Swarm continued

Despite two beekeepers attending and taking away those bees that I wrote about on Sunday there still appears to be a lot of them left behind and they seem to have taken up residence in a garden wall. If they are still there on Thursday evening have said I will pop down and see if I can collect them, should be fun. Logic says that there can't bee a queen left, but stranger things have happened :-)

A hot night for the bees

Ok it's 11.30 and was just off to bed, bees are still up and about, I wonder if it is the heat? Popped out to check on them, and decided to ventilate the hive a bit more, not the best of ideas in just boxers, wonder what the neighbours would think! Well hey tonight almost the naked beekeeper!! Escaped with no stings, wonder if they will thank me?

PS colleague at work said today that the bee colony I sold was doing really well very prolific, fingers crossed when I open hive in next few days will see some activity in storing honey for me in the supers :-) , ok ok for all those who have asked for a jar. Just so as I don't forget anybody please remind me, think I have everybody but don't want to miss somebody, just comment on here or on facebook :-)

Swarm

Had my first call about a swarm yesterday evening, an old friend Mike who lives not too far from the family home had a load of bees in front garden of his house and neighbours.

I was due at Robyn's dance show, she was awesome, so declined, but did call Mike and Sue from BeesandBeans and they went along, by the time they had got there swarm had moved on leaving about twenty bees on the grass in which they found a queen, so not a complete waste of time.

Has got me thinking after my recent bee sale, perhaps I should up my number of colonies? take a frame with eggs in and put it in my nuc and see if I can raise a new queen and colony from scratch?

Aman, ok need to explain, Aman is a young cricketer I am helping towards achieving his dream of playing cricket for England. Ok Aman used to help a beekeeper when he was younger and back in Afghanistan, he is absolutely adamant that I need more colonies, he is a surprising fountain of knowledge on bees, maybe I should listen?

Stores are low

A quick inspection tonight, whilst there are some stores in the hive there doesn't seem much, with the new queen very busy laying eggs they must be getting through a lot of honey.

No sign of any activity in the way of building out honey comb in the super I added a few weeks ago. Hopefully they will start soon or it will be no honey again this year! :-( But guess there is still time.

I think part of the problem maybe that bees don't like to build out new foundation and create cells to store honey and having no honey last year I have no super frames with built out comb to give them a head start, was thinking that perhaps I should drop a super frame into the end of the brood box where they are more willing to create comb on new foundation and then swap it up to the super every week to try and get them to store honey up there? But probably best to let them be, they will do what they want to when they want to.

Will continue to feed them all the time they aren't filling the supers, I now use a tray feeder, the bees take the sugar solution from inside the plasticstrip in the middle, this stops them all drowning in the solution, well it does if they don't dislodge it in their hurry to get to the food, I have taped it down this year!

A beekeepers cure for Gout and Arthritis?

Ok, vaguely bee orientated, I was at cricket watching Aman play for Surrey's Academy a few weeks ago and got into conversation about bees with an older gentleman which was soon joined by another.

Think I must ave mentioned bees as I do from time to time! Anyway he said that he used to suffer from gout and his wife had to use walking sticks for her arthritis, but an older gentleman had told him about a natural remedy, god knows how old the older gentleman was?

Three key ingredients, Aspinals organic cider vinegar, (has to be organic), black molasses and beekeeper's honey, (not that junk from supermarket), a teaspoon of each mixed in half a glass of warm water, drunk once a day.

I filed away the info in a dark recess of my mind for a rainy day, low and behold, Selsdon CC were playing at home on a rainey day and I bumped into Mr Miller walking around the boundary, how's the gout I asked, as you do! Not too bad but still aware of it, and conscious that it might be on it's way back. Try this old remedy I suggest.

Paul disappeared soon after and rang me from Waitrose, "what were those ingredients?" Told him, but did politely suggest that beekeeper's honey won't be at Waitrose.

I though no more of it until a text this morning, "Early days I know but your suggestion for gout cure = f*****g miracle. Thanks mate, feet haven't felt this free for years!"

So if you know anybody that suffers, tip them off, it is also supposed to work for arthritis, so it's not only the bee sting that helps that!

New colony off to a new home

The bees are off to a new home, they were collected this morning and driven back into Kent, where I collected my original colony from, it's a small world even for bees :-).

There endith my first commercial transaction in the bee world.

Next challenge isn't really down to me, but it would be nice to see my bees start to produce some honey stores in the supers, so many people have asked for a jar. Come on ladies get cracking on the honey front :-).

New bee colony all packed

My new bee colony is all packed and ready for collection, transferred the bees into the buyers transit box, they didn't appreciate it, there were bees everywhere, one managed to sting me through my gloves! But now they are all settled down.

I'm a bit worried about his transit box, the lid is very loose, can imagine it coming adrift in his car as he drives home, will need to tape it up pretty securely.

Bees will be collected early Saturday morning, so late Friday night I will close up the entrance to the hive, hopefully all the bees will be tucked up in bed, so in morning there won't be any flying bees that get left behind.

It all looks a bit messy, the box has a completely ventilated roof, so have had to cover it from the rain but still let it ventilate.

So this Saturday will be my first income from the bees, I never expected a year ago that I would be splitting a colony and creating a new queen, it all sounded far too complicated.

This bee keeping thing can be very rewarding, I'm not talking about the cash side! :-)

Warning, nectar levels low!

Just got an email from BBKA, warning all beekeepers that because of the very long dry spell, plants are not producing enough nectar and as a result colonies could end up starving!

I did think when I inspected on Tuesday that stores of honey were low.

So put feed tray on the main hive and increased frequency of feeding to the small colony that I am selling.

Might not be much of a honey crop this year, especially as we are yet to go through the "June Gap", this is the month when there aren't many flowering plants and bees struggle to feed themselves, but who knows when the June Gap will be this year, the growing season seems to be all over the place, maybe the June Gap happened in May and that is why honey stores are low in the hives!! Anyway the long and the short of it is that feeding is needed now otherwise the colonies might starve to death. Fingers crossed might get some honey this August, a lot of people will be disappointed if I don't :-(.

Made contact with the new beekeeper who wants my new colony, will transfer bees to his box next week and he will collect them next Saturday.

New Queen is up and running

Ok can you spot the new Queen, it's a lot easier in real life, she is roughly in the middle of the picture, just to the left of her are two uncapped larvae,(white looking cells), her daughters in the making.

Well it's a relief to see that the small Queen I saw a week or so ago has now made her mating flight and is laying eggs, on a good day could lay 1500 eggs!

The colony as a whole was looking good, plenty of stored honey and pollen, but on downside no honey being stored in the super for me to harvest, maybe the hiccup with the new Queen has slowed things a bit.

The other colony in the nuc box was looking good, no sign of the Queen but she has obviously been busy, could see larvae and capped brood.

I'm happy now that I can sell the nuc colony