Today's inspection was a mixture of highs and lows as we are finding is the norm with our beekeeping journey.
Earlier in the week Greg and I had been up to the apiary to tidy up the weeds and for Greg to finally put up his 'beware bees' signs. The apiary itself is now finished and all that needs to be done is for it to be maintained and I have to say it's looking really nice, with Enchea and snapdragons now flowering nicely ...
But down to it: today's inspection. As usual, first we inspected the nuc:
Nuc
Weak strength
Quiet temperament
1 brood box - 6 frames
6 frames of bees
4 frames of stores
2 foundation frames
0 queen cells
The fact that the 2 queen cells have now gone is a sign that the queens have hatched and the cells have been cleared away by the workers. There was no sign of any eggs yet but these would only start to show in two weeks anyway. Again, it's just a case of wait and see; if no eggs are there in the next two weeks, we are going to retire the nuc and let them see out the colony's life in as much comfort as we can provide.
Actions Taken: Wait to see if eggs emerge over the next two weeks, once re-queened consider treating for Varroa ASAP (We can't do this while attempting to re-queen the nuc as it might encourage her to swarm).
Next, we inspected Kate. We were looking for eggs, capped brood and to see if we could see her to mark.
Kate
Weak-moderate strength
Calm temperament
1 brood box - 9 frames (made it up to 11)
6 frames of bees
2 foundation frames
6 frames of brood (all stages)
4 frames of stores
Actions Taken: There was a lot of brood in all stages which is fantastic news and proves that Kate is not a drone laying queen. This was a massive relief! Also, just to put the icing on the honey cake we also saw and marked her!
Greg did a really good job of spotting her. I had just stated that I thought we might need to call on help to find and mark her majesty when he spotted her on the second frame. Just goes to show that even I can be wrong sometimes! (Let's just not tell that to Greg aye?)
The next stage is to encourage her to build up all of the foundation frames. To this end, we removed the dummy boards and plan to go feed her tomorrow. We will have to wait and see how productive the colony gets as to whether we manage to put on a super before winter comes.
We now feel confident that queen Kate has everything she needs to go from strength to strength. Although Laura is our star pupil, Kate will now always be special to us as she is our first home-reared queen! Go us!
Finally, Laura:
Laura
Strong strength
Calm temperament
1.5 brood box - 11 + 11 frames
Saw Laura
18 frames of bees
10 frames of brood (all stages)
12 frames of stores
6 foundation frames in the super (some beginning to be drawn)
Saw a bee without wings (this could be due to Varroa or sometimes with so many bees being produced genetic mutations can happen)
Actions Taken: At the end of the season we plan to treat all of the hives in our apiary with BBKA approved varroa treatment - Apivar (not spon!) which should encourage the mites to fall off the bees. While icing sugar is good as a go-to during the season while supers are on as it doesn't damage the honey but really, it only has a 3% efficiency rating.
All in all, a really good inspection today with the highlight of meeting queen Kate. Looking forward to seeing her and Laura again soon.
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