todays news

[lindsay s]

There is no large scale growing of soft fruits in my area D R. Anything the bees come across will be in private gardens. There are a few semi commercial growers with Polly tunnels but that’s only on a very small scale. I believe that soft fruit growing is big business in Angus D R and I’m wondering if it benefits the beekeepers in your area.

[Bridget]

The nectar is coming in so fast that few frames are fully sealed -

Ah so that's what happens when there is a good flow one. I wondered why there was so much unsealed -- is it because they just don't have time to seal it?💡

[Bridget]

Following on to my post above - I have a super almost full apart from an end frame and I was going to add a super but held back as I thought I should wait until most of it was capped ( none of it is). I'll have another look today and reevaluate in light of the above.



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Trog]

Here in the most southerly of the Scottish Borders we've been having some high temperatures - high 20's by 11am with the temperature tonight at 9pm of over 23 C. Working in a beesuit is not comfortable. Although we've not had rain for days there is a fantastic flow on so supers are in short supply ... or in my case only available because I've scrounged some from a friend.

Tonight I requeened a hive that swarmed on Sunday/Monday ... the Q was clipped but looked damaged so she was despatched. The swarm was added back to the original hive. Removing five near full supers to add a new caged queen and reassembling the lot was hard work. I'll have to do the same thing to release her on Thursday or Friday (it's a very strong hive and the last available Q until the next lot of grafts come out from the mating nucs, so I want her to be safely accepted) when it's predicted to be even hotter.

The nectar is coming in so fast that few frames are fully sealed - the end of the field beans and the start of rosebay I think. The sound of the colonies working late in the evening is fantastic.

So ... heaven in terms of honey and well-tempered bees (and the best queen mating conditions I've ever seen - consistently hot, light/no winds) ... but very hard work

You were lucky ... cue well-known sketch ... no voracious midges to cope with

[chris]

held back as I thought I should wait until most of it was capped ( none of it is).

Normally the bees won't cap a full cell of honey until the humidity level is correct. Are they busy fanning? I'd add another super straight away- get the nectar in while they can!!

[Bridget]

Thanks Chris. Will do



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[biggus]

Thanks Drone Ranger, Gavin et al. Moral support much appreciated.

The queen was indeed never marked... which would have helped in this situation.

I lack the experience to credibly distinguish between the size of a virgin queen and the size of a mature queen thinned down for swarming, and lacking a queen cage (left at my other so-called apiary) I was too timid to attempt to catch the first queen for fear of mishandling her while getting a decent look. I regret that now.

The main reason I think that the queen in front of the hive was not the queen I found a few yards away is that after the swarm returned the hive went quiet and calm again very quickly. i.e was not acting queenless, while all the time there was queen out on the grass a few yards away.

When there was a queen in front of the hive, however, the whole place was in uproar, so I think I might have left her behind off the lid of the hive while I was returning the brood comb that I had used earlier to try and start an AS with the other queen.

The reason for attempting this (my first) artificial swarm, was because seeing that the bees had attempted to swarm and returned, I felt they might not fully have got it out of their system, and since I already thought I had caught the queen (off the lawn), it seemed like a good idea to help them get the job done so we could all move on with their lives, so to speak.

I hope that was a reasonably logical response to the situation, but happy to be put right if my plan was misbegotten.

Update: I don't think there has been a swarm since the one that aborted, but I have been too busy elsewhere to either keep watch or do a frame by frame exam. Foraging enthusiastic though, and I am quite quite excited about the prospect of a decent crop.

I also have a colony of bees in a shed on Ashdown Forest, in my back garden. They have been going gangbusters all year on what is now a double brood. Have just realised that they are into a big flow, probably from the nearby limes which are humming audibly. The top brood box has no young brood in it (some capped of both sexes) and is full wall to wall with ripening honey.

They also have a plethora of queen cells.

I need to decide what to do for a) urgent swarm management and b) to add storage space for nectar

Proper beekeepers may be dismayed to know that i chickened out of checking the state of the bottom box today, so I don't know if there is still egg laying activity or if I the colony is in an interregnum.

As a third year beekeeper I am undergoing a backlash against my own earlier tendencies to inspect too much or for the wrong reasons. I might have a look in the bottom box tomorrow after I have worked out a plan or two and perhaps got a spare brood box kitted out for swarm control purposes. In an emergency I can always take down one of my bait hives (old woodwormy WBC boxes with old drony super combs in them).

[fatshark]

You were lucky ... cue well-known sketch ... no voracious midges to cope with

Do beesuits protect from midges? In the 12 years I lived there they seemed to get through just about all defences ... I regularly had to give up fishing because of the no see 'ums.

[fatshark]

I also have a colony of bees in a shed on Ashdown Forest, in my back garden. They have been going gangbusters all year on what is now a double brood. Have just realised that they are into a big flow, probably from the nearby limes which are humming audibly. The top brood box has no young brood in it (some capped of both sexes) and is full wall to wall with ripening honey.

They also have a plethora of queen cells.

I need to decide what to do for a) urgent swarm management and b) to add storage space for nectar

Proper beekeepers may be dismayed to know that i chickened out of checking the state of the bottom box today, so I don't know if there is still egg laying activity or if I the colony is in an interregnum.

As a third year beekeeper I am undergoing a backlash against my own earlier tendencies to inspect too much or for the wrong reasons. I might have a look in the bottom box tomorrow after I have worked out a plan or two and perhaps got a spare brood box kitted out for swarm control purposes. In an emergency I can always take down one of my bait hives (old woodwormy WBC boxes with old drony super combs in them).

I would suspect the queen has gone, especially if some of the QCs are sealed. You might be able to remove brood frames of stores for later, rearrange the box into a single one containing sealed and unsealed brood and leave a single open, charged QC. Alternatively, if they're queenright you could set up a Demaree ... put the Q on one frame of unsealed brood in the bottom box with foundation, QE then the supers (and if there aren't any, get some on), with the rest of the brood on top. Save the stores for feeding back later. Knock off all the QC's and go back in a few days and check no more have been made. You might need to release drones from the top box as well. That way they keep bringing in the nectar, have more space to lay, move onto fresh comb and everyone is happy.

BTW I would reckon the main difference between a virgin and a skinny mature girl is "skittishness". Bees are again a metaphor for life ...

[gavin]

Do beesuits protect from midges?

Bee suits themselves probably do but the usual veils don't! I have first hand experience of this in Wester Ross where the midgies may even be worse than on Mull! What a good idea, I thought, take a couple of veils then I'll be able to fill both hands whilst cooking the evening meal outside with the family safely zipped up in the tent. I can confirm that bee veils and midgies are like chocolate teapots and hot tea. Worse even. The veil seems to concentrate them *inside*.