I have borage. It has gone rampant but even now and probably up to around Christmas it will keep my bees in rations. I also have a bit of comfrey which does a similar job. Both of them also help make excellent compost. Ivy is not very good, blackthorn too short flowering (we have a boundary of several hundred bushes) and brambles similar but a pest when they are rampant. Meadow flowers are quite good, it is the trees like chestnut that are really best though. Position your hives where they are directed toward the best pollen and they will go a couple of km looking. Best of luck with it. My bees are fine but only enough honey for them to keep for the winter this year.
I have not posted for quite a while as I now do not have any Bees. However this does not mean that I have not been busy planning for the New Year.
Looking round I have realized just how little natural food I have on our land except Ivy, Blackthorn and Brambles, plus one flower bed and some Roses. As a result I have started planting for next year. At present two Budleia and three Forsythia have been planted, and this will be doubled over the next few weeks. I have also sown 100 sq mtrs. of wild flower seed has been sown. Any further ideas would be welcome.
Maybe a farmer's market will have a beekeeper that might be able to help you with brood... We are replacing queens at the moment, it is not too late if you can find a breeder in your area.
May would be good for picking up, that way you're sure to have a colony in sring... taking them now, and losing them over winter hardly seems worth it.
Oh no! Bit late in the season to get a colony well enough established in the event that winter starts early. Just to wind up a bad year. Because of bad management caused by my health problems and that I could not get round, I'll have no honey this year. However I'll overwinter fine. Problem might be having my colonies too big and them all doing a bunk next spring. It is all very unpredictable.
As it is, I was going to drop in here. Locally some bee keepers have closed down. A couple of the ones I know (one is our regular electrician's wife) are saying the same thing and two others who sell at local markets knowing those who have closed down are saying the same. It is the commercial crops in this area in particular: the maize essentially grown for fodder and the sunflowers for oil. Neither encourage good yields it seems. For the last two years fruit trees and nuts, particularly chestnuts, have been fairly poor quality too. The choice has either been to move hives around a lot more than usually or have colonies dwindle. Last winter, I had this problem too, feeding didn't always work too and entire colonies were lost when the cold came when spring and first flowers normally did, followed by extreme wet and cool weather.
How are other people making out. I've been on low battery of necessity but hope to get back to speed next spring, unless some new and unforeseen obstacle appears.
back from the UK on the 10th August to find my St Clar colony has flown the hive. Also my squatters are producing honey, but no brood. Guess they have no Queen! Too late to get a mated Queen, and I do njot know any local Bees keepers to get some brood.
Another disappointment; my Br Adam nuc, ordered and payed for last May, is due to arrive and be picked up from Toulouse the first week of September. Just when we are away on holiday! The only option is for the eleveur to keep them till next May. Why do I do this?
That is, indeed, a queen cell. is it on the top 2/3 of the frame, or on the bottom?? This will signal if it is a swarm, or supercedure cell, although it is unlikely that a colony will split so early after settling.
If you have no way of getting a new queen, letting the cell be is the only chance the colony have of survival. Let it hatch, and it'll be a while before she is mated and starts laying, perhaps an inspection in two weeks would be good for St Clar, as rocking the boat when she is in the early stages of settling in might lead to disaster.
If there is no movement in the super, whip it off, because the colony needs to be really exploding on the bottom before you'd put one on top.
Re-wiring those freames and re-waxing depends on your intentions.. if you want to observe them regularly, then you'll be better off changing it, but if you're leaving them be, but indending to just harvest honey from them.. maybe letting them be is ok.
Just realized that I have not posted any entry for my last hive inspection on 6th July. Now back in the UK for a few days, so there was no inspection on the 13th or 14th July. Back on track on the 20th.
Anyway 6th July I decided to refer to hive A as 'The Squatters' and hive B 'St Clar'. The former being my surprise arrivals and the latter the colony I got out of a french window in St Clar.
The squatters are starting to build on the frames that I put in previously, and there is evidence of pollen and nectar. I did not disturbing them very much, just leaving well alone for now.
The St Clar colony does not seem right. Some milky cells around, along with decaying cells that originated at St Clar. There appears to be a queen cell, which I hope shows in the picture. Both hives are flying well.
The foundation I put into the St Clar hive seems to be coming away from the three frames. It is a general mess. The hives get direct sun in the late morning, afternoon and early evening. Perhaps I should have put only one frame in? No movement up into the super, which I put on for fear the colony that the colony I bought home would be too big for the hive.
Not sure how to deal with the comb that is not on frames. This applies to both hives.
Throwing out the dead is quite healthy to begin with, pollen going in makes it seem fine to me. There are lots of trees with cunning disguised green flowers at present, our small women have been wise to those disguises for a few millennia so it's just in a day's routine.
Know what you mean, mine was never blonde but we have two daughters now to show who came out top of class!
I removed the grill from the entrance to the second colony today, allowing the inmates to get out for the first time. It appears that a large number of dead Bees are being turfed out of the hive, but no mass fly away. I do not intend opening up the hive till the weekend to see what is actually going on. It's been traumatic for them, so leave them in peace.
There is quite a bit of activity around colony 1, with a lot of pollen going in. God knows where from!
Foot note to Brian (see above). It was not the subject matter of my first lecture that was the adventure, but the number of students including a mass of mature students seated on the first two rows. I always found mature students 'Bolshi', asking awkward questions and wanting to argue. This was especially true of one thirty nine year old blond female, who has not changed in twenty years, of which for seventeen of those years we have been together.
Our meadow was cut for hay on Saturday, now to watch how they behave and what they go for...
No sir, I'd never compare lecturing on Durkheim (socialisation in my case). At least I was never stung by several students ;-)
Thanks for the comments Brian. As for 'adventure', this certainly ranks with my first parachute jump and the first time I gave a lecture on Durkheim and religion to 250 students.
Problem here is that hay is now being cut along with the wild flowers. Some Gorse around, and Blackberry is starting to flower. I think this colony may have originated at a 'Honey Museum' a couple of miles down, the road from where it had made a home.
Now awaiting my nuc of Buckfasts.
Lol, there can be times when you just want to put the lid back on the hive,adn walk away, or in that case, back down the ladder, and leave them at it.
Confidence is key. If you don't have the queen, you can always go back for her
Hi Zoe
There was no chance of locating the Queen in those conditions, and with the number of Bees. However, I am hoping that by making sure I got the masses, I probably got the Queen. I wold say that there was more chance of her being damaged than not getting caught.
Things were pretty hairy, not the ideal first collection, but has given me more confidence. You do not get the chance to tackle this type of problem on a basic beekeeping course!
Great stuff. I have some big colonies who are doing very well this year. I also have several empty hives. I was hoping for some of the activity you have had Alan. Not one swarm in the area for me. Indeed, hereabouts the four local apiaries who try to make a living from it have empty hives as well, just not recovering in that sense. Chatting to one at the market last week, he says that for all of the downside this year is going to be extraordinary. The amount of wild meadow and pasture flowers, blossom on acacia, lime, hazel and then all the wisteria, St John's wort and such things have been exceptional but late, in the wrong order in some cases. Anyway, the point is that you have headed this 'Colony Diary' and this year, like you, everybody should have kept quite detailed diaries - but of course we didn't. Anyway, I too hope you have the queen and that it goes well with your efforts paying off. At the very least you are reminding some of us what a brilliant 'adventure' this can be.
Great news, Alan, hope you got the queen!!
Yesterday, Saturday 29th June, Marilyn and I drove down to St Clar, to collect a colony of wild Bees that had nested between some shutters and a pair of french windows (see previous post of Kate's). Although I was aware that the colony was big, I did not know that it had been in place for at least two years.
Located on the first floor of an old Pigioniere, , with access by ladder in poor light, I knew that it would not be an easy removal. Working on my own, Marilyn had only come as moral support, I opened the french doors to find that the comb not only spread across the width of the door, but was also solidly packed across the whole depth. Some of the comb was almost a metre in length, hanging down like long icicles.
Thanks to the good advice I had received from Zoe, I had brought with me a 5 litre garden spray of water. Having given the comb a good soaking, I started from the outside edges to cut down the comb and place it in a very large cardboard box. The outer edges were mostly honey and stores. Working across and the in towards the shutters, I cut the comb and boxed it.
Having sealed the box and wrapped it in plastic, I lowered the box to the ground floor and put it in the van and came home. Some Bees were left behind, also some small amount of comb with honey. I managed to get away with one sting on my left ear when removing my whites.
Having left the colony to settle over night, this morning it was transferred into a 12 frame Dadant brood box with five frames of Foundation. Both stores and broad are present. A Super was placed on top of the brood box, and then the top board and roof. The door is currently closed. The plan is to open the door in a couple of days and place a Queen Grill on top of the Super, as the colony is so big. I will then put another Super above the Queen Grill.
Many thank Zoe for your advice. Pictures will follow when things are quieter.
Can see pollen in them for sure, yes. Keep us posted, and keep the pics coming!
Hi Zoe
I will try and manipulate some of the comb into a wired frame. If you look at the picture of the inside of the hive, there are some cells that appear to have something in them. I was just interested in getting a picture record seeing if there was general building, so did not really inspect the cells. Will do so on Sunday.
Re feeding, sunny and temp of 25.2 at present, and due to have two days of cloud followed by two days of sun with temps of 26c and 29c. There is a feeder on with syrup. Awaiting the Elder and Blackberry to flower.
Is there a way you can put their wild comb upright, or integrate into a foundationless frame? It might help them to get more into drawing comb on the foundation alongside.
for the moment, they are quite small, and if the weather isn't great (like it is here), you might need to feed them, to get the queen laying. Have you seen eggs/larvae?