It looks like I got away with it. I went back to see the bees this weekend and it does not look like the queen had chance to get into the super to start laying eggs. I was worried she would have moved up as I forgot to put the queen excluder on when I added that super last week. I checked all the frames in the super and there was no sign of any eggs.
I've now added another brood box between super and main brood box so they should have plenty of room to expand into. I am worried about swarming though - following a chat with a beekeeping friend - and the check this weekend might make me take more action.
Last time I had a good check there was one queen cell with nothing in it but where there is one there could be more. Perhaps the surprise they are going to spring is to up and leave .
Wednesday, 21 May 2008
Friday, 16 May 2008
Sticky excluders
I popped in to the apiary on Tuesday to put a super on the colony just to give them some space to move in to. My hope is that the bees will move some of their full brood frames of stores in to the super and give the queen more room to lay down below.
And that would have been a fine idea if I had not forgotten to put the queen excluder between super and brood box. What a berk. I went back a few hours later to rectify the mistake but haven't yet had time to see if queenie is trapped above the fold as it were.
I'm planning another visit this weekend to have a look and put on a brood box to give them plenty of room so I can check then. More anon.
And that would have been a fine idea if I had not forgotten to put the queen excluder between super and brood box. What a berk. I went back a few hours later to rectify the mistake but haven't yet had time to see if queenie is trapped above the fold as it were.
I'm planning another visit this weekend to have a look and put on a brood box to give them plenty of room so I can check then. More anon.
Monday, 12 May 2008
Hot stuff
I visited my bees yesterday full of trepidation as the colony did not have the greatest start to the year. It was very light on stores in February and, though I fed them, I wasn't sure if I'd done it quickly enough. Then the weather was very bad, snow at Easter, and I wondered if that had meant they had not had time to get out and forage for the baby bees being born. Finally we've had a report of EFB at the apiary and I feared they might fall victim to that.
Of course, the bees have confounded all my fears. I had a good look yesterday following a week or so of good hot weather and found a colony in rude health. Of the 11 frames, 2.5 were all stores and the rest were brood - most of it capped. I'm going to have to give them lots more space to head off swarming as soon there will be no room for the new emerging brood.
Plus my queen is in her second year so is more prone to swarming than last year - I think I might have to dust off my other gear and start those anti-swarm measures. Initially I think what I'll do is put in a super and let them clean that up and fill it. Then, once I've ordered more gear, I'll put in a fresh box of brood comb. I'm thinking about next year and I need to build up my stocks of that as I had to bin quite a bit of it this year because of wax moth infestation. I'm also thinking that what I don't really need is lots of honey - I have trouble getting rid of it every year so letting them use it to draw comb will use up some of it.
The main flow typically occurs over Wimbledon fortnight which is 23 June - 6 July. If I get them going now they should be well set up to handle that boom in nectar.
Of course, the bees have confounded all my fears. I had a good look yesterday following a week or so of good hot weather and found a colony in rude health. Of the 11 frames, 2.5 were all stores and the rest were brood - most of it capped. I'm going to have to give them lots more space to head off swarming as soon there will be no room for the new emerging brood.
Plus my queen is in her second year so is more prone to swarming than last year - I think I might have to dust off my other gear and start those anti-swarm measures. Initially I think what I'll do is put in a super and let them clean that up and fill it. Then, once I've ordered more gear, I'll put in a fresh box of brood comb. I'm thinking about next year and I need to build up my stocks of that as I had to bin quite a bit of it this year because of wax moth infestation. I'm also thinking that what I don't really need is lots of honey - I have trouble getting rid of it every year so letting them use it to draw comb will use up some of it.
The main flow typically occurs over Wimbledon fortnight which is 23 June - 6 July. If I get them going now they should be well set up to handle that boom in nectar.
Friday, 2 May 2008
A quick visit
this week just to see how they are getting on. The weather continues to be changeable - that's probably the kindest description I can give. For every one day of good, warm weather we have three or four of torrential rain, low temperatures and overcast skies. If I were a bee I'd be getting a bit hacked off with it all.
I did visit this week, on Wednesday, just to remove the empty feeder and slot in a couple more undrawn frames. I managed to pick the five minutes in the day when it wasn't raining but my bees were still pretty hacked off when I opened up the roof and plucked off the feeder.
When I arrived I was a bit worried as they were all lined up in the entrance and at first I thought they had all starved to death. As it turns out they were just waiting for the rain to stop. Given that it rained cats and dogs all day they probably had a long wait.
From what I could see though they look pretty healthy - in that numbers don't look like they are dwindling. Thanks to the bank holiday this weekend is longer than usual so I should have chance to go and have a good look at what they are doing.
I did visit this week, on Wednesday, just to remove the empty feeder and slot in a couple more undrawn frames. I managed to pick the five minutes in the day when it wasn't raining but my bees were still pretty hacked off when I opened up the roof and plucked off the feeder.
When I arrived I was a bit worried as they were all lined up in the entrance and at first I thought they had all starved to death. As it turns out they were just waiting for the rain to stop. Given that it rained cats and dogs all day they probably had a long wait.
From what I could see though they look pretty healthy - in that numbers don't look like they are dwindling. Thanks to the bank holiday this weekend is longer than usual so I should have chance to go and have a good look at what they are doing.
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