Tales from the Cornerfield Apeiry

September the 24th. It really is now time to ready for the winter, as it happens today was a lovely September day when I did my weekly visit to the "girls". They were all out  either for a fly around or judging by the number spiralling up and disappearing over the tree tops, still collecting nectar for some where.
But I have had my last honey from them a couple of weeks ago, only a couple of pound, I wanted to taste and see what this last honey was like, and it was ( and is!) delicious, and lovely and clear. So probably the nectar came from the flowers in the Corner field Nursery where we keep bees.
But it was time to fit restricted entrances , complete with Mouse guards that can be dropped in place when the temperature really starts to drop.
Last but not least the wood pecker guards, there are plenty about but as soon as the normal food sources dry up, the bees and their

honey may well look an inviting prospect!
I have also left each hive with a "super" complete with honey they have collected, so they should be OK until the new year when I will give have to treat them their Christmas present in the shape of some fondant, just in case they are running out of stores.
Well that about It for this season, I hope you have enjoyed the tales from the corner field and there should be some more next March April time.
I will write again then.

Late August (27th)
Quite a big reorganisation today for the girls, (I hope they approve!). As you will have read from my previous "Tales from the Cornerfield Apiary" our Victoria swarm has lost it queen a couple of weeks ago, as a result of this we had paired the   swarm with the small "Mary" swarm , thereby giving them a new queen and the Mary swarm a better chance of surviving the winter as they were small ( 6 frames of bees).
Well today we inspected to see if they had paired and the holes chewed in the dividing newspaper signalled that they had!
So on this visit we took one of the supers from the now very busy Mary swarm and have paired it with the other of our small swarms " Queen Anne". so again in a week or so this these should also be paired thus completing the reinforcement of the two " Queen right"small swarms for the coming winter.
In a week or so I can see how "Anne" got on and then later  take off the queen exclude rs , because the queens will have stopped laying now for the winter, and they will be able to get up into the super and the stored honey so they does not starve!
Last but not least as soon as the weather cools a little more its time to treat them for for Varoa, that will be at its worst at the end of the summer.
That,s it for now I will write again soon.

August the 16th visit

Its Now August 16th, its over two weeks since I visited the Apiary, having taken off the last of the honey that once spun proved to be another 10.5 Lb . it was time to see how the possible new ( Victoria) queen was doing in hive with two Queen cells.
Well sadly it looks like either she has failed or perhaps was never there. But I did find tow new , what looked like new queen cells under construction. This and the fact that the brood box should be full of "polished " cells waiting for the new queen to start laying .led me to  believe that that this swarm was "queen less".
Its now the end of season as I said in my last blogg, so even if the two Q cells I found did turn out to be queens, the chances of them getting matted this late in the season is slim. This means that the swarm would survive the winter on its stores, but come the spring there would be no queen and new brood to carry on and the old brood once it stated harvesting in the 2015 spring would all die in five or six weeks.
So there is only one solution, and that is to join this queen less one with a Queen right one.
That's my mission for the next visit. I will put newspaper with some small holes punched in it onto the top of one of the Mary swarm as it is  only just big enough to survive the coming winter, then plonk the old Victoria hive on to. The bees will  get used to each other through the holes, chew their way through and be one big happy family for the winter! (I hope!).
Of course I had not forgotten the other swarms, Anne the newest and smallest is fine and the "Girls" are still coming back with orange! pollen. They also have enough sealed only for the first part of the winter ( I will feed them after the new year). The same with Elizabeth, her swarm is also well prepared for the coming winter and also still taking in pollen ( a good sign because it means there are larvae being raised inside).

Well that's it for now, I will write again soon.

Tales from the Corner Field Apiary

It seems that we may well have a new queen Victoria! in our last tales you will remember that although Victoria had had a new queen at the beginning of the season, and all seemed to be doing well.
Suddenly on our last visit we found six sealed queen cells, ( this normally means that a superseder is going to happen)now this means that ( probably) the early season queen had failed for some reason and the bees need a new one!
This week we have found that she has emerged ( we only left one, other wise the first would have killed the others anyway) , and flown to get we hope to get mated.
We have to leave this hive now for two weeks and then hopefully we will see new eggs or polished cells ready for the new queen to lay in.
As for the other all are doing well, two( Anne, and Elizabeth) have good stores for the coming winter, but Mary looks like she will nee a hand and we will put a feeder on her on the next visit full of sugar water so her swarm can easily build more stores.
I will write again soon. Beee happy!

A routine visit today, as far as the bees are concerned the Honey season is over, they are thinking of next year! I must do the same, but first there is a couple of items to attend to too. One was to put the wasp traps on because the little banded robbers will be out soon as the food there mother left them runs out. The second is its very warm at the moment, and although the bees like it to be warm, they don't want to be cooked!. The standard "National" hive has a flat metal roof, so you can imagine, its get hot. So I have put spacers on and then a thin board so that it protects the metal and should get a cooling draught between the two.
Looking ahead its important that there is a big enough swarm to survive the winter, many will die at the end of the season and the swarm contacts fro maybe 20,000 to 5000, ( also all the males get kicked out!)so this translate into about six frames of bees minimum and at the moment it looks like the two newest and smallest swarms will make to six mark. ( Queen Anne and Mary)
At the end of the month I have to treat all the hives with "Apiguard" to kill off any Veroa mites that will be in the hive and take off the last of the honey for me and then put some sugar mix on for them to change into honey for there winter stores.
They are going to be busy! until next time them from the corner field.

July 8th 2013: I suppose its a bit strange starting a blog about the 2015 bee season, but that's what I been thinking about today as I have spent some time making up new honey frames for next year and trying to think how I can guesstimate the number I might need for next year.
The plan at the moment is that as this is second year looking after bees and we seem settled at our new home in the Corner field in Irchester to mark all the frames that have been on since 2013. These will need changing so a count is required when I next visit. I will be able to save the frames , fumigate them and then replace the way foundation. This make sure disease does not set in.
also because the two smallest hives ( Mary and Anne) have only one super frame on them, enough new frames to fill a second super box in anticipation that they will need two next year.
Last but not least today I have made two more Woodpecker guards for the two new hives and got ready this years wasp traps, as I am sure it wont be long before these pest are out on the rob!
More soon.