Bees Over-winter

Some record breaking mild weather has brought out the bees in numbers and so far none of the four colonies have lost out. The weakest of them have been supplemented Candoline and Fondant and having found some green alge or fungal growth on the combs in places I changed all the cloth coverings insulating inside the hives for a non absorbant bubble wrap reflective foil and the hives ventilate better as a result.
Pollen is being brought in signifying that the queens are starting to lay.

Dusting Top Bar Hive with sugar

The second dusting of August/September to clense my bees of the Veroa mite. The first hive of the cathedral or barn type went ahead and was completed without incident as seen in the sequence of images here. The other hive treated today was of the ordinary top bar shape but the sequence was interrupted after one comb broke away from the top bar, and fell to the bottom of the hive so upsetting the proceedure. Understandably the bees were none too happy and decided to see me off. After lighting up the smoker afresh I managed to regain control to continue with the dusting and finally closed up the hive.
I am carefull to use pure icing sugar labelled as fondant icing sugar that contains no anti-caking agent or additives.

To take these shots I set up my Nikon D750 camera on a tripod to take a picture every eight second. Here are some of those showing the sugar dusting to best advantage. The remainder of the 518 total were discarded. (250th at f11 auto focus and exposure at +1.7 to get better into the shadow detail.)

The flat TopBarHive pictured below became a little chaotic as can be seen here; The water spray canister contains tap water. The smoker is fueled with dry grass. The grey cloth dangling dummy wasp/hornet nest is believed to spook attacks from these insects that sometimes plunder the apiery.

The broken off comb is being retrieved from the bottom of the five

Hooking out the broken comb

Gently placing down and under attack

Stung around the waistline and through the upper arm of my tunic

Add caption

Smoker re-fuelled with dry grass

Bees Under Attack

On checking the apiery yesterday I was relieved to find all was well after the sugar dusting and showed no ill affects except that the number of wasps attacking required that I put on the mouse excluders and limitted access by corking up all unnessesary entrances.
The TbH with the eco floor under tray was even hosting the embrio stages of wasps nesting right underneath the hive and so I had to seal the undertray join with Gaffa Tape to provide a more effective block to their entrance way in.
The split carried out in June is much diminished in numbers and shows signs of the drones having been relagated to the space above the bars, whilst the brood nest is only on two of the combs. I saw the queen and she looks well enough, but I fear she may have been laying drones and is no longer viable.
I am now thinking of replacing her colony into the doner hive to help her survive the autumn and winter. Stores are plentiful and I have added candoline feed which is being devoured but no pollen is incoming to this split.

Sugar Coated Bees against Veroa

Today three of my four hives underwent the Powdered Sugar treatment. A dusting of pure icing sugar gently shaken over each side of every comb. Plenty took to the air but generally they underwent the proceedure in good spirit without too much complaint.
Wearing my top tunic veil and Marigold gloves I was not stung at all but the heat was in the region of 30degC and I had to retire before attempting to dust the fourth and final hive.

I shall not count the Veroa drop 'till later tomorrow.

Several of the combs were quite heavy with honey

Some flying while others entering still well coated in sugar powder

The mouse guard has been in place all year on this hive

Plenty of brood and lots of drones

This design hive is quite easy to manage without upsetting the bees much

The end follower boards blank off either end - heat loss here is minimised by the use of a 3/16 balsa wood lining

An Oasis of Calm Bees

My brother and I both keep bees in home-made hives, but in very different locations. His are in two separate locations, one Warre hive sits at the bottom of his south facing hilltop garden, the others are out on an acre of fairly steep ground that overlooks the beautiful Teign Estuary facing south. The Warre is a tall, multi-layered structure with four oval shaped observation windows on the north face. This week Andrew's Warre had a super top and bottom added making the hive about six feet tall. Already the bees are seen to be making fresh comb.  The other two hives at the outfield are thriving but left relatively undisturbed as they would be in the natural state.
Neither of us is fussed to harvest honey as the motivation for working with bees - the subject is more to do with the variety of tasks we set ourselves; from catching a swarm, to puzzling out the best way to fabricate the bee house. Andrew prefers to secure his hives with guy rope straps fixed with stakes,  I prefer to mount the hive on a wider base, and rely on the weight alone, for it to stay put.
My plan to get a "Bailey Transfer" movement mentioned in a previous post has suddenly been put on hold, due to a secondary swarming from one of the other hives. Yesterday evening I had a shout to say a large swarm had settled in the Willow thicket - come quick. So it was that I came to box them up, after a balancing act on a fence below the branch that was about twelve feet off the ground. They were captured complete with a section of the branch, once it had been pruned down to go into a box.
Conveyed the short distance to the Apiary they were then deposited into the upper hive, still perched on top of a flat top-bar hive. The window between the two hives has been temporarily filled with a folded up towel to prevent squabbling, and today I shall be there  again to see if all is well. The swarm is small and hopefully will combine with the colony below. Sunday dawns warmer than yesterday but his afternoon I learnt the swarm caught yesterday had already absconded so its back to plan "A" ....The hive below is the most active.
Andrew has helped me out a few times but yesterday was out when I called him. He is unsure of his way to my out apiary. Several miles out into a steep sided valley that runs from the Haldon hills down to the sea. High Devon hedges, cross-roads,  blind bends, many potholes and green lane running water, slow progress to a walking pace much of the way.   Once there, it is a hideaway oasis of calm, where even the birdsong is gentle on the ear.
 

,

Transfer Top-bar Hive into Cathedral TopBar Hive

Using the Bailey comb transfer method of migrating bees out of an older hive and comb I am hoping that  this procedure will work to utilise my empty spare Cathedral hive and enable me to discard the flat topped standard TbH. The Cathedral hive has a window cut out of the base approx. 20"X 8".
5/8 inch diameter holes were first drilled between the bars so the bees have access to the hive above, much like a super added on top. During the set up, a towel was draped over the open holes and then a rectangle of 9mm ply laid in between with a window cut in it to match the window base of the TbH.
The upper hive has ten bars of foundation on and the remaining bars are left empty,  giving plenty of room for the whole colony to move upwards. 

Time expected for this to be accomplished is three to four weeks

The assembly is secured with rope and supported on a pair of IKEA trestles .

One month later and with no sign of bees migrating upwards. Instead they are sealing all gaps that allow their warmth to escape into the hive above.  Back to square one and my only option is now to transfer comb piece by piece into the new fully framed bars already prepared in anticipation.
The comb will be held temporarily in place with rubber bands until the bees have secured it in place. Not an operation to be undertaken lightly, but fortunately this colony is not aggressive or too defensive. Hopefully I shall find the queen and be able to cage her against any harm through this process.

The day chosen to carry out this move was hot. All was readied and the first three combs cleared of bees. The combs proved too heavy to be held onto the frames by rubber bands and the attempt was abandoned in favour of simply harvesting the honey. After over an hour in the sun I was dripping wet and quite unable to work in the apiery any longer.

 

The Cathedral hive is about ninety five percent larger by volume than the flat top hive underneath

The busiest week for Bees

The split up donor hive has settled down to a more normal routine, but the queen-right hive placed in front of the donor is lacking in foragers I fear.  On the 17th May I discovered that a European hornet had entered via a back door hole inadvertently left open. It had begun nest building from a top bar in the void behind a follower board. I removed the bars adjacent to hers and doused her with a cap-full of metholated spirit, normally used to light the smoker. She fell to the floor but quickly revived,to fly off at speed only to return five minutes later. Meanwhile I had stopped the entrance hole and she gave up after a few minutes.
Back in the village, our churchyard has plenty of trees in blossom and three colonies in the church stonework; all quite active, except for one on the north wall.
I had deployed my bait hive 18 feet up into a tree a couple of days earlier, and yesterday the 19th, was delighted to see bees entering during a lovely warm afternoon. A swarm appeared later and hung about for a few minutes, and gradually made for the north face wall. It moved into a void some twenty feet above ground level. Next day only one or two bees are entering the bait hive - probably scouts. Our Vicar is quite happy for me to work in this way, since the bees have occasionally put fear into the hearts of wedding parties entering the church.

European hornet beginning her nest in my hive