Just good hygienic behaviour Bridget - a good thing! I think it's a pupa though and the bees spotted something they didn't like about it
Just good hygienic behaviour Bridget - a good thing! I think it's a pupa though and the bees spotted something they didn't like about it
The abdomen looks too short, maybe a virus damaged pupa.
Speaking of viruses I was helping an older beekeeper this week who hadn't been through his bees since the autumn and who hadn't treated for varroa either then or midwinter. On every frame there were drones and workers with DWV - more than I've ever seen before. In my 11 years of beekeeping I could probably count on my two hands the numbers of bees with DWV I've seen. This was on a different scale and quite shocking. The colony appeared otherwise healthy (apart from every comb being old and black) and was bursting with bees - I told him it might collapse from the varroa load later in the year if nothing was done. He is not on the web so I've had to order some MAQS for him and we'll be treating them this weekend - never used that before so should be interesting. Hoping to persuade him to burn a lot of his old black combs (he has a lot from old dead colonies) and do a Bailey comb change on his colony. I'm thinking that's not going to have an appreciable effect on the varroa as there's no brood break but will be beneficial in terms of virus/disease.
I've just performed my first artificial swarm of the year. Three novices joined me today and I was keen to show them their first drones amongst other things. No drones at all in the first four. Despite the cool breeze we tried one more - which had not just drones but drawn queen cells 2-3 days from sealing.
This is a rural site where swarm preparations often start 2-3 weeks from now.
We checked our bees today one colony had loads of Queen cups and unripe honey in every frame of the super. It has been quite cold here so I'm not convinced it will be from our, maybe dandelion?
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The bees were going mad for OSR at lunchtime here even though it was cool. Some colonies had masses returning with the characteristic yellow face.
When I say mad, of course I mean very enthusiastic rather than the neonic-inspired mad
Hi gavin does the temperature not need to be higher for the osr to produce nectar? Our bees are bringing in three different pollens just now, cream, bright yellow and a duller yellow, no yellow coupons though!
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I seem to recall seeing bees foraging on rape in cool conditions before, yet most years they don't seem to. Perhaps they're taking advantage of a slow secretion of nectar over a longer period of time, now available to them as it warms a little? This spring we've had lots of sun, and recently lots of rain which will help.
I know of several swarms in the greater Belfast area in the last week.
A lot of people have huge colonies already and these will swarm if not carefully managed.
I have all my queens clipped now so they wont get far should I miss a queen cell.
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