Tuesday 21 August 2018

Asian Hornets in Waregem

Hello readers,

No 'Weather Report' or 'Hive Report' today.  Only a simple message I got myself yesterday:

The Asian Hornet is near my hives!

A friend, working with the fire department, who exterminate wasps, contacted me.  He wanted to let me know they exterminated a Asian Hornets nest in the town I live.
In fact, although he didn't give me the exact adress, the nest couldn't have been more than 750m away from my 2nd hivestand!

What's worse is that they think there is a secondary nest in the area.  So guess what I'll be doing next time I'm at my hives.  Stake out the entrances and walk from tree to tree to look inside the branches... See if I can spot any of these two:



Let's hope our bees adapt quick enough so they can fight this threat themselves!
If worst comes to be true, we all might have to say goodbye to the apis mellifera and work with the apis cerana instead.
It can live with varroa and already knows how to deal with this hornet.
All we can do is hope the apis mellifera can adapt as well (or better) to both current threats as did her cousin.

Bob Out.

Monday 20 August 2018

Sunday 19 aug 2018

Hello readers,

It's bin a while since I actually did some stuff, but I've only got time today to write up on it.

But first of the:

Weather Report:

Weather has been getting normal again I'd say.  Temperatures are still warm (we are in summer) and have peeks up to 28°C but it's never gotten below 17°C during the day and 12°C at night.
As for rain, We had a good deal of it the 13th and some on the 16th and 17th.  The bees and plants are happy with it.

On to the:

Hive Report: 

Stand number 1:

Simplex Nuc: Activity near the hive seems good, they fight off whasps and I'v not seen any go into this hive.

PC 1 2018: For lack of a better name...  I know I killed this hive off to replenish the amount of bees in the SS 1 2018.  But the day after the operation (the 13th) I found a lot of bees went back to where the hive was and stayed there up against the woodwork.  I've taken a 6-frame simplex nuc, with some drawn out comb and put it near the bees, if they go in, they do, if they don't they don't.  Up until  today there are still bees inbetween the nuc and the woodwork.  I haven't forced anything else.

SS 1 2018: As I said I would, Ive been feeding this hive with sugar water.  I fed them on the 17th with some regular sugar water 1:1.  No more wasps go into this hive, but I have seen more fighting near this entrance than with the simplex nuc. Part of me is thinking that sugar water is the cause.

Stand number 2:

TO 2 2018:  Went to this hive on the same day I fed the SS 1 2018 (17th) but only put half the amount in the feeder.  The sugar tea I've put in this hive was still there, it started showing some mold.  I'm going to take away the feeder alltogether and wash it out (or replace it with a new one).
Other than that I haven't seen any problems near the entrance.

SD 1 2018: No shipping over this hive.  Oh it's doing ok, but the frames won't fit into the Warré hive my friend bought.  He brought over a frame and it's a lot smaller than what I have.  He'll have to settle with a swarm (if he wants free bees).  About the SD 1 2018 itself, looking good.  I only hope the wasps don't go from hive to hive to destroy it on this stand... 
... like they did the next hive in.

JH 1 2018: The few bees that were in here?  They're gone.  Waps took over.  What a bad investment this was...  I was right they weren't going to make it, but I was hoping they'd put up a better fight.

TO 1 2018: I finnaly went and got this hive down.  A 6-frame nuc, packed with bees.  They don't all fit inside!  When collecting this hive I brought a friends ladder to reach them.  A good handfull was gathered outside of the enterance and it was only about 18°C.  I brushed some off with my hand (wearing a bee-suit and gloves) and had the biggest trouble closing up the entrance with the amount of bees in there.  No helping it.  I had to squash some dozen of them.  Trouble is that set off the alarm for the rest of them.  No matter, I was wearing the suit, what could happen.  I pivoted the hive onto my shoulder, lifted it off the mount against the wall and started climbing down the ladder.  I only took two steps before I noticed something that set off a lot of alarms in my head. 'They are inside my suit!'  At least 5 bees were in my suit.  I remained calm and kept going down keeping my mouth closed.  I set down the hive and was already stung on my bottom lip, or just beneath it to be exact.  I moved away from the hive itself and started taking my suit off.  The owner of the home was there and curious on how I'd do stuff, so he was still watching.  As I couldn't see where the stinger was I asked for him to remove it from my lip.  While he was reaching for my face I felt a bee inside my clothes!  I stopped him but was to late to unbutton my shirt.  He got a first hand look on how a bee tries to wriggle itself loose after it stings a human.  It didn't get lucky, she pulled out her stinger.  I asked him to remove that stinger first;  Right next to my left nipple.  I had to put my suit back on to load in the hive into my car, while doing that a bee chased the home owner off.  I advised him to leave and he didn't need saying twice.  Before I put my gloves on another bee found me, landed on my hand and let me have it.  That was sting number 3... (and my hand is still a bit swollen from that).
I called a friend to bring some sheets or other cloth I could wrap the hive in so any bees that were still on the outside of the hive (or the ones that could escape out of it during transport) were still trapped in there.
Waiting for his arrival I lit my smoker (maybe I should've done that before setting to work) and moved the hive twice, brushing bees frome the outside of the box and smoking the box to mask the scent.
I kept doing that till I could giftwrap the hive in a heavy curtain my friend brought over.
And that was that.
Today I went over to take a look and they are crowding out the entrance again, so I'm happy!


To do list:


  1. Get some video footage up on youtube.
  2. Clean out the TO 2 2018 feeder
  3. keep feeding till I run out of sugar.
  4. I did do something else too.  The materials I got from the beekeeper that quit. I cleaned those up today and stacked them.  I'm going to leave them on my stand to hopefully get some swarms in there.  But I still need to put a cover on one.  And as I'm going to put two empty hives (with some drawn out comb frames in) there I want them to be 2 deeps each. Not sure if that's going to be to big for a swarm or not, but it helps keep my shed empty as I don't need to store them.


So that was it again! 

 Bob Out

Monday 13 August 2018

Sunday 12 08 2018

Hello readers,


Today I went over a part of my to do list.

Weather Report:


The weather is finally coming around.  Since last report we have had a couple of showers and temperatures are dropping below 20° during the day.

Hive Report:


Simplex Nuc: No change on this hive.  Good activity most of the time.  And I spotted some orientation flights one day around 16h30.
A good amount of pollen is being brought in, I have no idea if there is any nectar coming in.

SS 1 2018: I spotted some pupae of the wax moth through my windows in the bottom box.  There was at least one on one of the filler frames. So I was sure I needed to open this hive up as on my 'to do' list from previous blogpost.  The bottom enterance got opened for 3 days to allow the bees to clean the hive through there rather than drag stuff to the top entrance.  But this morning I spotted 3 wasps trying to get in there and not a lot of resistance from my bees... So I closed it off again till later in the evening;  Where I had a quick look inside.
I started with removing the top box and taking the filler frames out of the bottom box.  The feeder frame was still half full, so I decided to move it to the side.  I then introduced 4 frames of bees from another hive (PC 1 2018) closed it off with some newspaper and put the top box on there.  I then removed the top entrance from that box and checked 3 frames.  2 of them had brood in all stadia so I stopped my inspection, I took out two empty frames from the side and put filler frames there instead.
I then closed off the box with a feeder on top and gave them a mixture of sugar tea.

PC 1 2018: Probably the last report of this hive  I opened up the hive and saw what I feared.  Only 4 frames where showing bees on it.  None of the frames had brood and only 1 had some food in it.
I couldn't spot a queen and as there were no eggs I figured there was no queen anymore.  As you can read from the report in SS 1 2018 I put those 4 frames inside SS 1 2018's bottom box and closed  it off with a newspaper.  I sealed off the normal entrance to this hive and put on the top cover without closing off the hive with inner covers;  So there should be light going into the hive and the remaining bees don't have a real home and the returning bees will have to find another home.  Without the inner cover, bees can go in and out of this hive as they please, it is no longer a cavity as such.
Why probably?  Well after I move the frames of bees over I saw a lot of fanning going on near the hive entrance + a group of bees where gathering around something.  I'm now pondering the situation.  Shouldn't I have left it all alone?  After all, I am promoting the 'let them die' theory...  What if they were hiding the queen in there that hid as soon as I opened the hive?  What if she just stopped laying because of the dry periode we went through... 
Well, I'm not getting anywhere with what iff's right?

Side note...  During this inspection I had my friend over who bought a warré hive, he's planning on keeping bees next year and I promised him If I had a surviving colony he could start with that provided we can hang my frames in his hive.
If not, the first swarm call I get goes into his hive.

TO 1 2018:  Still need to collect this hive ASAP.

TO 2 2018: Also feeding this hive with the sugar tea.  Nothing much to report since I didn't stay long enough to actually watch the bees.

SD 1 2018: So, since I killed off PC 1 2018 using 3 frames from this hive chances are I missed the queen of that hive and put a second one in there ...  Who won?  I'll let you know next spring. If I find a marked queen (the one I found in Sint Denijs Zwevegem) This hive will live on as the SD 1 2018 for sure.  If I don't find a marked queen, that means PC 1 2018 might have killed the swarmed youngster...  I feel like I'm getting in over my head here.  Pretty sure advanced beekeepers reading all this are going crazy over the mistakes I've made thus far...  Anyhow, this 6-frame Zander hive is looking ok, judgeing from the activity in front of the hive.  This might very well be the hive I ship over to my friends house, if they make it through winter.

JH 1 2018: OMG, what have I got?  Checking on this hive today, it was the only one struggling with wasps near the entrance.  Even though the TO 2 2018 has a bigger entrance to the hive, this one showed signs of being mollested by wasps, the TO 2 2018 did not!  This hive might not even make it to winter!  Let alone through!

So what's on my to do list after today?

To do list:


  1. Retrieve the TO 1 2018 and make arrangements on what to do next year. (Give it another go or let the home owner kill the bees) - I better inform the home owner that if I am succesfull next year he still could have a problem with mold building up on the frames inside, or mice, or other vermin.  I know I have said this is a top priority, but ... without a ladder there and that place being the furthest out of my way...  I'm making escuses.  I should stop and just go and get my own ladder...
  2. keep feeding SS 1 2018 and TO 2 2018 till... ? I need to read up on when to start and stop feeding sugar syrup for winter preparations.  I could stop any time, I know, but I want the sugar packages I got to be used up before next spring.  And after that I do not intend to use any more of those.  Or buy sugar to feed to my bees.  Sounds harsh? - Such is life...
  3. Get some video footage up on youtube!!

That's all folks.


 Bob Out

Saturday 4 August 2018

Saturday 04 aug

Hello readers,

Finally I'm here with the conclusion of the events from my last post (Friday 20 july).
It isn't happy news...  But first:

Weather Report:  

I could put the dates down from july 20th to today, but appart from 2 days where we had a bit of rain, it would be more of the same.  With temperatures climbing to 36°C.  Hey, predictions are we're going to have days above 40°... 
I personally am hoping for some cooler days.

Hive Report:


I'll do a full hive report today even though I didn't open up any existing hives...

Simplex Nuc:  Near the enterance of this hive I always see good activity, not as early in the morning as my SS 1 2018 (who are black bees) but still good activity.  A good amount of guard bees are always to be found near the enterance and they have their job cut out for them;  This year has been encredible favourable for wasps it seems.  There are a lot of them out there and near my hives you can always find 3 - 4 buzzing around.  They feast on dead bees in front of my hives and honesty commands me to admit I've killed a dozen or so while looking at my bees.
Looking through the windows on this hive I can report: no changes at all.  No building up in the empty frames, no activity in the bottom box.
I'm not planning to open this hive up till next spring.


SS 1 2018: With great relief I can tell you guys this hive is doing allright.  I've opened up the bottom hive enterance a couple of days when I spotted bees through the windows of what used to be the deep of SS 2 2018 dragging dead wax moth larvae about.  It didn't take a minute before the bees found the hole in the bottom and started dragging rags and wax moth larvae out of there.  After a couple of days I didn't spot any activity near the bottom enterance anymore, so closed it up again leaving the top enterance open.  As with the simplex nuc I can see bees in the enterance and this hive is usually more active earlier than the two others on my apiary number one (with the Simplex nuc and PC 1 2018)
I'v seen white and orange pollen come into this hive.
As for feeding them, I have given them twice 1,5 l of sugar water 1:1 since last report, the second time being today!
There are some bees checking the bottom box and there should be a frame of patty in there.  This is why I plan on opening this hive at least once more in the future.  I hope to call a friend and have him assist me, so I can't say when I'm actually going to go about my business.

PC 1 2018: As happy as I was when I got this swarm, that's how worried I am now.  Of my three hives this one is showing least activity.  It might have everything to do with the frames I took out (see last blogpost - Friday july 20).  I might have weakened the hive in doing so and worst case scenario, I moved out the queen when I took the frames and now she's dead or killed the queen that swarmed and is now in a 6-frame nuc called SD 1 2018.  I'm hoping it's the first scenario, where I removed 3 frames, 2 of them with a lot of brood, and thus removing places for this queen to lay in.  Causing a low worker force and thus a weaker hive...
Al this is reason enough for me to open up the hive again for a full inspection when opening the SS 1 2018.

TO 1 2018: I have not gone back even though I wanted to.  Should make it top priority.

TO 2 2018: This hive is still being fed at the same rate (more or less) as the SS 1 2018 (so they got a batch of 1,5 liter of 1:1 sugar today and one last week.  There is very nice activity near this hive and I'm not planning on opening it till next spring.  As with the hives in my apriary 1, the hives on my apiary 2 also have wasps buzzing about.  Not in the amount one of my next videos should show you (God I'm behind on that) but they are still looking for easy pickings.  This hive is not one!
The only thing I'll need to do is put some wire-mesh in front of the entrance to prevent mice from getting in!

SD 1 2018: This is a nuc I'm going to overwinter.  It is looking strong with a lot of bees going in and out.  The reduced enterance I created got removed so they are using the entire 6-frame lenght of opening in there.  I'm going to have to reduce this down before mice decide to go in aswell.  But I'm not opening the nuc if I don't have to till next spring.

JH 1 2018: Oh what a dissapointment this has been.  I took 2 hives from the beekeeper his property as told on Thursday 19 july.  The big hive I talked about got an inspection as soon as I moved them (23rd july) and got reduced down to 2 deeps instead of 3.  In the top deep there was nothing going on.  The comb was drawn out but that's it. I used some of that comb to replace the one in the second box that was infested with wax moth.  There were almost no bees in here and only one frame of honey (capped).  I decided to give them the box back with the bad frames replaced with better ones from the top box.  Then I looked in the bottom box and should've reduced the hive down further.  Only 3 frames out of 10 had bees on them and on only 1 of them there was a spotted brood pattern.  I think I spotted a queen, but was not sure about it.  I did not reduce them down but instead closed the hive with the adjusted super on it.  I came back the 28th to see nothing but wasps near the enterance, they were going inside freely.  I feared the worst and came back the day after when I had time to inspect the hive.  29th of July I declared this hive as 'dead'.  I removed all boxes from the stand and placed them a good 20-30 m away to be robbed out.
That being said there was another hive I moved from his home to my apiary number 2 and up till today it's still going.  Not in a good shape if you ask me, but it's not dead...  I also inspected it on the 23rd and out of the 10 frames there were 5 being used, 3 with brood.  Activity near this hive has been on the 'low' side of things.  Where the SD 1 2018 and the TO 2 2018 show a good coming and going of bees, this hive has a lot less activity.  I had to sit there for a while before I was sure it wasn't neighbouring bees robbing the hive out.  I'm not going to open up thi hive at all If I don't need to.  If they make it, good, then I hope they get to boom next year, if they don't.  Well I might use the hive to make splits.

The log: The log, you ask?  What log?  I went out there to retrieve the cut down tree.  The beekeeper came and took us there, only to find out the two pieces of log were gone.  No where to be found.  I don't want to accuse anybody without having proof, but I have a good idea of what might have happened.  So no log for me...

And that's it for my hive report.

To help myself I'm going to make a to do list next; To help me organise my thoughts.  I might introduce a 'did I do it' next time, or might just include the data in my hive report, not sure yet, but stick around and you'll find out!

To do list:


  1. Retrieve the TO 1 2018 and make arrangements on what to do next year...  Give it another go, or let the home owner kill the bees.
  2. Open up PC 1 2018 with the intent of doing an inspection.  Suppose the PC 1 2018 has no queen in it, I might ask about in my club or put the SD 1 2018 queen in with this hive and put the bees from that hive (since I have no clue how to add bees in a long hive without starting a war) in the slots of the filler frames I have in the SS 1 2018.
  3. Open up the SS 1 2018 to remove the feeder frame from it and if needed ad the bees from SD 1 2018 (if the PC 1 2018 needs a queen.) with frames and all (replacing the 4 filler frames, 1 feeder frame and maybe one foundationless frame that has no comb on it).

See you next time!
 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...