14th August & 18th August 2011

On the 14th we inspected the hive, our queen was present and we had eggs, larvae and sealed brood.

On inspection of the varroa board we had 7 mites which equates to a drop of 1 a day, we also found our first case of deformed wing virus, we think, see photo.

On the afternoon of the 14th our beekeeping association, Ormskirk and Croston http://www.bbka.org.uk/local/ormskirkandcroston/, were giving a talk on preparing bees for the winter which proved to be perfect timing.

We came away with the following advice, start a thymol treatment against the varroa,  install a mouse guard and buy some fondant ready for feeding the bees over winter.

After a visit to the Thornes website our delivery arrived on the 18th.

We opened up the Hive on the 18th and quickly installed an Eke and a tray of Apiguard on top of the frames, we do not have supers on.

We also installed the mouse guard using tape to leave just 2 holes open as a defence against wasps, we don’t see many wasps here but we had seen a couple near the hive and they are looking for sweet treats at this time of year.

Only concern was that we noticed a significant increase in the number of dead bees on the floor around the hive, not sure why?

6th August 2011

We were advised to leave our bees alone for a while after the last inspection when we introduced a frame of brood from another hive and our queen had also started to lay.

Today we have a fully functioning hive with eggs, larvae and sealed brood on two frames.

If you click on the photo below to see the full size photo, you can see eggs (they look like tiny grains of rice) in the cells to the right, larvae at various stages of development and sealed brood.

Our queen was present and we had a good looking queen cell complete with larvae which we have removed.

We have installed the varroa board today and will check it in a week as we could have introduced varroa with the frame of brood from another hive.

23rd July 2011

The bee inspector came on Tussday, the situation was still an eggless broodless colony but disease free.
We were offered a Slovinian carniolan queen but declined because we want British black bees.
Today Martin kindly brought over a frame of eggs and larvae and when we opened the hive, to our surprise our queen has started laying – looks like she started on Wednesday, we popped the new frame in anyway.
So all looking good now, we will concentrate on building up a healthy colony to overwinter.

Sorry no photos this time.

3rd Hive Inspection 16th July 2011

Not much change in the last week, all of the brood had emerged and we still don’t have any eggs.

Counting back it would appear that the last eggs were laid about the 18th June.

Each bee that dies now will not be replaced so we have a colony in decline.

Our bees do look fit and healthy which is just as well as we have a visit from the Bee Inspector arranged for Tuesday!

We have a lot of stores in capped honey, nectar and pollen, the pollen in a multitude of colours.

We have been in contact with our mentors and hope they will be over tomorrow to help us out.

2nd Hive Inspection 8th July 2011

Not what we wanted to see today, almost all of the sealed brood had emerged and still no eggs or larvae.

Our bees are still very active and foraging well, they had also taken a litre of sugar solution which has been refilled.

Our queen was present.

No signs of disease.

First Hive Inspection

Our bees are storing nectar and pollen well.

Our queen was present.

No signs of disease.

We have sealed brood but no eggs and no larvae, we hope our queen will settle down and start laying soon.

The varroa count was zero, we have now removed the varroa board leaving the open mesh floor.

Busy Bees

Our bees arrived as a 6 frame nuc last saturday 25th June 2011.

These photos were taken today, we have fed the bees but they seem happier foraging for themselves.

Lots of pollen is being collected.

We hope to do our first hive inspection later today.