Time for a new report on what's going on in my hives!
Weather Report:
We have had nothing but good days since my last report on april 11th. Yes there were some days that temperatures didn't climb all the way up to 20°C, some days had heavy winds, but all in all we had some nice weather. Not much rain, but the grass is still green... There are talks of early draught problems this year, but talking about it won't make it come true, and as long as we're not there yet... Let's hope for the best!
Hive Report:
Good news for me! I caught a swarm! Apiary 5 is in business! But let's not get ahead of ourselves and work through the apiaries!
Apiary 1
At home I still only have my two hives, both of them got some oil as a coat to protect the wood on april 23rd.
IC2019
This hive is still on 3 boxes of Warré, but the bees don't show any indication of building down. The floorboard tells me the varroa load in this hive is rather high, the poop on the front of the hives is an indicator of nosema. But that being said, the activity is all good. Plenty of bees coming in with pollen and good overall activity. I have not yet opened up this hive to do an inspection and I don't really want to, but if they don't build soon, I just might have to check what's going on. I don't want them to swarm on me without me knowing about it ahead of time.
LL2018
These bees were ready for a super, even though they are on 2 boxes of Zander, with the brood in the top box, and nothing in the bottom one, I was thinking about putting a super on top. I finally decided that I'd go with an experiment. I added some sugardough in a mating nuc (with only 3 small frames) on top of this hive. They can access this mating nuc through the top of their hive and the bottom of the nuc. The rest is closed off. I monitored the progress on a daily basis but haven't seen more than one bee in this nuc at a time. Not on the foundation that I provided either, but on the sugar. The bees don't seem interested.
I'm planning on doing an inspection of this hive later this week. I might move the brood so I have a good base in the bottom box, with a smaller amount of frames of brood on top of that. Some empty frames next to the brood to get them building and then all the honey I can find (unless it's sealed, then I might take it off) on the outside of the hive.
I'll leave the nuc on top untill they show an interest in building it out.
Apiary 2
Apiary 2 also received a coating of lineseed oil on the hives on the 23rd of april.
MC2019
Here I copied the setup of the LL2018. 2 brood boxes of Zander, the bottom one all frames that have yet to be built out, the top box is booming and on top of that I placed a mating nuc. This one is a mini-plus plus box with smalls trips of foundation in them. No idea if it'll take, but I felt the bees were ready as all frames were filled with bees. During the inspection I noticed a good amount of drone brood AND I also noticed some cells with pupae in them that were uncapped. No signs of wax-moth other than that, so maybe it's hygenic behaviour? These are survivors from last year, so could be!!
I spotted the queen in this hive, she looks like a buckfast queen if you ask me, but she's a beauty... Unmarked, and we'll keep it that way! If only I had my equipment ready for making splits already, drones present, the queen on the frames... Next time, next time...
There ware also some queencups in here, so a split might be in order... I'll think about that in the coming week(s).
As a final note on this hive I can say they were showing a little hostility towards the end of my inspection. I didn't use smoke but tried to spray some water, as it had been dry I thought that would be the best of the two options. The water didn't impress them at all. It did keep them from flying up at first, but to be on the safe side, I put my gloves on just the same.
The LL2019
Talking about hostile hives... This one is my hottest yet. I could aply the oil on both hives no problem, no protection, even the front of the hive did not pose a problem. But then I moved on to the inspection of MC2019, maybe the vibe was already signaled I was coming to the LL2019, as they didn't take that long to come at me. I was prepared for it and endured the bees for 15 frames out of 3 boxes. The first box had some activity, and was being scouted as a honey super, but they didn't build anything there yet. I ended up moving two honey frames in that box to checkerboard the honey supplies. The ambient volume of the buzzing did rise when I took that box off and went into the 2nd box. There were 3 frames of brood in here, but those frames didn't follow the frame! I had to cut through some pieces, enfuriating the bees further, I switched positions of these frames, hoping they would fix it to my liking for a next inspection. There were drones there, but most of it was nectar. it's from this box that the supplies were moved up. I can say the box was showing a good amount of bees, I felt confident the 3rd box could stay on top, opening up the bottom box confirmed that idea, and the volume swell...
I cleaned up some burr comb and inspected 4 frames before I had enough. The black cloud of bees that was looking for a way in got to my nerves and I figured I wasn't going to learn much anyway.
This hive showed what MC2019 showed me, as far as I can compare the two, the main difference is that the LL2019 seems to be doing better (in the simplex boxes, compared to the Zander boxes)
This hive needs to be split. I'm going to move this hive to a different location on the same apiary I'll put a new landing board and the middle box on that new landing board on the old location and switch out frames so both have some open brood, enough stores and plenty of bees. (Well more bees with the queen as the foragers will go back to the hive at the old position.) What I'm going to do with the queencups in the hive with no queen? I might split them up further, but due to the agressiveness, I might not. It all depends.
Apiary 3
The only hive here is the MCA2020
I installed them on 9 april, where they had 6 frames built out, I checked on them april 15th, found they occupied 9 frames and were doing a good job on the other 2 so I supered them. The first inspection I did was on april 21st. I got stung by these bees, and I can't say I was expecting it. They were calm, and I continued the inspection after I got stung as if nothing happened. The top box I gave them was starting to get some attention, one frame was being drawn out, but nothing much else was going on. The bottom box was full of brood, 8 out of 11 frames! Some honey was already capped in the back of the hive, so giving them room was the right call in my opinion. I'll go back in this week if I have the time to check on swarmcells.
I did spot the queen and she's marked: She wears a green shield with the number 45 on it. A buckfast queen similar to what I saw in the MC2019
Apiary 4
I have yet to repopulate this apiary, I gave the owners of the field a call, asking them if they will still permit me to restart and they have no objections. So when I do make splits, I have a place to put them.
Apiary 5
Did I mention I teach beekeeping as a project in a Freinet school? I can't recall, anyhow... This apiary isn't really far from my home and I promised them to install bees as soon as I got my first swam-call... April 16th was the date. I had collected the swarm from a garden in a residential area and moved them to the school apiary. They were put inside a Warré hive - I believe I did put up the link already? Or did I? I have a hard time tracking what I have or haven't done here on this blog lately... Anyhow here it is (again?)
I inspected them a week later, on the 23rd hoping to see eggs or proof of a laying queen. But I didn't spot the queen, nor did I find any eggs or larvae. I'm starting to wonder if this hive is going to be all right. In my mind I go over what you can see in this video . I collect the queen from the skep and put her in the hive with my hands. I cup my hand over the queen to prevent her form flying away, but when I release her she fell into the hive, rather than walk in. So I'm thinking, maybe she was faking death, as queens are known to do, when I put her back in. Maybe she got damaged, or maybe the bees killed her whilst she was in that state of apparent death?
Only a new inspection will tell, although I'm pretty sure none of my worries are true, as the bees were extremely calm during the entire inspection. Even though the buzzing sound did swell up.
Apiary 6
No bees on my apiary here, yet! I contacted the owners informing them of my winter losses and my plans to expand - I hope to receive an anwser soon welcoming me to install the hive stand.
So that's all for today folks
Bob Out
