Saturday 5th May
Back on 18th April, I'd split the colony in the double-height nucleus, and the bees in the blue nucleus went (on the 19th April) to go and live in the ZEST hive on Sydney Buildings. This had left 5 frames of bees, eggs and stores in the brown nucleus. So the first task of the day was to see if the bees had produced a new queen. Indeed they had! So, once the new queen has mated, the brown nuc will be back up and running.Hive #1 (Laura's hive) was all looking fine. The only thing they are in need of is a comb change, which I delayed until the following week.
Hive #2 (Maria's hive) was not at all fine. The queen was still only laying drones. And I was worried that the comb might now be infected, because of the outbreak of Sacbrood that they suffered from at the end of last season. I decided that they would need emergency measures, but that required finding queen Maria. Which I didn't. The hive would need to be sorted out the following week.
Monday 7th May
The early Bank Holiday was a glorious day in Bath. I didn't need to open any hives, but there was still beekeeping to be done. One of the tasks I'd been planning to do was refurbish the blue nucleus. When I built it, I had used the wrong sized mesh for the floor, which had holes that were actually just large enough for a bee to crawl through. This was not at all helpful! I had bodged up an interim solution using a piece of plastic board which was inserted onto runners underneath the nuc, and then a second piece to cover the gap at the back. This was OK - and served as a Varroa board as well - but it would regularly get clogged up with discarded wax cappings and other detritus. A proper fix was needed.I'd already bought the correct wire mesh around a year ago, and fetched it from the loft. So, with a spare day and some spring sunshine, I got out my trusty Black & Decker Workmate bench and some tools, and got to work. Much prising, nailing, screwing and sealing later, and the blue nuc was as good as new (more or less) and ready for some bees.
Sunday 13th May
The first task was to check the brown nuc, and see if the queen had started laying. Yes - she had! This is great news as the colony is now fully functional. I just need to pick a name for the queen...I checked hive #1 and everything was good - queen laying and all healthy. Since I needed to do a comb change, I decided to do a 3-way move of frames between hive #1, hive #2 and the blue nucleus. I proceeded as follows:
- Leaving hive #1 open, I also opened #2 and went through the frames until I found queen Maria. Then, I picked her up by her wings, took her to a flat surface (the top of the brown nuc, as it happens) and squashed her with the blunt end of my hive tool. I can tell you, I don't enjoy killing queen bees. Normally, it's the last thing you want to do as a beekeeper. But Maria wasn't doing her job (of laying eggs) and there's no excuse for slacking off in a beehive. So that was it - Maria was dead.
- Next, I shook the bees off 8 of the frames in hive #2, leaving the bees on 3 frames. These were pushed over to one end of the brood box. The 8 frames that were now without bees were taken down to my burner.
- I next went through hive #1 and found the frame with queen Laura. Don't worry - Laura is fine! I temporarily move the frame - and Laura - into a spare brood box that I'd placed on a stand between the two hives.
- Then, I took two frames of stores (honey) and three frames of brood - with bees - and moved them into the blue nucleus. This was then closed up, with the entrance block closed.
- I then went through hive #1 shaking all the bees off each frame, and then moved the frame into hive #2 - at the opposite end from the three old (and possibly infected) frames. After I moved each frame, I put a new frame with fresh wax foundation into hive #1.
- At this point, hive #1 had bees and 5 new frames. I added another 5 new frames, and then moved the (old) frame with Maria back into hive #1, into the middle of the frames. Hive #1 now had 10 new frames and one old frame, and a laying queen. I closed hive #1.
- Hive #2 now had 5 old but healthy frames from hive #1, a gap, and then 3 old - possibly infected - frames. I shook the bees off the three remaining (possibly infected) frames and took them to the burner. I then put 5 fresh frames in, either side of the 5 old frames.
- At this point, hive #2 contained 5 old but healthy frames from #1, 5 new frames, and no queen. I closed hive #2.
- I burned all 11 old frames from hive #2.
- Last job, I opened the entrance block in the blue nucleus to let the foragers come and go.
A busy day's beekeeping, but hopefully my bees' health problems are now solved.
Sunday 20th May
Was world bee day! And there was beekeeping to do:Firstly, I went through hive #1, and found Laura. She was on one of the new frames, which was handy for me as I wanted to take the last old frame out. I took the old frame out of hive #1, shook the bees off it, and moved it into hive #2. This frame had capped brood on it, which would help to bolster the number of bees in hive #2.
I put a new frame with clean wax foundation into hive #1 and closed up. Since the colony were busy and collecting a lot of nectar, I also put a super (box of 10 honey frames) onto hive #1.
I then checked hive #2, and found a good-sized queen cell. Excellent news - the bees have started to make a new queen.
I didn't check either of the nucleus colonies as there was no need - the brown nuc has a laying queen, and the blue nuc will hopefully be building queen cells.
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