Jul
18

Weekly Inspection – 18th July

Observations:

Aster

Weather: Temperatures 17ºC -22ºC but with lots of rain and heavy showers most days. Set to improve.

Forage: Ragwort, Buddleia, Rosebay Willowherb, Himalayan Balsam, and Golden Rod just starting.

Not sure what’s happening with the Flax colony. There were sealed QCs, torn down QCs and 1 charged cell. But there also appears to be eggs and larvae. The sealed QCs don’t look to be viable – candled one and it had a small undeveloped larva. However, decided to make up and Apidea with the other one. Left bees in for 2 days, but most have left and probably returned back to Flax. So perhaps the Buckfast queen is still present but took time to come into lay?

Supers being worked and starting to get filled up.

Hive Record
Colony
Q
BIAS
Brood
Stores
CommentNext Inspection
AquaNY14+ (8+5+) frames of BIAS. Lots of bees and somewhat aggressive3 supers - full, 2/3, 1/2bees aggressive might. be because of the poor rainy weather. High varroa count 11 in 100 of the uncapped drone cellscheck on brood pattern. as season draws to a close.
BlueYY3 frames of BIAS, expanded patternplenty in the brood boxStarting to expandcheck on continued expansion, mark queen
CyanNY7+ frames of BIASsuper 3/4 full but not fully capped, rearranged frames.Doing wellcheck on super activity and stores in brood box
FlaxNY 1 frame of BIAS, but 2 sealed QCs (not viable?) and 1 charged - taken down.2 supers - 3/4, 2/3 and lots in brood boxNot sure what's going on & whether a queen is presentCheck for brood and add 1 frame
IndigoNN1 QC hatched out 3 weeks ago, 2 sealed +1 charged so took down as they poor looking scrub cellsplenty but needs a super +QEAdded test frame from Honeydew in case no queencheck for presence of queen or QCs
JadeYY4+ frames of BIAS including 1 frame of eggsplenty in brood boxlooks to be doing OKcheck on expansion and add 1 frame