Freecycle Thanks

I was lucky enough to spot a post on Freecycle offering a Solar Wax Extractor near Bristol. Beekeeping equipment only ever seems to appear as a "wanted" item, so I jumped at the opportunity.

Despite lots of interest, Lyn very kindly offered us her extractor, handmade by an expert beekeeper in her district.

It is now in situ and we look forward to using it! I really want to be able to make candles and this will help me collect the wax from old frames much more easily. Many thanks again...

Still no Queen Cells

Another full inspection reveals no Queen cells (I think) but a few open drone brood cells that look a bit like Queen cups because of their size. No eggs or larvae were in any of them, and the Queen is still in the hive (and moving towards the right hand side of the picture).

I think I will try and have a look at a few pictures of Queen cups / Queen cells to give me more confidence...

2nd super is completely empty of bees let alone drawn out comb - maybe we were a tad premature! Still no capped honey in the first super either.

I also looked at the varroa tray - I counted about 8 mites over a week but in all honesty, there was so much rubbish on there I dont think this was even vaguely accurate. Will try again and do a two or three day check.

Robin and some of the other Frome beekeepers are reporting Queen Cells in their hives, so I will try and be extra vigilant and do the next inspection on thursday.

Taken by suprise

At our last inspection we were surprised by how full the super was. This is heady stuff - starting in June as we did last year, we had no honey and a super full of barely drawn out foundation at the end of the season. Now we are into new territory - a super I can hardly lift and frames dripping with the runny stuff!

Although none of the frames are sealed, we decided to add another super to try and keep ahead of the bees. Not sure if this is the right thing to do, but we can't bear the thought of missing any honey! The hive looks different to normal because I decided to clean the old hive and moved all of the frames into this second, new hive. At my next full inspection (tomorrow), I will swap back and leave the new hive for our future (fingers crossed) second colony.

I have a nasty feeling this is oil seed rape honey as we can see a few fields of rape from our windows. In which case, we will have to be finding out about borrowing an extractor asap - not to mention saving as many jars as possible.

Picture of a hive

I finally got round to doing the brood box inspection with Liam as I just didnt have the strength to prise some of the frames apart. Fingers crossed, everything seems OK. We saw the Queen and a full complement of stores, capped and uncapped brood and eggs - both standing up and lying down.

It seems a shame somehow to be wishing for Queen Cells so that we can go ahead and start stage two of splitting the hive but that is what we are now watching and waiting for...

But until this happens, inspections will continue as normal. Below are my notes (probably not very interesting) as to what we found on each frame - and what I need to remember to do next time!

1. Stores on both sides
2. Stores on both sides
3. Stores on both sides
4. Stores on one side, 80% eggs on the other
5. Mixture sealed and unsealed brood, eggs
6. Mixture sealed and unsealed brood, eggs
7. Unsealed brood
8. Mixture sealed and unsealed brood, eggs
9. Queen (!) eggs, a few drone cells
10. Stores on both sides
11. Stores on both sides

Next time: Insert varroa tray, bring icing sugar, maybe new brood box so we can swap over and clean the old one?

Supers are needed

Have just done a quick check to see if the bees have gone up into the supers since I took off the Queen exluder. The Queen has definitely been up - two frames had eggs in and I have removed these. I will leave the frames outside for 24 hours so that the eggs die (I wonder if that is because of temperature or lack of food?) and then I will put them back for the bees to clean out and fill.

Some of the other frames are filling nicely with pollen and nectar - others are still barely drawn out. Still, it's a start.

The problem is that although the Queen must have been there today, I couldnt see her. And there werent THAT many bees to make me think I had just not spotted her. So fingers crossed, she had gone down into the brood chamber when I opened the hive as the other scenario (squashed or lost Queen?) doesnt bear thinking about. I did put the the excluder back on and tomorrow I will do a brood box inspection. Yesterday's post somehow seems a lot less funny!

Funny Post

I have just read Ian Douglas' Daily Telegraph Beekeeping Diary.

I feel so much better about my not having a clue! The phrase that made me really laugh out loud was "I'm left with my hopes pinned to a possibly non-existent virgin queen" - read it and weep! (Or smile...Fingers crossed for him)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/beekeeping/7581209/Beekeeping-diary-smoking-out-hopes-for-a-new-queen.html

Long live the Queen

Finally, on Easter Monday, the sun shone long enough for us to do our first full on bee inspection of the year. Prising the frames apart was a major undertaking - the bees had well and truly stuck them together. Just to make things even more difficult, there was brace comb on the ends of each and every frame and at the bottom of the hive as well.

We laboriously unprised each frame and checked them over. They were literally dripping with honey. In fact, we took some of the brace comb from the frames round to our neighbour's for dinner as there was even honey stored in these. We estimated that 4 or so frames were full of stores. Perhaps another 4 were full of brood in various stages, and one frame had eggs.

I was disappointed that we couldnt see more eggs - but as there was so much brood, I won't worry too much (yet). The big news of the day though was undoubtedly the fact that we spotted the Queen. She is the same as last year (our swarm queen), is still marked, and I am pleased that she is still Queen Bee as I think she has a very good temperament.

Having said this, Liam got stung on his thumb, and I was stung on the leg. However, I think this is fair enough given the amount of disturbance we put them to - and all without a smoker. (We tried - it went out...as always.)

I also removed the Queen Excluder and rearranged the Super frames as I had intended. Needless to say hardly any bees were in the super. Maybe it is just too early. Still - it is there if they need it.

I will take the varroa insert out later on and do a count for 2 days - and then do another one. Someone pointed out to me it is easier to count fewer mites twice rather than try and distinguish loads of them all in one go. I shall give it a go!