Jun
26

Weekly Inspection 25th June

Observations:

Weather has continued to be very hot – temps around 24°C – 28°C. Cooler temperatures and more changeable conditions are forecast.

Forage: cow parsley and bramble seem to be main flowering crops. Plenty of activity and see no evidence of the June gap. Had to go through Emerald to stock Apideas and was surprised the 3rd super is over half full.

Queen rearing – started on 17th June with Cloake board and grafted larvae from Emerald and put into Denim.

19th June – removed Cloake board – bit concerned that the number of bees flying from Denim dropped off over the next few days.

24th – stocked 2 Apideas with bees from Emerald.

26th June – started to use the queen cells, only to discover swarm cells in 2 colonies I wasn’t expecting to – Flax & Honeydew. So used the queen cells in these colonies.

Split Emerald – left new colony on old site with queen cell. Moved old queen to new spot in apiary.

 

Will need to check all colonies in 4 days to see if queens have emerged as there was a lot of brace comb on the grafted frame, so not sure if the queens are viable and able to emerge.

Hive Record
Colony
Q
BIAS
Brood
Stores
CommentNext Inspection
DenimYY6 BIAS, but didn’t inspect fully3rd super more than 1/2 fullStill going very strong, stocked 2 apideasAdd 4th super
EmeraldYY4 frames capped brood in top box, made up to 11 framesSuper 3/4 full, added 2ndNot sure about viability of queen cells - brace combCheck split and if queen emerged
FlaxNY6 BIAS of capped brood, 20 queen cells mostly sealed 2 super about 3 kgsPut in sealed QCs from Emerald Check for emerged queen
GreenYY4 BIAS- not expanding stillPlenty in brood frameRemoved queen into Apidea, put in qc from Emerald Check for emerged queen
HoneydewNY7 frames BIAS, mainly sealed or mature larvae - no eggs, loads on queen cellsOk in brood framesSurprised to see swarming, maybe rejected queen after I marked her splotchy last weekCheck for emerged queen from Emerald introduced qc
AquaNNNot inspected - was old queen in Emerald, not inspectedPlenty in. Brood boxJust moved to new site after splitting Check on queen and how many bees present after split
BlueYY6 BIAS - so has expandedSuper nearly full, plenty of space in brood boxBrood expanding nice patternAdd 2nd super