Friday 20 jul 2018

Hello readers,

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

Thursday 19 jul 2018

Hello readers,

It has been calm on here, I know, It wasn't so calm with my beekeeping journey though.  Nor was it in the rest of my life, but that's not why you're here ;-)

As per usual I'll bore you with another weather report, but I'll keep it short.

Weather Report:

 Look back at my previous report from july 2nd, and just paste it in here.
The dearth continues...  All days ware dry and temperatures haven't dropped under 20°C during the day.
N'uff said...

Hive Report: 

Simplex Nuc: As per last report I haven't got any news on this hive.  They're still on a stack of 3 boxes and are not using the bottom one.  Activity near the entrance is good.  I've seen them rob out (but only with a couple of bees) what's left over of the SS 2 2018.  So yeah, this post will be the last one to include the SS 2 2018.  There hasn't been any more building going on from what I could see, but then again I didn't and won't open the hive any more till 2019 if I don't have to.

SS 1 2018: I took a big risk with this hive. But first things first.  I didn't build a new hive yet, and I also abandoned the idea of moving this hive to the 2nd apiary.  Instead, I've placed them in one Zander super, much like I did when I first got the Simplex Nuc.  As the normal bottom with hive entrance was used by the  SS 2 2018 and I don't have any spares;  I fabricated some alternative entrances/feeders.  You can find a video about it in the future somewhere (as soon as I find the time to edit the video's I've got saved up).  So I basically made a box, half a super high, with a hole drilled in that serves as an enterance.  I can put my supers on top of it, or I can place the  box on top of my supers (depending if I turn the open side up or down).  I started off doing both, a box underneath the super and one on top, but with the bottom entrance closed off.  The bees were confused at first after I moved them but Nasonov did his work and soon the bees learnt where the hive entrance was.  - Meanwhile the SS 2 2018 was being robbed out - After a week I decided to give these bees (SS 1 2018) more room.  I removed the bottom box (the half super I built), closed off the bottom entrance of the SS 2 2018 (for more on that read the SS 2 2018 report) and put the super on top of SS 2 2018 (that no longer had bees in it).  The bottom I removed I now used as a feeder.  I've put in sugar syrup 2/1. They now have had it for about 4 days and yesterday there was still some syrup in there.
I have to keep an eye on this hive since I took the risk of putting it on the SS 2 2018 (read on below).

SS 2 2018: Contrary to what I hoped, there was no queen anymore in this hive.  Nor were there any queencups, let alone enough bees to nurture what little brood was left in there.  I'm guessing I disturbed the hive too soon with my previous inspection and should've locked the queen up in there for a couple of days since she absconded from a tree (TO 1 2018).
I waited too long to remove the frames and the feeder with a waxmoth problem as a result.  I first wanted to leave the hive for the bees to rob, but after a couple of days of inactivity I figured the hive was emptied out.  I opened her up the 15th only to find the beginnings of webbing made by a wax moth.  I cut out every trace of wax moth I could find in all the frames in this super.  With the dearth the patty had dried up inside the frame feeder.  Not sure if it'll do the bees any good but I left the patty in the frame feeder and I also left the filler frames in there.  Then I put SS 1 2018 on top since I thought it would be a waste to just ditch the frames.  I can only hope the SS 1 2018 is strong enough to clean up the mess I/the wax moths made.
If not, I might just have killed another hive.  Anyhow, this is the last entry for the SS 2 2018, as of now there will be no more updates of this hive. (well there will be, but look at the SS 1 2018 for that in the future)
Lets's hope the SS 1 2018 makes it and doesn't abscond the hive due to the wax moths.

PC 1 2018: Bring on John Lennon, take a brake and sing along: Let 'em be...  That's what I did.  No update here apart from a daily look at the entrance.  I can report that this hive is as active as can be expected.  Pollen is being dragged in, early morning is the best time for nice activity.  Another bit of information I can share with you is a way of feeding I stumbled upon for this hive.  I've picked it up at my local bee club:

It's a (fruit juice) carton filled up with straw to prevent bees from drowning filled to about 3/4 with sugar syrup.  I haven't used this myself, but if I need to feed this hive any sugar syrup for any reason, this is the only way I see how.  Winter-feeding will not be possible in this manner, so I hope I never need to feed.  Not that I'm planning to feed this hive, but it's nice to make notes of what can be of use, be it sooner or later. I hope the situation here remains the same and I can report back in 2019 with a first inspection or later this summer for a re-arrangement of frames to get all honey on one side.

TO 1 2018: I have not found the time to go back and fetch my hive.  Might do so later next week.  Let's hope the ladder is there when I do.

TO 2 2018: This hive has been moved from a 6-frame polystyreen hive to a 2 deep 10 frame Zander hive; here's a picture:

I've painted this hive up (also included in the video I'm bound to edit and post soon) and am also feeding these bees a 2/1 sugar syrup.  Why did I start feeding 2 hives?  Well, to be honest, I probably shouldn't have and instead I should've removed the supers that the bees didn't put to use yet.  But I'm a beginner and I'm bound to make stupid mistakes.  At the risk of losing bees I've decided to let them have an almost empty super underneath the brood nest and in the hopes of them still building out comb before winter I've started feeding.
Worst case scenario: they fill up the brood nest with the syrup and thus force the queen to stop laying.  Let's hope they don't swarm on me if this happens.

JH 1 2018: A beekeeper living less than 300m away from my home (and my apiary 1) has grown an alergy.  He does no longer wish to risk his health and decided on getting rid of his bees.  He hasn't checked up on them at all but believes he has one strong hive.  I went over to take a look, made an offer and we came to an agreement.  They are now my bees and I'll move them to my apiary 2 (since my home is too close)  where they will be set up next to the hive above (the TO 2 2018) I'm not familiar with the methods my neighbor uses, but by the looks of things he's got the brood box on the bottom with a queen excluder on top of that, and then I can see at least 3 boxes worth of (honey)supers.  Moving this hive to my apiary number 2 will be one of my next assignments.
He (and I) weren't sure if another box in his apiary was occupied with a colony - or if it was just being robbed out after it died off, or even  if it was just scout bees checking the boxes out.  I'll find out when I get to inspect his hives.  Planning on paying him soon and taking all empty stuff with me.

LOG 1 2018: A fellow beekeeper gave me a call earlier today.  Near his apiary they were cutting down some trees.  The workers got chased by bees after cutting a tree down with bees in it.  Little did they know the bees were living there.  Yes a few got stung...  The beekeeper thinks it might be a swarm from his apiary (he's working with carnolians - apis mellifera carnica) but he has no need for another hive, let a lone a log hive.  He's offered me the log and suggested to let it be cut open by the workers.  I asked him to only cut the tree underneath and above what he thinks would be the nest, and leave it as is.  He contacted me after the log was cut open and told me it consisted of two logs stacked on top of eachother now.  I'll collect the two logs they cut out on monday.  They are now stacked on top of eachother. 

I'll try and film the retrieval of this log hive, but no promises!  See you then?

Bob Out

Monday 2 jul 2018

Hello readers,

It's been a while since I've posted on here.  But life is happening and there are a lot of things going on at once.  My house is being painted on the inside and everything is out of place in boxes.

That does not mean I'm not looking at my bees anymore!

Let's dive into the ...

Weather Report:  

Saturday 23 june 2018 - I think it's safe to day we're in a dearth.  Earliest rain in the forcast is for friday july 6th!  We had temperatures up to 25°C today and no rain.
Sunday 24 june 2018 - More of the same, not quite 25°C but still dry.
Monday 25 june 2018 - And again with temperatures just over 25°C.
Tuesday 26 june 2018 - No change!
Wednesday 27 june 2018 - Temperatures are rising to 27°C
Thursday 28 june 2018 - Climbing up to 28°C
Friday 29 june 2018 - Holding it up there at 29°C
Saturday 30 june 2018 - Climbing over 30°C
Sunday 01 july 2018 - Holding it at 30°C and still no rain...
Monday 02 july 2018 - Today we had 31°C and my lawn is looking brown instead of green...

Hive Report:

Simplex Nuc: I'm glad to report the bees are building out comb in the super!  Nothing special, you might think, but since I'm going to leave them in the 3 deep configuration year round I'm glad to see they are building their way down.  I did not open the boxes to look inside them, all this info is from looking through the windows.  My plans for this hive is to not open it again till next spring if I don't need to.

SS 1 2018: No inspection in this hive yet.  Only some sound samples I took through the buzz-box app telling me the hive is ok.  Looking at the activity near the enterance tells me the same.   I had thought about not executing my plan to move this hive to my other apiary that is being set up, but I think I'm going to stick with my plans and move this hive to the new apiary.  If all goes well with this one she'll be my queen I breed from next year!  To move her out to the new apiary I still need to build a new hive.  That'll be a long hive with Zander frame format.  So I'll have to adjust the current frames again.  Work never ends :-)

SS 2 2018: Ok so you know I've put a queen in here from the TO 2 2018 location and reduced the 2 deep configuration to a one deep.  I did tell you guys I did not know what would happen and I can now tell you what did happen! I did half an inspection on tuesday the 26th of june of both this hive and the PC 1 2018.  Both looked ok and in both cases I saw the queen.  I was happy with how this SS 2 2018 looked.  There was some open brood and I moved two frames with half foundation in between the 3 frames arleady in there hoping they would build it out ok.  I did not inspect the 3rd frame in the box and maybe I should have.  I might have seen the queencups or a second queen in there...
Looking inside through the windows on the 27th I was happy to see them building out comb next to the frame of brood.  But then it happened.  June 28th, I looked inside through the window and to my astonishment I could only find a small fistfull of bees clumped together on the middle frame and some bees running around on the frame of honey.  What happened?  The queen obviously did not take the other queen (or queencups) out.  She absconeded again, and took a lot of bees with her, well maybe she swarmed because of the queens already in there...  I think she didn't go far, a neigbour that keeps bees reported a small swarm landing in one of his empty boxes.  Chances are she went there...
So now the SS 2 2018 is in bad shape.  A fistfull of bees isn't a lot.  There isn't a lot of activity near the enterance but what I see still is encouraging.  Encouraging enough for me to let them die - or if they make it through, let them grow out a new hive.  My hopes aren't up very high but I can tell you I see the bees quard the very small enterance, so I don't think they are being robbed out.

PC 1 2018:  As you can read in the above report I did half an inspection in this hive.  I found the queen on the 4th frame of like 10 frames with bees and stopped inspecting the rest.  She's not marked and she has a solid brood pattern from what I saw.  Not much else to do here but let them be.  I'm still pondering to open up the hive again, but as it stands now I don't think I will.  Hoping the bees know best I might not open them again.  If I do it'll be to ensure the honey is all at one side of the brood before winter comes in.  - I've read that the cluster in winter only goes one way in a long hive (or top-barhive) and it would be a shame to see them die of hunger if there was honey on both sides of the broodnest but they couldn't reach it because they only went one way...  So plans are to let them be, unless I worry to much and open them up again.  I'll try not to.

TO 1 2018: I was hoping to find the ladder back where it was when I placed the trap out today, but it wasn't, fetching a ladder from a friend didn't help (it was to short). Must plan to go back later in the evening and close up the enterance to the hive in the wall again.

TO 2 2018: I have not visited the hive since it's at my sisters place.  I did prepare a hive stand at the new apiary (some car tires that are no longer in use stacked on top of each other with 2 beams over to support the hives).  I also painted up the 2 deep configuration hive that I'll set up in the new apiary.  Hoping to put the TO 2 2018 in there. (Or in to the long hive I'm building, not sure yet)  Next tuesday at the earliest I'll be moving the hives and do an inspection overthere to see if I have to make 1 big hive out of the 2, if either is queenless for some reason, or if I can but up 2 hives there.

I'll keep you posted...



 Bob Out