Category: Branch Apiary

I went to the branch apiary yesterday to check the site and heft the hives.

The site looked good – the daffodils were in bloom and things were starting to bud up 😊

The ground was very boggy with some pools of water in the apiary by the hives. However, the drain system was working very well with lots of water running away off the site.

The hives were all hanging in there still. Hefting showed they were getting lighter so a block of fondant was added to each colony some of the Candipollen had been eaten.

Since then, I am getting reports of members losing a number of their colonies.  I have lost 5 so far, 3 to unexplained causes.  Another member has lost 8 from 15.

This leads me to suspect that there is a lot of Nosema around this year and we need to do something about it.

The committee has discussed organising a Nosema clinic where members can bring samples of their bees (30 per hive) and have them tested under a microscope.

The clinic would last half a day.

 

We went to the site today to do a routine weekly inspection.

8 Members turned up to help and to talk beekeeping.

The weather was actually very good.  It was nice sitting out in the sunshine with a hot drink and some biscuits.

The bees were quite well behaved – no one was stung.

5 of the hives went according to plan.

One hive (#6) had started producing queen cells ready to swarm, so we found the queen and put her in a nuc (#1) with a few hundred bees and a frame of stores.

That will stop any imminent swarming but next week it is very important that the original hive (#6) is checked carefully for queen cells and only the one selected queen cell is left in place, which in 7 days’ time will be a nice capped queen cell.

The ‘dodgy hive’ (#34) was inspected after the beginners and observers had left.  There were 4 of us around the hive to see what was happening.

It turned out to be a non-event.  The bees were calm and doing what bees do.

The colony was quite crowded and had 10 frames of brood, so needed space.  The brood frames were quite dirty and needed changing, so instead of adding a 3^rd super we decided to change all the frames by starting a Bailey Frame Comb change, by adding a brood box full of foundation.

As this hive had 2 supers on, which were being filled and there is a nectar flow on, we decided not to add a feeder of syrup, and would see what happens in the next 7 days.  Normally we would add a gallon (5 litres) of syrup to get all 11 frames of foundation drawn out but with supers the syrup could contaminate any honey in the supers.

The next inspection will tell us if it was a good decision or not.

On the basis of today I have taken hive #34 off the “naughty list”, but one to be wary of.

Next Sunday (14^th) the students who attended the beginners’ course in February will be visiting the apiary site.  They will have priority, but members are welcome (and encouraged) to come along and socialise.  The time will be 2pm to 4pm.

I should have added to my previous email about being too cold to inspect colonies.

Despite the weather there will be times when the bees are able to fly for clearing flights and to bring in nectar and pollen.

However, the colonies are still building up and will be eating lots of stores.

Keep hefting the hives and if they are getting light then you have to feed them.

Syrup feed is better now than fondant as it simulates a nectar flow.

Only feed about 1 litre at a time and let them eat it all before adding more.

This will stimulate the bees to use the syrup to produce Brood , instead of stores.

That means the risk of any supers getting contaminated with syrup is much reduced.

“The joys of beekeeping”

Dave

Will this cold weather never come to an end.

23^rd April and still too cold to be doing hive inspections.

I visited the branch apiary today.  Mick Clarke was there so helped me out.

We took the roof off each hive and took a quick look under the crown board.

A quick assessment if the colony needed more space or not.

If they needed more space then a Queen excluder and a super were put on.  Back on with the crown board and roof.

20 seconds (max) per hive.

One hive was very agitated and came at us in serious numbers, it reminded me of a swarm leaving a hive.  It could be that it is about to swarm – but far too cold to inspect.

This hive proved (again) the golden rule.  Beesuit on and smoker lit WHENEVER you are touching the hives.

Many a sting has been suffered by beekeepers who start the sentence “ I was only going to…………” 😊

Looking at the long-range forecast – the rest of April is depressing as is the first two weeks in May.

https://www.metcheck.com/WEATHER/180days.asp?MonthOf=5&zipcode=coventry

The weekend of Friday 19^th – Sunday 21^st May is looking good for the first inspection. ☹

Happy New Year to you all.

I went along to the apiary site today to check the hives had sufficient stores.

I normally heft the hives after taking the roof off, so am able to see any bee activity near the crown board feed holes.

The 7 main colonies were all nice and heavy and bees active near the feed holes – too cold for any flying though.

The 2 Nucs (which are overwintering on 6 frames in full size brood boxes with a dummy board) were OK but a little light, so I put on a block of fondant just to make sure they had enough for the next couple of weeks.

The daffodils around the site are showing through the ground – so spring is on the way.

Despite all the wet weather the ground was quite firm with no sign of the puddles or flooding we have had in previous years. 👍

Take care everybody and take care of your bees, make sure they have food and resist any temptation to disturb them in their brood box until April.

Dave

The last inspection took place on 5^th September (two weeks ago), they will not be inspected again until mid-April next year.

I hefted (manually weighed) the hives and they are all heavy enough to last until February time next year at which time we can put fondant on the crown board if that is necessary.  I did not need to go into the hives nor disturb the brood frames.

The bees are ready for winter.

Be Patient:- The key now is to be patient and let the bees get on without us beekeepers disturbing them.  Your bees will appreciate this and will repay you next spring.  Mess around with them now and there is a very good chance you will adversely affect the colony.

The grass on the apiary site was cut and some weeding carried out on the area at the bottom of the boundary fence where Willow twigs, borage and lavender have been planted.  The site is now ready to last the winter.

The plan:

In two weeks’ time (assuming we have petrol) three things will be done:

1. the medicine strips will be taken off the hives,
2. the empty feeder buckets removed and
3. the mouse guards put on.

These will be done without disturbing any brood frames or the cluster of bees.

Around Dec 21^st we will treat the hives against the Varroa mite using Api-Bioxal .  This will ensure that the first sets of bees to emerge in the new year are as healthy as possible.

January onwards we heft the hives every 2 or 3 weeks to make sure they have some stores – any hives which are running short of food will be given blocks of fondant.

Around mid-April next year, when the weather is warm, we will start the inspections again.  Seems a long time away but you must be patient.

Dave

The bees are nearly ready for winter now.

The APIVAR varroa treatment was applied on 22^nd August and is a single treatment that last for a minimum of 6 weeks and a maximum of 10.  October 3^rd is the earliest date to take the Varroa treatment off the hives.

APIVAR is slow acting so I am not expecting to see a massive, sudden, Varroa drop.. More likely a gradual drop over the 6 weeks or so.

Winter feeding was started on 29^th August using Invertbee, a ready mixed syrup.  The bees prefer it to sugar dissolved in water.

After 6 days all the feeders had been emptied so they were refilled yesterday.

The two bucket feeders means that each hive has been given about 14kg (30lbs) of stores.  In another week we will top the feeders up a third time and that should be sufficient winter stores for the colonies.

Beekeeping is not all fun and games in the apiary.  Over the course of the season some hives die out, dirty brood frames have to be replaced and super frames that are no longer suitable for honey need to be renewed.

As a result, I had accumulated nearly 200 frames in the shed waiting to be cleaned.  About 50 of these were CBKA frames.

At some point we have to bite the bullet and set about boiling the frames.

This is the job I least like in beekeeping but today it had to be done

The burco boiler was set up and after 5 hours slog all the dirty frames that had been stored were clean and drying.

What a difference a week makes.

Just over a week ago I went to check the bees.  The bees were fine, there was snow on the ground. A couple of hives needed some fondant.

I also found that one of the new Crab Apple trees (John Downie) had been eaten by the local wildlife, the tree guard had not been long enough and they could reach the growing points.  If the roots still take it would be a nice shrub shape – I will get a replacement.

– poor tree

Then the car got stuck in the snow as I drove up the hill/incline towards the entrance gate ☹  I managed to reverse back and found a longer and flatter route back to the gate.

Today I went to the site to check it out.

The daffs are growing well:

You can see the line of the Daffs running along the fence.

No sign of any Crocus ☹

The land drain was flowing well:

The bees were all OK – in fact one hive was a bit defensive and did not like being disturbed when I put more fondant on the hive.

I replaced the ‘eaten’ John Downie crab apple with another one – this time making sure the tree guard was well in place.

I planted a Wyken Pippin that had been delivered.  It was bare rooted and had to be put into the ground.  When the Lord Mayor comes to open the site it will have to be a ceremonially planting – unless we dig up the tree and do it again.

The Wyken Pippin.

Now there are the 4 trees in place.

from front to back – Wyken Pippin, Celeste Cherry, John Downie Crab Apple and Golden Hornet Crab Apple

Plus the two willows and the small leafed Lime tree “Winter Orange” which have been planted.

It is looking good.

Dave Bonner inspected the branch bees, so in these times of lockdown, here’s his update:

“I did the first inspections of the Branch Bees on Saturday.  Things are looking good.

Previously I had set them up so that the 5 strong colonies were ready for a Bailey Comb change, 1 medium colony had an empty super on and two were weak.

On Saturday.

4 of the strong colonies had built up dramatically and were into the new brood box, so the next stage of the comb change has been started – with the queen trapped in the new brood box.  Next time the feeders will be removed and a couple of supers put on the hives.

The 5^th colony had not got into the new brood box, so I took that away and put a super on. The colony is not strong enough to draw out new comb.  I do not know why that should be.

The medium colony was doing OK and bringing in a lot of nectar, so a 2^nd super was put on it.

1 of the weak colonies is starting to grow but the other is declining, I suspect bad Nosema – if there is no progress next time I will be despatching it.

Situation Generally

There is quite a strong nectar flow.  Therefore, a medium to strong colony will require space, so put supers, one or two, onto your hives, drawn comb if you have it, but the bees will draw out foundation .

Give the queen a chance to get a good amount of brood in all stages (end of April) and then think about marking her.  The reason for this is in case you damage her, there will be plenty of eggs/young larva to produce a new queen AND there will be mature drones available for a virgin queen to mate with.

Take care and stay safe.

Dave”

Dave Bonner has been working hard on his own (keeping up social distancing of course) and has moved most of the equipment from Ryton to London Road.

So the apiary is now up and running and ready for action, but of course our activities are now severely limited by Covid-19.

It was nice to see the bees flying well in the sunshine today, on their new hive stands.