6th March 2011 Disaster

Sue asked me to pop down and check the buckfasts as she has the flu, but noticed the other day that there wasn't much activity and couldn't hear a buzz.

I took off the lid and insulating materials, prised open the first comb and to my utter dismay it was completely empty, the comb had been completely cleaned out.  It was the same throughout the entire hive.  About half way through I found a small cluster of dead bees in the middle of a comb.  There was no evidence of disease and a number of bees were dead inside cells trying to find food.

Before the winter the hive was filled to the brim with stores, not a single space left, all of it capped.  It should have been more than enough for the colony.  There were a few combs with crystalised honey in an arch shape which they obviously couldn't digest.

So why did this happen?  One thought is that there was a high number of drones in the colony, but I guess we'll never really know.

Monday 28th February 2011

Been down to see the bees on sunny days a few times over past 2 weeks. Bees have been flying from both hives. The Lizards were even bringing in pollen on a couple of occasions. I think it was gorse, as it was very orange and dark.  Not sure if the Buckfasts were too. There are now crocuses and daffodils out for them and the goat willow catkins are nearly there. As soon as it warms up a bit more we will try and remove some of the old frames from the Buckfast hive.
Lizards have now eaten about half the fondant.

8th February 2011

Went down to check the hives this morning.  It's cold (5 degrees C) but bright and last night's frost is melting quickly.  Some snowdrops out but not much else for the bees to feed from.  No wind today so a good opportunity to listen to the hives.


No activity outside either of the hives today.  I could hear (just) activity in the Lizard hive which is what I was hoping for.  The sound was tinny rather than the happy bass resonance from the Buckfasts, but we're just glad they've got this far through the winter after starting so late.  Didn't look like they've taken much of the fondant yet.


Noticed a few dead bees still with full pollen sacks on the mesh floor on the other side of the separator board.  They must have been working full pelt right up until the hard weather came in


Buckfasts had been active with evidence of fresh wax plates underneath the colony, guessing that probably them uncapping and eating up their stores.  Good strong smell of honey too.


Jim 

Monday 10th January 2011

Gosh, we haven't posted for 3 months! Unfortunately I have had a recurrence of  Non Hodgkins Lymphoma and have been on chemo for the past few months and a bit 'out of it'. Also of course the bees have been pretty inactive.
Well we tucked them up for the winter with old towels and carpet over the top of the bars (didn't get round to making the boxes filled with lambswool as we intended). We left the bottoms of the hives open with just the varroa mesh to allow for ventilation. Then we just crossed all our fingers and toes and hoped for the best. We were quite worried about the Lizards after their late re-queening and seemingly low numbers. During the very cold December we had we could hear a faint buzz from both hives, interestingly louder from the Lizards. Then last Friday, Mick was down in the field with Grandson Alby and the bees were flying from both hives in the late afternoon sunshine. It's turned fairly mild and they seem to be coming out for cleansing flights in fairly large numbers. We have decided to feed the Lizards some fondant today to see if they need it as they were so low on honey stores in the Autumn and only took down a fairly small amount of the sugar syrup we offered them. I have made up 1kg sugar with 250ml water and some cider vinegar and put it in an ice cream tub. We are going to make holes in the top and invert it over a top bar with a slot cut out of it. I'll take some pics and post them soon. There is still a lot of the winter to go yet, but things seem pretty good at the moment.

Monday 18th October '10

The Lizards took no feed at all. Removed it last night after 3 days. It was very warm and sunny the last 2 days, so they had plenty of opportunity. Either they don't need it or they couldn't be bothered.

Saturday 16th October '10

Applied a good dusting of icing sugar to both hives on Monday 11th Oct as it was a sunny warm day, 15 C, and the bees were flying well. Lizards looked much more lively than a couple of weeks ago, bringing in pollen. Buckfasts very busy as usual.
Thurs 14th Oct '10 Mick and Jim went down to hives at 8.30pm with the intention of moving the Lizards, because of our worries about damp. However decided that it wasn't worth moving them. Damp seems to be mostly due to the low number of bees not keeping the temp up in the outer parts of the hive. Hopefully the main cluster area, over the winter, will keep warm enough and damp free. We'll just have to sort out the hive next Spring. They put a towel over the top of the bars to absorb moisture and to help keep them warm. Mick will make some boxes to put over both clusters which we will put sheep's wool in to do this job more efficiently.
Gave the Lizards a feed again as we were worried about supplies now they have more bees again. A bit late to feed really, so we'll keep an eye on it to check if they take it or not.

4th October

A sunny day!  By 11:30 the temperature had got up to 17 degrees C, so I thought it was worth using the time to check on the progress of the two hives.

As expected the Buckfasts were very active with pollen and stores coming in and around 20 - 30 bees going in and out of the entrance.  At the observation window I could see a dense mass of bees covering a good half of the hive.  I removed the cork covering one of the 3 entrances to give them more access.

Down at the Lizards things were not so busy. A couple of bees were gingerly exiting the hive.  There was a dead drone still clinging to the entrance hole and half a worker in the hole.  I cleared these and a couple more bees came out.  The wasp trap gave off an almighty stench and I think a couple of slugs may have managed to get in and begin to decompose.  When I emptied it there was a large hornet inside.  This may account for the half eaten worker at the entrance.

Sue and I have both been concerned that the Lizard Hive is in a poor state and won't survive the winter, so I took this opportunity to have a look inside.  There had been no further activity in building new comb on the outer edges but the central combs had been refilled with stores and much has been capped.  The truely great news is that on three of the combs there is worker brood, surrounded by stores.  However the hive still has a large number of drones and there was still the occasional patch of drone brood.  The mood of the bees was quite testy.  If I moved the combs too quickly a sudden loud roar came up and dropped down again just as quickly.  The bees that crawled up onto the top of the topbars seemed to be jumpy, occasionally jumping on one another like flies do.
I corked one of the entrance holes to reduce the chance of robbing and noticed there was a steady stream of a few bees returning laden heavy with pollen.  This hive is still the size of a large nuc and will have a hard time getting through the winter, but at least the queen has produced new workers and been accepted.  Lets hope for a long warm dry autumn.

Jim