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

That's gotta hurt!

Tim Lowe sent me the following as a reply to a recent e-mail. I thought I'd share it with you all to highlight the hardcore nature of our gentle looking pursuit:

Bit of an update.

Split my older hive Thursday into two boxes and then put them both into an older hive here at home. That makes 3 hives on the go.

Got a call friday evening from my uncle who hosts one of my hives in his orchard. He says a pile of bees have been under a tree for most of the day. Aunt has only just told him about them!! Wizzed over and collected the bees, and the bulk of the swarm at chest height in the apple tree above them that they had completely failed to notice!! Checked under the hive (it is open bottomed after all) and saw a couple of swarm cells. So opened up the hive and took out two combs each with swarm cells on them. Also took out a couple of brood comb, put them into a box and high tailed it to where I keep my hive in the village at home. But god they were stroppy. Found my suit leaks bees at the throat and have got at least six stings there. I'm going to look funny for the rest of the weekend. Couple of stings at the temple as well, on a wrist and back of leg too. Not a good session.

Back in the village I split the queen called comb between two 5 comb boxes, broke into the large hive for a couple of comb of stores to top them up over this bad weather and left them there with the main swarm to keep them company. Hope they drown!! No really hope that I don't have to requeen them because of their temper. Hoping it is a combination of swarming, wind, rain, queens hatching, and being unable to fly when they need to. We'll see. More stings at the throat.

Any way, I now have to quickly make 3 hives to fit them into. So, I've got 2 more flowerpot boxes for swarms (currently out as bait boxes) that I could use if we need to. Then that's it at the moment. Let me know if you need me.

I'll certainly see you on Wednesday, if I can see over my throat!!

All the best,

Tim

More call outs

Made three visits yesterday morning - all for bumble bees.  Firstly there was a lovely old couple in Ilkeston who, having exhausted their options with the local council and pest controllers, found my number via a swarm collection website. Their initial concern was that they had a swarm of unidentified bees living in their roof space that could cause long term problems for them and their neighbours. Even from the ground I could see they were bumble bees and after a chat they were more than happy to leave them alone; hoping that one of their grandchildren would volunteer to clean the old nest out come the winter.

The second place I went to generated the third. As soon as I stepped into the small yard and started pointing out the bumble bees 'toing-and-frowing' the next door neighbour called to say she too had a problem with bees from the same roof vent. Again they were both unsure of what they were dealing with but I confirmed they were definitely bumble bees. The original caller seemed overly concerned that the bees were "Out to get me!" and even my initial  chat about how docile they were didn't seem to calm the situation. It then turned out that she had been given advise from a pest controller who told her that "they would grow into a massive problem colony" and "target anyone who showed fear" - What tosh! Thankfully she didn't have the £85 he was charging for removal and decided to shop around until she found my free option. Once I'd told them the facts about bumble bees both households were reassured enough to leave them alone and sort out the issue during the winter. 

In the evening I went to The Shakespeare Inn just to make sure there wasn't anyone waiting expectantly for the monthly meeting that had been changed to next Wednesday. After about twenty minutes I felt that it was safe to go and the landlord, who already knew of the date change, said he would inform any late comers - hopefully there weren't any.

On the way back I dropped off a hive to Ali B in Elvaston as a stand-by in case I get a swarm call-out from Lucky Dave or via the swarm collection hot line. For the same reason Tim has offered to re-jig his apiary to create some free hives as at the moment I think we are almost at full capacity hive wise. This current  wet weather will obviously dampen down the swarming instinct but as soon as we get a dry spell they could be off again. So if you, or someone you know, is looking for bees to put into a TBH please get in touch.  

Regards
Boyd

Smoke Stake Lighten-ing Strike (Part Four)

More ninja style beekeeping this morning. At what seemed like the crack of dawn I packed the car with all my beekeeping stuff, a mountain of bungee straps and a large wooden lid, then drove the twenty miles to Swepstone. I had,the previous evening, sent a text to John and Judie saying I would arrive at 08:00 but actually got there at about 07:30, and being a Bank Holiday there surprisingly wasn't anyone about. The TBH we'd left was easily accessible so I decided not to wake anyone and got on with parcelling the hive ready to transport back. Thankfully Dave and I have stuck fairly rigidly to the measurements for TBH hives so the lid I brought with me fitted snugly, stopping the bars from moving and the bees getting out. After securing the roof with bungee cords it was a simple manoeuvre to lift the whole lot into the waiting duvet cover and then into the car.

There it was........

...Gone!
(The stone on the chair is what the
combs were hanging from)

Within forty minutes of leaving Swepstone the bees were installed in my Super Deluxe TBH. As we had done previously, when lifting swarms already established on bars, I just slid two bars under the ends of the bars containing the sown-on comb and lifted the whole lot straight in. It went so quickly and smoothly that even the flying bees, who were probably having a lie-in after yesterdays excitement, didn't get much of a chance to react. After shaking in some loose bees, I put in a few extra bars, pushed up the follower board, and put the lid on - job done! 

Thanks again to John and Judie (hope I didn't wake you?)

Boyd

Next meeting

PLEASE NOTE
The next meeting is on Wednesday 13 June NOT Wednesday 6 June (avoiding the school half-term holiday)

Same location:
The Shakespeare Inn
Shardlow
DE72 2GP

19:00 - 21:00

Smoke Stack Lighten-ing (sorry)

Part One (by Dave Hill)
Having had a few days off swarm collecting I received a call from a couple in Swepstone who claimed to have a bee's nest in a chimney pot they were using as a plant pot. Instantly this seemed a bit strange but they assured me they were honey bee's and not bumbles so I agreed to take a look that night. When I arrived John and Judie pointed out the chimney and sure enough honey bee's where going in and out. A little investigation found that only the top third was planted up with a slab to prevent the soil dropping thru. So what you end up with is a 12" diameter tube about 3 foot high with a top entrance via the chimney vents, in other words a perfect bee hive.

Once the soil and a few stones where removed you could see straight down onto the slab with tantalising views of comb around the edges. I realised at this point help would be require so placed a box on top to keep out the impending rain and promised to come back with more troops.

Ready for the troops

Once home a quick phone call to Boyd and we agreed that Saturday afternoon was the time for operation flowerpot....t.b.c

Part Two (by Boyd Brooks) 

When I got the call from Lucky Dave he also told me that he had a swarm in one of his bait hives to give to Shane; another quick call and he was roped into the Saturday afternoon adventure as well. At 15:30 we met at Dave’s house, and after a brief tour around his growing apiary, we drove the few miles to Swepstone.

Everything was as Dave had left it, with no bees taking up residence in the top box. The next move (and this really is a Top Tip from Dave) was to move the chimney pot hive about twenty feet away from its original position and replace it with a bait hive in roughly the same position. All the flying bees then left the chimney pot hive and gathered around the bait hive. This left only a few flying bees plus the non-flying, non-stinging, house bees and the queen inside the chimney pot. The repositioned chimney pot hive was now a ‘sea of tranquillity’ whilst the bait box was covered with bees. Dave quickly got to work accessing which end of the chimney pot would be the easiest to extract the comb from and we turned it over to get access from the bottom. With ferret-like efficiency Dave was straight in and removing large pieces of comb (Pic #1). Shane was assigned the role of photographer/assistant, and I was frame builder/comb stitcher. In an idle moment I had made some bars with thin wire frames extending below that would hopefully support the loose comb whilst it was stitched on. Thankfully they seemed to help and slowly the combs were taken out, stitched to the top bars and then re-hung in a small TBH that would be used to transport them away (Pics. #2 & #3). Thanks to Dave’s Top Tip the whole operation was remarkably easy and calm, and not the bee maelstrom that would have ensued had it been left to me. Once all the retrievable comb was re-housed it was then just a case of shaking in any loose bees and then swapping the small TBH for the bait hive; allowing all the flying bees to combine with their original nest.

It had been my intention to immediately relocate the bees back to my own garden but I decided to call back the next day in order to collect as many of the flying bees as possible (will write-up Part Four later).

#1

#2

#3

So big THANK YOU to John and Judie, for letting us muck about with bees in their garden, and Dave and Shane, for their time and enthusiasm.

Part Three
Now all that was left to do was for Shane and myself to pick the bait box swarm from Dave’s house, transport it over to Barrow-on-Soar, and install it into a waiting TBH on his island.

Once on the island, lifting the bars as one, the swarm went in very easily; with the short boat trip over being the most eventful part of the proceedings.  We also had a quick look at the other TBH containing the bees from the split we did last month. There were still quite a few bees in evidence so, against all the predictions, they may struggle on  for a while yet - only time will tell. 

Quick and easy swarm install

Two more jobs well done, even if I say so myself!

 

Fancy some honey cake?

Just back from a hard core bumble bee extraction. I’d already been to survey what was needed after a phone call on Tuesday evening and assumed (see the photos below) it was similar to the one I’d removed for Ali B earlier in the month. So armed with a suitable box and my protective gear I nipped over to Chaddesden.

The very placid colony was located under the insulation in the loft and weren’t troubled by my initial investigations. After tentatively lifting and cutting the 6" thick fibreglass insulation I was confronted with a labyrinth of tunnels going in lots of directions. I kept carefully searching until I was confronted with a nest that was twice the size of the box I’d brought - Merde! The nest had the appearance of some strange confectionary, a bit like Rocky Road, in that the surface was covered in loads of 10mm wax balls (they act as brood chambers) and small, open, wax buckets of honey. In my haste I forgot to take any pictures but it certainly isn’t anything like honey bee comb. Another thing was the smell – a very over powering sickly, musky tang, that had my face not been right above it might have been bearable. By now the bees had gone from ‘Green Alert’ – “what’s on the TV tonight, Queenie?” to ‘Amber Alert’ – “pass me the axe I hear burglars!”. Needless to say there were a good number of bees in the air. Weirdly, even in this agitated state, they were still not very aggressive compared to honey bees and seemed content to circle noisily around the light bulb. Thinking on my feet I reverted to Plan B: find another box and something to use as a lid without climbing back down the ladder. Luckily the loft was a treasure trove of bags, boxes and bits of board, and I settled upon a medium sized stacker box topped off with some laminate floor underlay – tasteful. Now came the interesting bit; I slid my hands under as much of the nest as possible and lifted it gingerly into the bigger box. It really was like a very loose cake mix and needed several attempts to get it all in. The bees were still quite agitated but still only at Amber; maybe that’s as bad as it gets! Once I’d got as much of the nest as I could I topped it off with several pieces of the holey insulation and the make-shift lid, leaving a small gap for the bees to get in. As the householders will now be on holiday for a week we decided to leave the box in situ and I will collect it, with as many attendant bees as possible, when they return. That will give me time to make a more suitable box and, more importantly, find a location to keep them – there is an embargo on any more bumble bees in my garden. Hopefully the final move will be less traumatic; I’ll let you know!