It is not so long ago that I mentioned adding some feed to one of our bee colonies. We had three go into the winter and all survived the worst of the weather. One, though, was rather weak and had not put away enough stores to last the winter so we have been keeping an… Continue reading And then there were two
Tag: bees
Feed the bees…
…tuppence a bag. Well, we wish it were tuppence a bag, this stuff is rather expensive. One of our hives is a bit short on bees and a bit short of food, so we have been keeping a careful eye on it to make sure the small colony does not starve.
Honey, honey, honey
The beekeeping routine of weekly hive inspections has been going on for some time now. We lost one colony early in the year, but still have three others working away. One of these we are a little concerned with, as the new queen does not appear to be laying in any quantity, and we may… Continue reading Honey, honey, honey
Busy bees
Our bees have been busy working on the spring blossom, first the pears, which flower early in the warmest part of the garden, and then the cherries, and soon the apple blossom. Temperatures last week were high enough to allow a brief inspection of the hives. Of the four that went through the winter, three… Continue reading Busy bees
Getting the bees ready for winter
Many beekeepers will have prepared their hives for winter many weeks ago. Here, in our sheltered southerly location, our bees work late into the year. Even now, they are still very busy and bringing in lots of pollen. However, with a change in the weather forecast, last week we took advantage of what turned out… Continue reading Getting the bees ready for winter
Honey extraction
The bees in the long deep hive have been busy and we expected to take the first honey last week, but found that it was not quite ready. The bees process the honey until the water content is just right, when it will store indefinitely, and then seal it with a wax capping, at which… Continue reading Honey extraction
Dividing the colony in the long deep hive
Our best colony of bees is housed in a long deep hive. We were thinking that the queen would probably need to be replaced this year; she has produced very large colonies for three years in a row. The long deep hive currently has 23 deep frames – about the equivalent of three national brood… Continue reading Dividing the colony in the long deep hive
Newly mated queen is doing well
Some weeks ago we dealt with a colony with some aggressive tendencies by removing the queen. One week later we went through the hive carefully and removed all of the queen cells. We checked again a few days later to be certain that no queen cells remained. By doing this, we prevented the bees from… Continue reading Newly mated queen is doing well
Missing queen
Once again there is another beekeeping disappointment to report. In my last post, I mentioned that we had a colony with slightly aggressive tendencies and had forced them to replace the queen with some larvae from a frame provided by another colony of very nice bees. Hopefully, offspring from the first crossing will still retain… Continue reading Missing queen
Dealing with an aggressive colony
Over the last couple of months we have been increasingly bothered with one of our colonies, which has become a little aggressive. The bees also have the bad habit of following us after we approach the hive. As hobby beekeepers, working with a large colony of angry bees is not pleasant and we certainly do… Continue reading Dealing with an aggressive colony