Hi Andy and thanks for sharing this.
I have in the past few weeks suffered an absolute epidemic of swarms (~6 in the
last 18 days or so). Three of these did not stick around long enough for me to
do anything, but three had gathered in neighbour's garden and had to be dealt
with.
The outcome is that I have decided to wind down my bee-keeping operations,
having become convinced that bees and neighbours (especially with small
children) don't mix. There is the added factor that from September I will be
going back to university for 2 years and will consequently be a very unreliable
bee-keeper.
The winding down process started today with Pete Davis of the club taking away
my two nucs with healthy colonies, to be given to other people in the club. I
will keep going with the 2 main hives until the end of this season, and will
hope to get some honey! One of these hives I have offered to give to my niece
in Dorset, but the other one is basically on offer to a 'good home' if one can
be found. The two hives are both National 14x12 from Thornes made of redwood
and well-preserved being only about 3-4 years old. Both have 2 supers of the
same provenance.
So if you might be interested in one (possibly both, depending on my niece) of
these hives let me know.
Ian
Ian Gilchrist
24 Horseshoe Walk
Bath BA2 6DF
T: 01225-334775
M: 07772-433367
E: iangilchrist52@xxxxxxxxxxx
My links:
Ceilidh band 'Pipley': http://www.pipley.ukCeilidh band ;'Pilgarlic':
http://pilgarlic.uk/
Bath City Jubilee Waits: http://www.bathcityjubileewaits.org.ukMy Iran video: ;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=OfJjHCinSmI&feature=youtu.be
On Saturday, 16 May 2020, 22:50:22 BST, Beechen Bees
<noreply+feedproxy@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
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Beechen Bees: More Swarms!
| |
|
More Swarms!
Posted: 16 May 2020 11:25 AM PDT
In my last update on Sunday 3rd May, I'd finally managed to collect the swarm
from neighbour Mark's garden. The bees were safely housed in a nucleus, and
everything was back to normal. Or so I thought.
The next day (Monday 4th) they swarmed again. I don't know why, but for some
reason the bees abandoned the nucleus and headed off to another neighbour's
garden (Julia's, this time). So, off I went again, with a bucket, loppers and
the now-empty nuc for round 2. This time, they were about 8ft up in a
crab-apple tree. At least they were easy to reach this time. Unfortunately,
they were clustered around a thick branch, just at the point where it divided.
There was nothing else for it - Julia lent me a saw and I started hacking away.
Eventually, the swarm - and accompanying branch - was free:
The only way to be sure I had all the bees was to put the piece of branch -
with swarm still attached - into the nucleus, and then carry it back to the
apiary. Eventually they settled down, and I'm relieved to report they didn't
swarm again.
The next incident was on the bank holiday, last Friday. I'd checked Dorothy's
colony, in the brown nucleus, 6 days previously - and all seemed fine.
Unfortunately, I must have missed a queen cell, so off they went. This time,
they decided to set up home in my neighbour Darren's chimney. There's no way I
can collect them from there, so I suppose they will just set up home and have a
happy summer, undisturbed by beekeepers.
That brings us to today. I checked the blue nucleus (the Mark / Julia swarm)
first. All looked good, and the queen has started laying. That meant I could
mark her, so I popped her in the marking cage and put a dot of blue paint on
her thorax. Next, I checked the now-queenless brown nucleus. There were a
couple of queen cells, but no sign of any new queen. I decided it would be
easier for me to manage the nucs by combining them, so I prepared by removing
the old frames with the queen cells (there was very little brood, so it was a
good opportunity to remove the old comb and burn it). I then replaced with
fresh. The handy thing about the brown nuc is it has a detachable floor, which
allows me to put it on top of the blue nuc and make a double-height nucleus,
like this:
When combining colonies in this way there is a risk that the bees will fight,
so it helps if you can make them mingle slowly, so they get used to each other.
The way this is done is by putting a layer of newspaper between the two boxes.
The bees will nibble through the paper and start to circulate through the
holes that they make. This way, they get used to each other's pheromones
without getting aggressive. At least, that's the idea - I will find out next
week how they've got on.
All was fine in Katherine's hive - they were very well behaved, and no queen
cells.
In hive #2 I was please to see that the new queen (the one that had emerged
after the swarm) had started laying. She also got a blue dot on her thorax,
and then that was the end of the day's beekeeping. I'm pleased to note that
hive #2, which has had a bit of a temper in the last few weeks, was much better
behaved today.
Now that I'm back to three laying queens, I'm hoping that's the end of all this
swarming nonsense and everything will be a bit more orderly for the next few
weeks. One other thing - I have two newly-marked queens, and regular readers
will know that I always name my queens when I mark them. Tune in to the next
update to find out what they're called... |
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