Jun
24

Weekly Inspection – 24th June

Observations:

Honeybee on geranium

Weather: really improved with temperatures climbing to 20°C – 23°C. Set to continue with a mini heatwave forecast for the coming week.

Forage: Bramble, rosebay Willowherb, Ragwort and Buddleia just beginning. Checking my forage notes from last year season looks to be about 10 days ahead.

Main flow has really started with the main colonies adding a super in just a week. Not sure how long it will last with the forage being 10 days in advance of last year.

Flax colony looks to have hatched out a Queen but there were still 2 sealed Queen cells, so squished one and put one in an Apidea with Bees also from Flax.

Thursday, 27th – inspected River Mole colonies. Queen cells in Indigo so needed to make a nuc split (now called Jade) with queen from Indigo.

Hive Record
Colony
Q
BIAS
Brood
Stores
CommentNext Inspection
AquaYY14 (8+6) frames of bias, plenty of eggsAdded 2 supers as the original one for 3/4 full and a lot of stores in the top boxDonated one frame to GreenCheck how super activity is progressing
BlueNNOne small patch of eggs, so queen has hatched Okay, in brood box, nothing in super( gave to Aqua))Very few Bees, needs strengthening or uniting (possibly with green)Decide on viability
CyanYYFive frames of bias so doing okayStill only 1 kg in superRearrange frames and took down to one brood boxCheck for stores as they should be increasing
FlaxNNThree frames of capped brood, one hatched out queen cell and two sealed Lots of nectar in brood box and super one third form full, so added secondSquished one queen cell and put one in Apidea (made up OTS)Check for laying queen, still requeen with Buckfast a possibility
GreenNNTwo small patches of eggs, so queen has emerged and matedPlenty on brood framesNot many Bees, so strengthened with capped brood from AquaCheck whether continued strengthening required or uniting
HoneydewYY8 frames BIAS taken down to 6 (2 to nuc). Queen doesn’t look impressive2 supers nearly full, added 4 missing frames and added 3rdcheck condition of queenMark and clip queen
IndigoYY5 frames BIAS plus 4 sealed QCs, taken down to 1Plenty in brood framesUnite seems to have triggered swarmingCheck for emerged queen
JadeYY1 frame BIAS plus 2 capped broodPlenty in framesNuc formed from Indigo - queen & 1 frame BIAS + Honeydew donating all bees and 2 capped framesCheck on state of nuc in new site