Apiary Diary
2010 |
|
|
|
August
Club meeting - 6th
The weather was not the best for opening hives, but as it started to brighten up we gave it a go.
Cancelled due to weather
10 o'clock Saturday morning - the weather was lovely, bearing no resemblance to the rain of Thursday.
The task today was to do a normal inspection, apply the first treatment of Apiguard and (using pallets) raise the height of our three newest hives - they are too low and are inviting a damp problem over the winter.
The Apiguard trays simpy sat on top of the brood frames with an eke round them to give them some breathing space. The supers were removed, though on hive 2 with so many supers, we ended up putting one super under the brood box.
Hive1 - Didn't seethe queen, but plenty of eggs, larva and brood.
Hive 2 - The queen cell was empty, no sign yet of eggs or larva but the cells had a polished look to them, so fingers crossed.
Hive 3- no sign of the queen, but plenty of eggs, larva and brood. A thriving colony.
Hive 4 - no sign of the queen, but plenty of eggs, larva and brood. Doing well.
Hive 5 - Saw the queen, and plenty of eggs, larva and brood. This is still a small colony covering 5 frames, but looks strong enough.
|
|
July
Apiary meeting - 1st
Hive 1 - Queen, eggs, laravae and brood all seen. Plenty of room and stores.
Hive 2 - Found a queen cell !! Removed the old queen, 1 frame of brood, 2 of stores and added 2 frames of foundation to a nucleus box, leaving an unsealed queen cell in Hive 2. the brood is wall-to-wall but by the time the new queen emerges and starts laying there should be plenty of room. The nucleus box becomes Hive 5.
Hive 3 - 7 sides of brood. Queen, eggs, larvae and brood all seen. Plenty of room for laying and stores.
Hive 4 - Queen was sighted and re-marked. Eggs, larvae and brood all present. Plenty of room for egg-laying and stores.
All hives were treated for varroa with icing sugar.
Apiary meeting - 8th
Hive 1 - Continuing to draw out the super and starting to fill it. The queen was not sighted but plenty of eggs, larvae and brood. Plenty of stores, room for stores and room for egg laying.
Hive 2 - Last weeks queen cell is capped, adn there are three others - now removed. Two supers are full and capped, ready for extraction. A clearer board was put in (using a rhombus bee escape) with a view to extracting at the weekend.
Hive 3 - The queen, eggs, larvae and brood all sighted. No queen cells. Plenty of room for egg-laying, and sufficient stores. Added a super.
Hive 4 - the queen, eggs, larvae and brood all sighted. Plenty of room for egg-laying, room for stores, and adequate supply of stores. The colony is still on the small side, but it is growing.
Hive 5 - the old queen (from Hive 2) is laying in her new home, and no queen cells so will leave her be for now.
Extraction - 10th
Today we extracted the honey from two supers from Hive 2 adding a few more pounds to the clubs honey stash. The empty supers were then put back on the hive.
Thanks to all the helping hands.
An Inspector Calls - 12th
With EFB (European Foul Brood) found not too far from home it was time to ask the inspector to pay a visit. Our current SBI (Seasonal Bee Inspector) is Robert Carpenter-Turner and he was more than happy to check us out.
The whole process was very simple. We went through every hive with Robert looking in detail at all the brood - sealed and unsealed - on every frame. If any brood looks suspect, then a sample is removed and tested on the spot. Primarily looking for EFB and AFB (American Foul Brood) his experienced eye also spotted some varroa-damaged bees, and some bald brood - though not enough to worry about.
So our minds are at rest that as of today we don't have EFB or AFB, and fingers crossed it will stay that way.
All hives were treated for varroa with icing sugar.
Apiary meeting - 15th
Postponed due to weather
Inspection - 16th
Hive 1 - Saw the queen, larvae and brood - couldn't see any eggs. They are starting to cap the stores in the super.
Hive 2 - the queen cell is now empty. Now eggs or larvae and only a small amount of brood - not panic stations yet. We'll give her a bit longer to mate and start laying before we begin to worry.
Plenty of stores and room for egg-laying and nectar.
Hive 3 - Saw the queen, eggs, larvae and brood. Plenty of room and stores.
Hive 4 - Saw the queen, eggs, larvae and brood. Plenty of room and stores.
All hives were treated for varroa with icing sugar.
Apiary meeting - 22nd
Postponed due to weather
Inspection - 26th
Hive 1 - Saw the queen, eggs, larvae and brood. A small amount of bald-brood. Not enough to be a worry, but something to keep an eye on. About 1/3 of the stores in the super is capped, and plenty of egg-laying roomin the brood box.
Hive 2 - Didn't see our new queen, but saw eggs and brood - no larvae.
Plenty of egg-laying and nectar room, and more than adequate stores.
Hive 3 - The queen not sighted, but plenty of eggs, larvae and brood. 18 sides of brood. Getting a bit low on egg-laying space. A good start has been made on the super.
Hive 4 - The queen not sighted, but plenty of eggs, larvae and brood. Plenty of room and stores.
Hive 5 - Rehoused in a full brood box. Queen, eggs, larvae and brood all sighted.
All hives were treated for varroa with icing sugar.
Apiary meeting - 29th
Hive 1 - Queen, eggs, larvae and brood all present. Plenty of room and stores. Still a noticeable amount of bald brood.
Hive 2 - The queen was not sighted, though there were eggs and larvae - no brood.
Hive 3 - The queen was not sighted, though there were eggs, larvae and brood.Plenty of room and stores.
Hive 4 - Queen, eggs, larvae and brood all sighted. Plenty of room and stores. |
|
|
|
June
Club meeting - 4th
Hive 1 now has a laying queen. The queen that hatched two weeks ago
has successfully mated and we can now hope for some improvements
in the welfare of this hive. Not only is she laying, she was sighted and marked.
There is (as expected plenty of space for brood and stores are adequate - but
will need to keep an eye on that if the weather turns.
Hive 2 is stacked with three supers, one of which was full and mostly capped,
with the other two not far behind. A clearer board ( a crown board with a porter
bee escape inserted) was put below the top super. Forty-eight hours later the
super was removed without any disturbance to the bees. A little short of 20lbs
was extracted, and there a couple more onces of wax for the club coffers.
Hive 3, like Hive 1, now has a laying queen. This hive was created from a
split from Hive 2, and should now go forward in leaps and bounds.
This hive had a small opening, which has now been enlarged to approx 4 inches.
As the colony expands they will need a larger entrance and will be better able
to guard it as necessary.
Hive 4 (whose queen we marked last week) has eggs and larvae, so all good news
so far.
Icing sugar dusting for varroa was done as usual.
Apiary Meeting - 10th
Cancelled due to weather.
While it wasn't raining, it was threatening at any moment and even without rain the conditions for opening the hive were not good and probably would have resulted in some unnecessarily annoyed bees.
Inspection - 12th
Hive 1 had previously been given a super with extracted frames which they have now started to draw out - a promising sign.
The brood nest is small, but growing with brood, and eggs & larvae of all ages. They are also storing an increasing amount.
Hive 2 has brood on 20 (out of 22) sides and no queen cells, so no imminent danger of swarming.
Three weeks ago we had added a super that was short 4 frames, and we got (as expected) some wild comb.
While it looks lovely, it is not practical and today it was removed and replaced with frames with foundation.
Of the 3 supers on this hive, 1 is capped and ready to extract and 2 are close but not quite ready. The capped super was removed and extracted, yielding just under 20lb of honey and just under 1lb of wax (including the wild comb that was removed).
That super is now back on the hive for the bees to clean up and re-fill.
Hive 3 has plenty of eggs of brood, but no sign of our last unmarked queen.
Hive 4 is also laying well with 6 sides of brood.
Icing sugar dusting for varroa was done on all hives.
At the next Apiary meeting we will be putting together some more super frames - it looks like we will need them (fingers crossed!!!).
Apiary Meeting - 17th
Hive 1 - Plenty of larvae of all ages, and brood. Couldn't see eggs, bu thtat is possibly due to the poor light. Plenty of room for egg laying and stores
Hive 2 - Plenty of eggs, larvae and brood. The queen was sighted, no queen cells and plenty of room for egg-laying and stores.
Hive 3 - At last our unmarked queen put in n appearance and has been marked. Eggs, larvae and brood are all present with lots of room to expand the brood nest and an adequate supply of stores.
Hive 4 - Eggs, larvae and brood all present and the queen was sighted.
Although this hive is growing, the progress does seem a little slow. We will have to wait and see.
All hives were treated for varroa with icing sugar.
Apiary Meeting - 24th
Hive 1 - 13 sides of brood - not bad given its history. The queen was sighted, plenty of eggs, larvae and brood.
Hive 2 - Saw the queen, eggs, larvae and brood. Lots of stores in the supers, but very little capped as yet.
Hive 3 - didn't see the queen, but eggs, larvae and brood all present.
Hive 4 - didn't see the queen, but eggs, larvae and brood all present.
Hives 1, 3 and 4 were treated for varroa with icing sugar. Hive 2 suffered from forgetfulness. |
|
May
Club meeting - 7th
While the hives were opened, it was too windy and cold for a full inspection, which was delayed until Monday 10th. But we did see our youngest beekeepers to date.
Inspection - 10th
Hive 1 is in a sorry state. There is now no Queen cell, and no brood to speak of.
A frame of eggs and brood was donated from Hive 2 on the off-chance they would do something with it, and sugar syrup feed added.
Hive 2 is still doing very well.
The brood box has lots of sealed brood, and a reasonable amount of unsealed brood. So a frame was donated to Hive 1.
The queen was sighted, and lots of unsealed brood was visible.
There seems to be a lot of unripe stores, but nothing capped as yet.
Introducing HIVE 3!!!!!
The nuc that was created on April 30th has 2 sealed queen cells (both on the same frame).
It is now back at the club apiary and has been re-housed in a hive, still with a feeder of sugar syrup.
Apiary Meeting - 13th
Hive 1 looks better than it did on Monday, probably because all the flying bees are home this late in the day, boosting the numbers, giving a much healthier appearance.
They had done nothing with the frame of eggs and brood donated last week, but they did have stores, and had hardly touched the feed from last week, so that has now been removed.
As we now have a been given a supply of sealed Queen Cells, we installed 3 of the cells in this hive and added a frame
of brood from Hive 2 and all fingers are firmly crossed. The usual varroa dusting of icing sugar was done.
Hive 2 is still going strong despite all the donations it is making, in fact the brood nest is covering seven frames, and as we still have some of
our donated sealed Queen Cells, two frames were taken to make the nuc that will be Hive 4 (plus the one for Hive 1).
The queen wasn't sighted (even with her flourescent green marking) but young brood and eggs were evident. While there wasn't much in the way of capped stores, there was a lot of uncapped stores.
A varroa dusting of icing sugar was done on the brood box.
Hive 3 we left alone. Bees were flying, always a good sign.
The virgin queen should have emerged or be about to, so we can only do harm.
By next week we may just see signs of laying if all has gone well.
Hive 4 now houses a nucleus - 2 frames of brood, 2 frames of stores, 2 donated Queen Cells and a dummy board to keep them warm.
Topped off with a sugar syrup, and all fingers crossed.
Apiary Meeting - 20th
Hive 1 - the Queen cell has hatched, but the queen wasn't
sighted (not unexpectedly) and no signs of laying. This is not a concern
yet as she needs time for her mating flight and to start laying.
We'll see what next week brings.
The usual dusting with icing sugar for varroa control was done.
Hive 2 is still doing well.
The two supers are near to full though very little of it is capped as yet.
A third super has been added - we were short 4 frames for the third super, so we will have some wild comb next week.
The queen was sighted, and plenty of eggs showing she is still working
hard. The usual dusting with icing sugar for varroa control was done.
Hive 3 - like Hive 1 the Queen Cell has hatched, no sign of the queen and no sign of laying yet.
The usual dusting with icing sugar for varroa control was done.
Hive 4 - like Hives 1 and 3, the Queen Cell has hatched, no sign of
the queen and no sign of laying yet.
The usual dusting with icing sugar for varroa control was done.
Apiary Meeting - 27th
Hive 1 - still no sign of the queen, and more importantly no sign of laying yet. We'll give it one more week, and in the mean time try to source more Queen Cells.
Hive 2
As ever, Hive 2 is our strongest hive. The queen wasn't sighted, but eggs were evident.
The third super has a large amount of stores - though very little throughout the hive is capped yet.
The super added last week was short 4 frames, so we expected wild comb and that is what we got - a very beautiful almost white wax.
Hive 3, like Hive 1 has no queen cell, no Queen (that we could see) and no signs of laying.
So again we will give it another week, and if still nothing, then try again.
Hive 4
The queen cell had hatched and the queen was found and marked.
No signs of laying yet, but if all has gone well we should expect to see eggs next week.
In all this excitement, we forgot to do the icing sugar dusting for varroa.
|
|
|
|
At last, April and the promise of some warm weather.
Apiary Work Day - 10th
Today, a working party hit the apiary.
A new hive stand is now installed under the two existing hives, with paving slabs around it.
The floors on both hives have been cleaned or replaced and we managed to have a good look through both hives to see how they were doing.
Hive 1 is more than surviving, but needs some TLC.
The brood box is a bit old, and there is damp in one corner, so a bit of mould is showing on the end frame.
The brood is a bit patchy, but a reasonable quantity, and still adequate stores.
The brood box has been changed, so hopefully that will clear up the damp problem.
Hive 2 is bursting at the seams.Three weeks previously they had a full super
of capped stores, and they have now got through most of that.
We'll need to watch this one for swarm cells.
As the queen excluder hadn't been put on yet, there was some brood in the
super and a good build up of drone brood.
The queen made a brief appearance.
The brace comb that was scraped from the frames was collected and later rendered.
Not a bad haul from one inspection!
|
|
|
Apiary meeting - 15th
The first apiary meeting of the year!
Hive 1 has perked up a bit, Changing the brood box has done some good.
A frame of eggs was acquired from Hive 2 to give them a further boost.
But all up, doing better than expected at the last inspection.
Varroa was spotted in some of the drone brood, so a cup of icing sugar was
dusted over the brood box.
Hive 2 is still thriving, and they have further depleted the super of stores so a
rapid feeder with 1 litre of syrup was added.
They have space in the brood chamber, so the queen excluder has now been put on.
Pollen stores are building up, and there are large amounts of eggs, larvae and sealed brood.
The queen was spotted (made easy by the flourescent green spot on her back), though
even without seeing her, there as plenty of evidence that she is present, and doing fine.
Apiary meeting - 22nd
Hive 1 has created a supercedure cell.
So it is not just the humans that thought the brood pattern was a bit patchy.
Stores are still adequate, and some pollen is being stored.
A further cup of icing sugar was dusted over the brood box to help with varroa control.
Hive 2 is still thriving, and not unexpectedly we found a queen cell in the super
(from the eggs laid before the queen excluder was put on) - populated but not yet sealed.
If the cell is still there next week then we will take a split from that hive and hopefully create our first Nuc.
The rapid feeder was empty, but stores are building up.
An empty super was added (last years super, so all frames drawn out) and a cup of icing sugar dusted over the brood box.
Apiary Meeting - 29th
Cancelled due to weather, inspection delayed until Friday 30th.
Inspection - 30th
Given the time of year, inspections can't wait another week, so while not great weather, we took advantage of the fact that the rain was holding off.
Hive 1 is still looking a bit sorry for itself, with no real change, just less brood.
Hive 2 is as a strong as ever, and the queen cell we saw last week is still there, so a decision was made to creat a nuc. Three frames of brood and two frames of stored from Hive 2 were put into a nucleus box, taken to an out-apiary and a feeder of sugar syrup was added.
We also took a super of honey from this hive. The honey was either solid, or a very thick gel so extracting was going to be fun.
Each frame was scraped done to the mid-rib with a fork and spoon. The resultant mess looked like a blob of overcooked porridge, but we're not finished yet. This mess was then heated for several hours at about 40C, and eventually we had a glorious harvest of honey with a cap of wax on top. This one super gave us 14lb of honey and 7oz of wax.
|
March
Hurray, Hurray it's March the First
For sweet nectar we've thirst
But pollen is what we really need
To give our brood a really good feed
After an extended cold spell, March the First really raised the spirits.
Bees were flying everywhere!
As you can see there is some pollen being brought in .
The forecast is for still more cold weather, so apart from checking
for stores, we will continue to leave the bees in peace.
|
|
|
|
February
Just into the start of February and the cold weather is still with us.
A quick visit to the apiary gave us a surprise - the bees were flying!!
It was still too cold to open the hives, so a post-christmas treat of candy was put on each hive as a precaution - rather too much than too little!!
Alas, the forecast is hinting at more snow this month.
|
|
January
The start of a new year!
Like most things in beekeeping, the range of opinions is
diverse, including when the "bee year" starts.
For ease of tracking, we are going with the calendar year -
which for us in the UK is the winter, when the bees are
inactive.
Given the winter we are having, the bees are definitely
inactive and until things warm up a bit there is nothing we
can do with them short of checking the hives haven't
suffered any weather or animal damage.
|
|
 |
Experienced beekeepers tell beginners to learn to listen to our bees.
What do you think these bees are trying to tell us ? |
|
|
|
2009
The KBKA Apiary started 2009 with a single hive and
anticipation of some reasonable weather. Though the
weather didn’t quite live up to promise, we did manage to
open the hive at each of the Apiary site meetings this year.
The decision was made to purchase a second hive for the
site. This arrived in August and was then populated with a
shook swarm from the original hive. Despite some initial
unrest the bees have settled in and are doing well.
So we now boast a two hive club apiary.
The established hive yielded 30lbs of honey this year, which
was sold to the club members to add funds to the kitty.
Now winter draws on, mousegaurds are on, and all are
settled in for the duration.
|
 |
| |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
