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
