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Temperature: 22C
Weather: Warm and sunny
Stings: None

D'oh. Last visit I put in the Porter bee escape to get all the bees in the top brood box into the lower box so they could build up their stores for the winter. When I turned up this week the bees all looked busy and angry. When I cracked the cover board on the top brood box they boiled out and I wondered what was making them so grumpy. I soon found out. It turned out that I had put the bee escape in upside down. Well, I had put the crown board in upside down and the escape was taped to it so that's how it got messed up. Image via Wikipedia

There were lots of dead bees on the crown board and I was lucky in that the escape had got so clogged with dead bodies that other ones could not get through. It could have been much worse as, without that, all the foragers could have been trapped in that upper box. On the upside all the frames in that upper brood box are now very well drawn and empty so will be a good store for next year.

I re-arranged the crown board so the bees could get out and into the lower box. I need to get some sugar to feed the bees too as it does not look like they have enough stored to see them through.

Box clever

Temperature: 18C

Weather: Warm, windy

Stings: None

I took a bit of time with the bees today to see how their winter preparation is going. They were in two brood boxes but I realised that having them so spread out was only going to mean their stores were spread very thinly. So, I've got them consolidating into one brood box so they can get all their stores into the place where they will be spending the winter. I saw lots of bees coming in bringing in pollen so they are obviously getting ready.

I did check through the brood box below and there are only a few frames with capped brood and larvae on them. I was a bit worried that there were so few but they are at least there so with the consolidation they should be able to build up a bit quicker.Image via Wikipedia

The final thing I did was to put on the varroa treatment. Earlier in the year I saw a few bees with bent wings but it was at the height of the season so the colony could carry those losses. Soon after I did the swarm preparation and that should have seen off quite a few of the mites. I'll keep an eye on them and if they need feeding will give them some syrup or feed them their own honey.

The upside of having bees from two colonies is all the spare and clean drawn comb I have. That will make things easier next year as the bees will not have to build up from zero early in the year.

All hail the new queen

Temperature: 13C
Weather: Windy, cloudy and wet
Stings: None (though one bee tried really hard)

It looks like the grand unification has worked. I could only have a quick look yesterday thanks to imminent showers but I now have one hive of bees working together. I didn't have time to look for the new queen and re-assure myself that she is laying but the bees seemed pretty happy so I'd guess that she is doing a good job.

I tidied up the hive, put on a clearer board to start cramming them into fewer brood boxes. This weekend I'll put on an eke and treat them for varroa. I might take the chance to get all the frames with lots of stores on in one box too so they are well set up for next year. I also should have some spare frames that I can use early next year instead of sugar syrup to give them a good start.

You have selected regicide

Image via WikipediaIn the last visit to the bees before I went on holiday I took the bold step of starting the unification process for the two hives. Early that day I found the old queen in the bigger colony and put her in a jar with a couple of other bees that came along for the ride. I then left those bees to get all worried for a good few hours because their queen had gone missing.

I'm such a softy that I couldn't bear to squish the queen so decided to give her a less painful death by putting her in the freezer. That means she died more slowly but it seemed less cruel.

Later in the day I went back and put the two colonies together, separating them only by a sheet of newspaper. The idea is that they chew their way through and in that process mingle smells and become one happy colony under a new queen. As I went on holiday almost straight after I have no idea if it worked. When I go back this week I will find out.

Other things I need to do this week is get the tidied up supers off and put them in the freezer for a bit to kill the wax moth. Then they need fumigating and storing properly. The other big job is to put the bees into a couple of brood boxes to start shrinking numbers ready for the winter. Plus I can go through and pick the best frames so they have enough stores to tide them over winter. I'm nervous about seeing what has happened. If it has all gone horribly wrong I could be left without any bees at all.