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Am I worried about robbing, having put a feeder on a weak colony right next to two stronger ones? I'm less concerned than I otherwise might be since the nuc entrance is just a single hole, and so should be easily defended.
I took the opportunity to open up Boudicca to check on the ant situation. After only having cleared them out a few days ago their small nest above the crownboard was back, though the ants were perhaps not in quite the numbers of before. I banged them out and rubbed down every area where I could see evidence of them having been. I wonder if this will be much of a problem for the bees and their stores? Reading around, I see this is not such a common problem, and that I might prevent ants from entering the hive by siting each of the stand legs in a tray with an oil pool in. I'll monitor the situation and act accordingly.
It set me thinking about ants. A quick glance at Wikipedia show that they (often) have a single queen too. If I see them in the hive again perhaps I'll be a bit more thoughtful and search for and squish the queen rather than just banging out the ants.
Hi Kenzie,
ReplyDeleteI have come to the conclusion that the key to getting a mated (and laying) Queen is patience. Even with the great weather, the bees' timetables are their own and we can only observe!
Had a chuckle about the smoker incident in the old Merc. Did you manage disguise the scorch marks from the other half? I think there'd be homicide I'd done that....
P.S fair play with marking the Queen. Did you manage this alone? At the last inspection, I had a couple of new Queens to mark and am slightly daunted by doing this single-handed. Any tips?
Not sure how else to contact you. I have been following your blog for some time now. I think you might be interested in this link: http://www.urbanbees.co.uk/hivemap/map_of_hive_locations_update.htm
ReplyDeleteIt allows you to add your hives and see where other people have theirs. My beeclub has a similar one for our county here in North Carolina and it is a great tool to see who is around you sharing your forage and queen mating area.
Cliff, yes I very much agree with your comments on needing to wait patiently for a new queen to come into lay. With a full 4 weeks (plus or minus) after that egg is laid until she's laying (plus the old one being off-lay for a few days before), it can seem like ages. Of course my hope of robbing the bees of surplus honey this year is somewhat dashed with that loss of brood production and the loss of swarm bees.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the queen marking, I've now done 3 (2 this year and 1 last). I have one of those press-on cages, with spikes round the bottom and a grid of thread at the top through which you can poke your pen. Do I have any tips? Well, I'd not seen it done having only read about it and seen pictures, and it worked well for me, so it must be pretty easy! I got a queen marking pen and made sure the ink was flowing freely. I was pretty ginger in trapping her, since those spikes are very sharp and one of those through her majesty would surely be curtains. I noticed that the other bees really wanted to crowd her when she was in there, so I had to keep very gently blowing to discourage them. And I found I had to pretty quite hard to immobilise here (feels scary - but mine all survived, and it's only thread so it does give a little) or she'll keep moving inside the cage and you'll never get her). Having said all that.....best get some advice from an experienced beekeeper rather than me!
I'm certainly going to keep all my queens brightly marked. After some confusing inspections earlier in the season (and one aborted split swarm) I can now see the importance of seeing the queen when you want to. In most inspection I don't bother, looking simply for eggs instead. However, around swarming time I really got my knickers in a twist this year with not knowing whether my colonies were queenless or not due to the uncertainty of not spotting a queen.
Jared, Yes indeed I am aware of that page and have considered posting my hive locations there. Thanks for highlighting it.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I elected not to enter my hives on the basis that I'd rather be slightly covert in terms of their locations. It's not that I'm so very worried about theft (though it does happen and there have been numerous examples in the UK), rather it's that I'm keen to avoid unwanted attention from the public. Having said that, in my online hive record is the road name where my hives are, and there's only one London nature reserve on that road, so....anyhow, I've chosen a degree of anonymity.