Budding Cottage

Today since it was lovely and sunny, and the temperature at the hives was 21C, I decided to check progress in both hives.

Hive A had started off with 6 frames on 4 May and a lively queen with Brood at all stages (BIAS). So 15 days in I wanted to see how far they had got.  First the little terrors had stuck down the crown board with wax and were reluctant to leave it.  Then the smoker kept going out, so I ended up using almost none at all, whilst the bees watched with impunity from the top of the frames. They had worked all spare frames bar maybe 1 and a half on one side and one on the other.  So I took the decision to give them an additional super.  Whilst they were not entirely filling the brood box, they did seem to be going great guns and had BIAS.  The queen looked well, when I saw her and they had been building additional comb on the crown board.

I did mull over whether to use the super as a brood box and allow the queen full range, or not.

Cons – easy to lose the queen when manipulating a second brood box.  Harder to spot what the queen is doing and any disease or queen cells. Some see it as “messy”.

Pros- provides more space for brood and potentially encourages the bees to draw out the wax in the super if it is to be used potentially for brood.

In the end I included the queen excluder. I can always review this decision later I guess.  Still feeding them syrup too, with potentially the June lull looming over us.  I also pushed in the entrance bar to give the bees wider access to their hive since they seemed fairly strong.

Lesson 1 – get the smoker going really well before starting.  Also purchase an additional blow torch to get things moving along.

Lesson 1a – don’t take so long messing about, the bees got a bit more antsy than necessary.

Hive B – Thought whilst I was there I would check progress on the swarm.  They had about 5 frames still to draw out but were working well.  I saw sealed brood in the middle of frames and honey stores and pollen stores around the edges.

I guess this means that hopefully there is an active queen there.  I couldn’t be sure about eggs, but I was pretty sure that there was sealed brood, which after 10 days must mean an experienced queen? If so, I may have to prepare for a succession in the autumn.

Whilst this batch of bees seem relatively calm, there was a considerable roar beginning to emerge from the comb when I began to delve. At least by this time the smoker was actually working, though I didn’t need it (though smoke was drifting towards the entrance slot).

Still feeding the bees.

As I was closing up the hive I realised that my staffordshire bull terrier had followed me into the apiary and was had now got a few bees scattered through his coat and on his eyelid.  He was beginning to paw at them and panic, right next to my hives.  I chased him out of the apiary smoking his coat to discourage the bees and to mask the scent as he pawed at the bee on his face.  I think he was stung a few times.  I have given him piriton – 4mg with another 4mg 3-4 hours later.  He seems okay but has a good lump on an eyelid.  Whether or not this means more respect for bees, we shall see.  Since he seems to forget the impact of the electric fencing around the chickens, I can’t be sure he will retain this lesson.

Lesson 2 – shut gate to apiary and ensure no dogs are around.

Hive C – I have optimistically opened the entrance to hive C in case any passing bees show an interest.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 19th, 2011 at 4:56 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.