First inspection of the year

My patience has paid off and the weather has suddenly become more like summer than spring! The last couple of days have been really warm and I decided to have a look at my bees yesterday, just after midday, when the temperature was about 17 deg C.

I got suited up and went out to the hives. First of all I watched for activity at the hive entrances and was pleased to see quite a few flying bees bringing in pollen. I managed to photograph a bee coming in laden with bright yellow pollen, which was possibly Willow.

I also saw bees bringing in bright orange coloured pollen, which could have been Dandelion. Armed with my smoker in one hand and hive tool I approached my first hive.On lifting the roof off the hive I was confronted with a mass of bees on the top bars of the frames.

I opened up the hives, took out the dummy board at the back of the brood chamber and quickly went through the frames, prising them apart and peering down between them to see what was going on. I had given this hive some fondant over the winter because I thought that they really had not taken down enough syrup in the autumn. The fondant was all gone and looking through the frames there really was not very much left in the way of stores. I considered giving this colony some light syrup, but decided against it because the weather forecast is good for the next week or so and the bees should be able to find sufficient forage. The bees were very calm and well behaved and I barely needed to use any smoke. I did notice quite a few dead bees lying on the mesh floor of the hive, but I assumed that the undertaker bees would dispose of them in due course.

Working my way through the brood chamber I found the brood nest. I lifted a couple of frames out one by one to have a quick look. To my delight I saw eggs, larvae and sealed worker brood, and I saw the marked queen! I carefully put the frames back and put everything back in place and closed the hive up.

On to hive number two - this is the one I was a little worried about and it is also my "best" colony from last year. Sure enough, on removing the roof there were very few bees on the top bars of the frames. I proceeded with the inspection and to my great relief found that there were plenty of bees in the hive - they were all hiding lower down on the frames. I worked my way through the hive and again I found eggs, larvae, sealed worker brood and I even saw the very elusive unmarked queen! Again the bees were very quiet and a joy to work with, and I was glad to see that this hive still had plenty of stores left in the form of sealed Happy days - two out of two so far!

And so on to hive number three. There were certainly plenty of bees in hive number three, but as soon as I opened up the hive I noticed the presence of drones (male bees). How odd! I worked my way through the brood chamber and found the brood nest. I saw eggs, big fat larvae, and sealed drone brood (easily identified by the highly domed cappings)There was no sign of any worker brood anywhere!

I clearly have a drone laying queen. I went through the frames carefully and found what I believed to be the offending queen and squashed her. I closed the hive up. These bees were much more aggressive than the first two hives. I was glad that I had (hopefully) found and killed the drone laying queen and decided to requeen this colony with the reserve queen I had in my nuc....or so I thought!

To my horror, when I opened the nuc up I found no eggs, no larvae, no brood and no queen! There wasn't very many bees in the nuc. The queen had obviously died or disappeared over the winter. This was going to make saving hive number three much more difficult!

The most obvious thing to do is to unite hive three with one of my good hives, but having thought about it (and slept on it) I'm very reluctant to do this. I tried to requeen hive three twice last year, and it would appear that they killed both new queens because they had a poorly mated queen of their own in residence, who had now turned into a drone laying queen. I think I found and killed her, but I cant be 100% sure and I do not want to risk uniting this colony with one of my good colonies in case they kill another good queen!

Requeening really isn't an option at this time of year simply because there aren't any mated queens available, and there won't be until May at the earliest. As I see it the only chance I have of saving this colony is to give them a frame from one of my good colonies containing some eggs and young larvae, and let them have a go at rearing a new queen. However this is pretty much a last resort and only has a slim chance of succeeding, and it has the disadvantage that I'm going to weaken one of my good colonies by doing so.

If anyone reading this has any other suggestions as to how I can save this colony then please let me know!

More signs of Spring

I'm still waiting for a day when it is warm enough to inspect my bees properly. However the signs are that Spring is on its way. The Primroses are in full flower...

...and the Black Alder trees are loaded with pollen. The following photo clearly shows the male and female catkins on the end of a twig.

Hopefully one day soon the temperature will creep up into the mid to high teens and I'll be able to have a look inside the hives and see if my colonies are building up as they should be at this time of year.

Crown board and clearer board

Time to get back to hive construction! First of all, cut a square of thin plywood 460mm by 460mm. I've used 6mm thick ply, but you could use 9mm if you want a more sturdy board. Then cut 8 pieces of 25mm by 6mm strip wood all 435mm long. Nail the pieces of strip wood around the edges of the plywood on both side using small 12mm long nails. The following photo shows the crown board with half of the strips attached. It's a good idea to stagger the joins in the wooden strips on either side of the plywood.

Nail the rest of the strips in place as shown in the following photo. That's the basic structure of the crown board finished.

You could use the crown board like this, but it is usually convenient to have a feed hole in the crown board. Check what size of hole you require - a 35mm diameter hole is what is needed for the rapid feeders that I use. Cut the feed hole in the centre of the crown board. I find that it is a good idea to place the empty feeder on the crown board making sure that it is lined up properly with the hole and then carefully mark a line with a pen or pencil around the outside of the feeder. When feeding this makes it easy to ensure that the feeder full of syrup is in the right place!

When using the crown board without a feeder, simply close off the hole by placing a piece of plywood (or any other flat solid object) over the hole. If you want to leave the hole open for ventilation you can place a small piece of wire mesh (the varroa floor mesh is ideal) over the hole and secure it in place with drawing pins if you wish.

Now, if you are making a clearer board (or escape board) you follow exactly the same procedure, except now the type and size of hole you require depends on what type of bee escape device you will use. If you are using Porter bee escapes you will need to cut oval holes (not easy!) and they will need to be a good fit. I recently bought some large circular escapes that I'm going to try (see photo).

The advantage of this type of escape is that the size and shape of the hole is not critical. I think I'll be able to use the same size holes as for the rapid feeders which means that all I have to do to turn the crown board into a clearer board if attach the circular escape using drawing pins. Incidentally the photo above shows the underside of the clearer board - the bees would come down through the hole in the centre of the board and then out along the spoke-like channels.

Spring into action!

Today was very bright and sunny, and although it was quite a bit colder than earlier in the week, I went down to the beehives  in the hope of seeing some more bees bringing in pollen. However the bees were staying in the hives today - it was just not warm enough for them to be out and about.

Ever since I saw the bees bringing in pollen earlier in the week I've been wondering what they could be foraging on. When I was out today I saw a few Primroses in flower, as well as Crocuses (see photo), Daffodils, Daises and Dandelions, and the very last of the Snowdrops.

There are quite a few Goat Willow bushes growing around where I have my hives and I was pleased to see that the buds on them were just starting to open (see photo).

Willow is an important forage plant for the bees in the early spring and provides a good source of pollen which the bees need for the spring build up. I only hope that the weather in the coming weeks is mild and fair so that the bees can get off to a good start to the year.