Tuesday 29 may 2018

Hello readers,

Weather update:

Saturday 26 may 2018: Very hot day today, humid and close to 30°C.  Some local area's got a storm in, but not here.
Sunday 27 may 2018: Same as yesterday.  Very dry and hot! 30°C!  Some lightning in the air in the evening, but I didn't see any real rain.
Monday 28 may 2018: Another hot day of 30°C, but at night the rain poored out of the sky.
Tuesday 29 may 2018: Temperatures today will hit around 21°C by noon after that rain will fall down and cool the air.

Hive Report:

TO 2 2018: I went to do an insepction today, hoping I'd find a (laying) queen.  But I'm confused by what I saw.  Out of 6 frames 2 are totally unbuilt. 1 has a quarter of drone comb in it (I put it there) and one has 4/5 of a frame that had brood in it from when I placed the trapout.  But besides comb there's nothing in there.  Some bees were on the comb that used to hold brood.  Then there are 2 frames totally built and pack full of bees.  On one there's 3 queencells but nothing else!  And this confuses me.   If there were eggs and larvae to make queencells, why is there no other brood left on that frame?  Queens only take 16 days, where workers take 21... so all the other eggs should still be capped brood around the queencell...  What am I missing?  The other frame has some dronebrood on the bottom and some nectar sealed at the top.  No pollen in there at all!  I'm going to ask facebook what's going on...

SS 1 2018: I did an inspection of my split today and boy that hive is packed with honey! Out of 6 frames 5 were filled with honey. 1 had mostly pollen inthem.  I did see a queencell where I think a queen walked out of, but she isn't laying yet.  I hope she's on her mating flight.  I pulled out one frame of honey to harvest and replaced it with a foundationless frame (with wires)  I hope they start building on that so the queen has some room to put her eggs in.  I'll open her up again next week and clean up the frame I pulled out just in case I need to replace another frame.

PC 1 2018: What a nice swarm I got here!  I did not use any smoke or water to calm the bees down at all and they were staying on the frames very nicely!  I was hoping to spot the queen but my guess is she went into hiding as soon as I opened up the hive.  I pulled out 6 frames of bees and 2 frames where they started building foundationless (so 8 in total).  The 6 frames had a lot of bees on them and in at least 3 there are eggs!  Her majesty is doing a good job!


No news for TO 1 2018 (hoping to check up on it next week) or the Simplex Nuc (hoping not to open this one again till 2019)

Video on this checkup will be live on 12 june 2018:

 Bob Out

Friday 25 may 2018

Hello readers,

Oh boy what a day today was...  I'll tell you about it in the hive report, where you'll see a new name pop up!

Weather report:

In spite of the forecast of stormy weather, today was a very lovely day.  Temperatures were just under 26°C.

Hive Report:

TO 1 2018:  I started with checking on this trapout early morning.  The hive I put next to the wall showed activity already, and in one minute somtimes one bee came out of the trapout cone, sometimes up to 3.  I couldn't see any bees returning and going into the cone,  All were lured into the hive.  So that looks good.  It was still cold out (12°C) so I opted not to open the hive.  If my calculations are right there could be a queen there (if my first frame took, or if the queencells I put in there worked) - but maybe she wasn't laying yet.  I hope coming thursday will be a nice day, I might go out and check the bees then.

PC 1 2018: I went out to see a movie today (Solo : a star wars story) and so I missed 2 calls from the firedepartment (they sometimes get called out to get rid of wasps, but then people don't always know the difference and upon arrival they see it's bees instead)  I called them back as soon as I could, but allas, another beekeeper was sent out.  But then, with an almost dead phone, I was sitting at the bar at our local market after shopping with the wife.  I got a call from a person that found my number on the website of his home town.  If I would be interested in collecting a swarm from his property. - And I was!  Here is the proof:

So as you can see my home project is now populated!  Let's hope they thrive and accept the hive!

No news on my other hives the Simplex Nuc and the SS 1 2018.

Bob Out