Are You Doing This?
Swarms have not yet finished so be prepared.
Get your extracting equipment up and ready, make sure you have enough jars etc.
Due to the hot weather the heather may be flowering early, so get your hives ready by the end of the month.
If you see wasps around your apiary reduce the hive entrances.
The Apiary
If you have not managed to get to the apiary yet then do try to get there on the 16th and enjoy the socialising. It is an absolutely splendid site and needs to be seen to be appreciated.
John reports that there are now 7 good colonies and 2 nucs, the equipment is in good order with enough spares and the grass has been cut. If you need directions phone John 01873 831273
Comment
Everyone I have spoken to seems to have had a fun time with swarms. I hope that this year the weather has been kinder for the virgins to get mated so there should be better queens around (if that really was the reason for the failing queens last winter.) And I hope everyone who wanted to replace lost stock has succeeded.
The other day I was sitting exhausted after a long gardening session, waiting for the sun to get low enough to show the flight path of the bees entering and leaving the apiary. While gazing in that direction I was forced to witness a score or so of swallows swooping again and again over the apiary site catching the poor burdened workers as they returned to their hives. Their sweet dessert I suppose. After about ten minutes they desisted. The bees have abandoned a large blackberry patch which was loud with their humming for a couple of weeks and I have not yet established where they are foraging. The Himalayan balsam is flowering down by the Usk so maybe there is some of that around. They are looking quite powdery but that also happens with the white mallows that seed themselves in our field. I often see bees on the white mallow but the more civilised blue/mauve ones carefully grown from seed appear to be unattractive to them. Bridget
NEW BEEKEEPERS
If any of our beekeeper beginners would like some extra advice please phone any member of the committee and they will help as much as they can. Quite a lot of the tel. nos. are on the white events card. (Actually you could probably phone any beekeeper but I do know that the members of the committee have said that they are willing to answer any phone calls about bees whereas I can’t speak for anyone else.)
The purpose of the association is to share knowledge and experience and to help and support fellow members. If you have any questions or practical problems the association apiary is a splendid venue for airing these. There are experienced beekeepers to advise and colonies of bees for demonstrations. We are all in this learning experience together and we all enjoy talking about bees and hearing about other peoples’ exploits and problems.
Never be afraid to ask questions.
Congratulations
To Les and Jill who won a trophy at the Lincoln Show for a new invention. They have made a super super (using an extension) which can be used in an emergency in place of a brood box.
Question and Answer Corner
Antony Woodward asks: 'What does it mean if there are masses of dead bees on the ground outside the hive entrance?',
Also: 'What does it mean if there are bees crawling all over the outside of the hive?
I have had no answers to Kath’s question, which I’m afraid means that there isn’t one, which everyone will regret.
I have had an answer to my question which I print here reluctantly;
Brian Harris replies:
Thinking feminists( is that an oxymoron?) have often held up the honey bee as an example of how perfectly organised society could be if only the girls could take charge.
My theory is that your colony has fallen for the ultimate fallacy in a certain school of feminist thinking - that they can do away with the boys altogether!
Believe me, it will all end in tears - because all males know that when all else fails, girls will always resort to tears in order to achieve their desired solution.(!)
Running an Observation Hive
The nucleus observation hive is quite new and John Holden’s Association when he resided in the Home Counties was largely responsible for its development, brought about by the need for a unit for showing bees to the public which was easy to transport and manage. His committee was also responsible for developing a means for accommodating the bees to be used in the nucleus. This method is useful if you want to have an observation hive available for several occasions over the season.
The facility is based on two small hives, one on top of the other, separated by two queen excluders. The set up consists of a floor, a brood box, a conventional queen excluder, supers as required, a second queen excluder of the Snelgrove type, a top brood box and roof.
The Snelgrove type excluder was favoured to allow the top colony their own entrance as well as allowing the bees access to the supers and ensuring the odours of both colonies are integrated. This will permit interchanging frames between both colonies without causing distress. Also the narrower queen excluder would fit within the sides of the nucleus, allowing it to be sited in that position and so maintain contact of hive odour.
To set it up a good tempered colony is chosen. The top brood box is made up from this colony as though making up a nucleus box. It will hold the frame with the marked queen and four other frames. The frames are centralised by two dividers, so as to maintain them over the middle of the Snelgrove board.
Growth within the two colonies can be managed by transferring brood frames and extra supers can be added as required in between the two brood boxes. The bees in the lower brood box may produce a queen, this does not matter.
When the unit is needed for demonstration use the five frames are transferred to the observation hive, the selected frame for the observation unit should have the queen, brood at all stages and show honey and pollen storage. The frame must be replaced in the nucleus with a feeder frame holding a light syrup (ie 1lb sugar in 1 pint water). This is essential to provide the bees with water and something to do. After use the colony is returned to the top brood box. Over a season the bees can become bad tempered due to all the manipulations.
Comments on the use of a Nucleus Type Observation Hive
The Thorne’s Nucleus Observation Hive may not appeal to the purist but it has a big attraction for the beekeeping association stands at local shows and exhibitions. The unit is self contained and can be used throughout the summer with minimum manipulation and a minimum disturbance to the bees. My design differs from the Thorne’s unit in that the addition of a cover board to prevent overnight bees collecting on the under side of the bottom mesh, requires removal at all other times. If it is not removed then ventilation is severely affected and the bees will become distressed particularly if it is warm.
All other differences in design do not affect its use except to remember that the lockable latches are only nickel plated and will suffer if left outside for any length of time.
The alternate use of the observation unit with only one frame, thereby allowing making up and returning to the parent colony within a very short time, should not preclude access to the feeder unit with a light syrup mix. If the frame is selected with mainly nurse bees then they will not leave the queen or brood. Any attempt to restrict total mobility of the bees to all parts of the assembly may cause distress and unnatural behaviour.
George Kinman (with notes from John Holden)
This photo was sent to me by Janet. With her sisters she had taken a swarm in a swarm gathering box and one of her sisters had put a queen excluder across the top. This shows the bees entering the box through the queen excluder.
When it came to hiving the swarm the bees had clustered under the excluder so they could just lift it off and give it a sharp shake so that the bees were dislodged into the eke above a brood box.
Charity Number : 1014600
