A good day

Good inspection today, the first where the weather was warm and settled. I used very little smoke as the bees are so docile and are a pleasure to handle. The queen looks healthy and is laying well moving around the comb whilst I was watching, there were no queen cells, not a lot of drone brood and very few drones.

Plenty of stores of honey and pollen for the start of the year so things are looking good if the weather continues to be fine.





The only problem I have is that the bees are building comb on the bottom of the brood frames, I will need the help from another beekeeper to take them off and wire them into empty frames, I then propose to put them into a smaller brood chamber that is not so deep.


Quite a bit of mite about and the treatment is going to have to go on for a bit longer, the bees have only one frame full of uncapped honey in the super so I doubt it will cause a problem to treat for another couple of weeks.

First full inspection of the year

All you read on Twitter and Facebook at the beginning of the month was that across the country fellow beekeepers were reporting that their colonies had died as a wet summer last year gave way to a cold winter that extended well into spring.

Flowers where I live are only just starting to bloom and my hive which survived the winter is now weeks behind where it should be at this time of year. I was feeding fondant up until two weeks ago but after the last feed I left them to their own devices and the colony are now out collecting pollen as the outside daily temp is finally above 10°c

I needed to check the brood to see how well the colony stands ready for the summer, but I waited until today before carrying out a full inspection as the temperature finally reached above 16°c.
There was two frames of capped and uncapped brood but the brood pattern wasn't good, not a lot of drone brood. There were lots of pollen stores building up and last years queen was seen.

No disease seen at all so all in all after the long winter it's a good start to the year for me and let's hope for a long warm summer.

I also managed to build a new base for the hive which has some hooks to attach a strap.

At last spring has arrived

I must remember not to stand in the bees flight path whilst I'm tending the bottom flower beds, yesterday I had a bee fly right into my left ear. Must have an odd experience for the bee but funny for the neighbours to watch me tipping my head to the left and banging the right side of me head to try and dislodge it. Instinct was to jam my finger in there, but I didn't want a bee sting in my ear. Especially as I have not been stung yet and would have been my first one, they say the first is the worst. Mybe I should do a controlled sting.

The bees have been in and out all weekend now the temperature has gone above 8°c, at most it reached 11°c during the daytime this weekend. Some bees were hardly able to make it back to the hive and by the end of each day there must have been a couple of hundred dead bees laden with pollen in front of the hive that just didn't have the strength to get back inside.

 

Most were bringing back yellow or orange pollen, but some were bringing back pollen that was a vivid blue, I gather that they must have found some Siberian Squill plants nearby as the colour resembled that on the chart on Wikipedia

 

I also made some lip balm from some of last seasons bees wax, I just added some  coconut oil and some peppermint essence, it's so easy to make I might make some strawberry as well.

Buzz word for March

Reading all the Twitter feeds it seems as the buzz word for March was colony collapse. So many people reporting that upon inspection all their bees had died.

 

Well the temperature here is still not getting above 4°c during the day and night time temperatures of -2°c so it seems a long way off before temperatures reach that magic 16°c where a full inspection can be carried out to look for problems.

 

I fed the bees some more candy last week and they don't seem to have touched it so I fear that unless we get a warm spell soon I will also lose my first colony. It will be such a shame as this swarm that moved in last May whilst I was on holiday had a queen that reared some really timid bees, they're a pleasure to handle and I often sat by the side of the hive last Autumn with a cup of tea watching them come and go.

 

Others have advised all sorts of things to try to keep them from dying off, but if they do not want to move from their small cluster they're still not going to feed, I might try spraying some sugar syrup on the cluster on Monday though if there is still signs of life.

Slow start to spring

Just been down to check on the hive and the bees had used up all the fondant I gave them last week so I have just given them another 250g.

The temp last night was -4°c and is now 2°c, they seem to have formed a tight cluster and it still seems a decent size about the size of a small melon so fingers crossed for some good weather pretty soon otherwise I might lose them.

Honey is going to be in short supply again this year.

Medicines Admin records

Something I've been using to keep records of my hive inspections since my bees took residence last May is something called Mobile Forms by Device Magic.

I'm not one for paper records so I'd been researching a way of maintaining records using a mobile device such as a tablet and phone and the limited number of apps that were floating around were subscription based and either very basic or just not worthwhile using. Everyone seems to have different ideas on what needs to be recorded, if the form is not flexible or editable it would not be ideal for everyone.

I came across an article 'Online Inspection Record Keeping' by Phil Khorassandjian (Secretary Sheffield BKA) on the Sheffield Beekeepers' Association website that put me on to Device Magic.

Mobile Forms by Device uses a form on a mobile device such as a tablet of phone to collect data and then populate a spreadsheet with the answers to your Google Drive and email you the form to whatever email address you choose. Best of all it will work off line. If your device is not connected to the internet out in the field you simply save your results on your device and upload to the internet later.

I customised Phil's original form for my own use and rather than repeat all the details on how to use it the link to the original form and instructions is still available on the Sheffield BKAsite.

What I did this weekend was to design a form for staying within the Veterinary Medicines Legislation where we have to keep records of the purchase, use and disposal of any honeybee medicines.

The form 'Vetenary Medicines Admin record' records details such as:

• Medicine name
• Date Purchased
• Barcode
• Supplier
• Quantity
• Batch number
• Use by date
• Date of administration
• Apiary
• Hive Number
• Total quantity used
• Administrator Details
• Date and route of disposal if not administered

I'm happy with the result and will start using it to record all purchased and administered medicines from now on.

If anyone is interested in using the form or to adapt it for their own use it is available to download here.

Just follow the same instructions on how to use and install as Phil details in his original article.

Still waiting for spring

So we have warmer daytime temperatures of 10°c for three days, but along with the warmer temperatures we have rain so I doubt the bees will be out foraging this coming week. I have fed them a 250g block of candy, which is a shame with the abundance of crocus's and snowdrops around. On checking the Correx sheet I did see some orange coloured pollen that has dropped through, so some bees have been out.

 

I am a bit worried that my bees are not good housekeepers, lifting the roof to check them and feed them there was a lot of mould inside the roof space and on the underside of the crown board. I swapped a super with a clean dry one and cleaned the crown board and roof with some Beeguard hoping the mould will be kept in check until the brood increases over the spring and some bees will turn their attention to some housework.

 

Whilst there is not much that can be done outside I turned my attention to labels, my first attempt on the right.

 

Equipment wise I think I have most of what I will need for my first full year as a beekeeper, other than an extractor, they all seem so expensive.