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.