A Blustery Shook Swarm ..

With the bees firmly established at the Royal Armouries at Fort Nelson I decided that there was a weather window on Friday afternoon to change the hives and "persuade" the bees to move into my new 14x12 brood box from Mikes Commercial brood box; you will recall that I left them last week with the 14x12 on top of the commercial with 8 frames of fresh foundation with a English feeder with syrup with a 1% solution of Vitafeed Green to stimulate the colony.

Looking at the colony upon arrival it was clear that the bees were flying but it was quite windy albeit sunny with the thermometer indicating 21 degrees and 60% humidity.  I took the plunge and suited up with Mike who had kindly donated the colony to me.

We followed the standard practice of moving the hive across on the stand and put my new floor down with a queen excluder to stop them absconding after the shook swarm. We then put my 14x12 brood box on the floor with 3 central frames removed to produce a suitable gap. Moving swiftly we then removed the frames individually from Mike's hive and dropped the bees into the 14x12 with a sharp knock.  We then used the bee brush to remove the more defiant remnants. Regrettably the queen was not sighted although Mike said she was large and obvious when last seen.

Never-the-less we put the missing frames of foundation back in and then popped a queen excluder on top with Mike's brood box back on top with all the sealed brood in the middle. Hopefully they'll sort themselves out with all the nurse bees heading up to deal with the brood and the flying bees drawing out the wax - a super with a feeder on top should help them.

The whole operation took only 15 minutes and the circling bees were soon making their way across their new landing board and into the floor entrance. I returned the following day to build a small windbreak to help them land and when the sun came out they were happily doing what they do best.

Back to work tomorrow but I'll be back up there next week to check that they are drawing out the foundation and to remove the lower queen excluder if I'm happy. Another week later and I should be in a position to remove the upper brood box and to put the hive in it's final configuration. As the colony establishes itself I'll be removing the dummy boards and inserting the final four frames of foundation.

And if you are in the Portsmouth area I strongly suggest a visit to the Royal Armouries, its free entry and has just had a upgrade - it's a great way to spend a few hours ..

A New Home ..

With a Bank Holiday weekend fast approaching and a new job beckoning I felt under pressure to move my newly acquired colony from the farm which has very little forage to their new home in a walled garden in a local visitor centre.

Friday afternoon saw me constructing a new base and taking the majority of the equipment up to the centre in preparation for the arrival of the colony ..

Having collected the colony from the farm and brought it home overnight I arrived bright and early today to find the gates solidly shut despite all previous arrangements - a slight delay before the serious business began.

The task was to transfer the colony from a commercial hive to my new 14x12 with new foundation  I took the decision to place my new brood box on top with a feeder and to give the colony a week or so to draw out the wax before I conduct a shook swarm and then I intend to leave the commercial box with frames on top of a queen excluder for a further 2 weeks to make the most of the remaining brood.

Luckily the weather was absolutely spot on and the colony very well behaved and I soon had the manipulation complete; I took the opportunity to establish my 14x12 Nuc as a bait hive just in case ..

The apiary is up and running  and the bees appear happy ...

A New Start

After the sad demise to my colonies I decided not to get too downhearted as it appears that over 50% of my association membership have lost colonies - this is not an isolated incident. 

I also received news that I was shortly to be sent back to the Highlands for a 2 year tour of duty so during a recent visit I decided to attend a local bee-keepers meeting to get to know the locals; they could not have made me more welcome and I listened to a very well delivered presentation on Morphology and bee breeding which is a subject I knew absolutely nothing about but I am now fascinated and I shall be joining in with their workshops when I go up there and hopefully bringing a couple of mated queens down with me to see if we can improve the nature of our colonies.

Last week at our own association apiary meeting I was asked if I could take away a colony to look after as someone had too many ! Gosh - I didn't expect that ... so I duly turned up and removed a fairly small but vigorous colony from the allotments in Gosport and they are now in the holding apiary on the farm before they go to my new site; I felt it wise to observe their temperament before I placed them in a site where the public are near (but not close).

So actually all is not lost and I shall move them this weekend and then shook swarm them next week all being well.

A Sad Demise ...

A sad day at the apiary yesterday - I decided that the weather was warm enough to warrant a proper inspection of both colonies but upon arrival it became clear that all was not well as there was a distinct absence of any flying bees.

I suited up and lit the smoker just in case but opening the first hive confirmed my worst fears - the colony had perished despite there still being stores available. The second colony was exactly the same although there were more bees in a lifeless cluster.

I suspect that they broke the cluster and the temperature dropped - they were  flying 2 weeks ago and I gave them fondant so I was hopeful that they would get through this spell and emerge safely but it was clearly not to be.

The only positive to come from this is that I have now resolved the vile temperament issue although I now have no bees at all. Bring on the swarms !

Still Waiting ...

The weather has yet to improve and I have no idea what is going on inside the hives; I've not had the opportunity to get to the apiary for a few weeks but it has not gone much above freezing.  I think we are all getting nervous about the near future.

In the meantime I have decided to get some formal qualifications under my belt to give myself some credibility as I have joined the committee of our local bee-keeping association. I've also been asked to stand as a delegate member of the county association so I have no excuse - the first requirement is the BBKA Basic Certificate and  I've recently sent off my application to the area education officer with an intention of taking the practical element towards the latter part of the summer once I've got myself back up to speed.
BBKA Modules so I have just signed up for the correspondence course and intend to take the exam in the autumn this year - I've bought the required texts and just received my first assignment so there is plenty to do.

When will it end ?

And still it rains … my poor bees must be extremely confused by the weather, we have had the occasional warm spring day that has drawn them out of their cluster and into the sun and then it has proceeded to virtually freeze again followed by downpours.

All this leaves me with a dilemma. I’ve had a quick peek and they’ve not touched the fondant but there are still a fair few bees crawling around. I’ve bought pollen patties for them but I really don’t want to open up in this unsettled weather – not only am I concerned about the temperature but also the stress that it places on the bees and resultant bad behaviour. My bees aren’t renowned for their temper.. Construction of the new hives and Snelgrove boards is now all but complete and I shall hope to transfer the bees across when I get the first full hot afternoon with the foragers away from the hive. And in doing so I really hope to catch sight of and hopefully mark the queen as both are due to be replaced this season and sooner rather than later ..

So why am I looking at re-queening? It is a question often asked as you see many texts stating that a colony should be re-queened every 2 years and it is a procedure that most beekeepers should be able to accomplish (says he who struggles to find the queen!). Anyway my rationale is that by re-queening I will improve behaviour, improve honey production and increase the survivability of overwintering.  At present I’m not buying in any queens as our local association is starting up a queen rearing focus group and I’m heavily into that so hopefully I’ll get enough local queens to fulfil my requirements.

2013 - A new challenge

The 2012 season threw everything at me and I’m not sure I enjoyed it all … having said that I have emerged from the winter with fresh intent and at least 2 colonies still alive when I least checked 2 weeks ago.

I’ve taken the decision to completely replace my 14x12 hives with new ones built over the winter to my own specification drawing from all the best things I’ve seen on other hives and discarding the worst things I’ve encountered so far.  As an engineer this has been very enjoyable and has allowed me to replace several power tools as well so it must be a benefit.  I’ve used well seasoned red cedar that has been sitting in the shed for 2 years now and I’ll shortly be placing an order for some more to allow me to build yet more hives next winter now that I’ve got the design correct.

Having joined the committee of my local beekeeping association (FDBKA)  I have decided that I need to get on with some formal training and qualifications to allow me to have a small amount of credibility when talking to new members. To that end I’ve signed up to do my BBKA Basic assessment in the summer and will hopefully be attempting my Module 1 & 2 examinations in the autumn. Additionally I’ve just done the NDB short course on “Honeybee Anatomy & Dissection” and I’m now hooked and will be aiming to do the BBKA Module 9 on “Microscopy” next autumn.

Looking at the long range weather forecast we should see some bees flying soon so I’ll get some photos of the new hives being populated ..