25/04/04

Did a routine inspection to check on progress and and signs of preparing for swarming. I also had a brave observer (Ken) who declined my spare bee suit but kept a reasonable distance.

Hive L: expanding but very slowly. The bees are preparing the super frames but still not filling them with nectar. This is a weak colony and will need to be built up (taking some workers from Hive R?) or by creating a nucleus from Hive R and re-queening.

Hive R: continues to grow rapidly and one super is already 75% full. So I added another super of 8 drawn frames underneath the almost full super. No sign of queen cell production.

18th

Hive L: This colony is not as vigorous as Hive R. There is no sign of nectar in the super yet. Destroyed a small queen cell cup. Removed spacer board and add eleventh frame of foundation one-in from the end.
I shall probably replace the queen in Hive L with a frame of good brood from Hive R.

Hive R: The colony is expanding rapidly! Lots of good sealed brood and a large number of workers. No sign of queen cells yet although quite a few drone cells. Removed spacer board and add eleventh frame of foundation one-in from the end. Super is coming on well with about 30% full of nectar already. They need to build up the rest of the super frames as the edges are not complete cells.
Then if there are still signs of swarming in Hive R I will do an artificial swarm into the new hive.

Hive W: Constructed a new deep brood box (bought from National Bee Supplies who I find make excellent quality hives) for the third hive.

12th

Warm and sunny with bees flying. Cleaned all 10 frames in each hive. Still need to clean bases and to add another deep frame with foundation. Will replace some older brood frames in coming weeks. No sign of any disease in either colony.

Hive L: This hive has fewer bees than Hive R. Queen found and colony laying well. Destroyed early signs of a queen cell and some of the sealed drone cells.

Hive R: No queen found but colony laying well. Destroyed some capped drone cells. Some nectar beginning to be collected (more bees in colony?).

04/04/04

Spent the weekend cleaning frames, supers and queen excluders. The weather was cool, windy and mainly overcast therefore not appropriate to do the first full inspection of the year. Managed to clean the inside of the lifts and widen the entrances to about 10cm. Removing the lids showed that both hives seemed to have good colonies although a more detailed inspection will have to wait for warmer weather. Each hive was cleared of excess wax/propolis from the top of the brood frames, had a wired queen excluder added and a super of eight frames with good cell build-up. The plan this year is to avoid overcrowding by providing plenty of space to try and control swarming. The plan is to replace 3 or 4 of the outer frames in each hive each year.

Hive L: The brood chamber has a dummy frame in one position.

Hive R: The brood chamber has a narrow spacer board.

Hive W: The newly acquired WBC to provide room for expansion.