Friday 22 jun 2018

Hello readers,

As you will notice in one of my next video's there is a lot going on at my place that interferes with my recording...  I did not however stop looking after my bees.  But first up:

Weather report:

Friday 15 june 2018 - Rising temperatures again, almost up to 26°C but dry.
Saturday 16 june 2018 - No rain on Saturday either, dropping temperatures again, up to 22°C
Sunday 17 june 2018 - Sunday went even further down to 20°C and again no rain.
Monday 18 june 2018 - a copy of sunday basicly, 20°C and no rain.
Tuesday 19 june 2018 - you guessed it... 20°C and no rain.
Wednesday 20 june 2018 - climbing temperatures and up to 26°C, but no rain!
Thursday 21 june 2018 - a bit cooler again going back to tuesday like weather 20°C and no rain.
Friday 22 june 2018 - another copy of the week - dry and no hotter than 20°C

Hive report:

Simplex Nuc:  Only inspections I did was looking at the hive activity in front of the hive and looking through the windows that are built in.  No change.  They are looking good but not building out any further in the super let alone the bottom box.  Only thing I can say is that I'm thinking about switching the bottom box out with one that I'll put a 2nd buzzbox on.  I should be able to collect it from the post office tomorrow.

SS 1 2018: I mentioned I'm thinking about moving these bees to a new location where I can set up a new apiary.  Well I'm tempted to do this as soon as the apiary there is all ready to be used.  As it stands all it needs is some fencing to prevent the sheep to get to the hive(s).  If I move them sooner than the TO 2 2018 I'm going to need another hive ready to put them in.  So I've got my work cut out for me - building a new hive.  Another thought that crossed my mind is that this queen is from a different breed and rumour has it that the crossbreeds tend to be more agressive.   So moving this queen gives me the chance to use her eggs should the trapouts be failures.  Plus out there where my kids aren't running around will hopefully avoid any attacks (if any at all).

SS 2 2018: This hive is now in one box.  The Queen form TO 2 2018 might have left again without me noticing, but I don't think so.  It is more likely she got killed by the bees (if they made a queen themselves) or (and I'm hoping this scenario) she got accepted and took care of any queencups (if any) that were in there.  At the end of my next video (link below in the TO 2 2018 hive report) you see what I'm on about more or less.

PC 1 2018: No windows here and no inspection done.  But what I can make of the activity near the enterance is that they are doing allright.  I'm hoping to see this hive grow noticably so it shows in activity at the enterance.

TO 1 2018: This trapout failed.  Well, to be honest, the hive I put next to it shows activity enough, but I mentioned before I thought the bees found another way in...  This time I'm sure.  And not because I climbed up the ladder to spot the hole they were using.  Weather conditions permitted me to see the bees more clearly and I saw them go in and out of a hole on the side of my trap.  Another problem is that the owner of the place moved his ladder, so I can't get to my own hive any more... to be continued.

TO 2 2018:  I can't talk about the trapout location any more... not really, but the hive is going to keep it's name.  Now it's located at my sisters place to disorient the bees  before I move it over to the apiary I talked about in SS 1 2018.  They are doing well but can't say for sure if they have a queen yet as you can see in this video:

If it turns out they have a queen. I'll put them in their own box.  If it turns out they don't I'm going to join them with SS 1 2018 to make one strong hive.


Bob Out

Thursday 14 jun 2018

Hello readers,

What an exiting hobby is beekeeping?!  I have news on TO 2 2018!! But first:

Weather Report:

Monday 11 june 2018 was a very nice day with temperatures over 25°C but no rain at all. (I did water the flowerbed somewhat)
Tuesday 12 june 2018 felt a lot cooler with the wind but the mercury still rose above 20°C and it was dry all day.
Wednesday 13 june 2018 was no different, no rain and temperatures around 20°C. (Day I did the stuff in the reports)
Thursday 14 juni 2018 no big changes to wednesday, 20°C and no rain.

Hive Report:

TO 2 2018: To summarise my day: I went working from early morning till shortly after midday.  After that I went out to my favourite pass-time that doesn't include bees: Guild Ball (read up here if you are interested) The Blog isn't that up to date, but it should give you an idea...
Anyway while playing a game later that evening I got a call from the owners of the tree at the trap out.  They noticed a small pack of bees very low sitting on a stone fence post.  I explained that it was most likely the queen that absconded with what was left of the swarm.  Since I couldn't just pack up and leave I arranged to check on the situation early morning next day.
But as it turned out, my last game ended rather quickly and it was a clear night-sky by the time I left for home.  I decided, against better judgment, to go scout out the place now.  I arrived at 23:00 and didn't spot the group of bees that normally gather against the tree.  The TO 2 2018 showed no activity but I opted not to move them since the location isn't far enough from my apiary and forraging bees might go back there.  The Buzzbox app on my phone did say the hive was healthy.
After a bit of searching using the flashlight on my phone I found 2 hands full of bees clustering against the stone post like they had discribed.  I studied the situation placing my phone as a lightsource shining down on top of the post.  This queen has a very low percentage chance of surviving on her own so I did what I thought was the only thing I could do.  I fetched my skep that is always handy in the trunk of my car during swarm season and spread out a sheet under them.
I scooped the lot of them up as best as I could squeezing the skep between my legs.
After dumping them in I placed the skep on the sheet and started inspecting the post for leftover bees.
Lo and behold who did I see there?! Queen B herself was walking on the post.  I picked her up (wearing gloves) and managed not to squash her and throw her in the skep.
After I saw her move about amongst the rest of her workers I set of to pick up as many stragglers as I could spot in the dark and put them underneath the skep.                                                                          I finished packing up the sheet around the skep at about 23:30.  Now what to do with queen B?

SS 02 2018: You'll remember that I made a split from the Simplex Nuc, drawing and shaking in bees from SS 01 2018 (that now has the Black Queen).  Well, even though they should have queencells in there now ready to be sealed I figured this was my only option to give her a chance.  I opened up the lid of this hive put some newspaper on top, added a box (with 10 foundationless Zander frames) and shook the Queen from TO 2 2018 in there.  I'm hoping, if she is accepted after chewing through the newspaper, she'll take care of the queencups that should be in this hive. And if she's not accepted, well, I tried...

I'll keep you posted on how this goes!  Stay tuned.

Bob Out

sunday 10 jun 2018

Hello readers,

Weather Report:

06 june Wednesday we had temperatures up to 27°C and not a drop of rain.
07 june Thursday small shower in the early morning but it cleared up and temperatures rose again up to 27°C.
08 june Friday a bit cooler.  Only 25°C but no rain.
09 june Saturday, another dry day with temperatures up to 22,5°C
10 june : a lovely day again with temperatures up to 26°C but again, no rain.
If this keeps up the plants are going to dry out...

Hive Report:

Althoug I didn't open up any of my hives I did check my apiary on activity and filmed the bees with my phone.  Some footage is not as clear as it could be, with the wrong focus on there, but it's all I made...

The Simplex Nuc: I took a peek through the windows and I can say the bees are recovering from my intrusion.  They are building out comb in the top box and in the middle box there's some building going on aswell.  In front of the hive you can see pollen being brought in.  I feel good when I look at these bees.

The SS 1 2018: Since I can't look into the hive with a window I have to make due with what I see in front of the hive.  I still think the queen I introduced is doing well since there are some pollen being brought in.  There is more activity in front of the hive since I introduced her, so I'm hoping all goes well.  I need to figure out when and how to put these bees in a zander box again. (another split maybe?)

The SS 2 2018: Looking through the window I spotted a moth inside the hive.  She was on the frame with half foundation.  I hope the bees thrive and take care of any eggs or moths in there.  I do think there's one queencup near the window.  My hope is the bees will fight their way through time and produce a F2 Buckfast mated at home...  If not it's an option to bring in frames from the SS 1 2018.
But then I'll have 2 Black Queen hives.  We'll see how it goes first.

The PC 1 2018: I'm thinking these bees are not as active as my Simplex Nuc - but then again it's a swarm that's still building up.  I already regret not putting a viewscreen inside this hive.  I'm going to have to inspect these in the future to make sure all stores are in one direction from the brood nest before we go into winter.

Trapouts: I did not go out to take a look at my trap-out locations.  I'm going to have to wait to open up the TO 2 2018 again and look in my notes if it's time already to look into the TO 1 to hopefully find eggs and brood if not the queen herself.
I'll keep you posted!



Bob Out

tuesday 05 jun 2018

Hello readers,

No classical layout today, just here to bring a short update of yesterday.
I'll start with temperatures;  Today we didn't reach 20°C and it was mostly dry.

My only hive report will concern the SS 1 2018!  Since that's where I put the queen in yesterday.
I inspected the split that I thought was queenless and behold!  The queen was accepted, even though she was not released out of her cage yet.
I helped the bees with that and released the queen into the hive.

So happy they took to her... Let's just hope they don't replace her as soon as she's laying...

The video of this entire operation should be up on june 19 22:00 local time (Brussels)

Bob Out

monday 04 jun 2018

Hello readers,

Weather Report:

Wednesday 30 may 2018: 26°C, no rain.
Thursday 31 may 2018: 25°C, showers all day long.
Friday 01 june 2018: Temperatures were trying to reach 20°C but didn't get there, It poored rain during the night and showers in the afternoon.
Saturday 02 june 2018: No rain at all and temperatures flirting with 20°C again.
Sunday 03 june 2018: Temperatures rising again up to 25°C, no rain.
Temperatures today started cool around 18°C but went up to 20° at noon.

Hive Report:

Simplex Nuc (2017):  I didn't really want to open this baby up again till next year, but ... I got a queen today from the apis mellifera mellifera :

I inteded to use 3 Zander frames or at least 2 and maybe a simplex frame if I needed to.  The frames were supposed to come from my swarm box (PC 1 2018) But there I didn't find anything without eggs.
On to the report: I checked the middle box since the windows show there is no activity in the bottom box.  There are 3 frames, not 5 as I thought, that have fully built out comb.  No larvae or eggs were found, some cells had emerging bees.  I didn't take any frames out of this box.
I opened up the top box and there the bees are doing well.  I spotted 2 frames of almost fully capped honey - boy I wanted to harvest, but I didn't - After that there was half a frame of honey and half a frame of emerging bees.  I took this frame to put into my next split (for the Black Queen) I found another one with only capped brood on and also took this out.  A final one had some BRIAS (BRood In All stadia) -  I didn't like the eggs at all, but it'll have to make do.
The middle section of the top box existing out of 3 frames from the cut-out I did are still all built together.  I could move them all at once by trying to lift one frame.  I did not take that cluster of frames out to inspect.

I closed up the hive again without spotting the queen.
Before I started the inspection I did see pollen come in - mostly orange like.


TO 2 2018: I went back to check this box of 6 frames again - if possible I would've put the Black Queen in there. But, since I'm still unsure if they need a queen I didn't - Nothing much changed since last time.  The bees were very calm, and this adds to my confusion.  From what I hear and read on the internet, queenless bees are more agressive.  I did not spot this at all.  I'm going to wait another week and we'll see what happens from there.  Worst case scenario I have to combine them with one of my other hives. - I used the BuzzBox app and it says the bees are healthy - another reason I didn't want to put in the queen there.

PC 1 2018: As I stated above, I wanted to take out frames with larvae and no eggs from this hive, but all frames had eggs apart from one that didn't have anything but nectar. I insepcted the hive real quick but did not see the queen.  I'm hoping these bees will do well before winter and will thank me for the hive that I built, rather than get me pulling my hairs out for being the dumb newbee that I am.

SS 1 2018: With this hive I have the same problem as my trap-outs.  I have no clue as to whether there is a queen in there or not.  To be on the safe side I put a queen excluder on this hive and put one of my Zander boxes on that excluder.  In that box there is the following:

1 - Filler Block
2 - Filler Block
3 - Frame of half foundation
4 - Frame of sugerfeed
5 - Zander frame with emerging brood
6 - Zander frame with BRIAS
7 - Zander frame half of nectar and some emerging brood on the other side
8 - Frame of half foundation
9 - Filler Block
10 - Filler Block

I placed it on there around 12h10.
Now if that hive isn't queenright I might have gotten myself into trouble; I gave it a frame of eggs.
Bees in there will start using the larvae that are young enough (and also in the frame) to build themselves a queen.  In that case they might not even want to accept the queen I bought.  So I did an inspection of this 6-frame hive to spot evidence of a queen.

Around 13:30 I went back a first time to check on the bees and looked through the window to see if there were nurse bees up there. - It was dark and I only saw some bees up there.  I opted to wait a bit longer and went back out at 14:30.
The 3 frames seemed to have some bees in them, so I moved the box down to where I want my new hive to be and did an inspection of the frames still in the SS 1 2018.

5 frames are filled with food apart from here and there some capped brood ready to come out.  No fresh eggs, no open brood and only one queencup without egg in it and it doesn't look like it has been sealed off.
I bit the bullet and decided to put my Black Queen in here.  The SS 1 2018 has now got the black queen you see above!  But before I introduced her I shook out 3 more frames of bees inside the new split.  That new split will be my second attempt to raise a queen by myself.

I'll report back tomorrow to see if the queen is out of the cage in the SS 1 2018.

SS 2 2018: See above to see the composition of this hive.  This is what they call a walk-away split now.  I hope there's enough bees in there to take care of the little brood that is in there.



Bob Out