BBKA Forum

NigelP wrote: ↑

23 Jul 2019, 07:31

Loaded bees at 17C at 6 AM, just finishing off a coffee and heading for the moors.

Nice one, hope it goes well

Tried my hand at wing clipping ,practiced on a nice fat drone.
Put him on the garden chair to see if he couldn't fly but he sat there sulking.
Came back with a cup of tea to find him half gone.
Just my luck
Apidea absconded
My cut out from last week is a heap of silk and waxmoth grubs so thats in a builders bucket in the freezer now.
Burnt my hand flaming the woodware.
None of hives laying.
They sting me but were happy to let a wasp in to feed.
Might try combining them all with a new bought queen and a frame from my only laying colony in one of the polynucs.
Think I might be starting from scratch again next year.............
The heat is hot.

Alfred,

If you do restart from scratch, or want to buy a new Queen, I would suggest V&L Honey / Honeybee Suppliers
https://www.honeybeesuppliers.co.uk/

They are nice people and the nuc I bought from them has been phenomenal. In the association apiary the two strongest hives have come from them as well.

Can't hurt to try!?

Sorry to hear you're having such a jobian purgatory of a time with your colonies...

Had a decent enough inspection today but just quickly, I had to take out a frame where the comb was sticking out real far, almost to the foundation of the next frame. I cut out the capped honey (first taste of honey from our colonies) and it is delicious of course.

See pic below, what should I do now?

Remove that wax/propolis build up from your flat DN4 edges...then all will fit neatly into hive again.
On inspections do the same for each frame. It's a constant battle.
Enjoy your first honey nothing ever tasted as good as your first honey.
#

Thanks Nigel,

I replaced a frame, as I tipped out that micro swarm, so gave them a decent frame out of that.

I ended up putting two shallow boxes in and sitting the frame up top. The bees have a lot of space now so how soon should I expect to be able to take the frame out?

So today's run down, inspection in order:

Colony 4 - big swarm still doing well. Brood getting capped. Nice and strong. Hopefully will build stronger. Didn't end up putting any near-emerging brood in. Also didn't add super. They still have some comb to draw on what they have.

Colony 1 - saw queen but no sign she's doing anything. I have a nice apidea queen so she will be getting replaced. Took out fat frame of honey and had a taster. Replaced that frame and another of foundation with the best two from micro swarm (3)

Colony 3 - micro swarm. End of the road. A relative wanted the queen for their apidea so collected her yesterday. I picked out the good frames and gave to colony 1. Tipped them out on the grass. Hive 3 now inactive

Colony 2 - with the oldest queen. Still going strong. I could take some brood to put in with swarm (4) but really, they'll be ready to emerge themselves next week won't they? 3 weeks?

So my questions:

1. Pretty much all of micro swarm bees marched into colony 1 - will they play nice?

2. How long does colony 1 have to be queenless before I can put apidea queen in?

3. What do I do with apidea brood frames when queen has been relocated?

On point 2 they say 4hours but so long as they're getting agitated/fiesty that's the sign they know .
I'd put her in an introduction cage and see what they do.
If there's a mass pile-on after a few hours then it's not a good sign but a few wandering across is good ,so let her go.

Jazz ASAP to remove..like tomorrow. All that open space will have them drawing wild comb like there is no tomorrow.
You can add queen again ASAP, she is a laying queen should be accepted better. Lot of different book times for queenless before adding new queen. I'll make a queenless nuc up and add caged queen as soon as nuc is made up.

NigelP wrote: ↑

25 Jul 2019, 20:27

Jazz ASAP to remove..like tomorrow. All that open space will have them drawing wild comb like there is no tomorrow.
You can add queen again ASAP, she is a laying queen should be accepted better. Lot of different book times for queenless before adding new queen. I'll make a queenless nuc up and add caged queen as soon as nuc is made up.

I'm out all day tomorrow. Will the evening, say 6pm, be OK or should I just get it now and hope they've cleared the frame up?

If I can wait, I'll stick the queen in colony one at the same time.