Apiary Inspection 08/05/2012

Today after work I visited the Bees and did a good inspection of both hives. When I got to the apiary the first thing I did was watch the Bees coming and going for a few minutes. I could see Bees returning from the nearby oil seed rape fields loaded up with pollen. When I'd got the smoker lit and I had suited up I dived into the first hive.

The hive had still got a queen excluder under the brood chamber that was put in place to stop Queen Bee-atrix from absconding. My first job was to remove this then place the whole hive onto my newly constructed hive stand. When I started working through the hive I was really lucky in that the Queen was on the first frame I looked at (the first couple of frames aren't fully drawn out yet so I didn't have a proper look at them). There were eggs and brood of all levels present in the hive. As this hive seems to be doing well I didn't spend too much time on it and did a quick inspection. One thing that I noted was that on one of the last frames the Bees had made some odd looking comb. It's hard to describe what it looked like and I will try for a photo next time. The comb was kind of bent around and overlapped, this may cause a problem later as the Queen may be able to hide in the flap created. I may have to remove this odd shaped comb at some time! When I was happy that I'd done all I could in the hive I filled up the frame feeder with syrup and put the hive back together with a extra super so the Bees have more room to start expanding.

Onto my original hive. This is the hive that had the Queen removed and last time I was at the hive there were Queen cells. By now the Queen cells should have hatched and any day now the Queen should be doing her mating flight. When I opened the hive I was impressed with the amount of Bees but there was no brood or eggs which to be honest was expected. One thing that did shock me was that there was still Queen cells present so I took a few photos of them. The only thing I can think of is that the Queen has already hatched and killed the Queens in the other cells, but the worker Bees haven't had time to remove the dead Queen cells. I did see 2 Queen cells that were empty. Fingers crossed that next time I visit there will be eggs. The next new task for me then would be to try to mark the new Queen to make her easy to see. Usually Queens are marked a different colour each year but as I am colour blind I am going to just use white to begin with. In the hive there was lots of stored nectar and hopefully they will start storing in the supers as soon as eggs are being laid.

Below are the pictures of the Queen cells I took.

A Queen cell

2 Queen cells and a few drones visible as well

Busy busy Bees!

Lauren the beekeeper

A really quick post with a couple of pictures. This is what happened when I left one of my suits on the floor within easy reach of my daughter! The suit had recently been washed so the hood wasn't zipped onto the rest of the suit. She put the hood on all by herself and was walking around with it on her head for a good 20 minutes, taking it off and putting it back on again several times!

Apiary visit 28/11/2011

On Monday I did my first apiary visit since 25th October. In the time between then and last Mondays inspection I have been worried about my buzzy little workforce. Things like have they enough food, have they been attacked by wasps or woodpeckers, has the wind blown the hive over etc. have been running through my head.

When I arrived at the allotment I was relieved that the hive hadn't been blown over but there was a distinct lack of activity outside the hive; I watched for about 5 minutes and saw no Bees. When I had suited up I went into the apiary and at that point saw my first Bee of the day entering the hive, I felt reassured for seeing her. The next thing I did was to gently tip the hive to see if it still had any weight to it and was happy that I struggled to lift it one handed; I have read that this is a good test to see if the have sufficient stores. There still wasn't much activity so I put a mouse guard on the entrance. A mouse guard works in a similar way to a Queen excluder in that it provides holes big enough to allow Bees out but not big enough for mice.

After I'd done everything that needed to be done outside the hive I lifted the top off and had a look inside. The fondant that I had put in last time was almost gone so I added another block of it. At this point loads of Bees flew out of the top and started buzzing round me but not too aggressively; some were flying straight at my face but most were just curious. This was a good sight for me as it showed that the hive still had plenty of occupants. As the temperature was dropping at this stage I decided to call it a day and not open the brood chamber. I didn't want to risk them getting too cold and developing any problems in the brood if there was any still present.

A small amount of fondant is visible at the bottom of the tub

Apiary inspection 08/09/2011

Upon arrival at the apiary I was happy to see a good flow of Bees coming and going from the hive, many of them looked to be covered in a fine white dust; this is pollen from Balsam flowers. At the moment there are quite a few flowers still out in the area but the main one is Himalayan Balsam in the nearby woodland.

After I got my smoker lit I suited up and headed into the apiary. The first job was to put the comb back into the hive which I harvested the honey from last week. As this comb is already fully drawn out it is ready straight away for the Bees to start storing honey again. There were 4 frames that still had foundation and no stores so these were taken out and 4 frames of fully drawn comb put in there place. At this point I had a slight dilemma, I had 1 frame left to put in but all the frames already in the super had honey in them. In the end I decided that I'd take the fully drawn frame home rather than taking away some honey they had started to store.

After I'd done everything in the super i moved onto the brood chamber. In the first 2 frames there was hardly any brood but loads of honey stored; I thought the super frames were heavy when fully loaded with honey, they were nothing compared to a brood frame covered in Bees and full of honey. A few frames later and there was a good amount of brood at all stages from egg to larva to caped cells. Unfortunately I didn't see the Queen this time but due to there being eggs present it shows she is more than likely there somewhere. I did notice that the amount of brood is reducing, which I presume is because winter is fast approaching so they are winding down.

The second big job for this inspection was to treat for varroa. Each time I have counted the mites there has been a steady increase in amount present in the hive. The treatment I used was APILIFE VAR; this is a treatment made from essential oils from natural ingredients and apparently varroa mites have not built a resistance to it. It works by suffocating the mites with the vapors. To apply the APILIFE VAR I opened the packet and split the bar in half. Using half the packet I then broke it again into quarters and applied a piece to each corner of the brood chamber. The other half will be used in a week from the first day and then another packet it used for the following 2 weeks. In all full treatment takes 4 weeks. Due to the treatment bar being slightly raised I had to remove the Queen excluder otherwise the treatment bar would have been crushed by the excluder; this isn't a problem as long as I make sure the Queen is below the excluder when I put it back on in the spring.

The last task was to take the final varroa count for the time being; this will be the final one for at least a month as there is no point counting the varroa while treatment is in place. Once I'd took the hive debris out of the hive and returned home I began the varroa count. It took me a while to do and in the end there were 91 mites which gives the following results when put into the varroa calculator.

Average Daily Mite Fall = 10.1 varroa mites
Estimated number of adult varroa mites in the colony = 510
Treatment is recommended in about 8 month(s) time (counting from day of first monitoring).

The period that I did the calculation over was mainly in September but slightly into August. If I work out the varroa using the calculator but entering August as my month it gives quite different results with a recommendation to treat immediately. When I first started looking into becoming a Beekeeper I did have the mind that I wouldn't treat the Bees however now I have them and I can see the levels of mite rising so rapidly I have changed my mind; I wouldn't want to loose my Bees in the first year. Maybe when I have more hives and experience I can have a different approach.

Apiary inspection 30/08/2011 and Honey Extraction!!!

Last Tuesday I went up to the apiary to remove the honey that my Bees have kindly made for me. I didn't want to take too much from them as they have worked so hard for it so I took 5 completely capped frames and left all the half full ones. The Bees will continue to collect honey up until the flowers have gone but what they collect from now will all be theirs and hopefully this will reduce the amount of sugar syrup I'll need to feed them over the winter.

This time I was on my own and didn't take any pictures and will be taking less pictures in the future as I don't want too much repetition. When I arrived the first thing I did was light the smoker and then suit up. When I was suited up I went to the hive and removed one of the supers and swapped around the frames so I had 5 full frames of honey and 5 frames the Bees haven't got round to drawing out yet. The weight of the frames were impressive and later on worked out to be over a kilogram each. When I'd got the frames of honey I closed the hive up and collected the debris underneath to do a Varroa count later. I didn't inspect the brood chamber this time as the hive had been open a while by then.

When I got home I sent an email to the secretary of Wakefield Beekeepers asking for the contact to hire an extractor for the day. I was sent details of a man called Keith that lives a couple of junctions up the motorway so was in short driving distance. I called him on Thursday and arranged to pick the extractor up after work. The extractor is a 9 frame electric one and it cost £2 to rent for the day, bargain.

The frames in the super

A almost fully capped super frame

Using a sharp knife the cappings are removed

A sticky job but fun

The frames are placed in the extractor which spins at high speed forcing the honey out of the frames

The liquid gold running into a storage bucket via a pair of tights! This filters out bits of wax in the honey. I will need a better filter if I intend to sell the honey

The first jar of my honey

I took the above bottle to work to let people taste it and I think it went down well.

You may have noticed that there has been no mention of the varroa count up until this point. I haven't forgot, I just didn't have time to do it until today. There were 71 mites that I counted which was over 15 days. Below is the report from Beebase. I will be treating them ready for winter on my next inspection even though the count is still low as it's increasing at a alarming rate.

Average Daily Mite Fall = 4.7 varroa mites
Estimated number of adult varroa mites in the colony = 190
Treatment is recommended in about 9 month(s) time (counting from day of first monitoring).

Apiary inspection 15/08/2011

I've finally managed to get caught up with my blog posting with this post. 10 days ago me and Steph did an inspection, however this time she was really brave and did most of it. In fact the only things I did were light the smoker, open the hive, remove the first frame and any heavy lifting. She enjoyed it so much that she has agreed that a hive in our back garden is a strong possibility but is likely to be a top bar hive; a top bar hive would mean less heavy lifting and looks a lot nicer than just a wooden box not to mention a top bar hive will be cheaper!

Steph all suited up

The smoker ready to go

If you look almost in the centre there is a Bee emerging from it's cell!

Steph looking very professionally 

Queen Bee-atrix and plenty of brood

This is the frame nearest the entrance, I think they put the holes there for extra ventilation

Beekeepers together!

I also took the debris from the varroa board and later that day counted the mites. I found 37 mites and that was over 14 days. Using the calculator on the Beebase website I got the following result:

Average Daily Mite Fall = 2.6 varroa mites
Estimated number of adult varroa mites in the colony = 110Treatment is recommended in about 9 month(s) time (counting from day of first monitoring).

Although the results are again fairly low I intend to treat the hive as soon as I've removed the honey, which hopefully will be next Monday or Tuesday. I will then contact my local Beekeeping club who offer a extractor for hire. With any luck I should have some honey in the next few weeks.

Apiary inspection 26/07/2011

Over the last couple of weeks I got an email from Wakefield and Pontefract Beekeepers telling me that there was a potential new Beekeeper in the village I live in. They passed me his contact details and today we arranged to meet up so I could show him my Bees. He had already been to see another apiary in the village, but the other apiary had several more hives than mine, I believe he said around 15 hives all together!

At around 3PM I met up with him and we headed up to the apiary together. Upon arrival we suited up and lit the smoker then headed into the apiary. The first job I did was remove the varroa board and scrape the contents into a box so I could do a varroa count later on. After that I handed the camera over to him and asked if he would take photos as I went. 

First I took the roof off

Next I removed the super and put it to one side exposing the Queen excluder

Then the Queen excluder was removed, making sure the Queen wasn't on the underside

I then removed the plastic dummy board

The first frame with capped stores

The capped cells in this one are worker brood

Queen Beeatrix with her entourage 

Me and a Bee inspecting a frame

Holding the hive tool so it's at hand when needed

I tried to remove as much of the excess comb on the top of the frames

A frame from the supers

Capped honey stores

Looking into a super

After we had checked all the frames in both the supers and the brood chamber I added another super so there are now 2 supers on the hive; this gives the Bees plenty more room to store honey as there is a good honey flow on at the moment.

When I had dropped my visitor off I returned home and poured the contents from the varroa floor onto a sheet of white paper and counted the mites on there. I counted 14 mites and then using the calculator on the Beebase website I got the following information:

Average Daily Mite Fall = 2.0 varroa mites
Estimated number of adult varroa mites in the colony = 80
Treatment is recommended in about 2 month(s) time (counting from day of first monitoring).

Varroa mites 

Apiary inspection 09/07/2011

I did a quick inspection today as the weather decided to be nice, rather than the rain we have had all week. There wasn't anyone available to look after our baby so Steph stayed at home for this one.

Upon arrival at the allotment I did a quick visual check of the apiary. There was plenty of Bees entering and exiting the hive, some could be seen with their pollen baskets full. Next I lit the smoker and then got suited up.

When I opened the hive I was hoping to see that the Bees had started to draw out the foundation in the supers, ready to start storing honey. Unfortunately this wasn't the case; in the super there were about 5 Bees just wondering around! I removed the super and the Queen excluder and started to check on the brood chamber. This was a different story, it was quite full of Bees!

I started by removing the first frame and checking for food. The first frame had plenty of stores on it but no brood, there was small amounts of pollen present also. The next frame had a few eggs present but mainly stored food. The next 5 frames I checked were full of brood and I even saw her majesty on one of them. I did notice a lot of drone brood on the underside of one frame but at the course I was advised this is normal so will just keep an eye in it and make sure it doesn't get any worse; the main thing is that there is evidence the Queen is laying worker brood. On the last couple of frames I checked there was plenty of stored pollen.

As I was doing the inspection I tried to remove as much comb that was out of place as I could, there was a fair bit below the Queen excluder. After I'd checked all the frames I replaced all the hive parts and left the apiary.

When I returned to my car I had a closer look at some of the excess comb I had removed and noticed there were a couple of eggs in there. The eggs are tiny but can be seen fairly clearly in the photo

Beekeeping Course: Week 7

This weeks course was a special one for me as it was the first I had attended as a genuine Beekeeper! Upon arrival we all got talking, mainly about how everyone's Bees were settling in. Mine seem to be doing fine but a couple who attend together who got their Bees the same day as me seem to be very lucky; their Bees have almost drawn out all the foundation into full comb. I imagine mine will catch up without too much problem.

As several people were picking up their Bees and there was a lot to cover we went straight up to the apiary. This weeks course was all about Bee diseases and being able to identify them. As a lot of Bee diseases are first noticeable in the brood as a Beekeeper you need to be able to remove Bees from a frame so you can see into the cells. We split into 3 groups and was shown how to shake the Bees off a comb. Once Ivor had done a frame the hive tool was passed round so everyone had a turn. When it came to my turn I gently removed a frame and had a quick look for the Queen. While I was looking for her I noticed a Queen cup with a white residue on it; I asked Ivor what it was and while he was looking at it a large caterpillar fell of onto the hive below, Ivor quickly caught it and disposed of it. It turned out to be a greater wax moth larva! It was now time to shake the Bees; to do this you hold the frame at either side and then shake with a couple of quick sharp thrusts downwards, which should dislodge enough Bees to be able to see the brood underneath. This should be done to all brood frames at least a couple of times a year if you want to catch diseases before they become a problem. After everybody had shaken a frame we moved straight onto putting the nucleus hives into everyone's hives and then left them to collect at the end.

After a quick break we went straight onto the classroom session which this week was about Bee disease and pests. We were shown several slides with various different problems present. Things we were told to look out for were:-

• Uneven brood colour; a frame of capped brood should all have a very similar colour, newer comb will be lighter than old comb.
• Smells; strong or sour odours can be signs of foulbrood
• Uneven brood pattern; a failing Queen can cause cells to be regularly missed
• Larva in cells looking different; they should be ivory white and curled in a "C" shape, if they are a different colour or seem twisted in the cell that could be foulbrood
• Capped cells look sunken; capped brood should be lightly raised, again could be foulbrood

If any of the above are found in the hive then there could be a problem and if in doubt get someone else to look at it. If you suspect foulbrood, either American or European, then by law you need to notify DEFRA; we were all encouraged to register at Beebase and through there you can notify any problems you have. We also mentioned Varroa and Small Hive Beetle. I won't go into much detail on the diseases and pests as they will be eventually added to the separate page I've created .

I also bought a new suit for my better half so she can get a little more involved. She has decided that Bees aren't as bad as she thought but still prefers her chickens, which she blogs about here.

Steph in her Bee suit