Today, I went over to one of my apiaries at Lytchett Minster and made a walk away split from one of the very strong hives there, in order to prevent it from swarming. I was able to take away 4 brood frames and a frame of stores, still leaving the original hive in a strong … Continue reading Walk away split
Here is a nice little video of one of my queens laying - you can see her putting her head in the cell, to check that it is clean and polished ready for her to lay in, and also to measure the cell so that she knows whether to lay a fertilised or unfertilised egg. … Continue reading Queen Laying
The University of Guelph Honey Bee Research Centre has some excellent beekeeping videos on their Youtube Channel including this one on simple swarm control/prevention. Their channel is well worth subscribing to.
I went over to my Lytchett Matravers Apiary this morning to split a double brood National hive to make two hives. This is quite straightforwards; Put a new stand and floor to one side, over a metre away from the existing hive remove the roof and crown board from the existing hive, place the roof … Continue reading Splits and Queens
I had a very busy day today, 9 hours spent doing beekeeping. I did an inspection on the new apiary at Lytchett Minster, and am happy to report that the queens are going great guns, with wall to wall brood on 9 frames already, so supers added. I also set up a new apiary, again … Continue reading A busy (BUZZY) day
I re-queened two of my hives today, as the bees in those hives were becoming more and more 'protective' of the garden, head butting and following right up to the back door. I re-queened them with Carniolan bees - the Carniolan bee is calm and non-aggressive, used to obtain honey and other bee products in populated areas, … Continue reading New Queens
Deformed wing virus (DWV) is a highly viral disease transmitted by Varroa destructor. The disease is commonly found in colonies infested with mites. Deformed Wing Virus is regarded as deadly due to its ability to spread fast in any colony. It causes massive wing deformation in bees making it difficult for them to live normally. … Continue reading Deformed wing virus (DWV)
I noticed over the last few days that the last over-wintered poly nuc left has had bees bearding outside, this means they are having problems with the hive temperature getting too high, probably due to overcrowding. Overcrowding is one of the main reasons why bees swarm, so I knew that I had to move them … Continue reading New hive
Another hot day today, 28° or so with not a cloud in the sky, and light airs. I painted some 6 frame poly nucs this morning, and some spare vented travel lids for them, but I forgot all about the new box of mating nucs. We have our grand kids on Sundays, so I did … Continue reading Jobs to do
On inspecting the hives in my garden today, I found one of them had two soon to be sealed queen cells. This means the hive was very close to swarming, so remedial action was required. To prevent the bees from swarming, which they would do once the queen cells are capped, I carried out an … Continue reading Artificial Swarm
