Apr
27

Weekly Inspection – 27th April

Observations:

Weather: Warm with temperatures between 16ºC – 18ºC with forecast for mini heatwave in the week to come.

Forage: Still lots of blossoms out. – dandelion, Chesnut, hawthorn and cow parsley starting.

I managed to capture a swarm in the bait hive that I put out. Reasonable size with an unmarked queen – not my bees. I’d seen scout bees the day before and decided to check my own bees to make sure I hadn’t missed ay queen cells, The swarm arrived with a roar around 1:00pm and were all in the hive within 45 minutes. I waited until the evening and moved them to my home apiary and stuffed some grass in the entrance to get them to re-orientate once the foragers emerge and ensure the swarm dozen’s abscond.

My efforts at grafting with the Cloake board continue with mixed results. The grafting wasn’t successful but the queen raising colony had started its own emergency cells so will be OK. But to my surprise I found that the parent colony had 4 charged queen cells, so took the queen into a nuc with 2 frames of brood and stores.

Hive Record
Colony
Q
BIAS
Brood
Stores
CommentNext Inspection
BlueNN5 capped frames of BIAS plus sealed queen cell & removed 3 otherssupers:3/4 and 2/3 full, so added a thirdStill bring in lots of storescheck for emerged queen
CyanYY6 BIAS in bottom box plus 2 charged QCs, so taken down to 1super 2/3 full plus 2Kg in 2ndSwarming despite performing a split. Moved queen to nucCheck on sealed QC and take others down
DenimNNSmall amount of capped brood plus sealed QCLots in the brood box, need to add super to create laying roomWas originally part of Cyan. As the bottom boxes also have QCs re-inserted Cloake boardcheck for emerged queen
FlaxNY7 frames of BIAS with expanded patternSupers: 3/4 and about 3Kg, may need 3rdstill going well, brought in a lot of storesDecide on splitting with new Buckfast queen mid May
EmeraldYNNo brood yet, was bait hive swarmBringing in nectar so no need to feedCaught in bait hive and covering 4 framescheck if queen is mated
HoneydewYY7 frames of BIAS - expanded patternSupers: 2/3rd full plus 1Kg in 2nd Super: only about 2KgDoing OK, donated 1 frame to Indigo, removed old frames of storesCheck if split candidate with new Buckfast queen
IndigoNNNo brood leftStored a lot in brood box. Add super to create laying space for new queenAdded test frame plus sealed QC from Cyan (not sure if it’s viable)Check on queen rearing activity. May requeen with Buckfast.
AquaYY2 frames of BIAS in nuc1 frame of storesOriginal queen from Cyan in nuc box, moved to River Mole sitecheck queen is laying
GreenYY2 frames of BIAS (old Blue queen)1 frame of stores, bringing in nectarNot many bees despite shaking 3 frames inadd 5th frame