Swarm chasers

So on Wednesday I had a call telling me that a number of bees had been spotted leaving the hive. Could this be the new queen going on a mating flight I wondered? Apparently there were thousands so sounded more like a swarm which was a little puzzling and very bad news.

I looked all around for a resting swarm but there was no sign of them anywhere and a quick look in the hive confirmed my suspicions. I had little choice but to go home for the day wondering if I would ever get any honey.

Then Thursday morning I was awoken by another phone call from my brother-in-law who has found a post on facebook about a swarm that arrived nearby yesterday afternoon! I was even more surprised to discover that they were still there so I got everything ready and jumped in the car.

We arrived and there they were hanging out on a piece of driftwood! A few minutes later and we had performed a textbook swarm collection and had them all in a box. Feeling rather pleased we headed off and would return later in the day when all the bees would have returned and we could take them back to the hive.

resting swarm of honey bees

However, a couple of hours later I receive a message saying they have headed off again! Followed a short while later by more calls informing us they had resettled on someone's tree! By this point I had spent most of the day chasing bees but reluctantly got back in the car to go and see.

On arrival they were in a very small tree only a few foot off the ground and again within reach but as soon as they saw us suiting up they were off again!

That evening we had more luck with a more inaccessable swarm that definately hadn't come from my hive but we had been contacted about after seeing a facebook post. This time we were up the ladder and over a ditch by a, fortunately not too busy, road. A few concerned looking passers by included two truckfuls of marines returning from a training excercise. Whether or not this swarm will stay put in the hive now still remains to be seen.

large swarm in a tree

We are still getting calls about swarms and everyone seems to know we lost some bees!

preparing to catch the swarm

After an exhausting few days we have learnt that:

1. You can only keep bees that want to be kept.
2. Deal with the bees first and chat to onlookers after.
3. Beware the power of facebook.
4. Annoying bees while standing on a ladder and not holding on is not for the fainthearted.
5. Royal Marines are not as tough as they look!

Where's Queenie?

I've been waiting for an opportunity to open up the hive and have a good look following the MAQs treatment. We've had lots of dry weather but temperatures have been too low. It needs to be at least 16˚c to safely open the hive and not chill the brood. Last Saturday the forecast looked perfect so l packed my trug and set off.

Lots of bees was a good sign that none had swarmed.

My main concern was swarming and it was reassuring to see a large number of bees in the hive, it was looking a little overcrowded so I wasn't surprised to see queen cells on the second frame I removed. There were sealed queen cells on a number of frames and I felt that I may need to carry out an artificial swarm to prevent them from swarming naturally and thus losing half my bees.

However there was no sign of the red queen (the 2013 queen marked with red paint) and after a thorough look on all of the frames I concluded that she was no longer there. There was no sign of any eggs either so I guess she hadn't been there for a while. I couldn't do an artificial swarm without a queen so I left all of the queen cells and closed up the hive after adding a few new frames.

On my next visit the new queen should have emerged and I will need to find and mark her (she will be green because she is a 2014 queen). Hopefully she will have had a successful mating flight and be laying eggs by then.

We searched and searched for the queen.

A cluster of queen cells.

Bee Cakes

Very easy to make and they look great...

Makes 12 large cupcakes

Ingredients
for the cakes:
250g butter, softened
250g caster sugar
250g self raising flour
4 eggs
2 tbsp honey

for the icing:
50g butter, softened
250g icing sugar, sieved
1 tbsp honey
3 tsp cold water

to decorate:
2 crunchie bars, smashed
yellow icing
black gel icing tube
flaked almonds

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 190C/Gas 5.

2. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

3. Add the flour, eggs and honey and mix well.

4. Line a 12 hole muffin pan with paper cases and divide the mixture evenly into the cases.

5. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden and an inserted skewer comes out clean.

6. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Meanwhile start mixing together the icing ingredients.

7. To make bees roll small pieces of yellow icing into balls and add almond wings and black stripes.

8. When cakes have cooled spread with icing and sprinkle with crunchie before adding the bees.

Enjoy!

Varroa :(

So yesterday I was awaiting delivery of some MAQS treatment to deal with varroa mites in the hive. As soon as they arrived I headed off to go and put them on (actually by the time I had sorted out the dogs and got the baby and everything ready, another hour or so had passed). I decided to have a cup of tea and a good read of the instructions before suiting up and putting them on (in the meantime my other daughter needed picking up from down the road). So eventually, several hours later, I was ready and had even remembered to bring some scissors!

All I needed to do was place the two strips on top of the brood frames. No need to do a full inspection as I should disturb the colony as little as possible and any queen cells should be left alone at this point according to the instruction sheet. A quick look at the supers as I moved them revealed no activity, disappointingly :( I opened up the sachet and applied the strips, which smell strongly of formic acid, put everything back together and job done :)

Off for another cup of tea and quick check of instructions, which reveals I've placed the strips too far apart, and I'm heading back to correct my mistakes.

It's just one of those days! Oh and I forgot to take any photos :(

Ready for summer 2014!

My last post was back in July last year and as you can imagine a lot has happened since then. Firstly we have had another new addition to the family - a beautiful baby girl <3 I even managed to squeeze into my suit right up until the end!

beekeeping whilst pregnant

The nucleus grew well last year despite the late start. I fed syrup to help them along and they had the opportunity to forage on ivy in October so by Autumn I was fairly confident that they had plenty of stores for winter.

a willing helper

a good patch of brood

returning to the hive after foraging on the ivy

I had fondant on standby just in case and that went on in January. We have had a very mild winter and some colonies have kept brood overwinter therefore using up more stores than usual. Varroa mites have also had the opportunity to breed throughout winter. Just when I thought things were ok!

a fondant heart for valentines day

This week I have visited the hive and started getting everything ready for this summer.  I've added the supers over the 10 brood frames, very excited to have supers on at last!

a young beekeeper

a hive of activity

The varroa drop is higher than I expected and I will be treating the hive next week for the first time.

The royal arrival

No not the royal baby! Our new nuc colony arrived today. After a very long drive to Omlet HQ we arrived back at the hive with just enough time to let them rest before transfering the frames across.

The queen was spotted on the first frame we removed and all frames contained plenty of brood. I only had a quick look through as it was starting to get a bit late in the day, all looked very good and nice and calm despite the long journey. I placed a bag of syrup on top of a clearer board to help them along and put 3 new frames at the front of the hive.

Lots of lovely sunshine forecast for the next two weeks so they have arrived just in time. I can't wait to have a proper look at them in a few days...

Sad news

Very sad to see this article today...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jun/13/honeybee-colonies-england-winter?commentpage=1