todays news

[HJBee]

Had what is my first real hard work day with the bees today, one of my larger colonies was bubbling last week so I did a split and encourage some bees in a polynucleotide to draw me a new queen, which they've done beautifully.

But the main colony was still bubbling today and had started to draw & charge swarm cells, as well as fill 2 supers. Great - I had the day off to go back & read up on A/S with & without finding the Queen. Bad that it was cold, drizzly & a touch windy - not ideal, but at RHS tomorrow & busy all Sat, so it had to be done. Went back fully equipped with kit & syrup and a) managed to find the queen and b) managed to not get stung once (and they weren't happy). So where there was one, now are three (fingers crossed).

[GRIZZLY]

I've had a "ghost" swarm today, Went thro the colony with John Smith the local bee inspector - they were on double brood and contained seventeen frames of brood and eggs, No sign of queen cells at all. The queen had been marked last year and so was easily seen and found. They were shut up again and left to their own devices ., they had 3 supers on top by the way. That evening this colony threw a large swarm which settled on a cross bar on a fence about 6 feet up in the air. I decided we must have missed a queen cell after all. I went to my bee shed to collect my swarm box + board and cover cloth . On my return I found the swarm had absconded -not into the parent hive but completely away. I wasn't away for more than 5 minutes fetching my gear. I've no idea where they've gone or why they went so quickly. a bit of a mystery.

[greengumbo]

Well that was fun. Got a call from my wife to say the bees in the garden were "going bloody mental". Went home and found it had settled down and thre was a small swarm sitting next to the car in a gorse bush. Popped it into a paynes poly nuc and left it under the branches with nasonovs on full display at the entrance. Went back indoors to congratulate myself and have lunch then came out ten mins later to notice a second swarm about 10m away in gorse so have popped that into a decrepit old WBC hive I had kicking about.

The thing is these are undoubtedly from a nucleus hive I split of a large colony a few weeks back. I had left 2 QCs in it but must have missed one more. I reckon these are casts. What would you recommend. Finding the virgins in the cast and killing them then adding the bees back to parent nuc OR chopping 1 virgin and combining the 2 casts ?

[fatshark]

Depending on time and enthusiasm available I'd also consider just chucking the two casts in together and seeing what develops … assuming you want another colony. Finding and culling the virgins might be a bit of a palaver.

[greengumbo]

Depending on time and enthusiasm available I'd also consider just chucking the two casts in together and seeing what develops … assuming you want another colony. Finding and culling the virgins might be a bit of a palaver.

This is what I'm going to do. Might even grab a frame of brood from another overly strong hive and stick it in with them in one big melee.

[The Drone Ranger]

the swarming urge seems to be strong this month maybe the weather pattern
Normally if they were hatching together you might expect them to fight it out ?

On a slight tangent quite a lot of the bees from my 2014 queens are producing yellow bums
The queens are dark themselves and the odd thing is last season with the 2013 queens there wasn't much other than a small smattering of yellow workers
Wondered if that might be down to more Italian imports but the matings would have been spread though the Season of 2014
Hey! ho! at least they are all well behaved apart from two which manned by nut jobs

[The Drone Ranger]

G.G.
Would a Marburg box help to combine swarms ?

[greengumbo]

G.G.
Would a Marburg box help to combine swarms ?

Just googled this and its a cool piece of kit ! Cheers for the advice

Bit late for now as this dark and murky morning I went out and chucked both casts into the same nuc and sealed it up. Will move it to another apiary and feed a bit and then forget about it for a month

[HJBee]

Had a great beekeeping day yesterday. Went through my hives and made sure all is well. The big hive is starting to seal the 2 supers of honey, even while waiting for their new queen to hatch. I found this fellow under the roof - Violet Ground Beetle - Carabus violaceus, very handsome.

Then got a call from one of my beekeeping friends to say she thought her (currently queenless) bees were swarming. Nope her hive was pretty much as we'd left it in Thurs nights inspection, full of bees & sealed Q/C. So we had another persons bees swarm to her garden. After knocking the bulk into a skep, and seeing the lovely Unmarked/Unclipped queen scurry to the bottom, they happily settled there. We then transferred them to a hive in the evening.

[fatshark]

Flight back from Edinburgh delayed so it was a really rush job in the apiaries this evening … finding mated queens, marking mated queens, dropping a mated queen (D'oh!) and failing to find or catch mated queens. I saw some of these as virgins a few days ago and it always amazes me how they plump up and get going.

Being red/green colour blind I only mark with blue and white pens. I've only just realised that this is a 'blue' year and I've marked everything so far white. Perhaps that should be in the confessions thread.

Checked out a new apiary site on Friday and came across loads of these orchids … any ideas? Early purple perhaps? Eastern Fife. Appalling camera phone image, apologies.

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