It has been a cold Spring so everything in the garden including plants and bees are running behind the usual calendar. This month is always risky for colonies as the winter bees are dying off and there as an increasing reliance on new season bees. This year we were sent an alert by the National Bee Unit warning beekeepers to feed colonies if necessary and plan action for Varroa infestation. As you will read, the new 'princess' in the green hive was un-mated and died. A sad end to a brilliant colony.
Priorities for April
The new queen in hive one was, as I feared, not mated because she was the result of a very late supercedure. She was unable to lay any eggs . The workers did not reject her and start drone laying but the colony was clearly dwindling and it was too early to buy a new queen. I considered killing the virgin queen and amalgamating the colony with the blue hive but did not want to take the risk of this not working and ending up with the death of the blue queen.
With a heavy heart I moved the ‘virgin queen’ led colony into a nucleus hive to slowly see out their days. They were perfectly healthy and it was a real shame.
After a few weeks I opened the hive to find just the weak queen who had not been fed because her attendants had all died.
On her death I emptied and sterilised the nuc ready for future use. I rendered down the wax in the frames which was a messy job and resulted in very little wax for the time invested. I then sterilised the frames ready for re-waxing in the future.
I ordered a nuc of Buckfast bees with a 2016 ‘white’ queen for delivery in early June to replace the lost hive.
Learning: perhaps I should have re-queened both halves of the colony when I split it in July. Or I could have killed the old green queen and united the two halves back again with the new blue queen. There had been no sign of supersedure until I packed the hive up for the winter and then it was too late to get a queen. Although queens can live for up to five years I think that in future it would be wiser to re-queen in the July of the second season and place the old queen in a nucleus with a small colony to overwinter and act as ‘back-up’. Despite all ones best efforts this sort of thing will happen.
Blue Hive
I took the ‘winter stores’ super out from under the brood box, replaced all the hive parts with cleaned ones and put the super frames back in a new super over the queen excluder.
I am not sure if it is the season, a different strain of bee, or a weak queen but the colony is not building up strongly. I shall persist but if the colony does not grow and there are insufficient foragers filling up the supers when the nectar flow is on, I will consider buying another queen and consigning this one to a nuc as an emergency spare.
As the weather started warming up and pollen and nectar was being brought into the hive I moved the stores frames in the brood box to the edges. However, by the end of the month there was no sign that the workers were drawing out any of the frames of foundation that were at the edges of the brood box. I will remove these old frames, render the wax and sterilise them ready for foundation when required. Bees prefer to draw out new foundation so it is not a good idea to wax them until just before I need them.
As this colony was on new frames in July 2015 and it is not strong I have decided not to do a ‘shook swarm’ onto all ne frames which is a good way of reducing disease in the hive. I checked the Varroa count and it is very low. However, this season I am going to treat the colonies with HiveClean which is an organic product which allegedly ‘activates the natural instinct for purification in bees’. Another beekeeper recommends its regular use to reduce the build up of Varroa in the colony. I have not seen convincing scientific evidence but think it worth trying along with drone culling as I would prefer to limit the number of ‘aggressive’ chemical treatments I use. I will report on progress.
Priorities for April
- Check sufficient stores available in each colony and feed with syrup if necessary
- Monitor bee activity at the hive entrance on a warm day.Pollen activity means the colony are probably feeding young brood
- When 14°C + carry out quick 1st inspection.Priorities are: health,stores and queen laying in a good pattern of worker brood.No sealed brood suggests that the queen has died, drone cells suggest a drone laying queen, or drone laying workers.If limited brood or spotty pattern, there may be disease.
- Full health inspection:
- Varroa – insert board and check drop over 7 days.Should be less than 1 or 2 per day.Review your varroa management plan for the year
- Deformed Wing Virus – check adult bees
- Nosema – any sign of faecal staining on on the combs or around the entrance?
- Chalk brood – ‘mummies’ on the hive floor
- Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus – shiny black bodies of adult bees
- Adult bee disease indicated by listlessness of trembling
- Brood diseases – ensure larvae are pearly white, c-shaped and segmented.Small amounts of chalk or sac brood not unusual in April but monitor.Any concerns that a notifiable disease is present, call the bee inspectors.
- Wax moth – look out for signs in frames and black specks of droppings on the varroa board.Deposits of white are probably wax cappings chewed of cells!
- Varroa – insert board and check drop over 7 days.Should be less than 1 or 2 per day.Review your varroa management plan for the year
- Health maintenance:
- Replace all hive parts with clean ones: boxes, queen excluder etc.Clean over-wintered equipment ready for re-use.
- When the colony starts to draw wax ie brace comb, start replacing old frames with clean foundation – place next to brood area but don’t split it.Render down wax from old frames and carefully clean them by boiling in washing soda or flame sterilise.All frames can be changed using ‘Shook Swarm’ or Baily methods.
- Replace all hive parts with clean ones: boxes, queen excluder etc.Clean over-wintered equipment ready for re-use.
- Swarm control
- Check all items for swarm collection ready
- Start weekly checks for swarm cells – often seeing drones in the hive is a pre-cursor
- Add supers to give sufficient space for brood and stores
The new queen in hive one was, as I feared, not mated because she was the result of a very late supercedure. She was unable to lay any eggs . The workers did not reject her and start drone laying but the colony was clearly dwindling and it was too early to buy a new queen. I considered killing the virgin queen and amalgamating the colony with the blue hive but did not want to take the risk of this not working and ending up with the death of the blue queen.
With a heavy heart I moved the ‘virgin queen’ led colony into a nucleus hive to slowly see out their days. They were perfectly healthy and it was a real shame.
After a few weeks I opened the hive to find just the weak queen who had not been fed because her attendants had all died.
On her death I emptied and sterilised the nuc ready for future use. I rendered down the wax in the frames which was a messy job and resulted in very little wax for the time invested. I then sterilised the frames ready for re-waxing in the future.
I ordered a nuc of Buckfast bees with a 2016 ‘white’ queen for delivery in early June to replace the lost hive.
Learning: perhaps I should have re-queened both halves of the colony when I split it in July. Or I could have killed the old green queen and united the two halves back again with the new blue queen. There had been no sign of supersedure until I packed the hive up for the winter and then it was too late to get a queen. Although queens can live for up to five years I think that in future it would be wiser to re-queen in the July of the second season and place the old queen in a nucleus with a small colony to overwinter and act as ‘back-up’. Despite all ones best efforts this sort of thing will happen.
Blue Hive
I took the ‘winter stores’ super out from under the brood box, replaced all the hive parts with cleaned ones and put the super frames back in a new super over the queen excluder.
I am not sure if it is the season, a different strain of bee, or a weak queen but the colony is not building up strongly. I shall persist but if the colony does not grow and there are insufficient foragers filling up the supers when the nectar flow is on, I will consider buying another queen and consigning this one to a nuc as an emergency spare.
As the weather started warming up and pollen and nectar was being brought into the hive I moved the stores frames in the brood box to the edges. However, by the end of the month there was no sign that the workers were drawing out any of the frames of foundation that were at the edges of the brood box. I will remove these old frames, render the wax and sterilise them ready for foundation when required. Bees prefer to draw out new foundation so it is not a good idea to wax them until just before I need them.
As this colony was on new frames in July 2015 and it is not strong I have decided not to do a ‘shook swarm’ onto all ne frames which is a good way of reducing disease in the hive. I checked the Varroa count and it is very low. However, this season I am going to treat the colonies with HiveClean which is an organic product which allegedly ‘activates the natural instinct for purification in bees’. Another beekeeper recommends its regular use to reduce the build up of Varroa in the colony. I have not seen convincing scientific evidence but think it worth trying along with drone culling as I would prefer to limit the number of ‘aggressive’ chemical treatments I use. I will report on progress.
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