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:
- Get some video footage up on youtube.
- Clean out the TO 2 2018 feeder
- keep feeding till I run out of sugar.
- 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
