It smells of bees – I’m not willing to taste it 😊. No ants, but I haven’t seen
any ants this year.
From: oxnatbees-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <oxnatbees-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf
Of Eric Asher
Sent: 26 March 2020 15:30
To: oxnatbees@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [oxnatbees] Watch at the hive entrance.. Hullo Sweetie
The doctors of old when visiting the patient used to look at the chamberpot.
If ants were crawling into it, then it was a case of diabetes.
Ah how sweet it is to make a diagnosis.
Similarly, if the liquid is a honey related hive product, the ants will be over
this liquid in a trice.
Cheers
Eric
________________________________
From: oxnatbees-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:oxnatbees-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
<oxnatbees-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:oxnatbees-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>> on
behalf of Oxnatbees <oxnatbees@xxxxxxxxx<mailto:oxnatbees@xxxxxxxxx>>
Sent: 26 March 2020 15:11
To: oxnatbees@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:oxnatbees@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
<oxnatbees@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:oxnatbees@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>>
Subject: [oxnatbees] Re: Beekeeping and Covid-19
The key right nw is not chilling the brood. You could probably add a box to a
Warre today, if you kept the quilt on the boxes above. I did a manipulation to
my Warres a couple of days ago and found the top 2 boxes could be lifted as a
unit - they are not yet very heavy with honey. The bees ignored me! They were
too focused on carting pollen in and no one got squashed.
With TBHs it is trickier to keep the brood warm when you open the hive so I am
going to wait a week and hopefully it will be a couple of degrees warmer then.
I won't go into the brood nest but I need to make room for it to expand into by
moving honey bars.
Kerry - if you just have 2 bars' space left the bees are definitely going to
feel crowded so I think in your case, you need to give them more room ASAP
before they begin building unnecessary queen cells and prepare for spurious
swarming. I would give them the whole hive volume - don't worry about chilling
them, the combs will baffle draughts effectively.
I'm not sure what the liquid would be. Probably condensation from processing
nectar. Sometime speople taste such liquids to see if they taste sweet (leaking
nectar) but I do not recommend that! I don't think there is much you can do
about it except increase ventilation - say by part opening the base so air can
go through the mesh at the bottom if you have one - so don't worry about it.
Paul
On Thu, 26 Mar 2020, 12:16 Jon Woods,
<jwoods@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:jwoods@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
Thanks for sharing Paul.
When is it warm enough to add the extra box to a warre – is there a specific
temp ?
Cheers. J
From: oxnatbees-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:oxnatbees-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
<oxnatbees-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:oxnatbees-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>> On
Behalf Of Oxnatbees
Sent: 26 March 2020 12:10
To: oxnatbees@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:oxnatbees@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [oxnatbees] Beekeeping and Covid-19
The NBU has posted some guidance regarding beekeeping during the COVID-19
pandemic:
COVID-19 and Beekeeping
Update<https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nationalbeeunit.com%2FdownloadNews.cfm%3Fid%3D170&data=02%7C01%7Cjwoods%40coca-cola.com%7Ccbfcb900bd9f4b10f8b108d7d17e9e8a%7C548d26ab8caa49e197c2a1b1a06cc39c%7C0%7C0%7C637208214067921542&sdata=0FW6MFuEEQYj2LTlYiSStUFBN1FuRB%2Behv%2BCdmwjqe0%3D&reserved=0>
OBKA have made a few more points. Amalgamating these and some other thoughts:
Key points:
* Swarms (1) - the NBU recommend you do all you can to minimise these.
Translation: regular invasive inspections; squash queen cells; pre-emptively
split colonies. This goes against our ethos of allowing the bees to follow
their natural lifecycle, and remember swarms are an important part of parasite
control because of the associated brood break. And in my experience, splits
don't stop swarms! Once the bees decide it is time to swarm they will do so,
and let's face it they will probably find a suitable cavity somewhere. What you
can do is set up your spare empty hives asap, and when warm enough
pre-emptively give your bees room to expand into their existing hive by moving
top bars (in TBHs) and adding boxes (in vertical hives) which should reduce the
number of swarms.
* Swarms (2) It should still be possible for some people to collect these
if they want to, observing suitable social distancing etc.
* Swarms (3) This season, we will still run a "swarms wanted" list but we
will have to do things a bit differently. For example if someone comes to my
house to pick up a swarm I have caught from my own hives, I will just tell them
where the box is and let them take it - but I don't plan to go out and about as
we have a vulnerable 84yr old with us.
* Maybe carry a copy of the NBU advice when travelling to an out apiary
just in case you are stopped by police.
This is going to be a very odd year and may accelerate the spread of "survivor"
traits due to more escaped swarms allowed to do their own thing.
Paul
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