Old Speckled Hen Posted July 28, 2012 Share Posted July 28, 2012 What a horrid year here in Cumbria. I've been feeding mine till recently. BLOOMIN' RAIN!!! Manipulating one or two colonies and re-queening two I find the queen-less colony has six frames rammed with pollen ! Bringing in pollen has nothing at all to do with a laying queen....obviously Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daphne Posted July 30, 2012 Share Posted July 30, 2012 We lost a colony in the Spring and did an inspection yesterday in the single remaining hive - no honey so we are deciding to abandon for this year and feed again now to help them build up to overwinter. We have a new swarm which seems very active, as its starting to draw out the other frames. We have fed them and will let them get on with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olly Posted July 30, 2012 Share Posted July 30, 2012 My original colony, having survived the winter well, were failing to thrive - I was feeding till the end of June, and at one point I thought they weren't going to make it. They seemed to lack energy even though the queen was laying - something just felt wrong. I was astonished to discover about 3 weeks ago that they are now up and running and needed a super - clearly they were just fed up with the weather. I also got a swarm around the end of May, lovely calm bees but I wasn't expecting much from them this year, however they have half-filled a super and if we get some more good days in August I'm hoping for 20 lbs or so. Not huge, but I was expecting a zero harvest this year. My mentor who has kept bees for over 30 years says he's never had to feed bees continuously from spring before. It has been a very hard summer, so just keeping the bees going is something to be proud of. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicken shack Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 Our local farmer put a hive in my garden at the beginning of June without a super. It was only a small colony and he said that he douted we would get any honey from them this year. He returned last week and said that they were doing well and he had to put the supers in. Lots of bee lavae. Good old bees in this terrible weather. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lesley Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 Ours were doing quite well and we took about 20lbs of honey off earlier in the season but left some on so we haven't had to feed much. We performed 2 ASs and doubled from 2 to 4 colonies. The incessant rain combined with OH having to work away 3 days a week instead of working from home so the bees are fending for themselves again. We lost control of a couple of acres of land which has benefitted the bees as it is full of wildflowers - we'll be leaving it next year as well and just mowing pathways through again. They're all busy working the blackberries at the moment and if the weather is kind to us over the weekend we'll try to inspect properly. One hive was looking a bit swarmy this afternoon but seemed to settle down later and I didn't see any swarm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicken shack Posted August 2, 2012 Share Posted August 2, 2012 The bee man came yesterday to check on our bees and and although they havn't started fillling the suppers they have almost fill the bottom section. Sorry I don't know what that part is called. All is well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olly Posted August 2, 2012 Share Posted August 2, 2012 Brood chamber or brood body. Just so you know! Glad to hear they are doing well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicken shack Posted August 2, 2012 Share Posted August 2, 2012 Thank you Olly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicken Licken Posted August 4, 2012 Share Posted August 4, 2012 Not a great year really. After much trouble with supercedure/ Splits/ Merges/ Swarms we now have 2 expanding hives (where we were in the spring - but it has take a long time to get back to this!!). I took off a super of honey in early June and that gave 24 lbs of honey. The stronger of the 2 hives has 3 supers on and is on double brood, the newly housed swarm is being fed as it expands to fill the brood box. Having said that I am hoping to take of at least another super of honey over the next week as long as the sun shines consistently for a couple more days!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kermit Posted August 23, 2012 Share Posted August 23, 2012 One word for it - infuriating. Bad weather, swarms, lost queens on mating flights, failed AS. We lost one colony over winter . Weather too cold to inspect until lat May, then had to do a split after a swarm earlier that day . Both queens lost in bad weather on mating flights . Finally got a queen by adding a frame of brood . United hives. Caught a swarm - not ours - happened to alight on an applae tree in our garden. Now hoping to get a harvest, but weather has been very poor in N Yorks. Finally got a colony for the school farm. These needed an AS. Then original queen swarmed from nuc . Again both queens failed to mate . So, I got a queen from member of the local assoc - cost a leg of pork from one of the school pigs. Hopefully they will over winter. I won't be taking anything off these bees, as I'm not sure how well they will do in their location, as it is over 600 feet asl. In all not a good year!! Will summer ever come? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Speckled Hen Posted August 23, 2012 Author Share Posted August 23, 2012 Now down to four colonies though I was hoping for only three. The two Buckies will have to be dummied down as not all the frames are drawn even after uniting. The mongrel swarmy brood are doing well with an almost full super above them. I hope I can take some of it. My Buckfast from last year disappeared after an AS but I have her daughter laying well at last, six weeks after emerging. It remains to be seen how her temperament appears....crosses have a reputation. They are now ensconced in their new home and there is plenty of Balsam now and Ivy to come nearby so perhaps I won't have to feed. Anyway, supers off in a fortnight and Apilfe on. Another year gone and no honey taken this time, bar the twelve jars in spring. Looking forward to next year.......well you have to, don't you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MedusA Posted August 24, 2012 Share Posted August 24, 2012 Home bees - ended up uniting the nuc with my old queen back in as the new queen who I had seen go on her mating flight either never returned or failed to come into lay. Absolutely no chance of any honey off them. They have one half-filled super which I will under-super for winter and still need to feed, feed, feed. Allotment bees - we lost one swarm as although we captured it, it then absconded. However 2 incoming swarms meant we are back up to 4 hives. We just may get one super off one of the hives but it's been so desperate this "summer" we were still feeding in June. Had a possible disaster last week. We were marking all the allotment queens and my queen-marking contraption fell apart half way through getting one of the queens and she fell out. I'm hoping it was into the hive, but maybe not. Hope we have eggs next inspection. Here's to next season! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
