apiary news
Weekly Inspection June 15th
in Apiary/by andyWeather: has been a mini heatwave with temperatures between 24°C – 28°C. No rain and forecast is for more of the same.
Forage: Pyracantha, geranium and cow parsley – elderflower is finishing. Bees very active and bringing in lots of pollen.
Decided to raise some queens using a Cloake board – started in 17th June.
17th – added 5th frame to Green as it was surplus to the queen rearing activity
Need to make up some more supers.
Looks like Indigo may be looking to produce a supersedure queen.
Weekly Inspection 8th June
in Apiary/by andyHaving a mini heatwave with temperatures 20°C – 24°C. Still quite a lot of forage: elderflower, globe buddleia and hawthorn.
4th June – picked another swarm, looks like a prime. Will need to check later in the week. For now, it’s in a 14 x12 nuc box with a frame feeder. Bees came out front next morning, so transferred to 14×12 brood box. Not sure if they will stay as the owner of the garden where they were collected from says they are a lot of bees still in the bush – maybe the queen was left behind?
Not had chance to inspect Indigo to check on unite
Weekly Inspection 31st May
in Apiary/by andyWeather has been great with temperatures just below 20C. Still lots of forage around – Chesnut (nearly finished), Hawthorn, Lilac, Wisteria, elderflower just starting and OSR.
25th May – Decided to add brood box and supers to Denim & Emerald as I was worried that they will run out of space.
25th May – Headley swarm – after a quick peek I can see that they are covering 4 of the 5 frames and are very active so moved into full size box.
Didn’t see a queen in the united A and C boxes so will combine with Indigo which is not expanding but has a nice sized queen.
3rd June – United Aqua with Indigo
Weekly Inspection 21st May
in Apiary/by andyWell the weather has finally improved with temperatures 15C – 20C and no rain. Forecast is for more of the same. Plenty of forage: Chesnut, Lilac, Broom and Hawthorn. Dandelions still around.
Apiary has expanded considerable with colony purchased , 2 swarms and a bait hive success.
Started uniting colonies as the original 4 are on the decline still and won’t survive the season. Will take a final decision of which ones to unite in the next couple of weeks. For now it looks like Cyan is on its last legs, just emerging drone brood – no queen or even a drone layer – so uniting with Aqua. Put Cyan on top and newspaper in between.
Looks like I‘ll be busy making up frames over the next week or so as I need more brood frames and some supers with fresh foundation.
Put out bait hive for second time.
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- Nucleus Hive – Design and Build
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