Cover me I am not going in

It is true that I have been itching to get into those hives. It is also true that I am curious as to the progress of all five colonies. It is not true that they need me poking around in their business. Each time I have both the opportunity and inclination to perform a hive inspection I am trying to ask myself the question "What am I trying to achieve?". If the answer is "I don't know", or "I just fancy a look" then I am going to fight the urge to open'er up!

As we enter the run up to the end of July the laying rate of the Queen will begin to drop off, the nectar flow will slow or stabilise, and risk of swarming will reduce. Since I feel as though there is less need to be searching for queen cells I decided to assess the colonies externally. There are different types of hive inspection and indeed observing the hive entrance can tell you a lot. The book linked to here within the Biobees forum library outlines season by season the observations that can made and their meanings. This also meant that instead of carrying a hive tool, water mister, and box of spare topbars I could take my camera!

The Brewery Bees:
The newly arrived swarm have now been on the roof of my shed for a week. I am awaiting one of two new natural beekeepers to collect them as their first colony. The Hop Queen may be an early queen from this year or one of last year's queens. The shear size of the swarm suggested a prime swarm and the fact that there was pollen being taken in within 3 days certainly suggests a laying queen is present. Being on the top of my shed I pass them every morning on the way to the car and several times in the evening. They are active from at least 7:15am through to at least 9:00pm. That is a long work day.

orange pollen going in

Grey pollen possibly bramble

By tapping the top bars with my knife handle I can also guess they have 5 bars worth of comb so far, which isn't bad going for a week. Since they are new to this bait hive even a prolific colony will be fine in there for at least about two-three weeks so no need to actually go in. If fact I wouldn't inspect these until they are in their final destination hive. All the bars can be transferred in one go keeping the cluster intact for minimal disturbance.

Phoebee's Girls:This remains the busiest hive by far. Following the combine of the queenless section of the hive with the queenright side the entrance activity has only increased. There are no large numbers of dead bees outside the hive and despite the HUGE number of bees they haven't become defensive. This suggests the combination has gone ahead with little in the way of resistance. Again by tapping the hive there is significant activity along the full length on the hive suggesting they are making use of the empty comb the queenless colony had.

Phoebee's Hive extremely busy at all entrances. A cloud of bees coming and going.

Following the start of a little rain everyone coming home.

Obviously with this many bees and at a time of year when wax building is reduced there is a danger the comb will be back-filled and the colony will swarm. HOWEVER, they don't need to build any wax the colony combine has just "donated" them at least 10 full combs to be getting along with. Lots of space, no need to swarm (fingers crossed).

Warré hive (the sneaky bees):Since the new roof, box underneath and the holes being plugged this colony has steadily built in strength. There appear to be a few more bees flying each day. Looking through the viewing window I can see bees investigating the second boxes topbars. There is a danger that the colony will see this second set as a false floor and swarm. I have a few bait hives out and can look to see if there is any scout bee activity. This obviously tells me if any bees in the area are thinking of swarming rather than specifically my bees but it is useful none the less. 

Hopefully the slow and steady growth Mata Hari is leading will allow the comb building to stay ahead of the laying.

Poppy hive:This hive is not nearly as busy as they were when they first turned up. This may very well be a result of a post-swarm 'lag' when the bees from the original swarm are dying off and the new bees are not quite flying yet. They will also have brood to look after rather than only foraging to do. It will take a while following a swarm for bee numbers to reach an equilibrium. This hive is definitely busier in the morning than the afternoon and I remember they propolysed the bait hive heavily suggesting they may be caucasian race. I doubt they have made any roads down into the bottom box nadirred a few weeks back, but the fact that it was nadirred instead of superred means they shouldn't be losing any heat.

'hey dude! you're going the wrong way'

With the fact that they are a recent swarm, the space I know is in there and the drop off in activity further swarming is currently unlikely.

Boudica and the Iceni (meany bees):Much more chilled out and not at all defensive at the entrance. It may be that the defensiveness I have seen is all just a hangover from the terrible installation I performed. Add to this the colouring I have noticed on Boudica herself suggests that these may also be a caucasians bee strain. They are well known for taking a long time to calm down after a challenge. This makes sense as if I am collecting another beekeepers swarms they are likely to have all the same or closely related bees.

much calmer at the entrance

During the last inspection I provided a few extra bars and noted they are not expanding fast. This colony had wax starter strips instead of comb guide on their first bars so they have built across a lot of bars but have wide shallow comb. They therefore have lots of space to still expand down. They are covering at least 11 bars with a few spare for building. Recent swarm with space available and little time to build stores so swarming again unlikely.

So I have managed to do an inspection of each hive without removing a single bar. How stupid am I going to look if they all swarm now :)

Forage Alimighty

I haven’t inspected now for a week and a half and truth be told I am itching to see how things are going.

How has the recombine gone for the previous double hive? Has the extra comb meant that all those bees finally have someone to put stores ahead of that prolific queen of theirs’?

How are Mata Hari and the sneaky bees getting on now they don’t have a leaky roof and a hive that resembles a colander?

Have the poppy hive managed to grow down from their colossal cross-comb catastrophe into the box below? I have heard that post june there is lot less comb building done. I am still concerned I have given them too much the achieve.

As for Boudica and the meanie bees (as Kyle calls them) I am a little less curious.  They have made it clear that they want space. Space that is roughly the same size and shape as me! In honesty they are more nervous  than mean.  Even the way they move about on the comb appears more frantic than the other colonies. The brood nest is expanding in a single direction in the hive with some stores placed at the other end. I have found (supprisingly) that they seem to prefer me inspecting from the brood end. As soon as I remove the follower board from the stores end they get very interested in my face as a possible dartboard. .. It may be that the one of the other colonies is performing some robbing. Which would explain the defensiveness.

On a walk past last night despite the weather (which has been typically English) all hives had bees out flying. Hardy Yorkshire bees and no mistake. The blackberry and elderflower flow is obviously finished. The bees loss being our gain as the berries start to form. I am already collecting empty bottles from friends for wine making. The main nectar at the moment seems to be Himalyan balsam, lime trees, poppies are still going strong (from the oilseed rape fields), as well as a glut of rosebay willow herb. The gardeners of the village are doing us proud with micklemass daisies and still plenty of lavender to go around.

The Sins of the Son visited upon the Father

As you may or may not know this weekend another swarm arrived.
As you may or may not know my parents were visiting and witnessed the spectical.
As you almost certainly do not know my father was intrigued by the event. So much so he 'borrowed' one of my bait hives to put on his shed roof to see if anything happened. He placed the bait hive on monday, come wednesday and he has bees! This year is clearly a very good year.
I am told there is lots of entrance activity and pollen going in so this could well be a prime swarm. He has asked if I can find someone who would like them in the area. Anyone in East London/Essex want some bees :)

Look who's come to visit

I was heading into the vegetable garden and what should I see but a swarm taking up residence in the bait hive on my roof. I still haven't witnessed a swarm in the air, or clustered on a branch but this was still very cool. To see so many bees clustered to the front of the box and in the air one minute. Then the next minute they'll all in the box.  They really didn't look like they should fit.

 My parents were visiting this weekend and I took my dad to Cropton Brewery (also called the Great Yorkshire Brewery). As such these shall be the brewery bees presided over by The Hop Queen.

A Glass at half its total capacity

It's half a glass, whether half full or half empty it doesn't matter because the bottle is never far away. My two Queen system has not been realised. I have had made the decision to recombine the colonies so I failed...right!

Glass half empty:
The first proper beekeeper-like manipulation I attempted, ie a split, ultimately resulted in a queenless colony. The split threw several swarms weakening the split. I have now recombined the colonies as I think it is too late to raise a queen and get the colony back to strength.

Glass half full:
The queen right side of the split have been going gang busters. They have reached more than 18 bars of solid brood and are wall-to-wall bees. The queenless side have had no brood to look after so have laid down honey stores which the queenright side are lacking.  Between them there will be more than 30 bars of full comb. Together they will be a very strong hive. The extra comb shoould give the queenright bees a chance to put some stores down. I suspect at the moment their comb building can't stay ahead of the vigorous queen. I also now have other colonies caught as swarms so have still increased my numbers. One of the colonies I was able to sell on BN frames for a small amount to buy more equipment.

Half a glass either way:
I have some very healthy and vigorous colonies. I have two top bar hives, a national and a warré. I have increased my bee numbers and learnt some lessons. The bees will do what the bees will do. I can always try again next year with the two queens but if the colony remains this vigorous there may not be room.
I still cannot say with assurity that I know what I am doing. I'm am the point where to any theoretical situation I have the theoretical answer. I can provide information and advice. What I cannot do is handle 50,000  bees making decisions in ways I don't understand, doing things I can't see,  to achieve something I daren't guess at. It's a shame you can't start with one bee and work your way up, like with juggling. In fact juggling is what it feels like. I understand how many balls there are, how gravity works, and where my hands are. At some point there is a switch when it all comes together and you are juggling. But for me it still feels like it's raining tennis balls.

Hive Update: Just the facts Ma'am

I will admit I have something of a rambling vernacular (I think it is as a result of a childhood accident with an illistrated encyclopedia). I have told plenty of stories of different hives so far and thought I would try and give an all encompassing update! So in no particular order.

Atol Hive (kenyan top bar hive with middle periscope entrance):
This was my first top bar hive and made from scrap wood in my shed. I moved my first colony out of this in May when I performed a split. It now contains Queen Boudicca and the Icena. This was a swarm I caught and transferred with perhaps a little trouble. Each of the family have got to name one of the Queens in the Apiary, and this one was Amber's turn. However, if I am honest whilst I was trying to install them I thought up quite a few names for them myself! They are currently on 10 full bars and I have been inserting bars at the edges. They continue to be a little..... touchy, so I haven't managed to inspect the full brood nest.

Beeford (A Warré style hive):
This was a mess of a few dilapidated boxes left in the apiary that some bees decided to move in to. They are referred to as Mata Hari and the sneaky bees. Thanks to the action of my father they now have some nice new boxes and roof. At the weekend I looked at possibly removing the top bars from the single box they were inhabiting and moving them across to one of the newer boxes but there was too much cross-comb. I have left them in their current box and installed a quilt, roof, and box underneath to grow down in to. I have tried to plug many of the gaps with wax.

 

The roof contains a piece of insulation followed by the standard Warré quilt. The hive gets sun first thing and then is well shaded the rest of the day. Dad kindly installed viewing windows with a piece of foam to insert and help with insulation. I would like it very much if these bees could grow down sufficiently for me to add another box and remove the old top box before winter but I think this might be too much for them. I may have to clad the sides for them to overwinter.

C3BEE0 (Long Kenyan TBH with end and middle entrance and an ecofloor):
This contains the split from my original colony that was housed in Atol. This was supposed to form a two queen system this year but things have not been going as planned. They do aft gang agley. The queenright side of the split is flying with 18 bars of brood at the moment and going strong. Pheobee seems quite the layer. The are a few combs of drone brood with I have moved to the outside of the brood nest hoping they will fill it honey. I replaced them with empty bars hoping they'll build worker brood comb. The queenless side of the split have continued to remain hopelessly queenless. The exact sequence of events can only be guessed at but it is clear that the hive has swarmed a few times and left the hive without a queen. I inserted a full frame of eggs from the queenright side last week and they seemed happier. They didn't start any queen cells though. When I checked the comb at the weekend there were many queen cups but the brood was obviously too far along to raise any queens. I was intending to put another bar of Phoebee's brood in there yesterday but by the time I found the right mix of eggs and young brood the hive was getting very tetchy. There appeared to be some damp in the hive. It looks as though this might have been a roof leak I need to sort out. As a result some wood lice had entered and I think it was stressing the bees. I moved the middle follower boards over so Phobee's end of the hive have both middle entrance now in case it is an internal damp issue. I will keep an eye.

Mock national (national style 10 frame brood box)
This hive contained the Queen my daughter named 'mmm-mmm-bee'. This was a lovely little colony and obviously a cast from the hive split. They were extremely calm and gentle but I am afraid I only have so much space. This colony has now gone to a gentleman in Leeds and we wish them well together.

Poppy Hive (12 frame national brood with insulated roof and ecofloor)
This is the newest hive and the newest colony. This colony turned up in a six frame national nuc that really wasn't ready for bees. As such there was a absolute mess of cross-comb. Rather than try to deal with it on frames I decided to put them in a bigger box, remove any collapsed comb, and put another big box underneath. Now there are two 12 frame national brood boxes. The top containing the mess plus extra combs, the bottom with new frame and comb guides. Now I wouldn't normally do this to a poor colony as it quite a lot to expect them to grow down into the box below this late in the year. This colony though has an impressive number of bees. The six frame nuc they were in was a deep and it was wall-to-wall bees. If any new colony could do it, it's this one. The queen doesn't yet have a name but I may name her for the hive. The hive is called the poppy hive because this is paint colour I had :) The hive has also been started in the middle of the poppy flow. They are currently next to a big clump of brambles flowering, and we have the lime trees coming in at the moment too so come on girls you can do it!