Bee check 25th may

Beecheck 25^th may

Etienne’s swarm was happy enough in their corner, moderate flying, not many flowers around, the syrup had gone, removed the feeder,  placed a clear plastic top. Eggs seen on 4 frames, so the Q has settled in. NQS, is she marked?

The new green queen, the green marker - light green - is rather weak it had worn off last week leaving a sort of brown mess. Discontinue and use darker green pen.

Larvae and closed brood on 4 frames, flying at low levels. Removed folding frame where eggs had been laid, to small double hive, but forgot to check fully closed and the flyers have gone I fear. NQS

Red aflegger, rather a confused picture, some eggs and larvae, not in any good pattern, but QC’s with larvae still open, left alone, bees on 6 frames. NQS

Red swarm, not much brood, 2_3 frames, a bit of a lull in food I think, some larvae and closed brood.NQS

Brussels swarm, definitely no Queen, no brood or eggs, no sign of QC’s,  no further action. NQS

Red queen  by tractor house; honey being eaten?  Brood on 5 frames full of bees, not much flying, white pollen coming in? added bee filter on top of a new fresh wax lift on mon 26^th for removal to spin on 28^th. NQS.

Yellow queen, still the best laying pattern, 5 frames brood, lots of bees. added bee filter on top of a new fresh wax lift on mon 26^th for removal to spin on 28^th.

Probably the most honey.

An easy swarm 18th May

They don't come much easier;
Etienne fellow member of the Denderbiekes, has 11 hives full of bees, one of his swarmed into a middle sized apple tree 30m from the hive, via Ghislain a mail went out, asking if anybody wanted to go and collect it at about 2030 saturday evening.

Luckily i saw it sunday morning around 0830, rang and nobody else had claimed it, so off i set to a rather posh part of the world, Petit Enghien.

Etienne and his wife farm 14 hectares as hobby farmers, and keep bees, an emaculate place where the grass looks painted, on the edge of the posh area, where his house would fit into a garage :-).

Etienne had already got the swarm into a straw skep, the stragglers were back on the tree, so i knocked them into my pampers box, wrapped up the skep in a large hesian sack, and headed off. Not wothout finding out that he had been a steel worker all his life (wind turbines!)

They now live in the corner of the field, by the willow tree called the Admiral, i fed them 10kg's of syrup which had all gone by the following weekend.

Quite a large swarm, they took a day to all go into the hive, and they probably need a new lift soon.

Sunday 4th May

News this week that American foul brood has been diagnosed in Geraardsbergen, rather close for comfort. This puts a 5km no fly/move/share zone around the outbreak.

This probably means no overlarf project this year.

Inspection before going to Denmark for two weeks to build a wind turbine.

Yellow Q seen, full of bees, 7 frames of brood, lots of honey (15kg) no Q cells.

Red Q daughter of YQ, no Q cells, lots of bees 7 frames of Brood, honey 12 kg.
Folding frame now with brood, removed and put in other side of green hive, RQ came too so put her back in the front door of her hive.

Left side folding green no inspection.

Brussels Swarm Q not seen, no Q cells, 4 frames brood, bees filling 8 frames.

Swarm not in honey lift, RQ seen, brood in 4 frames.

No inspection of aflegger and original hive, chance of Q cells for swarm should be low.

Its the end of sunny fine weather, it rained the whole of the following week.

A good bee sunday

Sunday 27 April,

Fine weather for the last three weeks, a very early warm spring all fruit blossom now over except late apple, may flowers still out plus a little rape.

First up the hive at Oma's, Ilya comes too but they are rather aggressive and he prefers to leave.
Rather weak no queen found but they have two queen cells and the whole colony only occupies 6 frames with nothing in the honey lift.
Lets hope the new queen hatches and does better.

Back in Tollembeek after lunch.
The Old yellow Queen was seen and doing fine, bottom full of bees, 6 frames of brood,1 frame of drones, about 8 kgs honey, half full of bees. No Q cells, definitely need to breed Q's from her.

Yellow's daughter. Finally found her and marked her red, brood full of bees, one frame of drones, no eggs yet in the folding frame, no Q cells. Honey also full of bees, 12 kg of honey.

Green left side with a folding brood from yellows daughter, no Q cells. Later took a Q cell from the bursting hive.

Brussels 2013 swarm red Q still there seen, only 8 frames of bees no bees in honey lift, removed lift and gave to swarm.

Bursting swarm, red Q seen, 11 frames of bees all pulled, all full of sugar syrup, 2 frames where eggs present.

Aflegger from bursting all Q cells empty, new Q seen marked green 1st of the year! 6 frames of bees, she may still be virgin.

Bursting: brood full of bees, 4 Q cells found, one removed to put in green folding hive left, honey lift half full of bees. 10 kg of honey but only ¼ capped...