Jun
16

Weekly Inspection – June 16th

Observations:

Visiting Thyme

Honeybee on thyme

Weather: some heavy showers, with temperatures between 16°C to 18°C. Forecast is for fine weather and temperatures to rise in the coming week.

Forage: bramble, elderflower, cow parsley, and lime.

Looks like the Bees in the river Mole apiary are bringing in some stores, but still slow in the home apiary colonies. Decided that the swarm I caught in the bait hive was queenless with no sign of a queen or eggs after two weeks. So united on the 18th with the original queen from Flax, which was in a nuc – Indigo.

Looks like the Buckfast Queens I’ve ordered will be delayed for three weeks because of bad weather so will need to reassess which colonies I re-queen and whether I still go for a split with Aqua..

 

 

Hive Record
Colony
Q
BIAS
Brood
Stores
CommentNext Inspection
AquaYY14 frames of bias (8+6), plenty of eggs and okay for spaceSuper being worked and some stores finally coming inNeed to decide on whether to split or strengthen one of the other coloniesSplit or strengthen?
BlueNNFour frames of capped brood, mostly emerged. Four queen cells – taken down to one. Okay, in the brood boxTip of Queen cell being thinned, so new queen should emerge any day Check for emerged queen
CyanYYFive frames of bias, expanding nicely Nothing in the supers Marked QueenCheck Queen okay, and remove one brood box
FlaxNNQueen cells galore - 8 capped, 4 charged – taken down to one on frame of capped broodOkay, in brood box Will let Queen emerge before deciding if re-queening with Buckfast Check for emerged Queen
GreenNNTwo sealed queen cellsOkay, for stores Not many Bees, may unite with one of the other coloniesCheck for emerged Queen
HoneydewNYSeven frames of bias, lots of eggsSuper about half full – finally. Added second superLooks to be doing really well although bees somewhat agitatedCheck for laying space
IndigoYYThree frames of biasHave taken down the Ambrosia, plenty of nectarUnited with Jade on 18 JuneCheck on unite, consolidate to one box
JadeNNNo sign of brood , eggs or a queenTaken down 2/3 of the Ambrosia, plenty of nectarLooks to be queenless, two weeks since collected in bait hive, decided to unite with Indigo Check on unite