Stray cat living in empty dadant brood body.
Stray cat living in empty dadant brood body.
Looked through photos from apiary visit last w/e as it's raining (again) ... nice laying pattern from this 2017 queen.
170708-06.jpg
This is a wired frame so I'd usually expect the typical V pattern.
This taken about the same time from a split done earlier this year, probably May. You didn't seem to have much in the way of stores in that frame. We were pleased with this and it was my first day back at the bees since desensitisation started. I was holding the camera!Originally Posted by fatshark
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Looking at the two photos together my bees look quite a bit darker.
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Good to see you back with the bees Bridget.
That's a rather swish beesuit in the background of your photo.
Mine had stores elsewhere in the box.
These queens are the widely used Heinz strain ... 57 varieties. There's a bit of everything in there
Yes well re the swish beesuit....... present to husband because he gets awfie hot in the normal suits and this well ventilated one, offa eBay via India seems o be working well for him.Good to see you back with the bees Bridget.
That's a rather swish beesuit in the background of your photo.
Mine had stores elsewhere in the box.
These queens are the widely used Heinz strain ... 57 varieties. There's a bit of everything in there
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unexpected Q replacements
You know how you have a plan? - I'm checking colonies and getting ready to unite for the heather. Three Qs that were mated when the weather was good, started laying well in June, were marked and clipped and have now gone. I have not been inspecting these small colonies regularly (just wanted to leave them to build up) but in two cases they left me with Q cells and now new Qs just started laying. These bees will not be that much help at the heather, too young, too old, too few. The third case was yesterday - colony had no brood, small patch of eggs and the marked/clipped Q was nowhere to be seen but I did find another Q. Again, not going to be much help for honey now. I've not noticed this problem before - the colonies are of course weaker than those where the Qs just got going. Anyone else seeing this? I thought that once the new Q got going there was not much call for regular inspections but may have to revise that.
Queens mated in early/mid June have been a bit dodgy here. I've had a couple vaporise, leaving Q cells. Others simply never got mated and turned into drone layers.
One drone layer I shook out but was rushed and forgot to move the hive they came from (but left it turned round). They clustered on the outside for 3 days until I returned. Again I was in a rush so I just shook them into a box with some drawn comb. A week later there was no sign of drone layers, but they nearly filled the box with nectar. I united this with a nuc and they're now doing fine.
I have 18 nucs under observation not all mine some belong to the BBA, but I am keeping a wary eye on how they get on, as some at least of the mating happened during that cool wet spell we had. Time will tell as it always does.
PH
Looks very similar to the Oz armor ventilated suits. Treated myself to one of theirs for this hot weather, money very well spent. No more working in a sauna....and midge proof
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