2nd Full Hive Inspection

Steve, Sarah and Gil met up on Sunday evening to perform our second full inspection. Of course there was only Hive 1 inhabited - but we knew that they were building fast. And we wanted to keep them from building comb down from the gaps.

Sure enough - the comb on the left is brand new - built in just a few days.  You can see how pure white the new wax is

Here is Sarah - examining the far side of the comb - affixed to the "follower board" - which is not good - but having learned our lesson, we left it there.

This comb is pretty clear of bees - you can get a good view of the structure of the cells.

 Here we think we have found a "Queen Cup" - can you see the "peanut shell" like object - halfway down the right hand side of the "downward gap" in the comb ?

 We still haven't managed to spot a Queen.  However I did take a lot of photographs during the inspection, and after a lot of staring at blurry bees - this is my best guess . . .   The Queen's 'retinue' generally form a ring around her pointing inwards - Can you see what looks like a much larger black furless backplate on the central (not top) bee ?  Can you also see how it's possible she might have her bottom down a cell - ie. laying an egg ??   If you're still looking - I think her eyes are pointing to the top of the photo, and her tail is pointing to the bottom left corner . .

Well maybee . . .

Hive Diving and Bad News

Suzi and Gil returned this evening (last night had been a PuLSE meeting).

We started off with Hive 1 - which had a lot of activity over a lot of comb. We decided not to start opening up the hive again so soon after last time. So instead I took a dive in there . . .

The feeder was down to a third full, so we topped it up with the syrup that Hannah had made up, and closed the hive back up again.

As soon as we took the roof off Hive 2 however, Suzi realised that it was quiet - very very quiet indeed.  And sure enough the bees were gone.

We had a quick look around the trees, but no sign.   There were just a handful of bees left - one very noisy drone, and a couple of worker bees trying to feed the larvae in the remaining comb. It really was quite pitiful. 

We can only reflect again that this colony were up against it from the start. And the other colony seem to be building and building.  Who knows - perhaps they took in some refugees .  .  .

To sew or not to sew

Today Suzi, Hannah and Gil went to see if we could rescue the collapsed comb in Hive 2.

You can see from the photograph there are two distinct clumps of bees - the top clump has not really moved very much since they were first 'knocked' into the hive nearly a month ago. The clump at the bottom are covering the collapsed comb - which probably contains a lot of larvae and eggs.  On closer inspection we came to the conclusion that we would very probably injure far more larvae and bees by trying to grapple and sew the comb back onto the bars.  To be honest - this smaller colony has never had much of a chance - after being stripped of their food and young, and relocated so late into what has been a dreadful year for bees.
We decided to leave the hive for now, do some more research and hopefully get some support from someone else. . .

First full inspection

Today there were four of us available and the weather was excellent - so we opted to bite the bullet and do a proper full hive inspection. We decided to start with the larger colony (Hive 1).

We could tell almost straight away that something was wrong - the comb had been built onto the gaps between the top bars, which meant we had to cut into the top of the combs to separate them enough. Fortunately there was nothing but fresh syrup stored in these cells.

  

Unfortunately we lost another comb which fell off the bar - but again it was nothing but syrup. The bees seemed to remain very calm throughout which was very positive.  The syrup feeder had not been emptied as much this time, as the weather had been much better recently.

Hive 2 was very worrying - it became immediately obvious that the great mass of comb (which had been completely surrounded by a lump of bees since they were delivered) was completely at an angle to the bars.
 Again we tried to very slowly and gently separate the comb enough to inspect it, but it was no good, the comb just started to collapse and drop to the bottom of the hive.  We decided to call a halt and return with some cord tomorrow to secure the combs back onto the bars.

After getting back home, a closer inspection revealed tiny eggs in the base of some of what we had thought was empty comb.

Wednesday Feeding

Yesterday Steve went to the hives with Liz.  The weather was sunshine and showers.

Hannah was back on duty today.  By the time we got there at 7pm it was a bit cooler after a warm day with showers.  The sun was still out but the hives were in shade and there wasn't much activity outside.  As over the last few days, feeder 1 was nearly empty and 2 just needed topping up.  We saw three bees that drowned in feeder 2.  However there was plenty of straw in it and we watched a bee lose her footing and then get out again using the straw.  In hive 1 we had to draw back the follower board to see the level in the feeder and few bees wanted to pop out of the top.  They all seem to be in a cluster towards the other end.

Hannah made up another 2kg batch of syrup this evening too.

pictures

Feeding in the rain

Hannah and Liz visited this evening.  It was dry this morning but rain/drizzle all afternoon. 

Hive 1 had completely emptied their syrup feeder.  We didn't check the pollen patty.

Hive 2 had only used about a quarter but we topped it up.  There were a few bees on the pollen patty but we couldn't see whether they had taken any.  As we replaced the lid, we dislodged top bars, disturbing the bees.  Steve has a technique for closing this hive and Gil managed it straight away yesterday. 

Pollen substitute and top up feeders

Sunday.  After a terrible Friday and quite a bit of rain on Saturday, conditions have mostly been good today.  It was warm and mostly sunny with only a brief downpour about six pm.  I hope our bees have had chance to forage today.

Liz and Hannah made up pollen substitue to the Scottish Beekeepers recipe.  It's simple to make and doesn't taste too bad.  In fact it is slightly like pollen (think I prefer it to the real thing).

Rather than using paper we have put the paste in mango chutney pots that are easy to fit in the hive and won't fall apart. We hope.

Hannah & Gil visited the hives in the afternoon.  There was lots of bee traffic into/out of both hives with many of the bees carrying pollen.  With a bit of luck they won't need our supplement but we feel happier with it available if need be.

Hive 1 had used four fifths of their feeder contents.  Bees were active in the feeder in hive 2 but had used only a third.  We will have to visit tomorrow to top up.

We added a few extra blank bars into each hives (outside the follower boards) so that there is no access to the empty sections from under the roof as Kippax had problems with the bees selecting the roof space.  So far we have not found any bees in the roofs although oddly there were two ladybird larvae.

Shopping and making a swarm box

On Saturday, Gil and Hannah spent an unpleasant couple of hours shopping in south Leeds for bee stuff.  Along with admin tasks, this one of the harder bits of our bee journey so far.  Reminder to self - don't leave things until the last minute so you then have to visit the White Rose Centre.  We bought a big plant pot, some planed timber, milk powder and soya flour.

Here's what the plant pot is meant for.  When we finish the top bars and make an entrance hole, this box can be used for transporting a swarm. In theory the swarm bees will build comb quickly so it's better for us if they do it on some top bars that we can transfer easily into one of our hives.  This will help us with swarm control of our existing bees and/or collecting a swarm if one turns up.

group inspection -

Today was the first sunny day we've had since the bees arrived here at Pudsey, so we made the most of it and 5 of us gathered to check them over.

There seemed to be more activity in Hive 2 today at first, though there were bees around the entrance of both.    We were especially interested in seeing the new in-hive-feeder that Steve had made following Simons' instructions.

This allows us to check and top up the levels of sugar-syrup without opening the hive at all.  Very important when the weather is as awful as it has been.

The bees started showing a bit more interest in us at this point, and offered a chance to check a few out individually.

The bees are obviously finding pollen from somewhere - lots of them had bulging pollen sacs, which was extremely encouraging.

The other hive was a bit more worrying - a lot of fresh comb had collapsed off the top bar, and was piled up on the floor of the hive - this needed removing as it would block the rest of the hive.  We'd left the comb for a few days to allow the bees to clear it of honey, but it was quite devastating to later find it contained almost fully developed larvae.   However the bees had started building more comb from other bars, so hopefully they'll be fine.

To say this was the smaller colony, and they were already producing and raising young in such quantities is fantastic news.  Can't wait to see the other hives comb, and of course we are yet to find either of the Queens.

Hannah & Gil later did a bit of shopping, and have bought  a plastic planter which can be used as a swarm box, and some more wood and skewers which we are making into another dozen top bars.  No luck yet finding another metal funnel though.

Bad news - the coop on the other side have had the colony swarm.  I try and get their diary to put the details on here. 
It does mean we are now able to fit a swarm in - having already been offered 2 in a week, so hopefully we can fill the hive soon.

The weather is proving difficult, so the bees need feeding daily or at least every other day.  They ahve used 5 litres in the last 5 days.  As the bees can't get out easily, making a pollen substitute seems important, Steve found a recipe on the Scottish Beekeepers Association website http://www.scottishbeekeepers.org.uk/Portals/0/Documents/TDS%20number%209%20pollen%20substitute.pdf  for the recipe. 
The Hives are marked 1 (colony) and 2 (nuc) now.  Hive inspection last Thursday:
1 - Healthy, comb on the top bars adn the colony is calm, but there is little nectar / food in cells.  The queen wasn't seen, so will have to be looked for carefully in the next inspection - due around Wednesday / Thursday next week weather permitting.  The feeder was empty - so they are making good use of them. 
2 - A bit less organised, they had built comb which collapsed and Steve will remove today, the bees will ahve had the opportunity to clean it off.  They are not feeding as much as the other hive, but are using the feeder.  They are coming and going from the hive and were calm when inspected.  Again no queen seen, but need to let them build more comb before inspecting again - so need to be left longer than hive 1.


Steve has contacted Brian to organise his help in inspecting the hives and will let us all know dates for this.  The rota has now been emailed out, so we should all be getting into the swing of beekeeping over the next months. 

To do:
Fill in the meeting dates emal Louise sent out.
Make the pollen substitute and more feed
Ensure feeders are topped up daily or every other day at the least
Make 8 more top bars to block gaps

Steve checked the hives on the 30th June, the station feeders needed cleaning out as the ambrosia had solidified.  He was unable to inspect the comb, which he could see they are begining to build, because he didn't had a spray to send the bees back into the hive when replacing the tops bars and didn't want to squish any bees.  The bees are moving in and out of the hives, although the smaller colony is less active.