Since the last write up on the 22 July we have discussions about what to do with the queen cup and decided to remove it.  We still have so much to learn about basic bee keeping, that splitting the colony felt like advanced action, which we can take on next year.  On the next inspection, the large cell we had though was a queen cup was empty, so we didn't need to remove it.
The small colony which had swarmed has been returned having been found hanging on a bean plant in a nearby garden.  Fortunately Steve had finished the swarm box which Hannah and Gil started, so he was able to go and pick them up.  Steve had also cleaned out the bee hive, so was able to return the bees to the hive.  They were blocked into the hive for 3 days as we couldn't take them 3 miles away, not having transport.  We are hoping they are still around, although they are now a very small colony and may not be viable.  Steve has reduced the area with in the hive and placed carpet on top to try and keep them warm.
We have been unable to inspect this evening due to the wind and rain.

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