This
year we established a new Apiary in the corner of the Breeze
Hill Allotments where we have a plot
In
all we collected nine swarms of bees large or small over the year
and about the same number of call outs to worried household that
turned out to be bumble bees in a bird box or under their eves.
But
our first Colony for the the Beeze Hill Apiary we collected on
the 22nd of May from a front garden up Cotswold
drive.W/Boro , as is our way we call each a queens name so we know
who we are taking about. This one was BOADICEA.
Just
a day later we collect a mall “cast” fro the Bushboards,
this proved to be queen less so after a day or so we amalgamated it
with BOADICEA.
In
the evening of June the 20th in poring rain we
collect a colony that had swarmed down Albert Road W/Boro It was
very difficult collection, but never the less provided us with a
second swarm for our Apiary. Because of the very difficult swarm
collection we think that the queen may well have been amongst the
unavoidable casualties. So by the evening of the next day the
survivors with no queen and were not impressed with there new home
had absconded!
So
we were back down to one Hive!
Around
about this time we had an Email from the National Bee Base to
keep a close eye of the bees stores because of a poor spring some
keeper had reported lost Colonies due to starvation. As precaution
we fed all of ours .
We
also noticed on the weekly in inspection on the 27th of
June that there we could not see any eggs or developing grubs in our
one remaining hive, our conclusion that for whatever reason we
had lost the queen. As it happens we had a colony at our other
Corner Filed Apiary in the process of a supercedur ( old queen
dying or had become barren). In this situation the Colony makes
about six new queens, Most keepers reduce there to two. But of
course it gave us the opportunity to take two and place then in the
now queen less Boadicea Hive. In due course this worked and the
colony is now well established. BUT because we had introduced a new
queen the colonies name changed from BOADICEA to MATILDA all very
confusing!
In
September we treated all the hives with APIGUARD this is a
chemical that used after the main queen laying period and is
designed to kill the Varroa mite that climbs in the with the grub
just before it is sealed in with wax the metamorphosis . And causes
Deformed bees and introduces virus to the colony and indeed if let
unchecked will ultimately cause its collapse.
Early
in October we had a call from our Association swarm coordinator
that a colony had established its self in a compost heap. As it
turned out was under the lid of a composter at the bottom of the
Garden of Albert Watts the now retired Barber., It was not a
swarm but a Cast , although with eggs and grubs present there was
obviously a mated queen present. and became the New BOADICEA!
This
was an easy collection and went straight down to make us back up to
two!
In
December all the hives except the very small BOADICEA were
treated with Oxalyc Acid this fumigated the hives and severely knock
back any mites that have got themselves in empty cells or crooks and
crannies.
Just
after Christmas because of the very warm spells of weather we had
another starvation alert from the National Bee base. ( the bees
become more active, eat more of their stores, but have no way of
replenishing them) About this time I always give the bees there
Christmas present with a supply of artificial; feed called Pollen
Candy.
As
we are still in winter we cannot say with absolutely certain
that both of Matilda and Boadicea will survive until the spring, but
they are both looking OK on my last quick look after Christmas. So we hope we will go into the new year with two colonies on the Breeze Hill Apiary and three in the Corner Field Apiary.
I will write again soon Freddie
