Jun
30

Weekly Inspection 30th June

Observations:

Honeybee on Rose

Weather: temperatures have been between 20°C – 22°C. Bees very busy, but the forecast is for much more changeable weather with quite a few showers. Temperatures set to go down into the late teens.

Forage: Buddleia, Privet just starting, Ragwort, RoseBay Willowherb, bramble looks to be finishing.

Most of the colonies seem to be bringing in plenty of stores . New Buckfast queens arrived on 2nd July and so some of the colonies were manipulated to potentially accommodate being re-queened. I couldn’t find a queen in the Indigo colony and so decided to leave alone. This meant that I changed plan and removed the queen from Flax and banked her before introducing one of the new Buckfast queens. If indigo doesn’t have a queen I’ll put the old queen (now banked) back.

Bees at home are very aggressive at the moment and starting to come at me even when not close to the hives. Hopefully this behaviour settles down otherwise I’ll remove colonies to the river Mole apiary.

Hive Record
Colony
Q
BIAS
Brood
Stores
CommentNext Inspection
AquaYY14 (7+7) frames of bias and starting to draw out drone trap frame Three supers, 3/4, 1/2 and 1/4 full.Donated one frame of bias to Flax to check if queenright Uncap drone trap
BlueYNNew nice sized Queen has emerged, three small patches of eggs A lot in the brood boxUnited with G as it was queenless and not many bees Check on unite success
CyanYYSix frames of bias, doing well About 2 kg in superBanked Queen from Flax above superCheck on expansion in brood and super
GreenNNNo brood, could be drone laying workerOkay, as not many Bees Decided to unite to cyanCheck on the unite success
FlaxNNFour frames of capped brood, no sign of eggs or QueenPlenty in one of the brood framesDecided to add frame of fires Aqua to test if Queenright, charged Queen cells discovered next dayAdded new Buckast Queen, moved into full size hive. Check on acceptance
HoneydewNYSeven frames of bias, drone trap starting to be laid upThree supers – 3/4, 1/2, 1/4Doing well and nice temperamentCheck on drone trap and laying space
IndigoNNThree frames of capped brood, Queen cell hatched out but no sign yetPlenty in the brood boxWas planning to re-queen, but not sure if queenrightAdd test frame of eggs before possibly re-introducing old Flax queen
JadeYYTwo frames of bias, not much space in nuc, banked Queen in cyanTwo very full frames, needs to be in full size boxDecided to re-Queen with Buckfast and move to full size box plus added capped brood frame from AquaCheck on Queen acceptance and brood