Overall we are happy with progress. We visited the Apple Trees in Clovelly last week and they are doing well. We gave them another feeder board which should do them until we bring them home in a couple of weeks. We also repaired their broken comb with our new rescue bars which seem to work well providing the comb isn't too heavy.
Three of the colonies at home are all doing well.
Unfortunately the Gettys/Dolphins appear to have laying workers and so have probably killed the new queen. They are still pretty grumpy so we decided to leave them alone and let them die out naturally over the winter.
The Paddyelms are still really going for it. I broke a comb as I was trying to straighten it last week. We did a temporary repair with cloth strips which they bit through by the next day. We also gave them a comb of honey from the old Postie hive. We managed to fix the broken comb with one of our new rescue bars but, unfortunately the comb of honey we had given them had broken off too, probably due to the heat and weight of bees. It was much too heavy for a rescue bar so we put it on the grass in front of the hive. Amazingly they completely stripped it of the honey by nightfall!!!
On Sunday 14th we moved the Kings into their new hive and were very pleased to find 4 combs with a lovely pattern of capped worker brood. This probably means it was a primary swarm, as the brood must have been laid over a week before and we caught the swarm 15 days before. That doesn't really leave much time for a virgin queen to have mated and then started laying. They had some wonky comb which might need straightening. We gave them 2 new bars and some honey filled wax left over from pressing honey, which has lots of pollen in it too, into the feed area. The next day I replaced this and also gave them a comb of honey from the dying Paddy hive. They had broken a comb off which I attached to a rescue bar and I also managed to straighten a couple of wonky combs.
I checked the Paddypines and was delighted to find capped worker brood in there too. I didn't go right through as they are obviously fine and have a laying queen. This would be a daughter of the original Paddy queen who is now in the Paddyelms. We thought we saw signs of her going on her maiden flight on 27th July which would be about right.
The Paddycasts are definitely queenless and appear to be developing laying workers so we hope to move them so that the flying bees go into the Kings hive. They must have lost their queen on 22nd July when we saw the group of bees on the ground in front of their hive. Perhaps she was injured or couldn't fly for some reason.
So, it looks like we will be going into the winter with 3 strong colonies, the Paddypines, the Paddyelms & the Kings and one small colony, the Appletrees.
It seems to be the shape of things now; that the older colonies are dying out and replacing themselves each year. Both Phil Chandler and our friend Dennis, who has been beekeeping for over 50 years, think that this is a varroa control strategy the bees are developing. I'm sure they are right.
Three of the colonies at home are all doing well.
Unfortunately the Gettys/Dolphins appear to have laying workers and so have probably killed the new queen. They are still pretty grumpy so we decided to leave them alone and let them die out naturally over the winter.
The Paddyelms are still really going for it. I broke a comb as I was trying to straighten it last week. We did a temporary repair with cloth strips which they bit through by the next day. We also gave them a comb of honey from the old Postie hive. We managed to fix the broken comb with one of our new rescue bars but, unfortunately the comb of honey we had given them had broken off too, probably due to the heat and weight of bees. It was much too heavy for a rescue bar so we put it on the grass in front of the hive. Amazingly they completely stripped it of the honey by nightfall!!!
On Sunday 14th we moved the Kings into their new hive and were very pleased to find 4 combs with a lovely pattern of capped worker brood. This probably means it was a primary swarm, as the brood must have been laid over a week before and we caught the swarm 15 days before. That doesn't really leave much time for a virgin queen to have mated and then started laying. They had some wonky comb which might need straightening. We gave them 2 new bars and some honey filled wax left over from pressing honey, which has lots of pollen in it too, into the feed area. The next day I replaced this and also gave them a comb of honey from the dying Paddy hive. They had broken a comb off which I attached to a rescue bar and I also managed to straighten a couple of wonky combs.
I checked the Paddypines and was delighted to find capped worker brood in there too. I didn't go right through as they are obviously fine and have a laying queen. This would be a daughter of the original Paddy queen who is now in the Paddyelms. We thought we saw signs of her going on her maiden flight on 27th July which would be about right.
The Paddycasts are definitely queenless and appear to be developing laying workers so we hope to move them so that the flying bees go into the Kings hive. They must have lost their queen on 22nd July when we saw the group of bees on the ground in front of their hive. Perhaps she was injured or couldn't fly for some reason.
So, it looks like we will be going into the winter with 3 strong colonies, the Paddypines, the Paddyelms & the Kings and one small colony, the Appletrees.
It seems to be the shape of things now; that the older colonies are dying out and replacing themselves each year. Both Phil Chandler and our friend Dennis, who has been beekeeping for over 50 years, think that this is a varroa control strategy the bees are developing. I'm sure they are right.
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| The rescue bar from the bottom |
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| The rescue bar from the side |
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| Rescue bar from the top |
