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.