Its been months since we last met.
Months during which I gave them their Autumn feed and worried about them. I then gave them their Autumn oxalic acid treatment and worried about them.
Then it was their winter fondant feed and I worried about them. Following this was the oxalic acid vaporiser treatment and I worried about them. For the last few months I have been topping up their fondant feed where necessary. And worried about them.
Over the last month or so they gradually started to emerge. Pollen started to be bought in and I started to worry a little bit less [pollen is used to make food for the lavae so it means the Queens are laying].
Although the swarming season doesn't start for another month or so, it is recommended that for vigorous colonies you add a super now with clean frames and fresh wax foundation. This is not really for honey production its more to give them something to do so swarming is delayed - they are given a lot of new space to expand into and a trigger for swarming is when the hive becomes too congested.
Four of the hives at Ravensden looked pretty busy so last week I added supers but didn't go through the brood box as it was still a bit too cold.
However the weather has gradually improved so today was the day for the first inspections.
It turned out to be a bit of a team effort as Stacey and Matt who I met at market I do, came along to see the bees.
Things didn't start well as Matt was stung before we put our veils on and as I put some sting relief on the sting, his glasses were knocked off and I stood on them.
However we carried on and after some introductory stuff looked at the first hive.
The WBC hive has been the most active hive and had a super added. Also the bees are pretty calm so a good choice for Matt and Stacey's introduction.
The super had bees in it and they had started to draw out the comb.
We then took off the super and queen excluder so we could see the brood frames. Usually the outer most frames are the quietest but we could see bees occupying all the frames.
The frames were pretty well stuck down with propolis but we get them out for checking.
Although we didn't see the queen there was lots of open and closed brood and drone brood.
We didn't have time to check all the hives so next we had a look at the Poly Nuc Box with the Black British Queen in it.
The Long Term reader of this blog will know that last year I bought a Black British Queen. Native Black British bees were nearly wiped out about 100 years ago but there are small areas of the country where they still exist.
Out of curiosity I bought a BBQ, made up a Poly nuc box with bees from Ravensden colonies and introduced the British Queen, who I call Victoria. They accepted her and as it was late in the year I decided to keep the colony in the Nuc box as Poly nuc's have very good insulation properties and winter was coming.
The first bees to emerge this year were the Black British bees who had a reputation for being hardy and hard working, if a little 'spikey'.
I decided it was now time to transfer the bees into a full sized hive and Matt and Stacey carefully took out each frame from the Nuc and put it in the big hive. There was plenty of open and closed brood cells. Also a lot of very black bees.
As Matt took the middle frame out there was Victoria resplendent with a blob of white paint on her back [this means she hatched last year] scuttling across the frame. Luckily both Matt and Stacey saw her.
When I got her I wasn't sure she had been marked and I'm really pleased she has been as several jobs I will be doing are made much easier if she is marked.
All the frames were transferred and frames with new foundation put either side of the full frames for them to expand into.
When I went back a little while later there were lots of bees fanning at the entrance to the new hive.
Fanning involves sticking their bum in the air and flapping their wings. They secrete a pheromone, called the Nasonov pheromone which basically tells the bees 'this is our new home,come in. its lovely The Queen's already here,' and is wafted around by the beating of the bees wings and tells the bees where their new home is. They also use this pheromone when they are swarming.
So all in all a good start and thanks to Stacey and Matt for their help.
Now the work really starts. Over the next few days I will start checking the other hives at Ravensden.
At the moment my Land Rover is lacking an MOT so I can't get to the bees at Scald End. Hopefully it will pass its MOT on Tuesday and I will start putting supers on the hives there. Also two of the hives at Scald End haven't been properly looked at for probably years and need a thorough going through and I will probably have to change all the changes for new clean ones.
On top of that there's a lot to do/buy/make to get ready for swarming season and the new approach I am taking this year.
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