Sunday 13 June 2010

Ant nest above the crownboard! And setting my car on fire.

Hives record updated.

Great news! The queen in Amidala has hatched and she is in action: eggs and larvae. I marked her (white spot so I can see more easily) and as I removed the cage she clung onto it and then wandered around my hand. Get off! You'll only hurt yourself there! I gingerly got her back onto a frame and closed up quickly, happy that this colony is back in action. After stashing away a whole super worth of honey before the end of April, this colony has probably gone a little backwards since then in terms of stores. Well, I did split it and it was queenless for a while. I'm happy now, though. Also, I put in a varroa board - it's the first time this year and is really overdue.

I opened the little nuc too, and saw a queen (I think!). She was a little small, and I lost sight of her as I reached up to grab my queen marking cage. Argh! There were no eggs, and from her size and the timing of the queen cell I figured that she was probably a virgin so I decided to close up quickly. Very exciting. When this colony is up and running I can use it as an observation hive with the vertical glass roof attachment and carry system it has. The colony is hungry, though. The stores are very low and I should probably feed it. My contact feeders are too wide to fit above the crownboard - I'll need to look up how to make one myself from a jam jar (pierced lid? muslin?).

Boudicca was as grumpy as every. The first thing I saw was an ant's nest above the crownboard: loads of ant running over it and inside the roof and lots of ant eggs! I let them know what I though of their plans to share this hive with the bees. I'll need to be vigilant that they don't return. I wonder if this is unusual. I'm pretty sure these bees are queenless. 2 queen cells are still in place and I'm guessing these will hatch very soon. I certainly hope so.

I was in a real rush to get away since I was playing in a tennis match (doubles with my wife - we got murdered). In my rush I put my smoldering smoker (corked up) in the footwell of the passenger's side of the car, sitting on a stone slab. All went well till I got close to home and breaked too hard as the car in front did what only London drivers can make cars do: hot ash poured onto the footwell carpet mat. I got home a minute later and ripped the mat out to find 4 nice scorch marks. I had recently bought the car from my mother-in-law. It's a lovely old Merc: 20 years of loving care from her (and others) and then I decide to start trashing it. I'll need to come up with a better way of transporting that smoker, since I often have issues with it still being hot when I leave the apiary.

No pictures on my blog for a while, eh? I'll work to correct this.

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