Bumblebee relocation

Had a message on Facebook over jubilee weekend from an ex colleague, Chris, whose parents had some bees causing a worry just outside their back door in a bird box, could I help. Thought they would be Bumblebees, but a bee's a bee and don't like to see any of them destroyed, not that I think Chris's parents would do that.

Nice and peaceful, just before I really hacked them off

I arranged to remove them late last Thursday evening, so they would mostly be tucked up in the bird box, got there a bit early and after a nice cuppa set to, initially I approached the bird box and started to remove the ivy around it without my bee suit on, big mistake, they may look cuddly, but they can be pretty angry buggers when disturbed, perhaps I should have bunged up the box entrance first!! So a small delay while they calmed down and went back indoors and then suited up I bunged up the entrance and too down the box.

Anybody following me home must have wondered what I was doing driving so slowly especially over all those sleeping policemen! :-), well would they trust a very old bird box full of bees in the boot wouldn't fall apart? Anyway once home I had decided would temporarily fix them on outside of my garden fence, my intention being to ask my uncle if he wouldn't mind having them in his garden, well it's more a woodland.

Their temporary home

These bees eat wood, can you see damage to entrance?

He was ok with the idea so I arranged to drop them over earlyish on Sunday morning, the best laid plans of mice and men and bees! I had a late night on the wine, did remember to block up entrance before bed, overslept a bit and when I went to move them they had managed to create a new entrance at the back by eating out of the box! Thank god that didn't happen in my car! I couldn't move them now, too many bees would be out flying, even the Queen Bumblebee forages, she's like a flying mouse:-)

So what type of Bumblebee are they, can you work it out from this photo and link?

http://bumblebeeconservation.org/

Pimms o'clock garden party

Well maybe not Pimms, a pint of orange squash, with a generous portion of ice cubes. And garden party? h
Hmm, the guest was probably me, my little ladies allowing me to join them as they sipped some of the old purple nectar. Me, well a few pages of the kindle and a little David Attenborough cameo :-)

Bee's been beelocated

Bee beelocation finished and it felt really good on the last lift to feel how much heavier the hive was compared to the first lift, the colony has been growing fast in this good weather, there are loads of bees inside, although a long way from full strength of 50,000 bees, they are also struggling to get enough stores of honey in, consuming all the nectar they are collecting.

That might not bode well for the "June gap", the time when historically few flowers are in bloom in England, mind you I suspect that all this strange weather will mean that the plants are pretty confused too!

Waste not want not I have added a super and put the granulated honey stores from the old hive in there in the hope that the bees can salvage some to help them out, I put the frames in the freezer first to kill anything off and then scratched open the cells to help them on their way. In the video you will see that I have let the home forlorn looking hive open and put some brood frames in a black plastic box, will let them rob those for a few days and then will dispose of comb and foundation, ready to start again with a second colony, hopefully will collect that in a couple of weeks time.

But first up need to scorch the old hive to kill off any nasties and must remember to order some brood foundation.

PS my neighbours must think I am mad filming bees in just a pair of shorts, could feel the bees flying into my back as they were returning to the hive, no stings so far this year, amazingly! :-)

Three feet or three miles

Well eventually the old hive has passed, well almost, the queen lies dead in the bottom of the hive and there are perhaps 10 bees still alive.

The new colony is struggling along, although they seem active, they have no stores, (honey), and they are not building more comb so that the colony can increase in size, I have tried feeding them with sugar solution but they won't take it, so now decided that perhaps I can use the surplus stores from the old colony, I've broken the wax capping on a few frames and left them out for the new colony to take into their hive, a bit risky because it can encourage other bees to rob the honey.

The short video shows the old and the new hive, the new hive is much to close to the house and will need moving to the position of the old hive, there is an old law of bee keeping about moving hives three feet or three miles, anything in between and the bees will get confused and return to the original location and get lost, so guess it will take three moves over a few weeks to move them down the garden.

Can you find my new Queen Bee?

Pollen in bound

Today has been the only day in last week forecast for sun and the next five days look like rain too, well according to my I Phone!

I took this film earlier this morning it was showing 6 degs, so bang goes that story about bees only flying when it's warmer than 10 degs

If you look closely you can see the bees flying in pollen, I wonder what plant is giving them that bright orange pollen?

Anyway they seem a bit happier with me, as you can see they let me up close to the hive without seeming to notice me, maybe just maybe they will let me cut the grass! :-), well they might but the weather won't it's raining again, I make that everyday bar one since the hose pipe ban started!

Umbrella beekeeping

I was rather hoping that I might get some good weather over the weekend so that I could transfer the new colony into their new home, but no joy, in the end today I decided that come what may I would need to transfer them, Aman's cricket match for Surrey 2nd XI was cancelled so he volunteered to help.
So armed with that vital piece of beekeeping equipment, an umbrella, we set to, the smoker then decided to go out with the lid off the nuc, had to move a bit quick as the bees were less than impressed, no detailed checking of the frames, just get them in the hive and close up quick. But couldn't help but see what looked like queen cells, will have to be on my guard, this was a swarm last year so the queen may well be past her sell by date, can ill afford them to swarm again, now caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, I shouldn't really disturb them again and looking at the weeks weather forecast it seems to be rain and more rain, but I really need to get in there and look!
Later I did take a quick peek in the other old colony two, didn't take any frames out but could see the bees were limited to just one bee space, time is running out for this colony, so if I have got some queen cells in the new colony them just maybe I can kick start another colony?
I wonder if I can wait until next Saturday to check out the colonies for real?
What I do know though is that the new bees looked pretty hacked off with me, hope they have short memories!

Bees all belted up

I think I have been here before, an early morning drive from Gillingham with a colony of bees sitting beside me in the car, this time though the lid wasn't secured, is no sharp breaking! Journey home successfully negotiated, but decided as such a miserable day will leave them in the nuc and keep fingers crossed that better weather is here on Sunday or Monday so I can transfer them into a hive, at the same time can check up on the old colony, not that I am expecting to see much in there.

These bees seem a lot darker in colour, they are a swarm that was caught late on last year so they may not survive through to summer either, Clive the supplier refused to take any money for them which is a sign surely that he's not 100% convinced they will make it through! Oh well nothing ventured nothing gained. On opening the door they were soon out and about checking out the local area, one even decided that perhaps she need a lift back to Gillingham, either that or she has good taste in cars :-)

Still no sign of brood!

Inspected the bees again this morning, a glorious day out, plenty of activity, amazing how busy so few bees can look! 

Lots of pollen loaded bees flying in, but on opening hive still no sign of any brood or larvae and as for eggs, well my eyes have never been able to see them! On the plus side the queen seems bigger, but maybe that's just wishful thinking.

If she doesn't start laying soon there will be no replacements for all those flying bees, their expected life in the air is only two weeks, so numbers will start dropping drastically!

I have ordered another colony, dropped off my nuc box last Saturday and should be able to pick it up next weekend.

If this colony does die out then will have to sterilize the hive ready to accept another nuc that I have also ordered which should be ready sometime in May. Must remember to buy some more wax foundation so I can recondition the old frames.

  

She bee back!!!

Here she is, you can also see dead brood and hatching bees

Ok a bit like Arnie, except this isn't the same queen bee that's back! The little ladies continue to surprise me, when their backs are up against the wall they come up trumps, seems they created a new queen out of nothing, just how did they do that I certainly can't see any sign of queen cells! The will to survive is a powerful force.

Not all plain sailing now though, the new queen isn't laying, so hasn't had her virgin flight yet, which is probably just as well because there are no drones in my hive, understandably! Just hope there are some in other hives locally at this time of the year, otherwise she is going to end up like Queen Elizabeth I and rather than it being the end of the royal line it will be the end of the hive with no new bees to take the colony forward into the new season :(

I doubt the mixed up weather is helping her cause much either, two mornings of frost interspersed with great flying weather!

On top of which the hive is full of granulated honey which the bes will have to work ten times harder at to convert into wax to create new breeding cells. Perhaps time to give them a helping hand put in some new foundation and feed them up with sugar solution?

Finally what to do with all that surplus granulated honey in the brood cells! Perhaps a call to the bee mentors is on the cards.

OMG, the unthinkable is happening!!

The unthinkable is happening, my bees are dying!!!!

"One of the Few", RIP

I was watching them on Saturday morning busy flying to and fro, even flying in pollen, so as the afternoon was nice decided I would have a quick look inside, to my horror hardly any bees, maybe a thousand, but where are all the dead bodies! Looked twice through the frames and no sign of the queen, very little brood cells, what there was were dotted about, but many bees seemed dead hatching from cells, see the black spots on photo.

The hive was full of honey and pollen stores so they can't have starved, I think perhaps are this changeable weather confused them, if you recall they were flying on new years day. The over wintering bees aren't supposed to fly much so that they live through the winter, unlike summer bees that only live 5 weeks, think mine just flew too much, wore themselves out and died, meaning numbers went down and when cold snaps happened, not enough bees to keep the colony warm and then more died including the queen!

So much for my plans of colony expansion this summer! I will have to start all over again.

Hopefully I have managed to secure an over wintered nuc which will give me a good start and just maybe I will get some honey this year. Have also booked another nuc for May time, I need two colonies as a minimum in future