What's That On My Landing Board?

The BeesofSpike Apiary has had a steady stream of visitors this summer.

There have been humans, of course.

Not many guests have escaped Spike Towers this year without undergoing a guided tour of the Apiary, whether they wanted one or not.

Freddie the cat has approached with caution and has tended to scale the perimeter fence for a look inside rather than venturing through the front door.

Generally, unless LandofSpike or BKJ1 are there to protect him he gives the Apiary a wide berth .

This is about as close as Freddie is prepared to get

And there have been wasps.

But not many of them.

LandofSpike has seen a grand total of no more than 5 individual wasps in the Apiary, perhaps only 10 of the blighters in the entire grounds of Spike Acres all summer.

If he'd had a Waspinator he'd have been hailing it as the most effective product on the planet but as he has yet to invest in one, he's going to put this waspy absence down to the miserably wet spring and summer.

However, and with due deference to that cat, those people and the wasps, some visitors are more interesting than others.

And the LandofSpike Wildlife Photography Team has managed to secure footage of two of this year's finest, so with no further ado we can present...

Specimen A:

This rather large beastie was lurking around the landing board and entrance on the morning of 9th July.

30mm long including antennae  

The Colony had only been in place for little more than a week, had already been diagnosed with a substantial varroa infestation and was in the middle of the wettest summer since records began so LandofSpike was feeling a little edgy. 
There was probably a choice of 4 reasons why it was there:

a) it was an enemy of the hive and was angling on laying its eggs inside the hive with that seriously large ovipositor.

b) it was an enemy of the hive and was angling on getting inside the hive to eat or kill the bees.

c) it liked pollen and was attracted by the pollen-y smell of whatever was inside that little doorway.

d) it was bushed out and just happened to be having a rest on the landing board.

So, just in case it was about to dart into the hive and start spreading chaos and disorder LandofSpike scooped it up with his trusty Queen Clip, incarcerated it in a handy jar and took it back to the Spike Towers Research Laboratories for analysis.

It wasn't best pleased at being inside the jar

Once the Big Boys' Book of Insects had been scoured for a match, its two pairs of wings narrowed it down to Order Hymenoptera and the absence of a 'wasp waist' pointed towards it being a Sawfly.

A bit stout around the middle

Pachyprotasis rapae was thought to be the most likely match but no-one was particularly certain.

However, it was certain that the big sticky out bit on the stern was the insect's ovipositor which meant that it was a female.

Most adult sawflies feed mainly on pollen so it's not hard to see why it might have been drawn to a big box full of the stuff.

Having ascertained it was no threat to the hive, Ms Sawfly was liberated back into the wild, but at the Eastern Borders of Spike Acres, well away from the Apiary, just in case.

Specimen B:

This behemoth of a hoverfly was hanging around the gates on the morning of 4th September.

It probably measured in at somewhere approaching 25mm in length.

Hmm, perhaps those bees won't notice me...

It was persistently curious about whatever might be inside the hive. However, the guard bees seemed to have the situation under control so LandofSpike didn't deem it necessary to intervene and implement a capture. 

He and BKJ1 contented themselves with taking a few photos and watching its attempts to appear nonchalant.

Identification was pretty easy. This mighty minibeast was Volucella pellucens, or the Pellucid hoverfly, and is one of the largest of Britain's flies. 

Hoverflies are nectar feeders so all that nectar-related bee activity was probably hypnotically fascinating for it. 

Interestingly, the larvae of this hoverfly live in wasp nests and bumblebee nests but fortunately not in honeybee hives.

So it may have been wondering whether or not these were wasps or bumblebees and if the hive would make a viable nursery.      

Or it could have just been after some nectar. 

Ultimately, it was just a bit too daft to get past the defences.

The Pellucid hoverfly does not possess Ninja-like powers of self-concealment

So, apart from the now vanquished varroa and a bit of waxmoth, both of which came bundled with my 5 frame nuc as a rather unwelcome added extra, that just about covers the visitors to the hive for the time being.

Next up, it's 'How to Light a Smoker First Time, Every Time".

A Long Overdue Update from the BeesofSpike Apiary

The BeesofSpike are back online.

LandofSpike would like to offer his sincere apologies for his absence from the blogosphere over the last few weeks and for the lack of news from the BeesofSpike. 

This isn't due to a lack of action in the Apiary nor is it due to any Bee-related disasters. In fact, the BeesofSpike are now in the best of health, the colony has expanded excellently and the bees are currently storing up plenty of provisions in readiness for the winter.

LandofSpike's work in the Apiary has continued unabated but he has unfortunately been unable to devote any time to the blog due mainly to the demands of the BeeKeeperJuniors' summer holidays and a sizeable workload in the pesky WorldofReality.

Fortunately he has taken meticulous BeeNotes and will, in time, be able to transcribe all the action to the Land of Bees blog. 

He has also, whenever possible, photographed the important elements of his inspections, his day-to-day observations and any other bee-related activity. 

It was good to see new comb appearing on the new frames

In addition, he and the ever present BKJ1, have recorded every inspection with the trusty CamcorderofSpike.

BKJ1, inspecting

So, with the excuses out of the way, LandofSpike can now reveal that, since our last post, the bees have been doing just fine.

There she is... the important looking one in the middle

Once the good weather kicked in on July 20th and once the mite situation was under control the colony started to thrive. 

The bees eventually moved into top gear for the end of the summer.

The new comb and stores of honey have been appearing at an ever increasing pace and the new Super has filled extremely quickly.

LandofSpike has decided to leave his Bees with the Super in place for the winter. The focus for this year is to get the colony through the winter and leaving them with a big box of full and heavy frames of capped honey seems to be an obvious choice.

Honey production up and running

They are currently harvesting the final pollen of the year.

Close to the Apiary, the grounds of Spike Towers are home to large swathes of ivy so the workers are stocking up while they can.

I counted them all out and I counted them all back

The BeesofSpike have developed a seasonal taste for syrup and they are consequently taking down industrial amounts of 2:1 sugar solution from the top feeder.

Their concerted effort at draining it dry started in the first week of September and they've been at it ever since.

BeesofSpike workers taking syrup from the feeder

LandofSpike has today returned from the local supermarket with his sixth 5 kilo pack of cane sugar of the Autumn. 
He has made up yet another batch of syrup and is just waiting for it to cool before refilling the feeder in the morning.
Details of their syrup consumption will be dealt with in a separate post and will also include the methodology for preparing the feed.

A familiar sight in the LandofSpike kitchens over the past month

The varroa count is down to about 1 per day, which means that the Apiguard has done its job perfectly. The All Clear has been sounded and the colony should be able to overwinter without fear of mite attack.

There is consequently now no sign of DWV (deformed wing virus) which, whilst the varroa had hold, had afflicted some BeesofSpike workers.

A week's worth of Varroa in mid September. All hail Apiguard

The Drones have all now been booted out. 
This took place around the end of August and the start of September.

Watching workers escorting drones to the edge of the landing board then encouraging them, nightclub bouncer style, to take off into the blue, was fascinating. 

You could almost see the workers dusting off their hands as they swaggered back to the hive, job done.

No way back for the Drones

LandofSpike's smoker technique has also improved.

From a shaky, hit and miss start, he has developed a sure fire, works-every-time method. There will shortly be a smoker-dedicated post revealing his methods to a waiting world.

Foolproof smoker lighting technique soon to be revealed!

Right, that's all for now.
It's been a rather sketchy, and not particularly cohesive, précis of the recent activity in the Apiary but hopefully it gets us up to speed on the current situation.

There is an awful lot more BeesofSpike info to upload in the near future so LandofSpike is going to try and sort it into bite-size chunks.

The next post will be along very shortly.