Budding Cottage

Grabbing a short break between spells of rain, and before it got too cold, I whizzed a peek into the bees to see how they were:

Hive A – doing well in just over a week and have expanded from the 6 combs to draw wax on at least 3 more.  Most busy on the South east side of the box (left as you face the back standing behind the hive) and they are drinking the sugar syrup.I didn’t look too much further as it was only a sneak peek to check progress. However they were also busily building bits of comb all over the place and trying to build cross linkages and to seal down the crown  board.

I was worried to check how far they had got in case I ran out of frames, but was reassured at the Malvern group that they would be nowhere near that point yet.

Hive B – In just under a week they also have focused on the south east side of the box (left side as you face from behind) and are drawing wax out on the comb for about 4-5 combs in just under a week.  The first few frames seem the most developed but it was too cool to start pulling them about to check for a queen.

I dribbled 10-15cm3 of solution of oxalic acid 6% diluted with  10cm3 of sugar syrup down the sides of the frames and then shut them up again.  I was aiming for about 5cm3 per gap over 4-5 gaps.

The girls are also feeding from the sugar syrup and didn’t seem too put out by my sticking my head in. I had been nagged by at least 2 people to do the varroa treatment, and since it appears to be a feral colony I thought I should go for it.  Hopefully it will help since there should be no brood yet on the comb to suffer from the oxalic acid.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 13th, 2011 at 6:08 pm and is filed under Bees, Hive A original, Hive B (Swarm bees from Malvern). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.