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General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #4361  by Japey Edge
 02 Aug 2019, 14:35
Rained heavy this morning up in Darlington. Stopped now and should be nice for the rest of the day. 19 deg and sunny is forecast for the inspection at 6pm. Feels like a very long time since the last inspection, yet it was only 8 days....
 #4362  by Chrisbarlow
 02 Aug 2019, 14:38
Japey Edge wrote:
01 Aug 2019, 18:30
AdamD wrote:
01 Aug 2019, 17:04
Cheap suits don't seem to last too well. I have recently purchased a new BJ Sherriff suit after the old one pretty much wore out after a LOT of wear over a number of years.
My £30 jacket with veil from ebay seems to be working OK, but is wearing quickly...

May have to go for these triple layered vented things - when the bees earn me something! :lol:
I have had plenty if cheap suits in the past and they dont last more than 12months. depending on the suit depends what fails first, veil, stictching, material, you name it but then once one thing starts to go, everything seems to fail.

I have had a Sherriff one for about 4years and thats been alright but its had a couple of new zips, bits cuffs stitching reinforced and a new veil, all in the last 12months.

Ive just got an oz armour, time will tell how long it lasts. a mate has had one 3-4years and is still seems fine.
 #4364  by Japey Edge
 02 Aug 2019, 19:37
Ahhhhhh today wasn't my favourite inspection...

To start with, my dislike of wasps is increasing. The other day I accompanied my neighbour in applying ant powder to a wasp nest in their soil. They've been wiped out but I still have wasps sniffing around my hives. Not surprising as I'd imagine there are a few nearby nests.

In order of inspection:

Colony 3 - Big swarm colony is being renamed evil swarm colony. They were building so fast for a week or so but seem to have just slowed down now...
This is my largest colony. Single brood, QEx and shallow super. They're filling the super but I'm feeling that there isn't a great deal of forage nearby as they seem to be just ticking over, rather than increasing stores.
Everything seemed fine. BIAS, queen spotted. They were just tetchy. Maybe the two wasps sniffing about did that, but unfortunately my single layer of nitrile gloves earned me two stings in quick succession on the same hand, resulting in my mishandling a brood frame causing bees to take to air and increase their anger.
They didn't follow me the 4 metres to the back door where my wife handed me marigolds to put under my nitriles.
Still, they're doing well

Colony 1 - single brood Abelo poly. They're building. They accepted the queen I walked in to them when they were queenless and she is clearly loving life as she's laying really well.
Plenty of pollen, stores, bee bread and I spotted the queen

Colony 2 - 6 frame Maisies poly nuc. They're fine. Big heavy on the propolis, especially with the clear rubble sack crown board. BIAS and they're still with last year's queen. Stores etc are plenty.

Mini mating hive - looked sad. No stores. Seemed really dry. Bees didn't fancy flying. I assumed disease at first but I think they were just real hungry. I cut out all three frames and fixed them to a super frame with elastic bands. I put them in the super of angry colony 3 and took out the best frame of capped honey as a reward for my stings.

I tipped the rest of the mating nuc out and retired it to the garage.

The garden apiary was very busy but seems to have calmed now. I'm possibly requeening colony 3. Probably Abelo buckfast unless others can recommend decent alternatives that don't cost over £35.
 #4401  by Japey Edge
 08 Aug 2019, 16:38
Had a walk around today. Plenty of activity.
The big colony (the swarm I picked up) with the loiterers out front baffle me. The bees that just sit out there chilling do not care about anything. A wasp landed and walked through the Abelo entrance reducer pretty cool as if he's their cousin just popping in for a bite.

I had a wasp trap at the other side of the garden but now it's on top of the hive. Until I know what better to do I'll leave it there and see what happens.
 #4402  by Chrisbarlow
 08 Aug 2019, 17:15
Varroa treatment going on lots of colonies today, MAQS. Knock em down in time for winter bees being born second week of September
 #4412  by AdamD
 09 Aug 2019, 13:05
Still taking honey off colonies - 3 colonies are very 'flighty' which are all swarms. Two now have new queens but the genetics are still there in the older bees. The third colony that is flighty seems to be fine at any other time of year and was poorly behaved at this time last year, so they will be requeened shortly - I was expecting them to re-queen themselves but the supercedure q/c was broken down. In my hive record sheet I have a space for behaviour and instead of a number they are simply marked as "Sh*ts"

I have a nuc that came about from bees from a colony that was suffering from CBPV. Looked OK with the new queen starting to lay so I left it alone. Yesterday a fresh-out virgin was scurrying around and her marked mum was gone. Maybe the virus affected her so the bees are starting again with a new queen. It's a small colony so it may need some assistance to grow before winter.

For the main colony with CBPV, there are still a few rubbish-looking shiny bees however it seems to be recovering with a young queen. Unless she is superceded as well!
 #4478  by Japey Edge
 12 Aug 2019, 23:20
AdamD wrote:
09 Aug 2019, 13:05
3 colonies are very 'flighty' which are all swarms.
Is that standard with swarms? My most 'annoying' colony is the captured swarm. Still, they're the most productive and the only one with a super on... You probably already know the story since I've banged on about it so much but they're flighty, bumpy, whiny. They let me know when they've had enough. Still, they don't follow me to the house about 15-20 feet away..
Each week I say I'll give them one more chance, maybe it's time to buy a queen in. Recommendations welcome. So far I've been told GM and Exmoor. Abelo buckfast out of stock - although I'm not fussed on breed as long as they're calm and make good amounts of honey.

In other news.. Reduced entrances on poly hives to 2-3 bee spaces. Thinking more about using that extra Abelo floor/landing space for a tunnel entrance.

Noticed in the super on one colony they have two frames about 60% capped honey so I have my eye on them for taking out before the flow ends and they start eating into it...

Have some Apitraz waiting to go on. Will look into best time for that. Of course not when I'm planning to take honey..
 #4481  by MickBBKA
 13 Aug 2019, 00:33
2 frames of 60% capped honey ? You will be lucky to fill 4 jars. Is it worth depriving the bees of £20 worth of honey ? Now all to their own but I would give them another 3 weeks and see what they fill. If they don't add a fair bit to it I would leave it on. If they make 8 or 10 frames then its worth extracting and you still have time to feed them up for winter.

Just saying ;)

Cheers, Mick.
 #4482  by Alfred
 13 Aug 2019, 07:37
[quote=
Each week I say I'll give them one more chance, maybe it's time to buy a queen in. Recommendations welcome. So far I've been told GM and Exmoor. Abelo buckfast out of stock - although I'm not fussed on breed as long as they're calm and make good amounts of honey.

[/quote]
BSHoneybees at Cheltenham are good guys .They were also out of bucks but did have carlonian last time I needed one.Ive done mail order and self collect from them and they've been great .
 #4483  by Japey Edge
 13 Aug 2019, 09:14
MickBBKA wrote:
13 Aug 2019, 00:33
2 frames of 60% capped honey ? You will be lucky to fill 4 jars. Is it worth depriving the bees of £20 worth of honey ? Now all to their own but I would give them another 3 weeks and see what they fill. If they don't add a fair bit to it I would leave it on. If they make 8 or 10 frames then its worth extracting and you still have time to feed them up for winter.

Just saying ;)

Cheers, Mick.
Only because it's my first season and ideally I'd like to get something from them to give to the family and close friends :-)

I should start doing some research on how to winter my colonies, whether to re-queen now or in Spring, and how to store frames...
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