Hop Queen the Drone layer

Well Kyle's first supervised inspection took place on friday. He inspected the brewery bees headed up by the Hop Queen. This was a swarm that arrived on the day we visited the Great Yorshire Brewery.

It was clear during Kyle's inspection that there was much more drone brood than any recently arrived swarm has any right to have. As such I went in and checked myself without my "helper" :)



Solid drone brood and a beautiful pollen pattern



As you can see there is 100% drone brood. The drone brood is also housed within worker cells so it isn't something the colony has chosen, it is something forced upon them by their situation. There are a few reason how I know this a drone laying queen rather than a laying worker:

1 - There is a roughly normal brood pattern. Laid as closely together as the drone sized brood allows. With a laying worker it would be a lot more scattered about the place.

2 - The eggs are one to a cell and laid in the bottom. Laying workers will lay mulitple eggs and lack the full length abdomen required to reach the bottom of the cell so the eggs are on the sides.

3 - Oh!.... and we saw a queen in there on friday. If I am honest this is the main way I know, but it is worth considering the other points too :) But then you'd know that if you'd read my last blog :p



Some cross comb. Lots of drone brood and a hopeful queen cup.



It is a real shame that this queen will come to nothing as the way in which the bees have laid down their pollen stores, in a circle around the brood rather than just arching the top, is a trait of the british black bee suggesting these bees might have had some genetic link. The cross-comb shown in the picture above is minimal and only covers two bars so I can easily remove it and attach it to a seperate bar and let them join up the gap. What you may notice on that cross-comb is a hopeful little queen cup.

So the bees clearly recognise the problem. In fact the roar from the hive was alot like the one I heard in a hive I had that went queenless a while back. So what are my options:

1 - "let nature take its course". In time these bees will simply die off leaving empty comb which can be donated to another hive. 

This seems a little unfair to the bees and waste of a potential workforce (bad manager!).

2 - Donate some brood. Given some eggs and young brood the bees could raise a new queen albeit not 'their' own genetically.

There are a few problems with this idea. Firstly and Majorly they won't have a queen for another month. With it already being August this does not give them enough time to build up for winter. There is also a danger they would swarm again and further weaken themselves. A lesser problem is that I was only intending to keep this colony for genetic diversity within my queens (and therefore mating drones). This would give me another queen with the same/similar genetics before I have decided which queens I want to propergate from. It would also slightly weaken the donor hive at a time when they need all the bees they can get.

3 - Buy a queen. Queens can be easily purchased on the internet to arrive the following morning in an inroduction cage. They cost between £30-40, which in bee keeping terms isn't a lot. After a brief introduction period the queen is released and can begin laying right away.

Hmmmm I think the purchasing and import of genetically pure races of bee is shady at best. I truely believe local bee populations should be able to stabilise genetically which will allow them to properly react to selection pressures provided by their environment, diseases, pests, and (hopefully) to a lesser extent the beekeeper.

4 - Combine with a queen right colony. This would involve removing The Hop Queen (drone layer) and transferring the comb into another hive that is queenright. The bees need to be 'introduced' or they will fight. A traditional method is using a newspaper combination. A sheet of newspaper is put between the two colonies with a few slits cut in it. By the time the bees have chewed through the paper the scents in the hive have equalised and everyone lives happily ever after. This works well with conventional vertical hives but is a little tricker with a horizontal hive. It can be done though with either a modified follower board (hole in the middle with some newspaper covering it) or simply by masking taping a sheet of newspaper in place between the bars. Since the fighting is triggered by scent I have heard of people spraying the bees with air fresher *eeek!* and walking away. My current preferred method is to dust the bees with icing sugar (powdered sugar), as well as a few combs worth of bees at the end of the hive you're adding it to. This works well in a horizontal hive as sugar dusting is easy, does a improntu mite treatment, and by the time the bees have finished licking the sugar from each other they are all friends (or at the very least work colleagues). You should remember though to buy sugar free of caking agents, or grind your own. This way of combining will also allow you to put the combs within the relevant part of the hive rather than only at one end.

This will ultimately not result in me having another colony but it can potentially strengthen another colony on the approach to winter. However, this comb contains a lot of drone cells which the colony would have to look after and feed.

5 - Make them queenless and then shake them in front of another hive. This would involve removing the queen and leaving them without her for a few days. Theoretically, I can wait till the evening and empty the bees from the comb anyway from the current hive. Without the hive to return to (because I will have moved it) the bees will return to any queenright hive in the area strengthening their workforce. Again theoretically, that volume of flying bees entering a hive in the evening should mean there is no fighting. I could then feed the drone brood to the chickens.... they are in support of this plan.

This has the benefit being able to temperarily bolster any of my hives. The comb could then still be donated to another top bar hive for them to use for stores.

I am currenly torn between options 4 and 5 and would be interested in hearing peoples opinions so please comment.

In other news on checking Boudica hive to see if it would be able to provide a brood donation look who is back!

I had (I thought) removed these critters from Boudica's hive roof but as it happens they have managed to find another way in and rebuilt their nest. This is one of the babies all grown up. All six of the babies were present so either they hadn't left home or they were dropping off some washing for mum.  

Fairwell Phoebee

I have today (fri 1st aug) returned from a week away. I have inspected the hives and…..

Big beautiful boudica is being elusive but the hive is growing well. We saw brood in all stages and nectar is obviously coming in. Since their dramatic arrival as a swarm they have built 14 combs, 9 brood comb, and 5 honey combs. The brood pattern is solid and their temper is much better. Their tenant Mrs Fieldmouse was however looking a little lonely. Her children all grown up had now left home which unfortunately meant eviction for her.

Mata hari’s sneaky bees have been steady growers and there appears to be a bigger cloud outside the entrance everytime I visit. The viewing window tells me though that they still haven’t moved down in their warré. They must be reaching critical mass. Will they swarm? Will they grow down? Every day seems to tip the odds a little more in favour of the former.

Kyle did his first supervised inspection on the brewery bees. He did well,  though I had to take over when there was some cross comb. They have 7 combs, 5 of which are complete. We saw the Hop Queen herself but since the colony is a new swarm and are still so small there was a surprisingly large amount of drone brood, any would be a lot at this stage. There also appeared as though there may have been a couple of queen cells. It is possible this an old queen or at least poorly mated queen and she is running out of fertilised eggs. Hopefully the bees will manage to supercede her successfully.

The bees of the poppy hive, like their Warré neighbours, are showing no signs of moving down either.  As such I have made a cowardly decision and supered the previously nadired box *blushes shamefully*. There is still time for them to build up that box and hopefully by spring the bottom box will be empty where they have moved up with the stores.

And finally the headline story :(
I checked my large top bar hive before I went away on holiday. There was minimal young brood, pollen and nectar being placed in comb previously packed with brood, and of course queen cups. Eh oh, the dreaded swarming preparation. I have to admit I was surprised, the combine I had performed provided them with quite a lot of empty comb they could use but other than a few bees hanging out down there they hadn’t used it to store a thing. I was short on time and I fear a little late in the day. I moved a little of that unused comb (brood type) down into the brood nest hoping to give the queen some laying room.  I made sure I had some swarm traps primed and ready and went on holiday.
I returned to a hive containing some capped brood a LOT of stored nectar,  a number of capped queen cells, and empty swarm traps. Having never checked them I don’t know which queen cells are occupied so have decided to let nature take it’s course.  Queen Phoebee was my first queen. She arrived on the 27th July last year as a very small cast swarm. Her leaving marks the 1st anniversary of me as a bee keeper. I wish her well and hope she finds a good home. Fairwell Phoebee, you were a good queen and taught me much.

A Mice Surprise!

I have a fear that this blog may turn into a pun exchange with happy hour at the top bar hive.

I went inspect Boudica and her meanie bees last night. I lifted the lid to find a field mouse giving me a indignant look. She was not at all impressed with me invading her nest.

Mrs Field Mouse had built her nest at one end and there were a number of babies snuggled up inside. Initially I was a little startled and unsure about what to do. Standing there staring at those mouse pups I thought weeeeell can't hurt! Since they weren't on top of the bars that were in use I decided to leave the be. I proceeded with my inspection with the mouse observers. Oddly, the bees were the calmest they have ever been. These bees are normally fairly reactive and will take to the air. This time they remained on the comb and got on with their work.

Once these babies are up and around I will move the nest out and seal their entrance route.

Meanwhile in Mata Hari's Warré the bees still haven't moved down but there is some serious activity in the comb guides in the second box.

Only time will tell if they are going to move down or swarm out. No prizes for guessing which I am rooting for.

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.