boxes. I thought giving them a single brood box might help them along a little and once they're a bit stronger I want to bailey change them onto a 14x12 Hive.

As we shuffled frames out of the top box there were two frames with brood present the rest of the frames a mix of stores and a couple of frames of foundation at the edges. The stores have been squirreled off to make nucs later and a few frames of rather grotty comb are destined for the solar extractor we've been promising to make for the last 2 years.

In the bottom box we stumbled across her Majesty and turns out I must have marked her at some stage last year. This surprised me a bit as I don't normally mark queens in their first year and I had cage and paint ready just in case.

As we were closing up the national, we started to attract an audience, albeit it one at respectful (ish) distance. A winter of doing talks seems to have paid off as as we started to get ready to go into the next hive the call came out "tell us what you're doing". Commentating on what you're doing is actually quite good fun, maybe I should start doing it all the time, audience or not as a means of focusing on what it is I'm trying to do.

Both colonies are looking pretty good to me, both have plenty of stores, brood in all stages, enough new, clean frames to play with to keep them busy and as we have a box of the stuff about to go out of date, I've put an apiguard tray on the National Hive. The mite drop is a little higher than I'd like at the moment, they're still a little way off needing a super (or being ready to bailey change them) so it seems a good excuse to use it up. The temperatures are just high enough on the forecast next week so I'll be interested to see what happens with the drop on this one.

There is obviously a flow on from somewhere but I'm at a loss to explain what. Maybe I need to wander further to find out what's in flower but I'm not complaining.

Submit "It's good to be back." to Digg Submit "It's good to be back." to del.icio.us Submit "It's good to be back." to StumbleUpon Submit "It's good to be back." to Google

Updated 27-03-2011 at 12:03 PM by Neils

Categories
Inspections

Comments

  1. Jon's Avatar
    Hi neil. I have noticed quite a few dandelions in flower. Maybe nectar coming in from there. How many frames with brood had you altogether in each colony? My frugal native types are mostly on 3 frames with brood, 6 frames covered with bees at the moment and stores and pollen are good.

    Wednesday and Thursday last week we had about 15c so I got the last of my checking done. I have seen all my queens bar one which I didn't look for after seeing a nice brood pattern on a frame and none of them has turned drone layer.
  2. gavin's Avatar
    There were a few of the early dandies open here too on Friday in a favoured S-facing spot near the coast. In Bristol there would be several possibilities. I have peeked at the tops of mine but I haven't yet lifted any frames. I might try to do so on Tuesday morning as I need something to show a school class near Dundee.
  3. Neils's Avatar
    Marked difference between the two colonies. The Double national had 4 frames of brood (discounting the odd frame with a bit of brood), the 14x12 had nearly 6 frames of brood. I tend to think in sides of brood rather than frames, something I picked up from the bee inspector notes. The 14x12 covers 8 frames the National perhaps 6-7, a bit tricky to say for sure when I'd just condensed it down to a single brood box.

    I'm pretty sure that the 14x12 has crossed with the NZ italians next door, but the other 14x12, on a differnt site, which hasn't is also much stronger than the national, but I think that's as much to it being on double brood with a few frames of foundation as much as anything.

    Both are raising drones and both seem to have plenty of stores.

    I've not noticed dandelions around here. Not to say they aren't out, I just honestly haven't seen any. I have seen a few cherry trees out in flower and our garden which is great for bees is about a week away from starting to come into flower.

    [edit] I guess a quick addition to say that by "stronger" I dont necessarily mean "better". The amount of fondant that the 14x12 took in comparison to the National was interesting and is part of why I believe that they forage using little mopeds and shout "ciao!" a lot
    Updated 28-03-2011 at 12:26 AM by Neils
  4. gavin's Avatar
    Our willows are resplendent. Do you have any nearby? Chris Slade has just posted on Bee-L about the early flush of dandelions in Dorset.
  5. Neils's Avatar
    Plenty of willow, but that's easy to spot both in gardens and on the bees. I normally see the dandelions on the paths in the allotment, I might just be blind this year but they're not out there. Otherwise my walk to work is concrete jungle so I don't get to see much anymore.