I went around 9 hives today, carrying out inspections and placing wet supers back on the hives for the bees to clean, and hopefully refill with honey. A wet super is the term used for a super full of frames that have had the honey extracted from them, and have remnants of the honey still … Continue reading Wet Supers & Jars of Honey
Another Busy Few Days
I've had a couple of busy days again, nipping round all my apiaries to put clearer boards on hives so that I could remove some honey supers. I took supers off from two sites today, and put the clearer boards on at a third. I will be taking the supers off from the third site … Continue reading Another Busy Few Days
Introducing Queens
Whenever a new queen is introduced to an existing colony, there is always a chance your worker bees will not accept her, and the result of this could be the death of your new queen - no matter which method of introduction you use. The main things you need to be sure of when introducing … Continue reading Introducing Queens
Mixed news in the garden apiary
Another hot and sunny day today here in Dorset, what better weather to be messing about in a bee suit moving heavy hives around - said with tongue firmly in cheek. I inspected the 11 colonies in my garden apiary this morning, with mixed results. Some of the new virgin queen introduced to nucs have … Continue reading Mixed news in the garden apiary
No smoke without fuel
I went to check on two of my out apiaries today, upon arrival at the first site, I went to light my smoker......... Ah! I had forgotten to bring any smoker fuel - oops! Good job my bees are docile, so I carried out my inspections without smoke. One of the hives, which I found … Continue reading No smoke without fuel
The good, the bad and the ugly
A mixed day today, with more dead queens found and some missing in action. Over the last few weeks I've lost ten queens, some of last years overwintered queens, and some of this years new queens - this tends to get me down. I now have several hives queen less, which will hit my honey … Continue reading The good, the bad and the ugly
The Queen is dead!
Not what you want to find while carrying out hive inspections - a dead queen, and one of this years too! Luckily I raise my own queens, so am able to replace her easily enough, but it is always sad to find a dead queen. I spent the morning marking new virgin queens, and then … Continue reading The Queen is dead!
Queen Laying
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
Splits and Queens
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
A busy (BUZZY) day
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
