Friday 22 June 2018

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

Sites to visit - Nine Lectures on Bees - lecture one.

Hello readers, Today I'm having a look on another site that was gathering dust in my 'must browse here later' list. Today thi...