Much and More OR a Mixed Bag!

Quite a full and varied weekend all in all.

My parents visited, we went to a wedding, I split my hive, got a call out for bees (unfortunately bumble), I built a larger pen for the fast growing chicks, I had a bait hive fill with bees, and had another bait hive full of bees stolen. Quite the roller coaster!..

A dual monarchyWhen I checked my kenyan top bar hive on tuesday I found queen cups, complete queen cups not yet with larvae. So I readied my plan! The plan was then put into action on the Saturday. I have included some video which my dad bravely (he wasn't so sure about the bees) took. I am afraid it was taken on a mobile so isn't fantastic and is limited in length.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LT7zhDC0HcE

I used a handy hint shared by Julie of Happy Hour at the Top Bar Hive, she uses push pins in her top bars as a log of what is on the bar. I have adopted the same colour coding as her:

• Yellow: Honey
• Green: Worker brood
• Blue: Drone brood
• White: Empty bar
• Red: Queen cells

This was really helpful once I had checked the bars as I could transfer them equally to each side of the new hive making sure each side had an equal split. Though my wife is rather confused as to why all her reminders are now on the dresser instead of the pin board.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLYQGzImkNI

The new hive has an entrance at each end (decorated by my children) and currently has a  divider in the middle. There are also middle entrances which enter each side of this divider. The idea is the foragers orientated to the middle entrance will split themselves 50:50 between the two new entrances. Any new bees will likely use the end entrances. If at any point one side appears as though their numbers need strengthening I can cork one of the middle entrances forcing the foragers all into one side of the hive. I also added a ecofloor to this hive

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2o4UE0Yeuw

Despite the fact I was tearing apart their brood nest and forcing them from their home the girls were extremely well behaved. So now Phoebee has a smaller kingdom and will eventually (if all goes well) be expected to rule alongside her daughter. Until then there is still plenty of summer to come (we hope) for them to build up nice strong colonies, I wonder who will be the most prolific. Phoebee has a head start, but her daughter is new blood.

Bait Hive BingoHaving returned from the hive split it became obvious that the bait hive on the roof of my shed (a national foundationless style) had a lot of activity. The activity certainly looked more like foraging than scouting. After what has felt like ages where others are reporting swarms all over the country it my at least be time for us. Spurred on, I cycled out to where I have a couple of bait hive (one kTBH and one national nuc) to check on them. The national nuc looked as though again there was some scouting. The kTBH looked... well... absent. It had been taken. This was the bait hive I caught my bees in last year, and in the same location so there is a chance people have gotten used to seeing it there. The really sad part is that is obviously had bees in it when it was moved because there were quite a few clumped on the branch looking for their hive.
There are days when I really don't like.... people.

The best-laid schemes o' bees an' beeks...

Following the inspection on Tuesday night (and some fair amount of badgering people on biobees and Phil Chandler at the course) I have decided to split my colony on Saturday, but that is not all!

NB - Please prepare yourself for a long rambling description of my thoughts on this. Get yourself a coffee, maybe a flapjack, settle in, get comfy, OR bail out now and spend the time with your family instead.

My current hive is wombled together from scrap wood and I had very little idea of what I was doing. As such I am a little concerned for its longevity. I would also like to make some modifications ie deep litter (eco) floor, redo the entrance, add additional entrances for in hive splits etc etc. My NEW hive is long.... 51 3/4" long... two colonies in one hive long :)

Originally for this hive I just thought I would put an entrance in each end and it could hold two colonies, or in the very least be used for splits, and over wintering multiple colonies. From spending too much time thinking about stuff I now think it may be an interesting experiment in a two queen kTBH. That's right TWO QUEENS, but no.. I am not mad.

Theoretically the size of the hive should allow for a brood nest located at each end with honey stores in the middle. Queens very rarely cross the honey barrier but just in case I will have two follower boards snuggly fit with queen excluder "windows". These will be placed 12 bars into the hive from each side.

So, here is the plan:
(please excuse the very bad drawing pictures will be available later)

As well as end entrances the new hive has some small entrances just under halfway on each side. This was originally to help foragers during a heavy nectar flow but it will also help here. First I move the old hive back slightly and put the new hive in its place. Any returning foragers return to the entrance position, stop to find two holes as entrances. They will (close enough) split themselves 50:50 between these holes. In the hive the two follower boards (with queen excluder windows closed) will separate the hive in two. Now I can open the old hive and split the contents between each each side in the new hive.

The central entrance on the old hive means currently the brood nest is in the middle with the comb containing drones to the outside edges of the brood nest, and comb containing nectar and honey on the far outside on both sides. The queen cups were on a few different combs within the brood nest. SO assuming 14 bars in the old hive I take the 7 bars on the left pick them up as they are and move them into the new hive on the right. Pick up the 7 bars on the right pick them up and move them to the new hive on the left. This will put the brood near the entrance and with stores towards the middle. I will quite likely have to ensure each side has a mixture of eggs and larvae an equal split of stores, but I wanted to keep the combs that were together in the old hive, together in the new hive if possible.

The side that gets the queen will continue as before, slightly weakened, but with a laying queen and a mix of brood at all stages and foragers. The side that doesn't get the queen will raise a queen using the already prepared queen cups, or raise an emergency from the eggs and larvae I give it, but will also have some foragers to help. As both sides expand they will eventually meet in the middle. The queen excluder follower boards will stop the queens meeting and I can do a standard combine in the middle. That fact that they have the same parent colony should allow for the queens pheromones to be similar. The additional centre entrances reduce the amount the foragers that have to pass through the excluders.

PROS:
Two queen systems are more productive. The higher amount of pheromone helps make the colony more productive and there is an efficiency in the colonies only requiring a certain amount of bees to keep the brood warm, thus releasing more bees for foraging.

Both colonies are "happier". The two queens worth of pheromone give the colonies the sense that they have a very strong queen keeping them calmer, and less likely to swarm.

If one colony in flagging, especially while a new queen is waiting to get mated or start laying, the other colony can take up the slack.

If either queen fails there is a spare at the other side of the hive which can be used to raise a new one.

Two colonies in a single hive will share hive warmth hopefully allowing for a more successful over wintering.

THINGS THAT MAY GO WRONG:(they "Gang aft agley" so they do)
The new colony fails to raise a queen - either combine with original colony or transfer bar with eggs to give them another chance.

The colony swarms anyway - Hopefully, there will be new queens available on each side and I will catch the old queen. If either side is too weak I can recombine at the strong end and attempt another day.

The new queen fails to mate, return from mating, one queen kills other etc - see above.

The new queen goes into the wrong side - close middle entrances before new queen emerges forcing the colonies to use the end entrances.

The colonies are SO productive (hmmm) when working together they fill the hive - I am working on supering system for the middle section of the hive for that purpose.

All in all I think it is no more risky than any other split only (because there's another queen in there) with a more easy combine or requeen if necessary.

I will try and get some video as my dad is visiting this weekend and I have already informed him he is helping. Wish me luck.

NB - The author will not accept any applications from readers for the return of the part of their life they have just wasted by reading this blog. Disgruntled readers may take solace in reviewing the next blog entry for reports of the author being stung lots or failing miserably.

Brinscall Hall Natural Beekeeping Weekend

My wife very kindly bought me a natural beekeeping course for my birthday OR as she put it go and talk to people who care. Brinscall Hall is an educational retreat not far from Chorley in Lancashire and host numerous courses. This weekend it was the turn of the Barefoot Beekeeper himself Phil Chandler.

NB - It should be noted that picture quality is not great as they were taken on a mobile phone. Please be warned due to no fault of the photographer some pictures may contain fairies.

http://brinscallhall.co.uk/

My wife managed through shear luck pick the exact course that I would have picked myself. The hives I have built have been to Phil's designs, with no mentor at hand Phil's forum has been my primary source of advice and support, and for a new beekeeper in his first spring the topic was spot on... Swarming, Splits, and raising queens.

The course covered all elements of top bar hive keeping with relation to the life cycle of the colony. Phil very helpfully looked at each possible approach from zero intervention of allowing swarming along with the possible positive and negative effects, right the through to queen rearing by grafting 80+ queen cells. Although I had my own ideas and feelings about the different ways of performing "artificial swarms" and splits etc to be able to talk them out in a group and obviously with the master himself was extremely valuable.

Unfortunately, the weather was too windy for us to open the Brinscall Hall hive and perform a split. Luckily though their hive contained a viewing window which allowed us all to have a peek inside. Despite the wind and rain the hardy little Lancashire bees were still flying and keeping busy. Phil's teaching style was extremely collaborative and conversational providing everyone with the opportunity to ask any questions about any aspects of bees and beekeeping. I found discussions on the thermodynamics of the kenyan top bar hive as a condenser brilliant, and I am extremely excited to see how Phil's new arched top bars perform. I even got the opportunity to talk with Phil about my idea for a two queen system with a long kTBH.

Brinscall hall has several top bar hives on site as well as a Warre and a few nationals. Currently just the one top bar hive in populated but I do not think it will be long before they build up their stocks. The gardens are beautiful and they have there own vegetable patches. Add to that the natural beekeeping courses and hive building classes hosted there and I think it is going to be tough keeping bees away.

I have been on plenty on courses, residential or otherwise, in my life and I was astounded at how much I both enjoyed myself and enjoyed the company of the people on the course. Everyone was so nice and although they were approaching natural beekeeping from a different direction and possibly for different reasons everyone seemed to share a feeling of purpose and responsibility. There was not one person who I wouldn't be happy to sit next to and dinner and here about their life.

Equally, the hospitality we received could not be faulted. The food was delicious and despite a vegetarian spread there was plenty of choice for everyone and the absence of meat wasn't felt by even the most ardent of meat eaters (ie me).

There were more cake supplied that any large group of people could usefully eat but we did our very best! Unfortunately, we failed to meet the challenge and some were forced to take some cake away for their long journeys home (as far as the Netherlands and Germany for two of our group).

Brinscall Hall will be hosting the Northern Gathering for Natural Beekeepers http://brinscallhall.co.uk/courses/northern-gathering-for-natural-beekeepers-august/  on Saturday 16th + Sunday 17th August this year which I am sure will be a fantastic event and if I can make it a chance to catch up with others from the course.

There was an email exchange at course end and I hope to keep in touch with the people who came and here about the exploits. Thanks everyone for memorable and extremely pleasurable weekend.

Amber particularly enjoyed the extra walks provided by Josh, the belly rubs given by Phil, and opportunity to chew on Ruth's toes. She said the bit about bees was alright too.

Lesson Learnt :(

Since the move to their new location Phoebee (she's blonde) and her daughters have been doing very well. I noticed that there was MASSIVE crop of oil seed rape (canola) coming in to flower over the road to where I keep the hive. I expanded their space upto 16 top bars (from 12, some partial) in order to give them room to expand. So much oil seed rape can be something of a mixed blessing to a new beekeeper. The colony growth curve to beekeeper learning curve don't necessarily track. As it was the weather wasn't great so they had only limited foraging opportunity keeping things steady. I then went on holiday with my wife. The weather was glorious, which was lovely for the holiday but did make me worry about the bees (please don't tell my wife that I was thinking about the bees whilst on holiday with her). With the weather as nice as it was they would easily fill the space I have left them and then some. I returned home expected to see them bursting at the seams and preparing to swarm. What I was actually greeted with was a hive that hadn't done much at all. They had stored some honey sure, but not as much as I would have expected, and there seemed to be only about half the number of bees in there. There was lots of brood but the bees present in the hive didn't even look enough to cover it! Then I noticed a few of the bees looked as though they had talcum powder on them and it came to me. The owner of the rapeseed field had sprayed his crops whilst I was away and wiped out all the foragers. On reflection I should certainly have contacted all the local farmers and explained to them that I was keeping bees in the area. Although the farmer assured me the spray he was using for “bee-friendly” I explained that it doesn't really matter how friendly the thing you are drowning in is. Although clueless he was very understanding and I now have an agreement with him that when possible they will spray pre-10am or post-6pm. If this isn't possible they will let me know in advance so I can block the bees in for the day. A hard-learnt lesson that once again gave the bees a severe knock. That was nearly two weeks ago. I have left them alone since as I believe that they will recover better on their own than they will with me "helping". I have noted a steadily increasing number of flying bees, with plenty of orientation flights. They are not at the strength I had hoped they would be for May but it looks as though are at least recovering.