Sunday 22nd August

Sunday 22nd August
3.30 pm Temp 22C. Jim away, so I had to check the Lizards alone. Had to do it today as weather is meant to be turning bad again tomorrow. Flying very busily and seemed to be behaving normally AND were defensive! Went through the whole hive. Couldn't find queen - AGAIN, but there was drone brood and I think a small amount of worker brood, including uncapped cells. Not a lot, but more than last time. There was also more honey, or maybe it was stored sugar syrup. So I think we can say we probably have a queen who had stopped laying until we stimulated her with feeding. My guess is that she was too hungry to lay PHEW!!! I sugared them as best I could, avoiding the brood.

Monday 16th August
Started feeding 200g sugar : 100mls water daily in contact feeder. They took it all. Carried on for 6 days as weather was so bad we couldn't open up the hive to check.

Sunday 15th August
2.30 pm Temp 20C. Weighed both hives Lizards (L) 19kgs (R) 21kgs. Buckfasts (L) 31kgs (R) 27kgs. Both had lost some weight over past 5 wks.
Buckfasts seemed quite good, although had used up some of their stores, we are glad we didn't take any significant amounts of honey. Applied icing sugar, avoiding brood.
We were worried about the Lizards, as they had very little stores or brood. Couldn't find queen again! Seemed to be behaving fairly normally though, apart from being less defensive than usual (which is not a good sign). Applied icing sugar. Decided to phone old experienced beekeeping friend for advice. He said to check if they were bringing in pollen, then feed them 1:2 sugar syrup for a 3 - 4 days to try to stimulate the queen to lay. Then check for cells. If still worried to check if more than one egg in each cell. This would indicate laying workers and probably no queen. He said our only option, if that were the case, would be to integrate the 2 hives together. Oh dear!!! Checked and found they were not bringing in pollen.
Sue

Sat 31st July '10

Jim had heard from Phil that he had some concerns about the Lizards. He thought there was not a lot of brood and could not find the queen last weekend.
5.30 pm We looked in both ends of the hive a couple of bars in, but as the temperature was dropping thought it best not to go any further, at this stage. Bees seem happy, flying back and forth normally. Saw brood one end and a lot of bees. No visible distress or problem. Will investigate further and treat with icing sugar on a warmer day.

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.