Swarm control and colony division

Well it's reached that time of the season when we must all be on our guards.  A friend rang me last night to tell me that her bees had swarmed.  Luckily their bees ended up occupying some cavity blocks underneath their hive stand so we're keeping our fingers crossed that their re-homing into a new hive will be successful.

The weather here, after having had a great March and April, has been cold and windy with frequent showers.  It makes deciding when to open the hive tricky given the blistering northerlies that sweep across the adjacent field.  It's the same wind bringing the volcanic ash plume from Iceland and which is causing all this havoc for the controllers of European airspaces.

I digress.

I took the day as annual leave to guarantee that I could be at home when the weather was at its warmest.  The bees hadn't touched the foundation sheets in the super (added a week ago) so they were removed along with the Q Excluder and resigned to the bee shed for a while longer.

I had been using a brood and a half set-up to give a strong colony.  With 20 odd brood frames to do through I won't be repeating this in future.  The difficulty and awkwardness of the frame manipulation outweighs the advantage of the extra space.  

Within the upper shallow brood frames, I found 4 or 5 swarm cells of which 3 were occupied by eggs.  I marked the topbar above the cells with drawing pins so I can return to them next time.  This means I have 5 or 6 days before they're sealed which would coincide with any swarming.  There was plenty of food and brood at all stages.  There were a few drones about too.

Moving onto the brood chamber proper, on the very first outside frame, I found the Queen.  There she was; clip-winged and looking in fine fettle.  It's only the third time that I've found her and the first time when I've been alone.  I spent around 15 minutes watching her as she raced around looking for empty cells.  Shame I didn't have a camera handy to capture the moment as she laid that precious egg.  Having had her green marking wiped away from the time we adopted her, this seemed to be the perfect time to re-establish her year registration mark.  The Queen and I played "cat and mouse" as she tried to escape my pathetic and desperate attempts to confine her.  My crown of thorns (a fairly lethal looking contraption) failed to stop her to my dismay.  Note to self; keep a matchbox in the toolbox.  At this moment, she seemed to suddenly disappear and to tell the truth I lost my cool thinking that she had fallen off or "flown off".  Not sure why I think she took to the clipped wing!  I returned the Queen's frame and went through the rest of the brood frame.  More brood (eggs, larvae etc,) stores and drones but no signs of Queen cells.   With the benefit of hindsight I should have put her in a matchbox whilst I was checking the rest of the hive.  With the eggs in queen cells at this stage, I think I could have put the old Queen in a spare nucleus box with a frame of brood (without Queen cells) and couple of frames of stores along with bees from a a couple of frames.  

My current position is that I will re-examine the hive in 3 days to look for eggs which will tell me whether she is still in residence.  If she did disappear, it should mean that the swarming instinct will be quashed.  Hopefully, the current Queen cell eggs will develop. My aspiration to divide the colony may have to take a back-seat for a while if she left.  

It's au revoir - not goodbye.

For the record, the weather continues to be fine and warm with ivy still in blossom.  It has a pale greenish-yellow pollen, I think, from what I see on the bees and around the garden.  There's also this vivid orange pollen still whose origin continues to escape me.

We are off to foreign climes tomorrow so it was the last opportunity to check on everything bee-wise and to exchange the super (c/w 5 drawn frames and some nectar) with the brood chamber.  Everything went fairly smoothly with the bees adjusting to their new furniture layout quite quickly.  "Jeez, I never noticed that frame there before!" "oh well" and that was that.  Temperament-wise they were in great form - still no stings. The photo left shows one of the girls posing for the camera. Hardly a puff from the smoker was necessary - these girls certainly know how to behave themselves! 

There was plenty of sealed and unsealed brood (see right) but I think the Queen has slowed down her laying rate but that's to be expected.  There were a few eggs so she's still there, although it goes without saying almost that we didn't see her!  April/May is the time to re-mark her when the colony population is far lower and she should be easier to find - fingers crossed.   A few drones still roam over the frames looking slightly lost.  Stored levels were looking well but given that we are going away for ten days and the weather is so unpredictable here, I added on my newly-acquired Ashforth Feeder (full hive dimensions and about the height of a super - the bees feed at one end.  

I then realised that since, I had never used this feeder before, I didn't know whether the crownboard goes above or below - bit of a Homer Simpson moment!  Anyway, it's now above the feeder and that's where it's staying until we get back although I can't see that there's a major advantage either way -  my logic was that it's preferable to have the syrup as near to the bees as possible and that the heat from the cluster in the winter will keep the syrup from getting too cold.  Any thoughts folks?

I added about 4 pints of syrup which is probably more than necessary but I'd rather play safe. I replaced the "varroa board" on the open mesh floor (for better heat protection at night) while my friendly assistant and fiancée, Elva, tied up the brushwood screen along the fenceline to the north which should help protect the hive from those cold winds between December and February.  

Take care y'all my bee buddies and talk to you when we get back.

P.S this photo looks a bit scary to me.... "You Looking at Me?"

Open Queen Cells or Cups

This evening's inspection was in the slowly setting dusk after a bright warm day.  I removed the super with its 5 frames which were now almost fully drawn.

The feeder was empty as I expected.  Going through the brood frames, the first was loaded with honey.  Looked good enough to eat - but I'm leaving that.  

I started to notice larvae and eggs (2 or 3 days old) in open cells with plenty of sealed brood besides.  What surprised me though was the presence of 3 opened Queen cells/cups across a number of frames.  There were well formed - text book stuff.  Altogether I found three - all open (without eggs/larvae) as shown.  There was no sign of the hinged cap so I'm puzzled.  Was there a swarm? Are these aborted attempts at making a Queen cell?  Has my original Queen left?  I didn't see her but that's not unusual!  

It's 11 days since I last look through the frames at which point there was no sign of these cells.

There were plenty of eggs (all laid in individual cells as opposed to laying worker eggs) so I ask myself - do I need to be concerned because I saw open queen cells/cups?  The laying pattern was good as you can see.

There were more drones than recently although not hugely so but quite a lot of drone cells (capped).  I am sure that I'm being alarmist but I'm surprised.  Is the presence of the number of drones and drone cells significant given the time of year (although we're still experiencing this Indian Summer)?

The population was a strong and calm and I know there was a Queen present within the last 3 days from the eggs (I am assuming these were laid by a mated Queen). 

My bee-assistant and fiancee was kindly given a new camera for her birthday (by some very generous guy who shall remain nameless!) so there should be a few more photos from now on...

Lastly, to the credit of my photograper, she caught one of the season's last cornflowers with a visitor looking for a quick meal!

Oh - Bee-have!

A beautiful morning here today so I decided to see how things were coming along.

The first thing I noticed was the extraordinarily vivid dark orange pollen. I wonder where this is coming from. Any ideas anyone?

It was clear that the bees hadn't warmed to their nice new feeder as it was still very full. I had swapped the old one for a circular type with a removeable lid with a "cup" inside separating the girls from the syrup. So that's another lesson learnt...

That being said, all the frames seemed to be coming along nicely still. The amount of stored honey had fallen relative to the upcoming brood which I had been concerned about. One newly-drawn frame was packed with fresh eggs which was enough to satisfy my concern for herself. [I was alone this morning without my regular Queen-spotting assistant so it won't come as a surprise that the sovereign remained from view again.]

I really notice that there is a massive difference in the "readability" of the older frames vs. this year's. The new cleaner frames show up all the contents so much more clearly. I need to learn how to go about doing the frame exchange next season so I can replace the battered older frames with fresh ones. [This is an important exercise in reducing disease].

Thankfully, the varroa mite-drop count showed up practically nothing that I could identify but I have left the screen on for another few days to get a more representative picture but so far, so good.

Interestingly, to my mind anyway, I positively tried to cut back on the amount of smoke that I use. The girls certainly seemed in a better temperament - no dive-bombing or stings - although more took to the wing as I removed the frames and circled about. After a while, they either setled down or I failed to noticed anymore.

My next task is to make up the shallow frames with foundation just in case there is an opportunity to add the super - even at this late stage I am still confident that an Indian summer will arrive but this may be simply wishful thinking to compensate for the mostly awful weather since the start of July.

Bee lucky!

Well a gorgeous summer's evening here today in the Irish Midlands - what a pleasant change of late - so we took the opportunity to look into the hive to check on the girls' welfare.

It's so much easier with the two of us - one to keep puffing the dreaded smoker , to take notes and to do the running about - the other to remove the frames and to do the manual stuff. A second pair of eyes is great.

The food from last time was all gone although I don't think anyone had told the bees as they seemed upset to loose the now-empty plastic bucket which I use for holding the syrup. That said, I added around a pint in a circular feeder before I closed up which should be about right. The weather this week is meant to improve slightly, I'm told, so they should be able to source enough food for themselves. It's getting cooler at night so they'll be using more fuel to keep warm too.

As far as the hive is concerned, there was little change from the last time with plenty of brood at all stages (fresh eggs, open larvae and sealed brood) which was a really good sign given my concern that I had too much honey.

Well to top everything, Elva with her beady eyes spotted the Queen for the second time ever. Q always seems to be on Elva's side of the frame as I hold it up! That's my excuse anyway...

I had got hold of some Queen-marking paint lately which we thought we'd try to apply. Anyway, I don't think we're ready to take manoeuvre yet. We ended having a near miss with her when she crawled up my glove and Elva saw her fall off into the hive. Yikes! I should be working glove-free by this stage but I don't yet have the guts to go commando!! After that, I went back through the frames again until Elva spotted her majesty looking none the worse for her brief excursion. What a relief!

Everything else appeared normal (to our novice eyes) and so after feeding I left them to their own devices for another while. Interestingly, their temperament was good (4 out of 5) - no stings this time - it seems that the smoke just upsets them.

I remembered to add the varroa floorboard so I'll have a look at the end of the week to see what kind of mite drop it shows up.

Please leave comments of how your own bees are coming along. I am especially interested to hear your thoughts on the right balance between brood and stores at this time of the year as this seems to be fairly crucial to their overwintering capability and the timing of late summer supering.

Bee-Bo - social networking website for bees

Sorry about that!

Well, I did a check of the hive yesterday after work and things still appear to look fine. The weather continues to be generally summery compared to the whole of July which was seemingly the worst in 50 years or so. I can easily believe it!

All the same, lots of bees were flying (a good sign) and there was plenty of activity around the hive entrance.

The smoker wasn't going too well - I consider this is a real skill which I am far from mastering - I had to stop a couple of times and relight it.

Starting at the rear of the hive [I have the frames running parallel with the front gable entrance - this is the "cold way" I think],I worked my way through each frame. There was plenty of honey, both uncapped and also with the thin waxy seals which the bees cover the cells with when they're full. A couple of the frames were surprisingly heavy - full of the sweet golden liquid.

The sunshine wasn't so strong by this stage and I saw lots of cells with tiny single eggs standing upright at the cell base - remarkably again just like the books say! [Bees seem very well-read!]. The fresh eggs also appear to be in the scattered cells previously left unfilled with the exception of the cells corresponding with the wired frame reinforcement which she leaves alone. These eggs are only one day old so I know that the Queen, again escaping my clutches, was around within the last 24 hours so I'm not concerned that she's unhappy with her surroundings.

I looked through the rest of the frames for anything out-of-place but it all seems normal. Noticeably there were fewer drone cells and adult drones than last week which probably indicates that the ladies are preparing to settle down for the off-season and don't need these guys around anymore eating their food and generally getting in the way - a true matriarchy!

There were still cells on the outer frames which contained the multi-coloured pollen.

Having untidily topped up their syrup reservoir (I really need to improve how I do this!) and helped myself to the excess wax from the crownboard (a kind of ceiling), I replaced the roof and duly retired to leave them for another week to continue to rear the youngest family members. These potential infant bees will likely form the over-winter population that will keep the hive warm and support the Queen through the long winter days until the lengthening days of next spring.

Below is a video of the bees gorging themselves on honey after I'd puffed some smoke.