Sunday 10 June 2012

Belper Bees +10 Days

First look in the hive.


So having restrained myself I decided to take a quick look in the hive to see how the hive was progressing. The bees have been to'ing and fro'ing but the weather hasn't been particularly good, wet and quite cool, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I was surprised to see that they'd apparently stopped working on the comb on the bar that had come from the bait box. Pristine but with no bees working in it.


They were working solely on the bars that had old comb on them. Bizarrely though it seems they'd detached old comb, it can be seen in the bottom of the hive - just the bigger piece the smaller already being detached. Is that normal behaviour?

 

Looking quickly at the individual bars there was lots of activity but I couldn't spot the queen. No sign of any of the cells with anything in them yet - Should there be?

I shall take another look before Wednesday's meeting if the weather stays reasonably good, see you all then.

Pete

5 comments:

  1. Beautiful white comb , but where are the bees ??? perhaps they are clustering to keep warm ??
    I would pick up the old comb and re - attatch it to a bar with some melted wax so that the bees can make use of it , it will not serve any purpose in the bottom of the hive ...I have plenty of fresh , reclaimed wax you can have .

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  2. I also would suggest getting the comb out from off the floor before they start cross-combing it. You could use cable ties threaded through the comb to reattached the comb to the bars. Worth it as it gives somewhere for the queen to lay in early.

    Tim

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  3. They've got 4 bars started so I'm not sure they need an extra bar. I've taken the unused white one out (partly 'cos its on a deeper bar) and the discarded combs in the bottom look like they've been nibbled/scavenged. Not sure what's going on!

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  4. One of my swarms has also detached some old comb from a top bar, and tried to propolise the wool it was attached by. Other than that they seem happy. If they are building on other bars let them continue, they may have raided the old comb for food in the bad weather.

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