Today I checked on the new queens and could see the bees reacting positively to her. So positively that I opened the cages and let the new queens walk onto the frames. Great to see the bees start to groom and feed her.
Loen Honey Blog
Decided to buy in a few new queens. The benefit of this is hopefully, good genetics. Nice calm termperament, disease resistant and hopefully not so keen on swarming. The queens are now in the hives but kept safe in little cages so as the bees don't kill the newly introduced queen.
Three hives, all very strong are looking to swarm. This is the bees natural means of reproduction but as a beekeeper, I do my utmost to prevent it. So today I have split a couple of the hives and removed the queens looking to swarm from the original hives. Now need to go through and take down all the new queen cells bar one. That way, just one new queen means they won't swarm - unless I miss a queen cell of course.
The last month has seen rapid expansion in bee numbers within the colonies and now several of the hives are looking to swarm. Now to try and prevent them absconding...
First inspection this year and all the hives are expanding nicely. All queens have survived the winter and lots of young brood.
All hives have now been treated for varroa to help ensure the bees are healthy for winter. Reassuringly, over the last couple of weeks, they have all gained a lot of weight, so plenty of stores to keep them well fed over winter.
It's mid August and I have just taken off the last honey for this year, two weeks earlier than usual. Why? The hives are lighter now than they were two weeks ago. All the dry weather has reduced the amount of forage and the bees need to collect enough stores for winter. So, I am now leaving any remaining honey for the bees.
A first for me today. Spent a couple of hours, inspecting two hives. Two large hives and inspected every box on the hives, removing three boxes which were full of honey. This involved brushing all the bees off the frames so lots of bees flying around in the process. Imagine my surprise / disbelief when I finished and went to unzip the hood of my beesuit, only to find I had forgotten to zip it up. My hood had been unzipped / open, the whole time and no stings!
The honey boxes are now so heavy I needed help to lift them off the hives this morning. All worth it though when you see lots of capped honey, ready to eat! Now just need to get the frames in the spinner to spin out all the honey ready to jar.
The nectar is coming in fast and the honey boxes are beginning to get very heavy. Just waiting for the bees to ripen the honey by removing moisture from it. You can hear a loud hum coming from the hives in the evening as the bees fan the honey to remove the moisture.
We are now in peak swarm season, so every hive is inspected weekly to check for any signs the colony may be looking to swarm. I look for new queen cells in the brood box and if it looks like they may be making plans then I need to split the hive, removing the existing queen to try and thwart their plans.
All the hives have survived the winter and are now rapidly expanding in numbers as the weather improves. Nectar is starting to be collected and honey boxes added to some of the stronger hives. The first inspection is to check for any disease, ensure they have plenty of food in the hive and that the queen is laying.
The bees are now well into their winter preparations. The numbers in the hive are reducing and the ladies are throwing out the men! All male bees die in autumn as the workers throw them out of the hives. They are not needed over winter as they don't perform any work in the hive and so they are surplus to requirements. I am currently treating all hives for 'varroa' which is a small mite found in most hives. This will ensure a strong and healthy colony going into winter.
Well, the honey is now all off the hives and any nectar collected by the bees now, they will keep for themselves to feed on over winter.
All the hives are now super heavy as they are busy collecting nectar from all the summer flowers. Each honey box can weigh aroun 20kg, so my back is aching from all the lifting. Swarming season is now pretty much over and the hives are actually beginning to make winter prep by storing more honey down in the brood box. Fingers crossed for continued dry weather so they can get out to collect.
The hives are now at their largest with around 60,000 bees in each hive. The honey is now coming in fast and all the bees are super busy bringing in nectar and ripening the honey!
I am usually lucky and only suffer a few stings each year but it is an occupational hazard and today a poor bee got caught on my wrist and I very quickly knew about it. The colony concerned have been expanding rapidly and have significantly increased in numbers. One of my main tasks at this time of year is to manage the amount of space given to the bees. Too much and they cant keep it warm, too little and they will swarm and I lose half the bees.
A sunny day and the bees are all flying. It's still too early to open them up but they are now starting to increase their numbers ready for spring and summer. It's important to check they have sufficient food at this time of year, as they haven't been able to forage for food since the autumn and stores may be low. I have given a couple of hives some extra food where the hives were light.
It's now too cold to open up and inspect inside the hives. Over the winter, the bees will cluster together to keep warm within the hive, eating the honey they have stored. My job now is to keep an eye on the weight of each hive, to ensure they have enough stores of honey to keep them fed until the spring. Two of my hives are a little light and so they are being fed a sugar syrup (mix of sugar and water) so they can bulk up their food stores.
As the season draws to a close, most of the winter preparations are now complete. All the honey has been harvested, including some Heather honey. The bees are now preparing for winter. Part of this is that they will throw out all the drones (male bees.) The drones do not contribute to the work in the hive and will of course consume food stores, so they are thrown out and left to die. Come next April, May, the queen will lay drone eggs, and so young drones will be produced to mate with new young queens.
This year's crop is definitely going to be down on last year. I am now just hoping that the Heather which is flowering now, will bring in a decent crop of honey. The reason seems to be that the very dry April has affected summer flowering and so there has been limited nectar for the bees to collect.
The last couple of weeks should have seen the supers filling quickly, but unfortunately it's just not happening. The colonies are strong, with lots of bees, but little nectar being brought in.
Today I have been able to remove a few 'supers.' These are the boxes of frames we put on the hives for the bees to fill with honey. Each one contains 10 frames and when full, the super can easily weigh over 25lb. Very heavy to lift off the top of a beehive!
Was removing some queen cells from a hive today. As I removed one, I saw the queen inside was almost ready to emerge. Put the queen cell in my queen catcher and within about 15 minutes, she had chewed her way out of the cell, a perfect newly emerged queen. Even better, I was able to quickly make up a small queenless colony and put her straight onto one of the frames. What a lovely sight to see the bees immediately start feeding and grooming her. So I now have an unexpected new colony and another queen to name..
Checked on Queen Victoria's hive today and just in time it turns out, as I found about a dozen swarm cells. Thankfully, I also spotted Victoria, so she was promptly moved out of the hive and action taken to prevent the hive from swarming. Had they been left a couple more days I would have lost Victoria and possibly around 40% or more of her bees. A lucky find.
Had a surprise when inspecting Queen Betty's hive today. Betty's bees are the gentlest, most docile colony and so I have let Betty grow old, now over 3 years old, because of her temperament. On the thrid frame in I spotted a queen and it wasnt Betty. Betty had a coloured spot on her - painted on by me, so I knew this queen was not her. Carrying on through the hive, I found just one open queen cell, so it turns out the bees had decided Betty was past her best and raised a new queen. I now just hope that Queen Beatrice's daughters are as gentle as her mother's.
Every year I put a bait box up in the garden and this week I had a swarm move in. I will keep them away from my other hives for a few weeks just to check they are not carrying any disease and will also medicate them for varroa. The queen is likely a virgin, but the weather is good for mating, so I will hopefully see brood in the next couple of weeks.
Looking good.. all colonies are expanding in numbers and our Rowan tree is literally humming with the sound of the bees collecting the nectar. Hopefully, we should have some spring honey next month!
First look through the hives, just to check the queens came through winter and are laying lots of healthy brood. Only one hive has perished, which is due to the queen having failed over winter and not laid any spring bees. Sadly, it was time to say goodbye to Queen Sheila and her colony.
In light of the current pandemic, and despite it's natural antiseptic properties, I am taking the extra precaution of wearing nitrile gloves and full face mask when jarring honey.
Right now, the bees will all be clustered together in the hive to keep warm. Now is the time I give them a winter treatment for varroa. This is a small mite which can ulitmately kill the bees and therefore it is important to treat. Treatment is only carried out when there is no honey in the hive, other than what is there for the bees to eat.