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
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
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
I set up a new out-apiary at Lytchett Minster today, I think I melted into my suit it was so warm. The bees were so placid it was amazing, despite having been closed up for almost a day, transported in a car and then moved from nucs into hives - they seem to have a … Continue reading New out-apiary
I am more and more favouring the Carniolan bee as my preferred sub species of the honey bee, and am in the process of changing all my queens to Carniolans by raising my own. Origin The Carniolan (Apis mellifera carnica) honey bee is the subspecies of the Western honey bee that has naturalized and adapted … Continue reading Carniolan Bees
I went to my out apiary at Lytchett Matravers today to carry out the first stage of a vertical split, so that I could make two colonies from one hive. I opened the existing hive, found and isolated the queen, then selected 3 combs of brood, shook all the bees off and placed them in … Continue reading Making increase
