Yes, two posts in a row! I'm not reverting to daily reports, but I wanted to add this in stead of adjust my previous post...
After finishing up what I wrote yesterday I got another call for a swarm. I didn't think much of it, since all of the last swarm-calls (it is very late in the swarming season) turned out to be either wasps or bumble bees; But as it turns out upon arrival on the scene a small clump of bees was near a pipe in the wall. I asked what was on the other side of the pipe and they showed me the boiler... The pipe was about 2m long and very narrow so I couldn't imagine a swarm going inside there... But still the clump of bees was to small to be a swarm, and this late in the season?
Read on in the hive report!
Weather Report:
20th july 2018 is yet another hot day, dry and more of what we're used to.Hive Report:
As my last report covered all of the hives I have I'll only mention the ones that I disturbed and created!SD 1 2018: Continuing on my intro, I started pushing some bees aside (bare handed and wearing shorts) hoping not to get stung. I couldn't find a queen but the bees were clumped tightly together. Also some of the bees came and left the small clump and a couple entered the pipe. I was listening with my ear against the boiler but couldn't hear buzzing. I was puzzled. Thinking of ways how to help these people out and how to remove the swarm from the boiler we kept watching the bees. I was fairly sure there was no queen in the clump hanging from the pipe. But the woman told me she had spotted one bee with a red dot on it's head. So I figured there was a queen when she first spotted the bees. If it wasn't with the bees hanging from the pipe she must've moved into the pipe. But why didn't the rest follow?
I decided to look again and started pushing more bees aside than I first had. Some flew up and buzzed around in the area, but fortunately for me and the bystanders none of them had the urge to sting. Down against the wall I finally found the queen. She did indeed have a red dollop of paint on her thorax. I picked her up and asked (since I emptied out my gear two days prior - as the car had been brought in the shop for maintenance and I didn't expect any more swarm calls -) if by any chance they had a container of sorts they would be willing to part with. I suggested an empty plastic ice cream box or something similar. I was given a tupperware box and made a few holes in the lid with a screw. I then put the queen inside it and brushed most of the bees inside with my hand. Hoping to mask the scent of the queen on the wall - as the bees kept flying back to it - I asked for the sigaret the woman was smoking, using the smoke to mask the scent of the queen on the wall and kept pushing bees of and scooping some up to put on the lid of the plastic container.
In the end I didn't get them all, I left a dozen or so behind, but I at least had 50 bees and the queen with me. Only after I left the scene it dawned on me this catch might just be the result of a beekeeper breeding his queens. The amount of bees fit the amount for a 'mini plus' hive. I'm not sure if this is a common practice outside of Belgium but it's only a very small hive which fits a cup of bees and is used to get queens mated. The 'mini plus' might just have been too cramped for this amount of bees so the queen and her workers might have decided to move house.
I placed this queen in a cage and added her to a split I made from the PC 1 2018 adding the bees she came with to the split.
I locked them up and will wait for 2 days before moving them out to apiary number 2.
PC 1 2018: Beekeeping never goes the way you think it will... Where I kept telling myself (and you through this blog) that I wouldn't interfere anymore apart from maybe one more time to adjust the frames of food before winter, I had to open up this hive. Well I didn't have to, but in my mind this hive was the perfect donor hive for some brood and drawn out comb to kickstart the newly found queen. I was glad I wore gloves for this job and my suit as the bees came at me as soon as I opened up the hive. Not all of them but a very small amount (the guard bees) let me know that I shouldn't bother the hive. I took out the first frame and spotted some BRIAS (BRood In All Stadia) packed full with bees. As this was a frame the queen could be on I looked at the bees hoping to spot the queen. That way I was sure where she was and I could capture her and put her aside to avoid adding her to the split. I had no such luck, I couldn't spot the queen. I put this frame into the nuc and picked up another frame, this one had capped brood but no open brood or eggs, it was also packed with bees on one side and only a few bees with honey on the other side. I did not find the queen on there so decided to add it to the nuc. Then I looked at the first frame (closest to the entrance of the hive) and it had some honey in it and some brood in a solid pattern. I put it back into the hive and checked the next frame - still didn't see the queen. Next frame I took out had no brood and was halffull of honey on one side. No queen so I added it to the nucleus. All the other frames I moved forward after inspection to close up the gaps I made by removing frames. I placed the filler board I made into my long hive after 4 empty frames (well, 2 had half foundation on them). Beyond that filler board I also noticed some wax moth larvae on the top of empty frames. I removed the ones I spotted and hope they won't cause any problems for this hive. I'm wondering if the moth came in through the hive entrance (at night?) or found another way into it.
After this inspection I took another look at the frames I put in the nucleus to check for the queen again, as I didn't spot her in the hive. I did not find her and concluded she must still be in the hive.
I took the risk, filled up the hive with empty frames and put the caged queen in there. The bees that accompanied her I also shook in that hive. Caging the queen was my first time! I liked it and was surprised at how easy it was. She almost willingly walked into that cage, let's hope she'll do well and is not added to a nucleus where the PC 1 2018 queen also snuck in!
Time will tell, hopefully this is the start of a long series of hive reports of the SD 01 2018. SD refers to the place I got this queen from (Sint-Denijs - a small part of a larger town called Zwevegem) if not, I might just put these bees in together with one of my smaller hives.
Afterthoughts: Bees are very forgiving. I have tampered with them, made splits, not always successful, and only had one of my hives abscond. (the SS 2 018 after I tried introducing the TO 2 2018 Queen) My main worry now is, what will the excess space do to them. Simplex Nuc has one box that is not in use. So has the SS 1 2018 and the TO 2 2018, the long hive isn't even half full... If this SD 1 2018 takes off, I'm going to let it overwinter in the nucleus.
If you're reading this as a seasoned beekeeper and start pulling your hairs out - caused by the mistakes I make, let me know what you would've done different. I'm here to learn and in posting a reply underneath you might help prevent other beekeepers from making the same mistakes!
Keep a look out on my youtube channel for the next video, I know I'm behind but do have some footage to put out there.
Bob Out
