[riseholmebees] Any help appreciated!
- From: VANESSA HUGHES <nesshughes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: riseholmebees@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:28:57 -0700 (PDT)
Hello all,
I wondered if any (all?) of you out there more experienced than me could help
me understand what is happening in my hives at the moment. I now have 2, one a
buckfast(?) colony that started as a 5 frame nuc but now covers 7 frames, and
another that I bought as a full colony and again at inspection 10 days ago
covered 7 frames (one frame of brood having previously been swapped to the
other hive to boost numbers) At inspection 10 days ago I was happy with the
brood and the amount of stores, frames of capped honey at the edges of the
brood box as usual. But when I loooked again on Sunday, the stores in the brood
box of the larger hive had all but gone, though they had a super of frames
about 60 full with nectar. I had previously extracted one super of honey. I
thought I would sit tight for a few days and see how things went as they are
incredibly busy, bringing in loads of pollen. Ther is a lot of willowherb
nearby, and some of the pollen looks like
Himalayan Balsam, though I don't know where they are getting that from. I have
had another look tonight and now the frames in the super look more like honey,
and the stores in the smaller hive have gone the same way, very little in the
brood box, but about 5 frames of honey in the super. I suppose what I want to
know is, have the bees moved the honey up, as the queens are still laying like
mad, in fact tonight is the first night when I have seen both queens in one
inspection and the buckfast queen was on a frame which had previously held
stores. When can I expect laying to slow down? I am worrying about lack of
space, I didn't know if it was too late in the season to perhaps take a frame
of capped brood from the second hive and "donate" it to someone to help build a
small colony up. And when laying does slow down, I suppose they will move the
stores down again? Sorry very long winded!
Also tonight the buckfast bees were very calm as usual whan I looked at them,
but the other hive went up like a box of fireworks! I have 2 hens nearby, and
they started having a go at them, so I quickly opened their run to let them get
away. However an hour later I was still trying to catch one of them to put it
back, it wasn't at all happy! It ended with it running around my living room,
skidding on the wooden floor as my little boy left the front door open - not a
pretty sight, though we did avoid any poo disasters on the furniture! In the
middle of all this, my Tesco delivery turned up, I think the delivery man
thought it was a mad house. First I had to get him to stand still while I tried
to shoo marauding bees away from him, then I had to leave my husband to take
the bags in while I tried to remove a difficult hen from underneath my car so
it couldn't get out the front gate! Anyway, sorry to have gone on for so long,
hope all is going well with your
bees and you are continuing to enjoy this very relaxing hobby!!!!!
Vanessa.
--- On Tue, 27/7/10, Ben Crabb <bcrabb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
From: Ben Crabb <bcrabb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [riseholmebees] Re: queen introduction
To: riseholmebees@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Tuesday, 27 July, 2010, 9:28
Hi Vanessa,
Just been reading everyones emails from the past week or so, everything getting
exciting now then lol !! Glad your all seeing the wonderful complicated (and
somethimes expensive as Harvey has seen, hope the finger nails grow back
soon!!) of the bee hive. I hope my wife does not catch me on here as I am on
hliday and not meant to be checking my emails, but never mind eh??
The drop in stores could be the lateness of what is known as the 'june gap'
when there is a distinctive drop off in the ammount of nectar coming into the
hives, this results in the bees using all their own stores as it is not
possible to forage for nectar. At this time if there does not appear to much
stores, or nectar coming in, it is advisable to put some feed onto the bees in
order to maintain their numbers, the queens eggying rate and prevent starving.
If nectar sources are found, you will notice that the bes will hardly touch the
feed, if however on the other hand there is no nectar available, the feed will
go down quiet quickly. It is always best to make feed available if you notice a
dramatic drop in stores in the hive. Bees can strip a sfull super of 20lbs of
honey in 48 hours if they are starving!!.
Hope this is of help, sorry that I could not have helped you earlier Harvey.
I am planning on putting a talk on in Sept / Oct about the bee farming and
management out here in Cyprus, its been an interesting week so far (looking at
bees and talking to beekepers!) Lukily the wifes parents live out here so she
is happy with me doing this while her and Isable spend time with the grand
parents!!
Speak soon
Ben
________________________________
From: riseholmebees-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx on behalf of VANESSA HUGHES
Sent: Tue 27/07/2010 9:15 AM
To: riseholmebees@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [riseholmebees] Re: queen introduction
hello Harvey,
so pleased to hear it all seems to be going well. Fingers crossed and you will
have 2 colonies to contend with next year! Which seems to be essential doesn't
it when you read some of the things that need doing when it all gets
interesting! I have been a little worried about my large hive this week as
their stores seem to have gone down alarmingly-nothing in the brood box at all,
but they are still so busy working, lots of willowherb near by, that I hope
they will sort things out themselves without me having to intervene.
I hope all goes well with your treatment today, if there is anything I can do
let me know. It would me nice sometime to have a look at how things are going
with your hives, we could compare notes!
Vanessa
--- On Tue, 27/7/10, HARVEY HOWSON <harvey.howson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
From: HARVEY HOWSON <harvey.howson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [riseholmebees] queen introduction
To: riseholmebees@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Tuesday, 27 July, 2010, 7:32
HI all
I checked on the hive yesterday to which I introduced a new queen. The
queen had been released from the cage and their was 1/2 off eggs present in the
hive so up to now it seems to have worked. The nuc I have removed the frame
feeder and replaced it with 2 new frames with foundation and stopped feeding as
the 3 frames already in their are crammed with honey so by putting in the 2
frames I hope will encorage them to draw them out and also give the new queen
providing she mates sucsessfully somwhere to lay if. mating is not sucessful
then I will transfer the frames of stores back to the original hive.
All going well up to now.
Harvey
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