Because of the weather and work, neither hive had been opened for two weeks!
Hive L: The colony is building up well but still very little nectar in the supers. Instead they are filling the outer reaches of the brood frames This must be a disadvantage of deep brood frames as there is more space to fill before moving up into the supers. The new brood frame of foundation is being built out well. Destroyed one queen cup – why are they thinking of swarming when they're not even putting nectar into the super yet?
Hive R: What a difference two weeks makes. The second super is two-thirds full. None of the frames in the first (top) super have been capped yet but they are quite full. There is lots of blossom this year and I don't think there is any oil seed rape within 1.5 miles. On inspecting the brood frame I found two capped queen cells, two uncapped cells and a couple of cups. If only there had been better weather last week. Time to create an artificial swarm using Ted Hooper's method. I went through all frames four times but could not find the queen. I will definitely mark her when I get an appropriate pen. As it was getting cold and the bees were stinging through my gloves it was time to give up.
No comments:
Post a Comment