Ladies in waiting

Yesterday was beautiful here although not as warm as it should be for this time of year.  The forage available is the leftovers from the dandelion that are now going to seed (to the annoyance of the non-beekeeping population), fruit blossom and incredible yellow gorses. Early summer shrubs and flowers in the garden attract the odd interested visitor.

Repeating the inspection methodology from last time with Elva armed and ready at my side, we discovered that the marked Queen cells from before had been elongated and their developing contents were growing inside them.  My bees are definitley reading the same books that I do.  Just as well because there seems to be so many different techniques for every one ambition.

We quickly spotted eggs throughout the hive; testimony to the Queen still be ingalive and well and that I should worry far less when it comes to beekeeping! [Do any of you fellow beekeepers constantly suffer from these misplaced feelings of doubt and paranoia? ] The lower brood frames were packed with nurse bees and yet despite their numbers, Elva's eagle eyes spotted her majesty.  Elva had laser eye correction last year - her queen-spotting skills are now superhuman.

AGAIN failing at colour marking, we transfered her on a brood frame along with a couple of frames of food into an adjacent nucleus box.  I don't believe the Queen was really aware of the plans that we had for her.  A sad moment really as she is removed permanently from her 30 or 40 thousand daughters :(

Making up the remaining 4-frame nucleus with an empty foundation frame and 2 frames's worth of bees we closed up the nucleus and blocked off the entrance with some grass (for 48 hours).  Seemingly, this blocking technique delays their re-emergence sufficiently to allow them to "re-home" themselves and adapt to the new hive.  I shall see and keep my fingers crossed.

Going back to the original hive on its original stand, I removed one of half a dozen developing Queen cells.  This one in particular was far more developed and my book suggest cells close to being sealed should be removed.  Not sure why you do this other than if you wanted to delay the new virgin Queen emerging which might be useful in the event of bad weather forecast.  Any ideas of why this should be advised would be welcome!

The hive was then closed and we congratulated ourselves with high fives on having completed our first major manipulation to control swarming (hopefully) and to augment our single colony.  I have to re-examine the original hive in a week or so just to check how things have developed in the interim.  I expect that the bees will be a little more testy than usual. Would that be fair to say?

Time will tell how successful we've been! Aplogies for the lack of photos - I don't know how you guys manage such fantastic photos when there is so much to do.  Experience I guess....

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.  

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!