Thursday 7th august 2014.
After brunch with Wil who is full of stories of working at STVV, i removed 7 of the 9 feeders; all empty. The two with a last drop in are 1 and 3.
Api life var strips added to all but 2, which is a Yellow daughter, so hopefully doesn't need it.
Added a lift to the mini plus Yellow Queen, still going strong, i'm going to try the in frame feeder this time.
All hives have young brood; the biggest is by far 4, the swarmy red queen, i gave them a second lift because there were a lot of bees outside the other night.
The two kielers were empty, apparently ran out of food; the queen cell in micro C had been opened or been stripped, there were still bees apparently looking after another queen cell, so i gave them some food.
Note for future; the kielers need to be kept fed.
Thursday, August 07, 2014
Sunday, August 03, 2014
25th to 29th July; Honey and feeding.
Friday 25th put on three bee filters on hives 2, 3 and 9.
Three lifts reduced to two with air pressure to blow off the stragglers and off to Oma' to spin on Sunday 27th. Also put bee filters on the second set of two hives, 4 and 10 and the one at Oma's, 11, which was doing quite well with its new unmarked queen. I only have three bee filters.
First round of spinning generated about 10kgs.
Monday evening clipped no 3 hive with the tractor and mower and upset a bunch of bees, one of which stung me on the lower lip;
Tuesday 29th, after finishing two days of sewer repairs, took off the (heavy) honey lifts from 4 and 10, and installed feeders on all but 5 which is empty. most hives got 14kgs.
Had to combine no 8 and large wooden super, because 8 had not kept its Q. Used the water spray method and removed the Wooden hive.
On arriving at Oma's at 2100, i put my suit back on but forgot to put the hood up; starting to remove the honey lift produced a wave of angry bees, this time stinging above my eye, my hand and back of my neck.
Not much Overboelare honey, 4 kgs? but lots more from 4 & 10, where there were 5 fully double side capped frames of honey. Total about 20kgs so 30kg in total.
Seems to be a Qcell in Micro C; we'll see.
Three lifts reduced to two with air pressure to blow off the stragglers and off to Oma' to spin on Sunday 27th. Also put bee filters on the second set of two hives, 4 and 10 and the one at Oma's, 11, which was doing quite well with its new unmarked queen. I only have three bee filters.
First round of spinning generated about 10kgs.
Monday evening clipped no 3 hive with the tractor and mower and upset a bunch of bees, one of which stung me on the lower lip;
Tuesday 29th, after finishing two days of sewer repairs, took off the (heavy) honey lifts from 4 and 10, and installed feeders on all but 5 which is empty. most hives got 14kgs.
Had to combine no 8 and large wooden super, because 8 had not kept its Q. Used the water spray method and removed the Wooden hive.
On arriving at Oma's at 2100, i put my suit back on but forgot to put the hood up; starting to remove the honey lift produced a wave of angry bees, this time stinging above my eye, my hand and back of my neck.
Not much Overboelare honey, 4 kgs? but lots more from 4 & 10, where there were 5 fully double side capped frames of honey. Total about 20kgs so 30kg in total.
Seems to be a Qcell in Micro C; we'll see.
Thursday, July 10, 2014
July 5 to 10
The weather turns and it rains solidly for nearly a whole week, by thursday 11th , the first dryish day, the rain total is 54.6mm!
Taking advantage of the dry spell i looked at the remaining minis; G & J Buckfasts had empty hives, but both without food!? my fault.... so the buckfast tally is 3 from 5, not so bad.
B,F,A had given their queens to the new splits.
Remaining are K Buckfast Q, marked OK
D a red Q marked ok
H a Carnica Q marked dark green ok
C a Carnica Q marked dark green ok
I & E both Carnica Qs, still have bees but no sign of Qs
Kieler 1 was empty a Carnica Q, some days ago
Kieler 2 with a Yellow Q had been marked light green some week or so ago
Kieler 3 is laying eggs, even closed brood, but inside the food area, so i had to do some re housing, and fix the closed comb onto new topbars, new food in the food area and a couple of wet matches to stop the queen getting back in there.NQS
Mini +1, has the old yellow Q still laying away!
Mini+ 2 is empty, a Carnica Q.
Mini+ 3 has a few bees, NQS
Mini+4 has two good frames of bees, but NQS
The wooden small super is laying ok a Red Q from the top lift Q pulling, seen but not marked, but fed.
The No1 hive which has the green queen from the Green folding hive is laying ok, so introducing with water works too. This is actually a Red Q made after the original red swarm.
Taking advantage of the dry spell i looked at the remaining minis; G & J Buckfasts had empty hives, but both without food!? my fault.... so the buckfast tally is 3 from 5, not so bad.
B,F,A had given their queens to the new splits.
Remaining are K Buckfast Q, marked OK
D a red Q marked ok
H a Carnica Q marked dark green ok
C a Carnica Q marked dark green ok
I & E both Carnica Qs, still have bees but no sign of Qs
Kieler 1 was empty a Carnica Q, some days ago
Kieler 2 with a Yellow Q had been marked light green some week or so ago
Kieler 3 is laying eggs, even closed brood, but inside the food area, so i had to do some re housing, and fix the closed comb onto new topbars, new food in the food area and a couple of wet matches to stop the queen getting back in there.NQS
Mini +1, has the old yellow Q still laying away!
Mini+ 2 is empty, a Carnica Q.
Mini+ 3 has a few bees, NQS
Mini+4 has two good frames of bees, but NQS
The wooden small super is laying ok a Red Q from the top lift Q pulling, seen but not marked, but fed.
The No1 hive which has the green queen from the Green folding hive is laying ok, so introducing with water works too. This is actually a Red Q made after the original red swarm.
July begins with hot weather; July 1-4
On thursday the three new hives were put into position, to the left of the red Q from the back, with the yellow hive brown roof on the right between the mini plus shelf and the old aflegger with a red Qcell.
Splits were taken from the new green Q in the brussels swarm, the red Q and Etiennes swarm.
A combi of two foundation frames, four honey frames and five brood frames were split off and replaced with foundation. Etienne's swarm only had a couple of duits norm frames in it the rest are the simplex frames with the wood and metal castellation, so i had to shake five frames in to the new hive with just foundation and one frame of honey and brood.
The order is Green, Red, Etienne, in terms of where the bees come from.
These become 5,6 & 8 hives in the numeric order of the big hives with 10 here in Tollembeek and 1 in Overboelare with oma.
5 gets a Buckfast Q from micro A, introduced with smoke only after 2 days without
6 has a yellow Q from micro B, introduced just with smoke.
8 has a Carnica Q from micro F, introduced with a sugar ended cage.
Splits were taken from the new green Q in the brussels swarm, the red Q and Etiennes swarm.
A combi of two foundation frames, four honey frames and five brood frames were split off and replaced with foundation. Etienne's swarm only had a couple of duits norm frames in it the rest are the simplex frames with the wood and metal castellation, so i had to shake five frames in to the new hive with just foundation and one frame of honey and brood.
The order is Green, Red, Etienne, in terms of where the bees come from.
These become 5,6 & 8 hives in the numeric order of the big hives with 10 here in Tollembeek and 1 in Overboelare with oma.
5 gets a Buckfast Q from micro A, introduced with smoke only after 2 days without
6 has a yellow Q from micro B, introduced just with smoke.
8 has a Carnica Q from micro F, introduced with a sugar ended cage.
Sunday, June 29, 2014
the week and weekend of 28-29th june
The hive used for pulling the 9/10 , the old yellow Q, had lost their virgin, so the green - poorly marked - Q from the green folding hive was put in with bees on the folding frame, after spraying with water.
The red queen next door is weakening, only sporadic brood not many bees needs to be replaced , but QNS!.
Left side of the folding hive has a bunch of bees in the food side, maybe they have a Q in there, but no bees on the frame, so took it for wax melting.
Right side took the red QV from the empty kieler with the folding fame from the corner hive with bees, but maybe left the door open?
Green Q from the folding frame, put into the old brussels swarm, is the star of the show, full of bees, full of brood, five frames solid, perfect pattern.
Red swarm Q also going strong, half finished Q cells two frames taken out and swapped for the drone laid frames from the single one time aflegger. closed for 24 hrs. need to check next we they are still quite swarmy.
The yellow queen in a super is laying well, all other supers have bunches of bees, no sign of laying.
Kielers have the same problem, where are the bees? hopefully out foraging but no sign of laying.
Corner hive with new Q is laying well, first four frames are full of brood nice pattern.
Q marked light green.
In the little hives J,G,A,K and B Q's marked with light green, means that four out of five queens from Ghislain are laying!
Drone frames removed from the three hives and put into wax melter.
Sunday; cleaned and waxed three lifts ready for splits for the new queens. Three hives are possible two brown bases and tops in the garage, one yellow base and lift with a brown top in the bee house.
The red queen next door is weakening, only sporadic brood not many bees needs to be replaced , but QNS!.
Left side of the folding hive has a bunch of bees in the food side, maybe they have a Q in there, but no bees on the frame, so took it for wax melting.
Right side took the red QV from the empty kieler with the folding fame from the corner hive with bees, but maybe left the door open?
Green Q from the folding frame, put into the old brussels swarm, is the star of the show, full of bees, full of brood, five frames solid, perfect pattern.
Red swarm Q also going strong, half finished Q cells two frames taken out and swapped for the drone laid frames from the single one time aflegger. closed for 24 hrs. need to check next we they are still quite swarmy.
The yellow queen in a super is laying well, all other supers have bunches of bees, no sign of laying.
Kielers have the same problem, where are the bees? hopefully out foraging but no sign of laying.
Corner hive with new Q is laying well, first four frames are full of brood nice pattern.
Q marked light green.
In the little hives J,G,A,K and B Q's marked with light green, means that four out of five queens from Ghislain are laying!
Drone frames removed from the three hives and put into wax melter.
Sunday; cleaned and waxed three lifts ready for splits for the new queens. Three hives are possible two brown bases and tops in the garage, one yellow base and lift with a brown top in the bee house.
Sat 21st Longest day, Midsummer night run in Gent
This is the list of the virgin queens as of this morning:
J,G,A,D,K are the five light coloured buckfast virgins from Ghislain.
I,C,E and one mini plus right are the dark carnica virgins from Guido
H,F and two mini plusses are beige carnicas
Dirty kieler and 4 frame wooden super are yellow Q virgins that hatched as the carnica QC were starting.
In the following week the last two red Qcells came out, and went into D which was empty, and the top kieler, but with too few bees.
In B and the other kielers are two yellow Q virgins.
J,G,A,D,K are the five light coloured buckfast virgins from Ghislain.
I,C,E and one mini plus right are the dark carnica virgins from Guido
H,F and two mini plusses are beige carnicas
Dirty kieler and 4 frame wooden super are yellow Q virgins that hatched as the carnica QC were starting.
In the following week the last two red Qcells came out, and went into D which was empty, and the top kieler, but with too few bees.
In B and the other kielers are two yellow Q virgins.
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Tuesday 17th June (Belgium vs Algeria, in Brasil.) to weds 18th
Christina joined the fun, the 9 Carnica cells not hatched ,but the yellow Q bees had pulled queen cells - so much for isolation for 5 days - which were hatching as we stood there. So one went into small wooden super 4 frames, together with unopened Qcells, with two frames bees and honey & pollen stores. Closed for 24 hours.
Second into a dirty Kieler, with some shaken bees made wet with new spray - 14.95€ from Aveve - closed and left on bar under ash trees. Closed for 24h.
Final Q , we were pretty sure that a third queen had hatched, we left her in the hive, hopefully she will survive, get fertilised and start laying.
Inspected the Qcells in the top of the red swarm hive, only two capped, one in the cage, and one clean one. Both cages closed.
Did i say i found the green queen, poorly marked twice cos i didn't shake the pen, she is laying in the right hand of the two folding frame chambers. I thought i had killed her with double marking etc, but she'd been in the folding frame!
sat evening i had opened the two virgins from the previous batch, they came out and circled in number.
As i collected the empty Qcell from the 7 frame wooden super, Hilde was stung by a bee. Apis granules seemed to work that evening, but the following morning very swollen and even swollen tongue on monday. Dr says extreme allergic reaction that needs Adrelin shot quickly if stung again!!
Wedsnesday morning; three virgins emerged first thing, put them into three yellow mini, minis with bees in a bucket from yellow's old hive and red daughter of Yellow. Saw red Q, she's laying ok quite a bit of young brood, but only on 4 frames, so not that many bees, perhaps stopped in the May/june gap?
Looked into the old brussels swarm hive with new green Q, QNS, brood on 5 frames, not that many bees, 7/10 expected.
Second into a dirty Kieler, with some shaken bees made wet with new spray - 14.95€ from Aveve - closed and left on bar under ash trees. Closed for 24h.
Final Q , we were pretty sure that a third queen had hatched, we left her in the hive, hopefully she will survive, get fertilised and start laying.
Inspected the Qcells in the top of the red swarm hive, only two capped, one in the cage, and one clean one. Both cages closed.
Did i say i found the green queen, poorly marked twice cos i didn't shake the pen, she is laying in the right hand of the two folding frame chambers. I thought i had killed her with double marking etc, but she'd been in the folding frame!
sat evening i had opened the two virgins from the previous batch, they came out and circled in number.
As i collected the empty Qcell from the 7 frame wooden super, Hilde was stung by a bee. Apis granules seemed to work that evening, but the following morning very swollen and even swollen tongue on monday. Dr says extreme allergic reaction that needs Adrelin shot quickly if stung again!!
Wedsnesday morning; three virgins emerged first thing, put them into three yellow mini, minis with bees in a bucket from yellow's old hive and red daughter of Yellow. Saw red Q, she's laying ok quite a bit of young brood, but only on 4 frames, so not that many bees, perhaps stopped in the May/june gap?
Looked into the old brussels swarm hive with new green Q, QNS, brood on 5 frames, not that many bees, 7/10 expected.
Friday, June 13, 2014
Friday 13th, a busy morning.
First up two yellow daughters who had hatched in the red swarm hive using the two open brood above the Q excluder method.
One into a small yellow box with q excl plus bees from red swarm.
One into 6 frame wooden hive with bees from old aflegger and two from red swarm, went back into cell (to eat?) left her inside cell on top of frames; 2 frames honey and block of nectapol.
Grafted from yellow Q, her first laying since moving to 1st Mini plus; half with water royal jelly unfrozen mix and half dry. These on top rail.
Second rail from red swarm Q (Seen) including half with RJ mix H2O and half dry plus some RJ from QCells in top of Redswarm and the rest of the hive where there are lots of bees and lots of capped brood.
Placed grafts between two frames of open brood in second lift above Q excluder.
Three and two capped Qcells (plus bees) from the red queen placed in two sides of green folding hive.
Etienne's swarm in far corner; thorough inspection, all ok, 4kg uncapped honey, brood all stages on 9 frames. Found Q marked green, although she's probably not (red?). Good build up not bursting and pretty well behaved.
One into a small yellow box with q excl plus bees from red swarm.
One into 6 frame wooden hive with bees from old aflegger and two from red swarm, went back into cell (to eat?) left her inside cell on top of frames; 2 frames honey and block of nectapol.
Grafted from yellow Q, her first laying since moving to 1st Mini plus; half with water royal jelly unfrozen mix and half dry. These on top rail.
Second rail from red swarm Q (Seen) including half with RJ mix H2O and half dry plus some RJ from QCells in top of Redswarm and the rest of the hive where there are lots of bees and lots of capped brood.
Placed grafts between two frames of open brood in second lift above Q excluder.
Three and two capped Qcells (plus bees) from the red queen placed in two sides of green folding hive.
Etienne's swarm in far corner; thorough inspection, all ok, 4kg uncapped honey, brood all stages on 9 frames. Found Q marked green, although she's probably not (red?). Good build up not bursting and pretty well behaved.
Thursday, June 12, 2014
Wednesday 11th June Carnica Q's caged.
About 1400 on weds i have a first look at the should be closed carnica Q cells.
Hoping for 7, 9 is a really good result!
Hoping for 7, 9 is a really good result!
The only issue is that the bees have already started to build the cells out and it takes a good 20 minutes to get the cages on because i have to slice away wax to get the cage over the cell. I only hope i haven't damaged them?
Next stop the two cells that had been pulled from my batch of yellow queen larvae which i mistakenly think should be hatched. Wrong! - Friday.
This leads to much research on Q scheduling and a neat Q calendar online, which tells me not to touch the cells for the three days following capping, as they are very sensitive. Oops.
Back to the instructions for the overlarfproject, where it says to cage them as soon as they are capped, because they are less sensitive immediately after capping than the following three days.
This is where i screwed up last year, by moving them too early.
5 Virgin buckfast Q's
Sunday 8th june.
Timo and i go to Ghislain's stand at Viane, to find no one there. I don't have his tel of adress, but Guido does. (Timo gets a bee sting in his arm but it doesn't bother him, i only see the sting and sac as i strap him in to leave? i give him two homeopathic apis sugar balls and he seems fine)
At 1400 Ilya and I start making up fertilisation hives, the mini minis with just two small frames. We put a good dolop of sugar paste in each, and go in search of baby bees for our new queens.
We shake bee off into our bucket from the Red Q daughter of yellow QNS, the old Brussels swarm now GreenQ, seen, and from the original Red hive on the end, which doesn't seem to have a Q, no eggs or larvae, but 6 or 7 Q cells.
With a spray of water to get them mixed up (the water spray breaks get a wet leg) i fill 6 small fertilisation boxes ready for later that day. Ilya had enough bees after two open hives and went indoors.
Finally make it to Ghislain's house for 1530, through crowds of bikes between t' Aloam and the street where Ghislain lives, which is closed to traffic just for good measure. He's not there - he's on his stand in Viane! - but his wife is and shes gives us the 2 free virgins and three at 7 euros - i must pay for them.
Back home i introduce the queens together with the three bees that are with them by inverting the box, open the slide a crack, wedging the Q cage in the slot and pulling back the slide cover to allow the Q to just run into the waiting crowd of bees.
I keep them closed for a full 24 hours to get them to re-set their home navigation, and open them monday, which goes without a hitch.
A quick look on weds sees all boxes with bees still in them, and one Virgin seen, although several boxes don't have the little Q excluder stopping the Q getting into the food part, and most are putting new wax on the roof or in the space to the food, not on the plastic frames, where i had attached new foundation, at all.
At 1400 Ilya and I start making up fertilisation hives, the mini minis with just two small frames. We put a good dolop of sugar paste in each, and go in search of baby bees for our new queens.
We shake bee off into our bucket from the Red Q daughter of yellow QNS, the old Brussels swarm now GreenQ, seen, and from the original Red hive on the end, which doesn't seem to have a Q, no eggs or larvae, but 6 or 7 Q cells.
With a spray of water to get them mixed up (the water spray breaks get a wet leg) i fill 6 small fertilisation boxes ready for later that day. Ilya had enough bees after two open hives and went indoors.
Finally make it to Ghislain's house for 1530, through crowds of bikes between t' Aloam and the street where Ghislain lives, which is closed to traffic just for good measure. He's not there - he's on his stand in Viane! - but his wife is and shes gives us the 2 free virgins and three at 7 euros - i must pay for them.
Back home i introduce the queens together with the three bees that are with them by inverting the box, open the slide a crack, wedging the Q cage in the slot and pulling back the slide cover to allow the Q to just run into the waiting crowd of bees.
I keep them closed for a full 24 hours to get them to re-set their home navigation, and open them monday, which goes without a hitch.
A quick look on weds sees all boxes with bees still in them, and one Virgin seen, although several boxes don't have the little Q excluder stopping the Q getting into the food part, and most are putting new wax on the roof or in the space to the food, not on the plastic frames, where i had attached new foundation, at all.
Saturday 7th June Carnica Q larvae x10
Guido Noerens had arranged our order for carnica queens from Roger de Crook in dendermonde. 1730 Ilya and i go to his house in Apelterre, behind congoberg over the Dender. Part of the overlarf project from the Flemish beekeepers. The American foulbrood outbreak in Geraardsbergen has meant that we have to go further away.
We come away with 10 larvae draped in a wet towel, despite a street party closing the road and Ilya wanting to see Guido's bee suit. It's a hot day 25°+ & sunny and the car soon warms up even for the few minutes we were inside.
Back home i remove the yellow queen to a mini plus, along with some of her bees, unfortunately i've only got foundation, but a feeder full of syrup should help them on their way.
I put 7 on the top bar and 3 on the next bar and also put the feeder on them too.
We come away with 10 larvae draped in a wet towel, despite a street party closing the road and Ilya wanting to see Guido's bee suit. It's a hot day 25°+ & sunny and the car soon warms up even for the few minutes we were inside.
Back home i remove the yellow queen to a mini plus, along with some of her bees, unfortunately i've only got foundation, but a feeder full of syrup should help them on their way.
I put 7 on the top bar and 3 on the next bar and also put the feeder on them too.
Queen times are coming
Sunday 1st June 2014
Found and isolated yellow queen in end hive. I used the circles with spikes from both sides, last year the bees eat the queen out from one side withe just one set of spikes. But i think i'll make a proper quennisolation frame for next year, it'll be a lot easier.
Using unfrozen royal jelly and water, put a drop in each cup and loaded 20 tiny larvae from the yellow Q.
Somewhere i read that if you lick the chinese grafting tool between grafts they come out easier. Its true.
Then i put the frame into the second lift of the old red swarm Q, together with one frame of open and one frame of closed (couldn't remember which - its open of course!) I should have put the frame in before hand for it to be accepted, but wasn't organised enough.
We'll see what they make of it.
Found and isolated yellow queen in end hive. I used the circles with spikes from both sides, last year the bees eat the queen out from one side withe just one set of spikes. But i think i'll make a proper quennisolation frame for next year, it'll be a lot easier.
Using unfrozen royal jelly and water, put a drop in each cup and loaded 20 tiny larvae from the yellow Q.
Somewhere i read that if you lick the chinese grafting tool between grafts they come out easier. Its true.
Then i put the frame into the second lift of the old red swarm Q, together with one frame of open and one frame of closed (couldn't remember which - its open of course!) I should have put the frame in before hand for it to be accepted, but wasn't organised enough.
We'll see what they make of it.
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Bee check 25th may
Beecheck 25th 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 26th for
removal to spin on 28th. 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 26th for removal to spin on 28th.
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.
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, May 11, 2014
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.
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...
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...
Friday, April 25, 2014
2014 a new experiment in bee blogging
What does it take for me to record notes on the life and times of my bees? i call them mine but of course they belong to themselves, i just host them and try to create the necessary conditions for their happiness and survival.
Last night i went to the annual start meeting of the Denderbiekes overlarvae project, always entertaining, sometimes barely understandable, bees in flemish dialect!
I took part last year and went from hero to zero in a week, 20 cells were pulled from 20 larvae, but i moved them to early to their fertilisation hives and only 1 out of 20 actually hatched a queen.
This year i'll use the same method, restrain the queen for a week before the larvae are introduced and she is removed, but i'll wait til hatch day -1 at least before i put them into their little fertilisation boxes.
I ordered 10 Carnicas from Guido, and i'll get 10 buckfast from Ghislain.
First swarm
Easter monday around 1600 a big swarm left the big drain end hive. Note on saturday i had taken an aflegger from this hive that included 6 closed queen cells, accidentally took the queen too, but put her back. Maybe i missed one, maybe they had already decided to swarm.
Any way a cloud of bees filled the air in front of the hive and slowly moved to the Generalisimo willow tree, happily i got to Timo who was sitting happily in the flight path just in time.
The boys in the house i got kitted up, and went about the work of boxing the swarm that had formed it bunch in the lower branches of the willow, Hilde having stayed on guard duty in case they moved!
Having refused to move up into the upside down box, i had to brush them in and close the box, wait for them to reform and repeat the exercise. Water spray improved the whole process and an hour later i'd got most of them, a god 1.5kgs.
Leaving the box where the hive would come, i went in for tea and to make up a lift of new wax.
The thunderstorm was impressive, it rained about 10mm in 15 mm,and of course the pampers box didn't like this much and the lids fell in and the sides sagged. Happily the swarm went up underneath the fallen down lids.
With Hilde's help, great to see her back in bee kit after 2 years of being pregnant and generally in mother mode, we brushed the bees into the new hive and feed them with 14kgs of liquid sugar.
From one bursting hive i now have three, two hopefully getting on with their new queens.
Last night i went to the annual start meeting of the Denderbiekes overlarvae project, always entertaining, sometimes barely understandable, bees in flemish dialect!
I took part last year and went from hero to zero in a week, 20 cells were pulled from 20 larvae, but i moved them to early to their fertilisation hives and only 1 out of 20 actually hatched a queen.
This year i'll use the same method, restrain the queen for a week before the larvae are introduced and she is removed, but i'll wait til hatch day -1 at least before i put them into their little fertilisation boxes.
I ordered 10 Carnicas from Guido, and i'll get 10 buckfast from Ghislain.
First swarm
Easter monday around 1600 a big swarm left the big drain end hive. Note on saturday i had taken an aflegger from this hive that included 6 closed queen cells, accidentally took the queen too, but put her back. Maybe i missed one, maybe they had already decided to swarm.
Any way a cloud of bees filled the air in front of the hive and slowly moved to the Generalisimo willow tree, happily i got to Timo who was sitting happily in the flight path just in time.
The boys in the house i got kitted up, and went about the work of boxing the swarm that had formed it bunch in the lower branches of the willow, Hilde having stayed on guard duty in case they moved!
Having refused to move up into the upside down box, i had to brush them in and close the box, wait for them to reform and repeat the exercise. Water spray improved the whole process and an hour later i'd got most of them, a god 1.5kgs.
Leaving the box where the hive would come, i went in for tea and to make up a lift of new wax.
The thunderstorm was impressive, it rained about 10mm in 15 mm,and of course the pampers box didn't like this much and the lids fell in and the sides sagged. Happily the swarm went up underneath the fallen down lids.
With Hilde's help, great to see her back in bee kit after 2 years of being pregnant and generally in mother mode, we brushed the bees into the new hive and feed them with 14kgs of liquid sugar.
From one bursting hive i now have three, two hopefully getting on with their new queens.
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