Bee Keeping

[shiny_arrse]

Have you got any grubs or sealed brood in the brood box..? You don't actually need to see the queen, and eggs are not easy to spot, but if you have bee larvae or capped bee brood:

View attachment 666315

..she is about and laying!

If not, I would not bother with supers until you have about half a box of capped brood.

Yep, we saw the queen and we have plenty of sealed brood, but we still have a few empty frames.

 

[HE117]

Yep, we saw the queen and we have plenty of sealed brood, but we still have a few empty frames.

Ah right.. that's ok then

Sometimes the girls just never get around to drawing the end frames, although happy to fill supers! It may take a couple of seasons to get them to go into a super though. A quick tip if you have oldish foundation wax in a frame is to run a blowtorch very lightly over the wax to just melt the surface... sometimes the girls don't like working old wax and this seems to help..

 

[bedended]

Morning All,
From today's local 'comic'.
Any elephants in your area.

I was going to post it in the 'Silly, stupid and downright weird cartoon', thread but when I went there, I got this for some reason

Not a taco but the "insufficient priviges" bit. Not had a problem before posting on that thread and don't know how to get 'privileges'.

 

[The Assassin]

California has now ruled that bees are fish - for the purpose of agricultural protection

Bees Are Fish, California Court Rules

To get bumble bees protections from agricultural practices, judges determined that bees could actually be considered fish.

www.vice.com

 

[Richard Headicus]

California has now ruled that bees are fish - for the purpose of agricultural protection

Bees Are Fish, California Court Rules

To get bumble bees protections from agricultural practices, judges determined that bees could actually be considered fish.

www.vice.com

As I read, many moons ago, theoretically the bumble bee cannot fly. Fortunately, for the bumble bee, no one informed it regarding its inability to so do. How, I wonder will it cope, when it tries it's luck with the water spider. Not advisable me thinks.

 

[ExREME.TECH]

Happy ending for 20,000 bees after long-standing garden row

The community group looking after the 20,000 bees said hives had now been moved after a parish council row where fears of swarms, stings and anaphylaxis were raised

www.birminghammail.co.uk

 

[HE117]

Happy ending for 20,000 bees after long-standing garden row

The community group looking after the 20,000 bees said hives had now been moved after a parish council row where fears of swarms, stings and anaphylaxis were raised

www.birminghammail.co.uk

Interesting..

Bees are both wild and domesticated according to the law. Bees can be "property" and hence taking bees is theft, however you cannot sue as a result of being stung, as this is considered the bee's natural wild habit.

In Scotland the only way you could be forced to move bees was by creating a statutary nuisance whereby the presence of the hives:

• unreasonably and substantially interferes with the use or enjoyment of a home or other premises
• injures health or be likely to injure health

Depending on where hives are sited, eg out of sight and screened by high barriers, they should not cause any issues at distances more that 10m provided good swarm control is used. You do need to ensure the public cannot get direct access to hives, but a bit of common sense usually prevents any serious issues.

This looks like someone either on the parish council or the bee keeping group has karen/willy waving issues to be honest!

 

[The Assassin]

 

[ExREME.TECH]

Woman filmed capturing swarming bees with her bare hands

'Does anyone fancy giving me a hand?', she asked

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk

 

[Cane Mala]

My new nuc in place 4 days ago

Checked them yesterday:

Its late in the season so I doubt I will get any honey this side of next September (let them build up) but looking forward to getting into it. The last lot were a swarm, who after 2 months, swarmed again.

 

[SKJOLD]

My new nuc in place 4 days agoView attachment 673127

Checked them yesterday:

View attachment 673128


Its late in the season so I doubt I will get any honey this side of next September (let them build up) but looking forward to getting into it. The last lot were a swarm, who after 2 months, swarmed again.

By "swarm" do you mean that as a positive or a negative?

SK

 

[Cane Mala]

By "swarm" do you mean that as a positive or a negative?

SK

The colony appeared in my apple trees last summer and I got it installed in the hive with the help of the local BKA.

2 months later it had buggered off......nothing and nobody left.

I suspect it was my incompetence, as I had put supers up on it too early

 

[scoldog]

Troubling news from Down Under

Emergency orders in place across NSW to protect bee industry from deadly varroa mite parasite

The movement of bees within New South Wales is halted following the discovery of a deadly parasite at the Port of Newcastle with the potential to decimate the industry.

www.abc.net.au

 

[shiny_arrse]

We put a super on our colony a couple of weeks ago as they had finally filled the Brood box.
Last week they had started drawing out all but the two outermost frames in the super.
Checked again yesterday and they have drawn out all frames and have filled about half of them already.
Will have to order some frame kits and put another Super on soon.

 

[HE117]

We put a super on our colony a couple of weeks ago as they had finally filled the Brood box.
Last week they had started drawing out all but the two outermost frames in the super.
Checked again yesterday and they have drawn out all frames and have filled about half of them already.
Will have to order some frame kits and put another Super on soon.

Yeah.. but just keep an eye on the rate that nectar is coming in..
We are still in the June Gap and I would not push them until next month.. cartainly DO NOT take any honey off at the moment!

 

[HE117]

The colony appeared in my apple trees last summer and I got it installed in the hive with the help of the local BKA.

2 months later it had buggered off......nothing and nobody left.

I suspect it was my incompetence, as I had put supers up on it too early

Seems a bit odd..
Yes, you did put a super on too early, but usually they just ignore it..

Colonies rarely completely abandon after two months, they usually go after a few days, or not at all.. were you checking them regularly, and did you feed the colony when you first got it!

 

[shiny_arrse]

Yeah.. but just keep an eye on the rate that nectar is coming in..
We are still in the June Gap and I would not push them until next month.. cartainly DO NOT take any honey off at the moment!

We have no intention of taking any honey at the moment. We had been feeding them sugar syrup as it is a new colony/June gap but removed the feeder this time. We were just surprised by how quickly they had drawn the frames.

 

[HE117]

We have no intention of taking any honey at the moment. We had been feeding them sugar syrup as it is a new colony/June gap but removed the feeder this time. We were just surprised by how quickly they had drawn the frames.

That's fine.. remember to shake your wettest super frame over the hive and only take it off when there is no liquid coming off! If you are a true gadget head like me you can get a refration meter that will tell you the moisture content.. you really need to wait until they have it down to below 19 - 20% otherwise it will ferment in the jars..

They can draw a super in a couple of days if they are in the mood, and the conditions are right.. I think you need a minimum of two supers per hive. I have three, but seldom use them unless there is a mad nectar flow and the hive is full of wet honey still drying off. I always add supers immediately above the brood box..

Just come off four days in the honey tent at the Royal Highland Show.. my throat will take some time to recover!

 

[shiny_arrse]

That's fine.. remember to shake your wettest super frame over the hive and only take it off when there is no liquid coming off! If you are a true gadget head like me you can get a refration meter that will tell you the moisture content.. you really need to wait until they have it down to below 19 - 20% otherwise it will ferment in the jars..

They can draw a super in a couple of days if they are in the mood, and the conditions are right.. I think you need a minimum of two supers per hive. I have three, but seldom use them unless there is a mad nectar flow and the hive is full of wet honey still drying off. I always add supers immediately above the brood box..

Just come off four days in the honey tent at the Royal Highland Show.. my throat will take some time to recover!

You are not wrong!
Just checked the Hive.
The super we put on 3 weeks ago is now full, all frames capped bar two sides. We put the second super on and put a sugar syrup feeder on in the hope that they will draw the comb out.
If they have made a decent amount of progress by next week, could we take the feeder away and leave them to it?

Will have to order a third super.

 

[HE117]

You are not wrong!
Just checked the Hive.
The super we put on 3 weeks ago is now full, all frames capped bar two sides. We put the second super on and put a sugar syrup feeder on in the hope that they will draw the comb out.
If they have made a decent amount of progress by next week, could we take the feeder away and leave them to it?

Will have to order a third super.

Having a third super for the hive is useful, if only as an empty for putting wet frames in when extracting. I would not normally put three framed supers on a hive unless there was an exceptional flow on and you could not extract the other two as they were too wet..

You should not really be be putting a feeder on a super.. you do not want the girls to put sugar in with nectar as this is not legally honey. You feed to keep the brood fed and if stores are that low you need to take off the supers and feed the brood directly.. If you have a super filled with syrup, you need the girls to empty if and refill with nectar before you can call it honey..

I am just in from putting corner bracket and clips on some of my hives.. I am shifting a few of them tomorrow as we are getting a bit crowded in the back garden. There is a fair trek between the apiary and the gate at the other site so I have a hive barrow. This grabs the hive by the brood box so the base needs to be fixed to the bottom of the brood box. Thornes do spring clips that you can use with corner brackets to clip the base on..

I blocked the entrance and fitted the corners however I had to turn one of the hives round to fit the other clip and i knocked out the foam strip blocking the entrance... QRF was immediately launched, so the rest of the work had to be done under close supervision and fully suited.. I just love putting in wee screws wearing NBC gloves... NOT.

Can I suggest fitting corner pieces to your hives before putting bees in.. they are cheap and easy to fit to an unoccupied hive!