Jim did the varroa count last Friday. The tray had been on approx 3½ days and the count was 119. Most of those probably fell on the first day, but if averaged out it's 34 a day. He did another icing sugar dusting on both hives and also on the nucleus, at his Mum's. I then did another one on the Lizards yesterday and have put the tray in to do another count today.
I have also put 6 drops of tea tree and about ¼ tsp of Lecithin (as an emulsifier) into one of the jars of feed (Approx 500ml) and fed to the Dolphins. They took it well and so I have made up 2 more jars to give them over the next couple of days. This was a suggestion from Phil on the last course and I've also looked up references to it online. People who have used it seem to have found it effective against varroa. Once they have stopped feeding (soon hopefully) we plan to give some to the Lizards.
Friday 23 September 2011
Wednesday 14 September 2011
Wednesday 14th September 2011
The course went very well at the weekend. The weather wasn't too bad, so they managed to look in the end of The Lizard hive, as well as through the window. They took the varroa tray back to The Barton to do a count. Not good news; there were 41 varroa in 24 hours!!! I did a dusting of icing sugar on Monday and replaced the tray, to do another count later in the week. This will probably be even higher, as the icing sugar should make the bees groom each other and, in the process, knock off varroa. We will then do another count a few days later. I also dusted The Dolphins and Jim is doing the nucleus, when he goes to his Mum's on Saturday.
Friday 9 September 2011
Friday 9th September 2011
It's the last Beginners' Natural Beekeeping Course of the year, this weekend. Hopefully the weather will at least allow them to look through the observation window on the Lizards' hive.
Our plan for the next few weeks:
1) We are doing a varroa count on The Lizards and will apply icing sugar from underneath if it's high, so they go into the winter with a lowish count, hopefully. If the count is low, I think we will presume that the nuc that came from there is probably low too. Might do a count on The Dolphins though.
2) Weather permitting, we are going to try and move the big hive's stores to one end, as Phil suggested, as the cluster usually moves through the hive towards the stores during the winter.
3) We are feeding our very small caste (The Dolphins) and it seems to be doing OK, despite the wasp attacks. Using 2:1 syrup now. That's 2 of sugar to 1 of water.
4) The nucleus that's in Jim's parents' field (about 3-4 mls away) is doing very well, it has brood and lots of new bees, so sounds like a good new queen. We will either leave it there until mid winter, or bring it back soon. They may need feeding during the winter and we will use fondant by Phil's method of packing it into comb. At the moment it seems quite heavy, so Jim will keep an eye on it when he visits his Mum, by hefting it or weighing it. It might be possible to do this with bathroom scales, as it's just the nuc box.
5) We will insulate the tops of the bars with old towels/blankets/carpets, like we did last winter.
6) We will leave the bottoms of all 3 hives uncovered to allow for ventilation.
7) Jim and Mick have started making 2 new 48" hives. Well they've prepared some of the wood anyway. They will get on with these over the winter. We hope to move the big colony (The Lizards) into one of these in the Spring and the nuc into the other one, probably. The caste (The Dolphins) can go into one of the 2 old hives.
Our plan for the next few weeks:
1) We are doing a varroa count on The Lizards and will apply icing sugar from underneath if it's high, so they go into the winter with a lowish count, hopefully. If the count is low, I think we will presume that the nuc that came from there is probably low too. Might do a count on The Dolphins though.
2) Weather permitting, we are going to try and move the big hive's stores to one end, as Phil suggested, as the cluster usually moves through the hive towards the stores during the winter.
3) We are feeding our very small caste (The Dolphins) and it seems to be doing OK, despite the wasp attacks. Using 2:1 syrup now. That's 2 of sugar to 1 of water.
4) The nucleus that's in Jim's parents' field (about 3-4 mls away) is doing very well, it has brood and lots of new bees, so sounds like a good new queen. We will either leave it there until mid winter, or bring it back soon. They may need feeding during the winter and we will use fondant by Phil's method of packing it into comb. At the moment it seems quite heavy, so Jim will keep an eye on it when he visits his Mum, by hefting it or weighing it. It might be possible to do this with bathroom scales, as it's just the nuc box.
5) We will insulate the tops of the bars with old towels/blankets/carpets, like we did last winter.
6) We will leave the bottoms of all 3 hives uncovered to allow for ventilation.
7) Jim and Mick have started making 2 new 48" hives. Well they've prepared some of the wood anyway. They will get on with these over the winter. We hope to move the big colony (The Lizards) into one of these in the Spring and the nuc into the other one, probably. The caste (The Dolphins) can go into one of the 2 old hives.
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