26th July

Got a call from Mick saying that he'd seen a strange tight ball of bees around the front of the Lizard Hive about the size of a apple. The time was about 9:30pm. When we went down to investigate the ball had disappeared. The temperature had dropped by this point so I didn't want to open the hive and investigate, but it was evident from the small amount of activity outside the hive that all was now well.

My guess was that either the bees were all rushing to get in (thunder clouds overhead) or they were dealing with an intruder. There was no sign of robbing from the Buckfast hive though.

Jim

24th July Yarner Natural Beekeeping Course comes to visit

Having recovered after about 3 hours from my first sting (just above my right eye)on Friday I was very glad to find I did not look like a prize fighter when the course participants turned up on Saturday.

Phil showed the group both hives, starting with the Buckfast. We added a top bar to each end of the Buckfast which is now pretty much at capacity. We will build our future hives about a foot longer.

The Buckfast bees remained happy throughout and no one was buzzed (warning noise) let alone, stung. This colony is now busy filling the empty brood cells with stores and we feel quite happy that they will be fine for the winter.

We moved on to the Lizard colony afterwards, they only arrived in early July as a nuc (see below) so have had their work cut out to build up quickly. They built an extra 4 combs within 2 weeks, but we will have to hope that there is a sufficent nectar flow to ensure that they have enough over winter. We added another 2 top bars at either end.

Jim

Thurs 22nd July
6pm Went to see bees with Chrissy, Lee and Alby. Alby wore his bee suit and decided to pull follower board (gently) aside to show his Dad the bees.A bit worried as it looks like the end comb has broken off 3 - 4 inches down.
Fri 23rd July
5.45pm Phil arrived for course. Came to visit bees. Investigated severed comb; not as bad as I had first thought. The bees appear to have repaired it quite well. Phil seemed fairly happy with their condition.

2 pm Removed varroa board from Lizards after 7 days. Count was 65, divided by 7 = 9.28 and x 30 = 278, but as there are less bees than a full colony, wondered if we should multiply by more. I'll get Jim to check count when he gets back from being away and see what he thinks. Otherwise bees very busy today in sunshine.

Alby modelling the new bee suit for him, June and Rufus to wear.

     

     The Lizards in their hive

1.30 pm T 23 C. Decided to name hives Buckfast (1st colony) Lizard (2nd colony). Weighed Lizard hive (L) 21 kgs (R) 21 kgs. Very pleased as quite a lot heavier than Buckfast were at this stage. Looked in hive, both ends and found they were building on the new bars. So they now have 10 bars with comb on. Will put another bar in soon. Bees very busy bringing in nectar and pollen. Fitted varroa floor for a 7 day count, depending on weather conditions. Have a very different character to Buckfast hive and are thinner. More Italian in them we think.

Sprayed Homeopathy (8) in Buckfast hive . Building some cross comb, but only extends across 2 bars and is stores, not brood. Weighed (L) 35 kgs (R) 31 kgs, still growing. Put in another bar. A lot of drones around, but no signs of swarming.

6 pm Visited  by Richard B and his Woofers. Very interested in bees. Sunny for the first time today and bees flying very busily. New bees had taken most of their feed. Won't give them any more, especially if the weather stays good now.

                   First colony's viewing window

Saturday 3rd July 9 am 
New bees from The Lizard were picked up for us yesterday by Essie and Richard. Collected them from their house last night. After getting the hive leveled off and high grass cleared, we put them in the hive. Eight bars, 6 have good combs with supplies and brood. One had a small comb on and they were just starting to build on the 8th one. Lots of bees. Didn't see the queen, but they are happy and soon got used to their new home. Gave them a feed of 100 mgs sugar in 100 mls water in contact feeder. Also dusted them well with icing sugar. We put 2 more TBs in for them too. Definitely more feisty than our first colony, but no stings.
Put one more bar into first hive.

Jim carrying nucleus box down to the apiary

   

New bees in their hive

Wednesday 30th June '10 1.30 pm
Weighed (R) 27.5 kgs (L) 31 kgs

Really building up well now. Less than 3 wks ago it was (R) 22 kgs (L) 24 kgs.

Removed varroa floor and moved bees into other hive. Mick had put an observation window in it, made a new roof and put another coat of linseed and beeswax (our own) on. Richard N came to help us and it went very well. Bees had built on new bars, so we now have 19 bars. We put 2 more in. There were 2 lots of 2 bars where they had fixed them together with cross comb. We decided to leave these as we could have damaged the delicate new comb on the new TBs in each case. There was another one however where they had fixed 3 combs together. We removed this cross comb which was full of honey, our first proper taster of our own honey - lovely. No sign of queen cells, a lot of drone brood and drones though. Saw queen. Everyone seemed happy. Dusted well with icing sugar.   
Moved the other hive well away and let the remaining bees fly home when they were ready.
Varroa count 58 over 4 days. So divided by 4 = 14.5 (daily count) and multiplied by 30 is 435. Not too bad, but we need to keep a check and dust again.
5 pm Sue went and helped Dennis, in a nearby hamlet, hive his new nucleus into a TB hive. The more bees the better! His bees are from the same place as our new nuc is coming from. They are feistier than our bees, but OK.
7.30 pm 
Bees still flying well and seem very happy. Looked through observation window and it's great. The children are going to love it. When Mick fitted the window he used silicone to stick it on. None of this was on the inside of the hive though, apart from a tiny bit where the glass had chipped off at one corner. We tried to cover this with wax, but it wouldn't stick. The bees were not happy with this at all and were busy pulling strings of it out and dumping them out of the hive. Have visions of them removing the window and carrying it out too.
The new nucleus is arriving on Friday, so Mick is going to blowtorch the inside of the empty hive, re-oil it and finish it's new roof ready for Jim and Sue to hive them on Saturday.