Hornets

I haven't blogged recently because I have had very little to say, but an article in the Mendip Times recently caught my attention. In the November edition, Chris Sperring wrote "Sting in the Tail" about European hornets. Apparently there has been a huge increase in these insects in Somerset in the last two summers. I can (somewhat unscientifically) corroborate this as I have seen three (one in our office and two somewhat alarmingly in our house) earlier this month, despite never having noticed them even in our garden before now.

The article was actually quite reassuring as apparently hornets are not aggressive at all (unless you are close to their nest) and are in fact the "gentle giant" of the wasp world. Has anyone else noticed an increase in hornets, and, do they pose a threat to our bees like wasps do in terms of robbing? The article states that 40 Asian / Japanese Giant Hornets (a non native species and not in UK) can kill 30,000 European Honey bees but makes no mention of the likely behaviour of the European hornet.

Feeding time is over...

The bees have finally stopped feeding. Or at least, I think they have... Liam checked the feeder over the weekend and the remaining sugar syrup had crystallized in the feeder. I am not sure if this is because the temperature caused it to do so, or because the bees were no longer feeding/moving it around. Either way, Liam was unable to lift the hive when he "hefted" it and so we have to assume they had taken enough. I believe there may be the option of giving them candy over the winter months if they look like needing it. I am trying to disturb them as little as possible so have not actually looked inside the hives at their stores for some time.

We have replaced the eke and the apiguard but this is really window dressing. I am not sure it will be doing anything in these temperatures?

On Friday this year's Beekeeping Course for beginners begins, so I will be returning to that and can no doubt ask all these questions there!

Still feeding...

Just a quick post to say that my bees are still feeding - we have now fed 2.5 gallons and it is still going down nicely.

I have also had to have my camera cleaned because it was covered in propolis but that's another story!

Feeding frenzy?

Slight panic over the weekend. We checked the bees last week to see how much syrup had been taken down after our faux-pas with the feeder. And the answer? None (again!) We drizzled more over them, around the opening in the crown board and poured some over the seams of bees. Still no interest. Robin then came around with a feeder made to his own design. Apparently, our eke was putting too great a distance between bees and feeder.

We were using the eke (made so proudly by Liam!) because of the apiguard and have now removed this, cellophaned it and will put back on once the feeding is complete. (Thank you for your comments by the way - this has reassured me that feeding should take precedence over the varroa for now).

Anyway, the new feeder has had an instant result. We put the feeder on around lunchtime on thursday and by the time we left for a weekend away at around 6 that evening, all of the syrup had gone and we had refilled it with another gallon of syrup. On our return on Sunday evening, they had finished all of that and so we refilled again this morning. (I will ask Robin if I can post a photo as we will definitely try to reproduce this for ourselves next year).

Now I am just waiting to see how much syrup the bees will take down. So far, we have fed 1.5 gallons.

Schoolboy error (or errors)

Hmm, a day after we put the feeder on, we couldnt resist going to see how much our diligent bees would have consumed.

As we lifted the roof, they continued in their extremely drowsy meanderings without paying us the least attention. NO syrup had been consumed, and we eventually concluded that we must have positioned the feeder incorrectly - misaligning it with the hole in the crownboard. It is now adjusted, we drizzled a bit over the top of the brood chamber to let them know it is there, and we will try and check it before the weekend.

And now for the second error... I was rereading Gerald Fisher's chapter on putting the bees to bed and he explains a little bit about the way Apiguard works. Apparently the thymol evaporates and is heavier than air. This means that it sinks to the bottom of the hive - and why you need either to have a solid floor - or have your tray in... Needless to say we dont (we had taken it out after the 2nd varroa check). So, does this render the first 4-5 days of treatment pointless and can we just get away with sticking the tray back in sharpish?!

Another varroa test and a first attempt to feed...

I am sorry that it has been so long since my last post. In the last few weeks of August with the danger of swarming past, I decided to leave well alone for 2-3 weeks. In the meantime I attended a talk with Frome beekeepers given by Robin on recycling wax. This was excellent and I hope to be able to get some spare wax to start experimenting!

After the talk I got chatting with some of the other members about how and when to feed. Apparently, in this area, it is a good plan to feed before the ivy comes out as otherwise the bees can get too distracted and not take up enough syrup. I therefore put my order in for sugar in bulk - and now have a 25kilo sack sitting in the kitchen.

Liam and I then did one full inspection, and noted down the amount of stores on each frame. We calculated that the bees have 9 pounds worth of stores in the hive - and understand that they need at least 40 to get through the winter.

Before feeding, however, I decided to review the varroa count again. This time I did it for 7.5 days and got 38 mites. According to Defra this calls for light control. We have therefore constructed an eke (OK, Liam constructed an eke) and have decided to treat and feed at the same time.

Varroa Count Results

Four days after putting the insert in, we removed it and put it on our patio table to inspect in the sunlight.

With the help of Ted Hooper and the Defra leaflet, we counted just 10 still varroa mites, but the board was also covered with two or three types of other, smaller, moving insects. From the Defra pictures, I dont think that the largest of these was Braula coeca (?) because it was considerably smaller than the Varroa. It looked like a little red spider but there were literally hundreds of them scurrying all over the board.

The next size down was really too small for detailed observation to the naked eye. It just looked like little brown specs moving around. I am hoping these were Melittiphis?

We have decided not to worry about these for the time being... Instead, we divided 10 varroa mites by 4 days to get a daily mite drop of 2.5. According to Defra, that figure for this time of year means that control is not yet required. We will do a first icing sugar dust at our next inspection and see how the bees react and in the meantime have asked Norman for his advice. Now I just have to dispose of the sticky paper - yuk!

Varroa check (finally)

Emails from David from Frome beekeeping division about purchasing Apiguard have made me assemble a homemade varroa floor insert.

Our hive originally had a solid floor, and Robin made it into a varroa floor for us by turning it round, putting the brood chamber on top of a mesh floor with the solid floor underneath. We then blocked off the "rear" opening with a piece of wood that can also be removed to slide in an insert. (Robin, apologies, I have explained this appallingly).

DEFRA's very useful leaflet explained that I needed an insert with sticky paper. So, one IKEA slim chopping board later, with sticky paper from the kitchen shop glued on and secured with much muttering and elastic bands we have a bona fide varroa insert.... Well, it will do for now...

I put this in the hive on Tuesday and will give it 3 days before removing and counting. I was quite suprised (not sure why) at all the debris already underneath. I don't think I had thought about it before and now need to work out how I will clean this old debris without disturbing the bees.

I really, REALLY hope there is little or no varroa, as rereading David's email I note we had to let him know about the Apiguard before end of July...

Belated Update

I didn't post last week because my husband did the weekly inspection with his mother. I think we may have persuaded her to take up beekeeping if she can find a friend to do it with her... Liam reported that everything seemed OK, a few half super frames were drawn out and he moved them along a bit to encourage the bees to keep up the good work.

We both then did an inspection on Monday taking advantage of a (very) brief lull in the rain. I couldnt believe how drowsy the bees were. It was not until we had inspected the 5th brood frame that they seemed to realise anything was going on. It was very strange and almost too calm.

I managed to spot the Queen first for the first time (normally Liam manages this - after excitedly spotting about 4 drones or "potential" Queens...) and also managed to get the camera totally covered in Propolis. On the plus side, eggs, sealed and unsealed brood were very much in evidence although definitely fewer eggs than on previous checks.

There was some more activity in the Super with 4 "half" frames now drawn out (rather pathetically shown on photo). Again, we moved them further out leaving new, undrawn frames above the heat of the brood nest to soften. We still have not put the Queen excluder on as very few bees (never mind the Queen) seem to show the slightest interest in going up there!

Rain, rain and more rain

Still no interest in the Super from the bees apart from them chewing more holes in it. I eventually rang my bee mentor, Norman to ask him how I can get them to start drawing out the wax foundation.

He thinks the problem may be weather related. The bees dont need to draw out the foundation in the Super as they have nothing to put in it. There is nothing to put in it because the rain means they are not flying and there is not much nectar. They are nibbling the foundation because they are then taking the wax down into the brood chamber to store. This all sounds quite plausible, especially as we noticed in our inspection on Monday that the stores have reduced slightly in the brood chamber which does seem to confirm that they are using these up.

Apparently we could pour some syrup over the frames to encourage them to come up, clean it off and then draw the wax out. I am not sure if we will do this yet - perhaps if we have a run of clear weather.

We never actually expected any honey this year, we are just being greedy! Although it would be nice to go into next year with the super frames ready drawn so we can have a head start.

I still havent done a varroa check - but I have at least read the varroa leaflet that Robin brought round and I have bought some sticky paper. If it could just stop raining for long enough for me to put my bee suit on I might actually get out and do it!

Two more bee blogs. One is in the Daily Telegraph Gardening section - they have now created a whole beekeeping section - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/beekeeping/
I particularly like this one as Ian Douglas also started out with a nucleus in June.

The other is the Farming Today bee blog - http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/radio4/the_farming_today_bees/ which is also good although I suspect the real beekeeping is being done by others behind the scenes!

Not so busy bees

The almost constant rain has meant we haven't been near the bees since putting the Super on and I was expecting to find that a few frames would be nicely drawn out by now. Instead, on removing the crown board a pitiful number of bees were in the super, and not one single frame has been drawn out. In fact, there are several holes in a few of the frames where it looks as if the bees have been nibbling at the foundation.

Why???? Admittedly, when we put the super on, I managed to drop quite a few of the frames - did this damage them in some way and the bees are voicing their concern? Or can they just not be bothered? Is it the effect of ten days of rain?

We need to do a proper inspection this afternoon (assuming the rain stops) so at least we can check that all is normal in the brood chamber.

One last thing - I have found another bee blog - http://beehivejive.wordpress.com/
Not sure how often it is updated but another beginner!

Adding the Super

On checking the bees on Monday, we found that they had drawn out and used almost every brood frame and were clearly desperate for some more work to do. This presented a slight problem as the Super was still sitting (in bits) on our kitchen table.

Liam got to work with the Super and I did the frames. Despite getting bits upside down, the wrong nails and many varied sets of instructions on the internet, a super with 11 frames (of sorts) was ready and put on top of the brood chamber on Tuesday.

Putting in the castellated spacers
Robin had recommended castellated spacers - which should make it easier to check and move the super frames.







Checking the frame fits!

Very busy bees

After a busy weekend away, we inspected the bees at around 5pm on Monday. Again, it was noticeable that the later the hour, the more bees were in the hive.

On removing the crown board (see picture on left) we could see that the bees had once again been very active with the bridge comb, but, more productively, had drawn out all but two of the frames we added.

We inspected each frame and found eggs, larvae and sealed brood as well as an abundance of nectar. The brood pattern (the way in which the brood is arranged) was good with most cells sealed.

The only oddity was that we noticed a "W" pattern of unsealed cells on a couple of frames (see right). We then realised that this must be where the wire of the frames is present. I dont know why they objected to this on just a few of the frames but it was definitely visible.

We didnt spot the Queen but there were definitely fresh eggs so no worries there. I also remembered to measure the floor to make a DIY varroa board... Next inspection will be Sunday - Liam is convinced we will need to put the Super on and has laid it all out ready to assemble on the dining table. I wonder how long it will stay like that?

Quick Update...

Today has been a bit manic and we ended up checking the hive at 5pm rather than at lunchtime. There was quite a big difference with far more bees in the hive. Liam managed to spot the Queen. I am not sure if I am just very blind or if it is because I am the one always holding the frame... I did manage to spot a quantity of fluffy new bees, however, which were quite cute. Once agian we removed a profusion of bridge comb (still havent managed to find out why so much).

We then checked the frames we had turned and both sides of the foundation are now beautifully drawn out. We are going away this weekend and we took the decision to add four new frames - two on each side of the brood nest - instead of two, as we were worried they might run out of space. Not sure if that was the right thing to do, (although we saw plenty of bees already on the extra frames behind the dummy board anyway) but time will tell.

Next inspection on Monday and I am determined to remember to measure the opening at the back of the hive so that I can do a varroa check.

1st unsupervised hive manipulation - and the Queen is alive!

Although we had spent the last 3 days looking forward to Sunday, as we put our suits on we realised that this was actually the first time we had manipulated the bees on our own. This prompted a slightly greater emphasis being put on lighting the smoker - and more importantly, keeping it lit...

Liam did a fantastic job using a combination of dried grass and rotten wood picked up on dog walks so hopefully we now have this side of things sorted.

The bees were extremely well behaved and allowed us to inspect them with no problems. The new frames had been beautifully drawn out on one side and we reversed them as planned. We found lots of eggs and larvae and plenty of sealed brood. The only thing that looked slightly unusual (to our very untrained eyes) was the presence of some partially sealed brood - I dont know if we had disturbed the bees who might have been still working on it or whether this is not uncommon but we both noticed one of two cells where capping had definitely started but seemed to have been abandoned leaving larvae exposed.

Liam spotted the Queen - thank goodness... I was worried that we had inadvertently killed her... We then cleared off quite a lot of brace comb which was hanging off the bottom of the frames, closed up, and left it on top of the hive for the bees to clean up.
The plan is now to add another two or possibly 3 frames on Wednesday and then reverse them on Monday.

Just waiting for Sunday...

Have just gone out and bought Ted Hooper's book as I dont think I can keep my library copy out for much longer...
Unashamedly spent at least quarter of an hour going through all the beebooks in the Hunting Raven Bookshop to pick up any nuggets of wisdom. One book had quite a good section on how to light a smoker - newspaper, (puff) pine needles (puff), more pine needles (more puffing) and finally rotten wood (keep puffing at intervals). Question: It is summer, where do I get dried pine needles from?!

B-day - Rehoming the bees & marking the Queen

Yesterday was a wash out - rainy and cold and I didnt want to risk disturbing the bees. Instead I did my best to practice lighting the smoker - and failed dismally.

Robin arrived at 2pm this afternoon and we went straight out to try and find the Queen. Liam appeared to light the smoker effortlessly - although I felt slightly better when it fizzled out ten minutes later.

On lifting the crown board of the nucleus hive, it was obvious that the bees were desperate for more space. There were eggs in several frames and nearly all frames contained large expanses of sealed brood as well as honey. We went through the frames one by one initially with no success, but on coming back through the second time, Robin spotted the Queen. After a few false starts, I was able to manoeuvre her into a small tube capped with a piece of cork which we put down whilst transferring the rest of the colony into the main hive.

Rather than putting the nucleus frames in the middle of a full set of frames as I had expected, we added one new frame full of foundation to either side of the nucleus, and then added the dummy board. We now need to check their progress on Sunday - if they have drawn out one side of each of the frames, then we can turn them round before adding another frame each side at the next inspection.

Back in the house, I realised fairly swiftly that I wasnt going to be able to hold the Queen. Even though I knew she couldnt sting me, I was too worried I might inadvertently squash her wings or legs. Instead, Robin held her and I was able to quickly snip at her wings.

We then returned her to the tube which had a cork on a plunger at one end, and a cap like a grid at the other. Marking her took several attempts as she refused to stay still and the paint kept drying on the end of the matchstick I was trying to mark her with. She is now marked on her thorax with a rusty orange paint on the grounds that she is a) a swarm Queen and we dont know her age and b) it was all Robin had...

Once marked, we took her back to the hive. The foundation had been so well drawn out by the bees that it was very difficult to find a gap to "plunge" her down into once the grid cap was removed. I did my best but she seemed to go down onto the comb very slowly and was quickly surrounded by workers. We are concerned they may have smelt me on her and possibly "balled" her. This is another reason to check on Sunday for the presence of eggs so we can see if she is OK...



Accidents to the Queen dont seem to be that uncommon - when I emailed Norman my designated bee "mentor" about today he wished me luck and then went on to say not to worry in case of "problems" with the Queen - Donald from Frome division is apparently raising Queens for this purpose!

Fingers crossed for Sunday...

Day 2 - Checking the new arrivals

Although both Liam and I kept going and looking at the bees at intervals yesterday and this morning, neither of us had actually put our bee suits on and gone and had a proper look close up.
Mindful of Robin's advice to check the bees were finding their way back and bringing in pollen, I decided to go and make sure.

The first thing I noticed was how loud the hum was - maybe because it is such a small hive, you can hear it more? I also saw that although not every bee was bringing back pollen, some were returning absolutely loaded down - which I think you can see in the photo.

Lastly, sods law, the area which Liam and I had painstakingly cleared to give the bees a good direct flight path over the neighbouring field is being completely ignored. Instead, the bees are flying behind the hive, and up between a very overgrown hazel hedge and a copper beech (it must be a gap of all of 3 feet). It doesnt matter - at least they are flying up and out of the way of anyone who might walk along the road behind, but it does mean that we pollarded at least 8 foot of hedge for absolutely no reason!!

The apiary

The apiary site in our back garden.

The nucleus hive is on the blocks, the main (empty) hive is sitting for the time being on a pallet alongside it.

Day One - Nucleus Hive in Place

Yesterday, Liam and I went over to Robin's - our friendly bee "supplier" and chose between two nuclei.

One was a swarm from Warminster, the other reared from a Queen Cell from one of Robin's own hives. I was really tempted to go for the latter option, Robin seems to rear incredibly placid bees, but he recommended the swarm as they had already drawn out all their comb and were laying better. We went with his recommendation and went home leaving him to close them up later that evening.

This morning Robin arrived with a nucleus hive, and the hive we are buying off him second hand. He has made most of it himself, including my particular favourite - a crown board with glass in so you can observe what is happening underneath...

The whole operation only took 5 minutes - I put the nucleus down on our makeshift hive stand (8 concrete slabs facing our neighbouring field) and Robin put on the nucleus roof and pulled out the fabric "stopper" from the nucleus hive entrance. Seconds later, bees tumbled out and started flying around.

Needless to say my camera is dead so I am charging it as I type but I hope to take some photos later on. All I need to do (apparently) is check on them from afar to see if they are flying back to the nucleus hive, bringing in pollen and generally seem OK (!?) Robin will then come back on Thursday to help Liam and I transfer them to the hive proper and maybe (hopefully) clip and mark the Queen.

I seem to have become a beekeeper!