2014 swarms

28 April
Like everything else this year the swarms have started early.  I had a call from an elderly lady in Spalding to say that a swarm had landed in her garden.  I receive a call from either her or her neighbors at least once a year.  A beekeeper used to live in one of the properties years ago and all the chimneys in the local area have colonies in them.  They seem to survive varroa, although I have no way of knowing how long each colony has occupied the chimneys.

It was a fairly large prime swarm and it took residence in a dwarf weeping laburnam tree, at least thats what I think it is.  I crawled under the branches and took this lying on my back, not an easy task in a beesuit.

I placed a hive on the ground directly underneath the swarm and gave the branch they were clinging to a sharp jolt.  A reasonable proportion of the bees fell onto the crownboard, which had the top feed holes left open, and immediately started to make their way inside.

Not a great photo of the hive but it was a very dull and overcast day and the flash went off.  It was such a dull day I was surprised to take a swarm call.
I left the bees to it and returned later that evening when they had all made their way into the hive.
The colony has now been relocated to a quarantine site,  I will check on them in a couple of days to see if the Queen is there and laying and I'll mark her pink, I use pink to mark swarm Queens as I find it the easiest colour to spot.
It will be requeened as soon as my first batch of homebred Queens is ready.



30 April
Another swarm from a regular in Pinchbeck village this time, about 3 miles from one of my apiaries.  This one again from their chimney and again low down, this time in a privet hedge.  And again a reasonable size.

Same procedure as last time.  And it will be requeened asap.


I have been asked why I requeen swarms.  There are several very good reasons to replace swarm Queens, I have no idea how old they are, or if they have unsuitable characteristics in their dna, bald or chalk brood for instance.  It would be months before I could determine the colonies temperament. I am not sure what it is like in other parts of the country, but over the years I have found in general that swarms are becoming nastier.  So it is much quicker and easier to just replace the Queen with one of my own, with known qualities.

1 May
Late yesterday, around 8 pm I had a swarm call from a local contractor.  He has a huge old cedar tree in his garden that over the years has developed a lot of hollowed out areas. all of them have colonies in.  I think I collected three or four swarms there last year.

Again not a great photo, nearly dark by the time I arrived.  I shook them down into a hive and left them overnight.  I went back this morning they were all tucked up inside the hive, don't blame them, its a miserable day.

Off we go again

And so another beekeeping season begins, already a complete contrast to last year, which was an extremely cold and very long Winter.  The oil seed rape, which is my main crop only started flowering in June, when it should flower from early May onwards.  This year the oil seed rape has just started flowering, a good month early.  I will take some photos of the fields that surround my apiaries over the next few days and post them on here.


A good early order book this year and the first batch of nuc boxes are ready for their colonies.  All my colonies are going very well already, and some have capped drone cells, so I would guess that there will be drones about in a week to ten days.  As long as the weather holds we will be able to start Queen production very early this year

Overdue oxalic

Its the 31st January 2014, about 5C, there is a stiff South Westerly, its trying to rain.  Sounds like every day we have had this 'Winter'.  We have still not had a serious cold spell and the long range forecasts don't predict one.  Fairly soon if this keeps up the wild willows will flower and then the bees will start production in earnest.

So, push has come to shove.  The bees will have to be treated for varroa control with oxalic acid whether we have ideal conditions or not.  I will be treating my bees on the next cold day that comes along.  There is bound to be some brood present in all my colonies, but hitting varroa after this mild Winter is essential.

Fondant

The first week of December is when I put fondant on all my hives, some take to it more readily than others, but usually a colony will make their way through half a kilo in a week or so.  In normal Winters by now we are knee deep in hard frosts and near freezing daytime temperatures, with howling North Easterly winds that cut across our flat fenlands like a knife.
I say usually because this 'Winter' is not very usual.  Its January 5th today and we had a bairly visible frost first thing this morning, I think we had another a couple of weeks ago.  Yesterday, 4th January there were bees flying in large numbers from most of my hives.

hive E

Back to the title, fondant.  As I said usually a colony will take about half a kilo a week.  The pictures are of two colonies, E and I.  They are the only two that have taken any noticeable amount from the first half kilo in the five weeks its been on top of the crownboard.  I have looked down through the crownboard feed holes and all of the other colonies appear to be ok.  Does this mean that the unusually mild Winter is allowing the bees to access their own stores or that the colonies are in trouble.

hive I

Very soon push is going to get to shove and the oxalic acid treatment will have to done.  The ideal is two-three weeks of freezing temperatures, thats not on our forecast any time soon.  Whats that saying, if it was easy...................

Winter reshuffle

The weather has finally turned cooler, and damper.  Time to prepare all the colonies for Winter.

This is how I set my hives up for Winter, I have tried several different methods but this has always been the most successful for me. Colonies are able to stay over their brood without interruption and still access food when needed.

The mouse-guards were put in place a few days ago, we live in a very rural area and have had problems with mice invading the hives in past years.  So although I dislike using them, mouse-guards are essential here.                                                    

As you can see from the top picture there is still a huge amount of pollen coming in, the ivy continues to flower very late into the Autumn this year.

The mouse-guards have been in place for a few days and the bees have settled back into their routine, I try not to change too many things all at once.

I have kept a full super for each colony. Any supers still on top of the hives are removed as are queen excluders.  The brood chamber is lifted clear of the floor and a fully capped super takes its place.  The brood box is now placed on top of the super.  This means that the colony is where it should be, at the top of the hive, where it is warmest.

I will give them a few days to settle again, and then I will give each colony a block of fondant.