The swarm settles

Already first day the New swarm bees were bringing in pollen , usually
a good sign that they are rearing brood. Lots of entrance activity so
far too.

Wally suggested I leave it alone for a week and then move the frames
into my box. If strong they will go into a 10 frame langstroth , if
not into a nuc. So yesterday I built my own plywood capture box in
case i need it. It actually will take 6 or 7 frames at a squeeze. I
used external dimensions but used 5/8 plywood to build it ( scrap I
had lying around) and that is why it takes a few extra frames. Solid
bottom so easy to carry too. Still need to make an inner cover and
outer cover, and have cut the plywood to do so but ran out of time
last night.

I have chosen not to feed this hive yet, we will see after a week.
Wally put a frame of pollen and honey into the nuc , as well as a
frame of capped drone brood, so they have " things to do". Lol. The
reason not to feed is because the much stronger hive might rob it, and
also the flow is on with Tulip poplar in full bloom so no storage of
food.

Pretty cool that I now have two hives and yet the original bees I
ordered are still not here. Hoping for next weekend.

The first hive is booming. Supered up again this last Sunday as the
super from the week before was almost full. Weighed plenty.

Starting to plan to improve the hive location - decided I will build a
bench behind the hives and make a nice long rest for the hives , with
place for some 8 hives in total. The idea for the bench behind is
because everywhere I go beeks are putting things on the ground. Might
be nicer to have a work area close to the hive. in theory I might even
be able to build a storage cupboard. Will see about going too far :-)

--

Regards
Rick

http://zenzele-brewery.blogspot.com/

http://ballingerbees.blogspot.com/

Got called by my farmer neighbor, he had seen a swarm flying and they just landed in a tree in his yard. Used his Bobcat to get up to it, but my positioning of the nuc box was not ideal and Wally shook the branch and missed the box .....

Evidence of the apprentices mistake , the master suffers !


Easier than a ladder





Up there...


Perfect example of Nasonoving - fanning pheromone out to attract the rest of the swarm


Many more pics here:
Ballinger Swarm

Excitement and swarms

First Swarm

In situ

Iddee starting the cutting of excess limbs

One good shake and 80% are in..

Closing the lid

The remainder walking across from the now cut limb

Rob covered in bees

Rob bringing down the second swarm, 2 sec later the ball dropped off the limb

Bees walking across from limb

Wally the Bee Whisperer

Me holding up the second limb

The original swarm size - click to zoom

About a min later Wally found a second queen walking across

Working my own hive

A week after my hive was placed I decided to have a peek, Iddee came along to offer moral support and look over my shoulder , making sure I was doing it all the right way.

This is a super strong hive , thanks Mark

The biggest task was to put the frames into varnished boxes , as I had nothing ready when the call came. So I would be handling every frame  during this opening and moving them into new wooden ware. Deeps looked good with 7 fully drawn out, Mark had used plastic foundation on his deeps, the outer frames were not yet drawn, so we also changed the hive opening to make the bees work the eastern side a bit more.

First super had lots of brood including done cells, good honey stores too, my wife who was watching from a distance asked Iddee when can we get honey, so he pulled a full frame and said NOW.

Found the queen on the upper super, lots of eggs and larvae and capped brood.

Great Brood (the brown capped cells)

Busy entrance , now on RHS , few lost bees on LHS

Watering hole

Apple blossoms

Cherry Blossoms

Fun being a new beekeeper.

A call...... and I suddenly have a hive unexpectantly

Monday afternoon 4:30pm , working in my office catching up after my African trip - and I get a call asking me if I want a hive of bees...... but I have two nucs coming in a few weeks time.

The deal is: I need to take it immediately... Mark has too many hives and is giving one away, just need to provide woodenware.

I ran down the stairs, gathered up all my bits and pieces , forgot a long sleeve shirt, or gloves or anything else. Put together all the parts for one hive and two supers, and headed out.

Just over an hour later , my girls are home as the sun is setting.

South African Adventure

 

My dad lives on the south coast of South Africa in a small town called Sedgefield. This region falls within the Cape Floral Kingdom, which has thousands of unique flora speci. These are known as Fynbos which are mostly heather type plants and small flowering bushes.

The region is temperate with mid winter only getting an occasional frost, and by mid morning will typically be in mid 50's F. Summer only just climbs into the 90's occasionally.This is the only region of South Africa that gets all year round rain.

For bees there is food all year round, and they have two strong honey flows, beginning of summer and end of summer which is usually stronger of the two. Hives close to the natural forests will forage on both Fynbos and Forest plants and create the most unique tasting honey.

My dad arranged for me to visit a local Beekeeper, Corrie, who gave us a great tour and info on both local methods as well as his hives.

Another day working the bees

I was very kindly invited back to work the bees of my Bee mentor Rob , last weekend. A beautiful sunny Sunday , temps in the 60's finally.

The Red Maples were in full bloom and the bees are definitely working the nectar and pollens.

Rob gave Dylan a lesson in lighting the smoker again, using the scorched knuckle method. We started looking at a hive that Rob was worried about, in fact when he opened it , it was showing swarm tendencies, with a few queen cups and good brood patterns, lots of stores still, and a good cluster, We found the queen too and saw all stages of bees, plus a few drones. This time Dylan was with me and worked with us right next to the hives , which really impressed me that he had taken so big a step.
The next hive was the one that had a duff queen the last time out (she was only laying drones), and we confirmed again that she was not laying worker brood. We searched for her and caught her and Rob put her in a queen cage, then started planning for combining the rest of the hive with the hive of this queens daughter.

The good hive was checked , and once confirmed that the queen was laying strongly, Rob added a sheet of newspaper over it, made a few slits in the paper and started stacking the hive deeps onto the new hive. At the top the top covers were put together back to back so that the new top based hive had an entrance. The lower still had its old entrance on the bottom board.

This was pretty fascinating to do. By now the wind had come up and we also had overcast weather so stopped for the day.

I learned about combining hives, I learned again about lighting the smoker, I learned about the stages of brood, handled and felt the weight of a good food store "super",  I saw queen cups and saw royal jelly , so a great day

Pics to follow