3/29 Inspected the two sets of two hives that were split and didn't get the original queens. These three-way splits were split back on the 24th February. Just saw eggs and larvae.
3/23 Swarms
3/10 Transferred the bees in the feisty nuc at the AL farm into an 8 frame deep box with screen bottom board etc. This hive contains the original queen. I saw her today - big and blond.
3/9 Checked the hive in the backyard containing the old queen to see what was going on. Didn't seem like there were many eggs but there were a few medium frames of capped brood. Moved a partially drawn out into the brood nest.
Similarly checked the cottage hive containing the old queen from that split. Saw more brood when compared to the backyard hive on the deep frames. The hive was busy. Placed an empty frame within the brood nest to try and persuade the bees to draw more comb.
Also checked the feisty hives, which consists of the original hive and a nuc that was split off 5 days ago. Found lots of eggs in the nuc, so, despite my best intentions, that's were the queen ended up. With that news, I checked the main hive and found 12 queen cells, four of them capped. In the others larvae were visible. The hive was still feisty.
3/5 Noticed that the first buds on the pear tree in the backyard had opened, probably yesterday or the day before that.
3/4 Checked the hive in front of the cottage at AL that contains the queen from last week's three-way split. It seemed during the splitting that this queen had stopped laying eggs, presumably in preparations for a swarm flight. The hive was full of eggs today, so it seems like she's laying again, or never actually stopped. The hive was busy. The split hive in the original spot was very busy also, whereas it's neighbouring hive not so much.
Also did a full inspection of the feisty hive, as this hive has not been split yet. Didn't see any queen cells but there were a lot of bees. Lots of brood in the bottom deep plus brood in the medium above it. The bees were really annoyed - need to do something about this. Decided to split off a nuc, as these bees will surely swarm if nothing is done. Perhaps the new queen will be more docile and the hives can be combined back together later. Took three deep frames of brood, one frame of eggs and the remaining two full of capped brood, and two frames of nectar/pollen and put them in one of our new 5-frame nuc boxes. Checked for the queen but didn't see her, hopefully I left her behind. Took too many frames really as the original hive only had three drawn out deep frames in the bottom box. But trying to hobble this hive a little and presumably this will help. The medium above is full of brood though.
3/3 Jessica checked the hive in the backyard that contained the queen from the three-way split done the week before. This hive was slow with bees until yesterday when suddenly a lot of orienting bees came out. The hive looked good. Lots of brood and eggs. Saw a drone outside of the hive.
3/2 The two split hives at both AL and in the backyard that contained the queens were really quiet until today. Opened up the entrances to the medium size. Lots of bees orienting from them. Particularly the AL hive - almost thought they were about to swarm for a moment!
3/2 Drones: Saw one drone on the outside of one of the cottage hive at AL. The first one of the year that was outside.
Monday 5 March 2012
Thursday 16 February 2012
February 2012
2/24 First Buds on the apricot tree opened during the day
2/24 It was the last warm day before a week of cooler weather. Did three way splits on the backyard hive and the AL cottage hive. This was a preemptive attempt to stop any swarming as past experience has shown that opening the brood nest does't seem to work so well. Also saw the starts of queen cups (with eggs in) in the cottage hive... Our main worry was doing the splits too early, as there are still no drones flying, although we saw drones inside both hives that we split today.
Backyard hive: Made two new hive stands out of blocks and placed screen bottom boards on them, so a total of three hives, including the original spot. Before splitting, the backyard hive consisted of 4 medium boxes; the bottom two containing brood. On opening the brood Jessica immediately spotted the queen (a black one) and we put her in a new medium box set it on the hive location nearest the lemon tree. We then divided the remaining brood between the three hives, with about 4 or 5 frames of brood going in all the hives. There were a good amount of eggs, larvae, and capped brood to go everywhere. Added honey frames that were in the upper two medium supers to make up the eight frames. On the hive with the old queen we also added a empty medium on top to give the bees room. Hope this was an okay move.
Cottage hive: Again made two new hive locations. The cottage hive consisted on two deeps with 3 mediums on top, so the threeway split was into deeps. During the previous inspection I saw a swarm cup on one frame, with an egg in it, and two supercedure/swarm cells on another frame. When we opened the brood, Jessica again saw the queen quickly (blond/black strips). It was good to see her as she's been such a good egg layer. The deep frame was put in a new deep box and placed on the hive stand furthest east (on the plastic table). We then start to divide up the brood between the three hives but found a distinct absence of eggs!!! I guess the old queen had stopped laying, so as to slim down for her impending swarm flight. Not sure if that was a good sign or not but it was a problem to make sure we had eggs in the hives for new queens. Jessica eventually found some (hopefully) and we convinced ourselves (hopefully) that the swarm cups also had eggs in. These we split between the queenless two hives. I can't remember if we also put eggs in with the old queen. Hopefully we did as it seemed clear that she'd stopped laying. Also worried that the eggs might be too old to make queens.... I have it in my mind that eggs need to be a day or so old to be transformed into queens. Anyway, the swarm cups should be okay anyway.... Gave each hive a deep frame of honey and added empty frames to make up the remainder. Also put medium boxes on all the hives and interspersed with honey frames. 4 or so in each hive separated with empty frame. Worried that the hive with the queen needed more space, so also added a medium on top full of empty frames. Not sure if we handled the hive with the old queen in properly as she wasn't laying anymore, so perhaps we shouldn't have loaded this hive up with quite as much honey.... perhaps she
2/21 Inspected the hive at AL:
The farm hive or feisty hive is still very damp. The order of boxes from the previous inspection was MMDMM. The bees had essentially left the two lower mediums and moved up into the deep, which was full of about 5 or 6 frames of brood. Still some brood in the lower mediums but some had died. I spaced them two much last inspection. Won't do that again.
The cottage hive was dry, in the sun, and full of bees. The boxes were: DDMMM. The bees had moved up into the second deep, which was full of brood. Noticed one new queen cup that seemed to have an egg in it. Also saw 3 supercedure cells. This hive is getting ready to swarm. Exchanged the deeps to put the one with the brood at the bottom.
2/17 Inspected the hive in the backyard. Added two empty drawn frames within the brood of the second medium and added an empty (no comb either) frame within the brood on the bottom medium.
2/16 Noticed Lauren's almond tree was in bloom and had perhaps been like that for a couple of days. Last year, Jessica noticed the almond tree in bloom on the 9th February, so this year we are maybe a week behind. Still have not seen any drones. Last year during an inspection we saw lots of drones on the 5th... maybe this year there are hiding inside the hive...
2/9 added an empty box to the cottage hive
2/8 added a box to the cottage hive
2/6 inspected the cottage hive
2/5 SUnday - inspected the hive in the back yard and the fiesty hive at AL
2/24 It was the last warm day before a week of cooler weather. Did three way splits on the backyard hive and the AL cottage hive. This was a preemptive attempt to stop any swarming as past experience has shown that opening the brood nest does't seem to work so well. Also saw the starts of queen cups (with eggs in) in the cottage hive... Our main worry was doing the splits too early, as there are still no drones flying, although we saw drones inside both hives that we split today.
Backyard hive: Made two new hive stands out of blocks and placed screen bottom boards on them, so a total of three hives, including the original spot. Before splitting, the backyard hive consisted of 4 medium boxes; the bottom two containing brood. On opening the brood Jessica immediately spotted the queen (a black one) and we put her in a new medium box set it on the hive location nearest the lemon tree. We then divided the remaining brood between the three hives, with about 4 or 5 frames of brood going in all the hives. There were a good amount of eggs, larvae, and capped brood to go everywhere. Added honey frames that were in the upper two medium supers to make up the eight frames. On the hive with the old queen we also added a empty medium on top to give the bees room. Hope this was an okay move.
Cottage hive: Again made two new hive locations. The cottage hive consisted on two deeps with 3 mediums on top, so the threeway split was into deeps. During the previous inspection I saw a swarm cup on one frame, with an egg in it, and two supercedure/swarm cells on another frame. When we opened the brood, Jessica again saw the queen quickly (blond/black strips). It was good to see her as she's been such a good egg layer. The deep frame was put in a new deep box and placed on the hive stand furthest east (on the plastic table). We then start to divide up the brood between the three hives but found a distinct absence of eggs!!! I guess the old queen had stopped laying, so as to slim down for her impending swarm flight. Not sure if that was a good sign or not but it was a problem to make sure we had eggs in the hives for new queens. Jessica eventually found some (hopefully) and we convinced ourselves (hopefully) that the swarm cups also had eggs in. These we split between the queenless two hives. I can't remember if we also put eggs in with the old queen. Hopefully we did as it seemed clear that she'd stopped laying. Also worried that the eggs might be too old to make queens.... I have it in my mind that eggs need to be a day or so old to be transformed into queens. Anyway, the swarm cups should be okay anyway.... Gave each hive a deep frame of honey and added empty frames to make up the remainder. Also put medium boxes on all the hives and interspersed with honey frames. 4 or so in each hive separated with empty frame. Worried that the hive with the queen needed more space, so also added a medium on top full of empty frames. Not sure if we handled the hive with the old queen in properly as she wasn't laying anymore, so perhaps we shouldn't have loaded this hive up with quite as much honey.... perhaps she
2/21 Inspected the hive at AL:
The farm hive or feisty hive is still very damp. The order of boxes from the previous inspection was MMDMM. The bees had essentially left the two lower mediums and moved up into the deep, which was full of about 5 or 6 frames of brood. Still some brood in the lower mediums but some had died. I spaced them two much last inspection. Won't do that again.
The cottage hive was dry, in the sun, and full of bees. The boxes were: DDMMM. The bees had moved up into the second deep, which was full of brood. Noticed one new queen cup that seemed to have an egg in it. Also saw 3 supercedure cells. This hive is getting ready to swarm. Exchanged the deeps to put the one with the brood at the bottom.
2/17 Inspected the hive in the backyard. Added two empty drawn frames within the brood of the second medium and added an empty (no comb either) frame within the brood on the bottom medium.
2/16 Noticed Lauren's almond tree was in bloom and had perhaps been like that for a couple of days. Last year, Jessica noticed the almond tree in bloom on the 9th February, so this year we are maybe a week behind. Still have not seen any drones. Last year during an inspection we saw lots of drones on the 5th... maybe this year there are hiding inside the hive...
2/9 added an empty box to the cottage hive
2/8 added a box to the cottage hive
2/6 inspected the cottage hive
2/5 SUnday - inspected the hive in the back yard and the fiesty hive at AL
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