Tue 30th April
Barns Visit Tue 30/04/24.
Bees all active, 14C & sunny with a strong breeze.
In attendance: David Ferguson
Stand A Hive 1
Is just a brood box. Saw Queen marked red & some bias. Small colony but may expand now. Has 2 tubs fondant with a little bit left in them and they have some pollen and nectar stores as well. Varroa board had quite a lot of mouse droppings on it
Stand A Hive 2
Had brood box with super below. Strong colony, 8 frames brood, plus pollen & nectar stores in brood box & 4/5 frames brood in the super. I swapped the boxes round, the floor looked clean and added a super on top with new foundation. Once they start working the new super a queen excluder could be put in.
Stand B Hive 3
Has a brood box with super below. Didn’t see the Queen, but she was seen the previous visit marked red, there is only spotty drone brood, no worker brood and nothing of any note in the super. They have some stores and had eaten all the fondant, so I removed the tubs. The super could be removed at the next visit.
Stand B Hive 4
Had a brood box with 2 supers below. Strong colony. Didn’t see the Queen but saw bias with pollen and stores. There was some brood in the super below the brood box and none in the lower super so I reorganised the hive with the brood box on the floor then a super with the brood and some stores and removed the empty super. They had eaten all the fondant so I took the tubs away and covered the holes in the crown board with a slate.
Stand C Hive 5
This hive still had no worker brood, just spotty drone brood so I shook the bees out beside the hives and have placed the empty hive on the stand next to the sheds with the entrance closed. It is a good example for beginners to see the “mess” inside and there is some faeces spotting so it may have had some Nosema too. The hive could be taken away and cleaned.
Stand C Hive 7
Had a brood box with a super below. Didn’t see the Queen and there is no brood but I found 1 queen cell in the brood box and marked the frame it was on with a green cross. Rather than disturb them I left the super below the brood box. They have 2 tubs of fondant with a lot left in them.
Next visit check if the Queen cell has hatched. If not, release the bees and remove the hive.
Varroa Boards
Checked all the varroa boards and there was very little mite drop on them all. Hive 1’s board had quite a lot of mouse droppings and Hive 2’s has quite a lot of chalkbrood mummies. All boards put back in.
- Hive 1 – Check still expanding.
- Hive 2 – Insert a Queen excluder once they are drawing out the top super.
- Hive 3 – Check for any worker brood. If none, shake the bees out and remove the hive. If they have worker brood, possibly remove the super from below the brood box.
- Hive 4 – Possibly fit a Queen excluder and add a new super above to give them space.
- Hive 7 – Check if the Queen cell has hatched. If not, release the bees and remove the hive.
- Check varroa boards & then remove them.
- remove any remaining fondant tubs. There are some slates next to Hive 1.
- the boxes removed at this visit are on the wooden stand beside the sheds to let them air. They could be scraped and torched then stored under a roof.
- The empty hive on the stand next to the sheds could be removed for disposal of the frames and cleaning.
Consider
If Hives 3 & 7 are still drone layers & the Queen cell in Hive 7 is a dud, leading to these hives being removed, then Hives 2 & 4 could be split to make up nucs & as part of swarm control.
Sat 21st April
Notes from Peter, Scott, Wilma and David.
Inspections were done as part of the beginners in person day. We got the best beekeeping day of the year so far and were able to have a good look at all the hives. Temperature was about 13C with good sunshine. All hives had bees but there was a quite a contrast in how each were faring so far in this cold wet spring – see below.
Stand A Position 1 Hive No 1
Queen found and marked red. No sealed brood but there were small patches of eggs and larva. There was pollen and nectar stores in this hive too.
Stand A Position 2 Hive No 2
Yellow queen seen, it was a good strong colony covering 6/7 frames of sealed brood with plenty pollen and nectar stored.
Stand B Position 3 Hive No 3
Red queen seen, not much brood, quite patchy on 4 frames. A lot of drone brood and drones. Will need to check queen starts laying well. There is a super box under the brood box but it was not inspected.
Stand B Position 4 Hive No 4
Red queen seen, BIAS and good brood pattern over 5 frames .
Bees well well natured. Lots of pollen being brought in and plenty of stores. Mouse guard removed.
There are 2 super boxes under the brood box but they were not inspected.
Stand C Position 5 Hive No 5
Had some spotty drone brood, so it’s either a drone laying queen or workers. They were bringing some pollen in and the bees were calm.
Stand C Position 6 Hive No 7
Didn’t have any brood, saw queen marked yellow. They were bringing pollen in and the bees were calm.
All hives had mouseguards removed.
All hives had new yellow correx varroa trays added. Next time – check the varroa drop.
Possible jobs for next time.
- Remove super boxes that are under the brood boxes
- Check varroa drop
Wed 17th April
Notes from Wilma:-
Despite the cold weather we had a lovely afternoon at Barns today.
Whilst it was lovely and calm and relatively warm at the apiary I felt that we would be giving the bees too much work to warm the hive back up again with the temps due to drop again tonight so we didn’t do any full inspections.
We cleaned what varroa floors were there, removed the wool insulation and replaced tubs of fondant.
Thanks to everyone who made the effort to come along and help, it was lovely catching up with you all.