Midsummer Musings

It’s been sunny in Bath this week, which should be good news for bees.  However, that hasn’t stopped them indulging in a bit of silly behaviour...

It was very warm on Saturday morning, so I decided to do the weekly inspection after breakfast.  In the blue nuc, things were quiet.  Too quiet, in fact - surely there should be more bees?  And where was the queen?  After spotting a couple of queen cells - with larvae - it became clear what had happened - the bees had taken advantage of the nice weather, and swarmed.  Oh well, I shall have to wait for the new queen to emerge in a week or so.

Laura’s hive is doing well, with lots of bees and brood.  They have finally started bringing in honey, though I don’t think the crop will be anywhere near last year’s.

On to hive number 2.  The good news is the brood looks healthy, and there’s no sign of the Sacbrood infection that they suffered from last season.  However, there were a few spots of bee poo on the frames, and one poor bee with poo on her wings.  It looks like the colony might have a case of diarrhoea.  There are a few different diseases that can cause this.  I’m going to read up on them this week, so that next week I can make a proper diagnosis and take the appropriate course of action.

At least I spotted the queen, and I took the opportunity to mark her with a dot of red paint.  She is laying, though there is only so much she can do as the bees are barely drawing any wax.  I wonder if I need to feed them next week, to get them building?

One odd thing - despite the colony looking quite sorry for itself, they’d still gone to the effort of making a queen cell.  I took the side off so that I could get to the larva inside, and took a photo before I scooped it out:

A queen larva

The colony is taking a long time to build up worker numbers.  There is about a frame and a half of capped brood - hopefully when these workers emerge, the additional workforce might mean more foraging and more comb building.

Say Hello, Wave Goodbye - Part Two

In Part One we left the bees in the blue nuc leaderless, with the new queen having unexpectedly flown off into the undergrowth.  With the as-yet unnamed queen MIA, what was I to do?

The answer, quite simply, was nothing at all.  There was no chance of me finding her outside the hive, so I had to sit it out and hope that she came back.

I waited until just after six o'clock, and then headed back to look inside the nucleus.  I checked one frame, then another, and another...  and....

Imagine my relief on spotting the queen wandering nonchalantly around on frame number 4.  I wonder if she enjoyed her unexpected day out?!  This time I decided to mark her using the queen marking cage, just to make sure that nothing could go wrong.  Here's a picture of the newly marked queen:

Having finally finished the job that I'd made a mess of earlier in the day, I removed the queen cell that I'd found earlier, and put the roof back on the blue nuc.

Later, at dusk, it was time to wave goodbye to queen Dorothy.  Jessica came over to collect the other (brown) nucleus and take it to the other end of St Mark's road.  Jessica decided to hive the bees straight away, which is unusual as I have always hived bees in the middle of the day.  I think it's fair to say, from the number of stings Jessica received, that the bees were unimpressed.  It's always good to try new things in beekeeping, but I think this will be the first and last time that I try to hive bees after sunset!  Nevertheless, I hope Dorothy and her bees settle in to their new home.

Say Hello, Wave Goodbye - Part One

Dorothy is leaving!  Though she won't be going far - fellow Widcombe beekeeper Jessica is going to look after Dorothy and her bees, at Jessica's apiary on Lyncombe Hill.  So yesterday, I'd arranged with Jessica for her to collect the brown nuc (Dorothy's colony) at dusk.  Bees will fly until sunset, so if you're ever moving a hive or nuc, it needs to be done at dusk, so that all the foragers have returned safety to the hive.

I popped over to the apiary at lunchtime, just to check that everything in the brown nuc was OK.  Yes - Dorothy was seen, and there are plenty of eggs and brood.

I then checked hive #1, just to make sure they weren't working on any secret queen-cell production programme.  Nope - everything in #1 was also as it should be.

Then, even though there was no need or reason to, I decided to take a look in the blue nuc.  This is the one with the unmarked queen who started laying a little over a week ago.  Everything looked OK, until I got to the middle frame, which had a six-day-old queen cell on it.  This was very odd - the queen has been laying for less than a fortnight, and the workers have no reason at all to making queen cells.  And yet, there it was:

I decided to leave it until I'd found the queen.  I spotted her on the next frame.  Since she was now laying, and there are sealed brood, I decided it's time to mark her.  I got hold of the marking pen (red, for 2018 queens) and got ready.  Normally I use a marking cage (click this link for photos), but last week I'd marked one of Ian's queens by holding her legs between my thumb and forefinger.  Having done it once, I decided to get some more practice and have another go.

Basically,  it's a four-step manoeuvre:

• pick the queen up by her wings
• transfer to other hand, and hold her by legs
• dot the paint onto her thorax
• put her back into the nuc (or hive)

The thing about picking up a queen bee is that they wriggle.  So you can't hold by the wings for too long, you need to transfer her to your other hand and hold her by the legs.  The important thing to note is her wing muscles are stronger than her leg muscles, so holding her by the legs is easier.  Well, I made the rookie mistake of holding her by the wings for too long, so of course she wriggled free and started wandering around on my right hand.

To rescue the situation, I tried to encourage her to walk onto my left hand, so that I could try to pick her up again.  She was having none of it - and promptly whirred her wings and took off!  I saw her disappear into the buttercups at the front of the hive and, despite frantic searching both inside and outside the hive, there was no sign of her.

In part 2, to be published later this week, I'll let you know how the story ends...

​Four of a Kind

Sunday’s inspection went well.  Hive #1 is growing steadily, and the brown nucleus is also doing fine.  I left hive #2 alone, as the newly-emerged queen was probably out mating.

So, that just leaves the blue nucleus.  Last week, I tried and failed to find a queen, though there were signs that one had emerged recently.  On Sunday I had another look.  The first thing I spotted was eggs - this is good news!  It means I definitely have a queen in there somewhere, and she’s finished mating and started laying.

She gave me the run-around for a bit, but I found her on the fourth frame.  So I’m happy to say that I now have queens in all four of my hives.  And on Sunday, I had seen evidence that three of them were laying.  Which brings me on to...

Update - Today

My curiosity got the better of me, so I decided to pop along to the apiary at lunchtime today and see what was happening in hive #2.  After what they've been through, the colony is small - but at least they are looking nice and healthy.  And... there are eggs!  Plus, I spotted the queen.

So, I now have four laying queens, and all my colonies are back on track.

About Those Photos I Promised...

I don't have any bee photos to show you, but - last year, local botany enthusiast Stew planted some foxgloves at the apiary (thanks, Stew!).  And recently, Nev (the bees' landlord) and I have been doing planting near the hives (along with some other groundwork).  So here are a couple of photos to show you how things are looking so far:

Foxgloves - a favourite with the bumble bees.

Some bulbs and flowers growing by the new path.  So many buttercups!

Introducing... Queen Dorothy!

Every beehive has a single queen bee, and the queen of the brown nucleus is called Dorothy.

She is named after Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin, who was a Nobel Prize winning Chemist.  Dorothy was born in Egypt in 1910, and moved to England at the outbreak of World War I.  She was one of only two girls who were allowed to study chemistry at her grammar school in Beccles.

When she was 18 years old, Dorothy was admitted to study Chemistry at Oxford.  She graduated in 1932 with a first-class honours degree.  Dorothy then went on to study for her PhD, during which she began working on X-ray crystallography to study the structure of protein and sterol molecules.

After completing her PhD in 1937, Dorothy began to solve the structures of other biological molecules, including penicillin and vitamin B₁₂ - for which she was awarded the Nobel Prize.

Dorothy was appointed the Royal Society's Wolfson Research Professor in 1960.  She continued her research into molecular structure, including working on insulin, which she had begun researching in 1934.  In 1969 she finally resolved the structure of the insulin molecule, opening the way to medical research and treatment for diabetes.  Dorothy continued to work with laboratories that were undertaking research into insulin, and gave lectures worldwide in the importance of insulin in the causes and treatment of diabetes.

Find out more:  http://enwp.org/Dorothy_Hodgkin

Yesterday in the Apiary

After yesterday’s mammoth article, we’re almost back up-to-date on everything that’s happened in the apiary in May.  However, there was a bit of work to do yesterday in each of the hives and nucs.  This, in order of inspection, is what happened:

The Brown Nuc

The queen in the brown nuc started laying two weeks ago, and everything looked good yesterday - plenty of capped and uncapped brood.  I found the queen easily, and since there wasn’t anything else to do, and the bees were nice and calm, I got out my queen-cage and marking pen, and marked her with a dot of red paint (the colour for queens that emerged in 2018).

I have also officially named her - the name will be revealed in my next article!

The Blue Nuc

This was started two weeks ago, using frames and bees from hive #1 (but no queen).  The bees had clearly been busy making new queens, as I found two open queen cells from which queens had emerged.  Normally, when two queens emerge in a small colony, they will fight to the death - the winner gets to rule the hive.

I had a good look, but couldn’t see a queen anywhere.  This could mean that they killed each other in their duel.  Or, it might be that the survivor was out on a mating flight.  Or, I need to get my eyes tested!  I will have another look next week, and hopefully will spot a new queen.

Hive #1

This hive is doing well, and there is a lot of brood.  Hardly any nectar has been added to the super that I put on last week, but that’s probably because all of the nectar that’s being collected is being used to feed the new brood.

Since there was nothing else to do, I finally(!) got round to marking queen Laura.  Because she emerged in 2017, she was marked with a yellow dot of paint.  I had my queen-cage ready, but actually didn’t need it - when I had the marking-pen in my hand, Laura was in the middle of laying an egg, which left her perfectly still with her thorax exposed.  With a steady hand, I aimed the tip of the pen, and gently tapped the middle of her thorax - and was spot on target!

Hive #2

Because of the prior Sacbrood infection in hive #2, I routinely inspect this hive last.  The bees were a little moody, but otherwise fine.

I saw an emerged queen cell, and set about looking for the queen.  After going through the brood box twice, I was all ready to give up and put the last frame back into the hive.  Then, I heard a very reassuring sound - the unmistakable tone of a queen bee piping!  After another quick scan of both sides of the frame, I spotted the new queen marching determinedly across the bottom of the comb.  Excellent news - hive #2 is almost back up and running.  I’ll leave her alone for a couple of weeks to “entertain gentlemen callers”, and then check to see if she’s laying.

So that’s us all up-to-date.  Apologies for the lack of photos recently - now that I am back into the swing of things, I’ll try to get a couple of pictures into next week’s update.

May - What's Been Happening With the Beechen Bees?

I've missed a few blog posts, so I thought I'd better give you all a quick catch-up on what's been happening at the Beechen Bees apiary.  Here's a run-down, by date, of what's been going on:

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.

Sunday 28th May

Today's inspection will have its own, separate post, which I'll publish tomorrow.