Brian helps us out

We were lucky enough to have an experienced top-bar beekeeper come along to our hives early on Sunday morning.  Brian had visited the co-op in the early days to talk about beekeeping and was a wealth of information and enthusiasm.

We had a lot of questions but Brian was happy to dive straight in and inspect both hives. We started with Hive 1 - the bees were extremely lively and poured out of the Hive much more than we had seen before - poor Gil's hood/suit zip had broken, so he was relegated to watching from the sidelines - as we'd never seen them this reactive before.

We managed to get through about two-thirds of the combs before deciding that they were getting a bit too lively. We didn't find the Queen, but Brian was satisfied that there were definitely young brood present.

Hive 2 was totally different - there had obviously been no building activity at all since they were first returned. Brian & Steve managed to lift the whole clump of combs out, and all we could see was honeycomb. Brian was definitely of the opinion that they are Queen-less and have been for some time.

The level of cross-comb is clearly visible here - as is the small number of bees compared to hive 1. Brian left us with a number of the "prepared" top-bars that he uses to give the bees a start.

We then sealed up the hives, with the intention of increasing their level of insulation (with the weed membrane and kingspan). Brian then gave us a range of things we could do with the small hive - including ways of integrating them into the larger hive. Brian even gave us a very nice brand-new smoker !

Finally we took away some of the broken comb, and the comb they had built onto the feeder (which we also removed). So here's a picture of our very first "cut-comb"

 

 

Quiet Site

Gil has just visited the bees this evening. Hive 1 very quiet - just half a dozen bees visible - absolutely nothing happening at Hive 2.  Opened up hive 2 - no more than a third of the feeder had been taken since Sunday morning. Moved away the follower board, and sure enough the bees were still there in a very small clump down at the end.  Filled feeder up to the top and closed it up.

Opened Hive 1 - not really much change seen since last visit - still some comb being built around feeder. Gave the bees a bit of syrup (as weather overall pretty bad) and closed up the hive and left them alone.

To Feed or not to Feed . . .

Liz and Gil went to feed the bees this morning - Hive 2 very quiet and had hardly drunk any syrup since Sarah & Liz visited them on Friday.

Hive 1 still had four or five bees a second arriving at the entrances - still covered in silver pollen. We took off the roof and checked the feeder - which sure enough was empty, but noticed that the bees were busy building comb around the feeder and the hive walls now. Liz and I discussed and agreed that we both felt that the bees must be trying to build enough storage space to cope with all the feed they are getting.

So to stop them literally 'building themselves out of house & home" we left their feeder empty. We can easily begin feeding them again if the weather returns to appalling.

Liz left the syrup and bag at Gil's house - as Hannah is on the rota next week.

LIz & Sarah Feeding

> Sarah and Liz fed the bees last night but as I cannot update the blog, I thought I would just drop you a quick email.
>
> Hive 2 (the smaller hive) had only taken half of the syrup (we last fed them Sunday) but there was a small amount of bees flying in and out of the hive and they were fairly active.
>
> Hive 1 - taken all their syrup (as is usual)... lots and lots of activity in and out of the hive with lots of pollen being collected. They seemed happy enough but I suspect will run out of space very soon. Hopefully we can meet up next Monday and make a decision.
>
We plan to feed again on Thursday dependent upon how the weather has been, but at least to visit the hives to check everything ok.
>

Changeover Feed

Another quick simple feed this evening - Steve and Liz joined Hannah & Gil on an unexpectedly dry opportunity for a joint changeover.

Both hives were showing signs of activity. We slightly opened Hive 2, just to see if they needed any more room, but the 2 extra bars we gave them on Monday were still bare. The feeder was half empty.

Hive 1 feeder was empty, but we left the hive undisturbed

Feeding

I fed the bees today - it was about 7:30 before I made it down to the hives after a day of warm sun and heavy showers.  Hive 2 feeder was still half full.  There were several bees in the feeder but the hive was eerily quiet.  It was quite cool by that time so I didn't want to look into the hive and let cold air in.

Hive 1 still had a bit of bee traffic and bees sat on all three entrances.  The feeder was empty.  Again I didn't open anything due to the cool conditions.

Wild life

Hannah and Gil fed the bees this evening.  Brookie joined us to see the hives.  Both feeders were empty so it really needs to be a visit every 48 hours to make sure the food doesn't run out.  Although the weather hasn't been perfect, it has been mostly dry and warm and despite that the bees are using the feeders a lot.  If the weather is poor I think we will still need to visit every day.  We forgot to bring a funnel this evening so had to pour syrup into the feeders in a slow trickle.  In hive 1, two workers sat on the edge of the feeder supping the syrup as I poured it into the feeder.  It's amazing how they can smell the sugar and sense where it is coming from.

On the walk home we spotted a wild/feral honey bee nest in a garden tree not far from the hives.  It is in a large ash tree about 10 feet from the ground with an entrance about the size of one of ours.  There was a lot of bee traffic, which led us to the conclusion that it was not our errant swarm.  I guess the colony will swarm next spring.  Good news if we reach the swarm but not so good if we are held responsible for the consequences.  I wonder if the residents of that house know it it there.