Showing posts with label diagrams included. Show all posts
Showing posts with label diagrams included. Show all posts

Thursday 30 July 2015

Apiary Diary: Encouraging Bees into the New Super


Diary Entry:
29 July, 4pm, 19.4C, a bit overcast, rain forecast but 2 hours later it's still dry.

Inspection:
Smoker fired up first time using egg-box pyramid technique.
Entrance smoked, lid popped and given a puff.
Lid lifted, bees calm and occupied. 
Set up of hive at time of inspection

Super 4 has been in for a couple of weeks but has seen no action at all. It is still just 10 frames of foundation.
Super 3 is approaching completion. F10 is empty and not yet drawn but F9 has construction on the inner side.
The photos below show F6 from super 3. It is a mix of capped and uncapped honey.

Frame 6, Super 3

Frame 6, Super 3 (detail)
Supers 4 & 3 are removed and placed carefully aside. Super 3 is heavy.
Super 2 is a deep and is extremely heavy with honey and bees. I decided to leave it in place as all indications imply that below it, all is well.

Action:
I'd quite like the bees to start drawing out comb on super 4. I'm not particularly impatient; I'm just a bit excited about wanting to see it happen.
There are several schools of thought about whether to and how to encourage bees into a new super.
I suspect that the best course of action is to let the bees decide to move up when they're good and ready, forcing them up by various methods may just mean that you get a pyramidal laying down of honey with the outer frames not being used.
However, because I've never tried this before, I thought I'd do it and see what happens.
So...
I took F4 & F7 from the well-under-way super 3 and placed them in their same positions in super 4.
The equivalent blank foundation frames  F4 & F7 from super 4 I placed into the now free spaces in super 3. It's sorta like checkerboarding.
So super 3 now has 2 new frames of untouched foundation at positions F4 & F7 and the previously untouched super 4 now has frames F4 & F7 fully drawn out and replete with honey.

Switching Frames between Supers


In this way the bees might start drawing out the blanks F4 & F7 in S3.
Similarly, with a viable F4 & F7 now in S4, this may encourage them to expand that work to the neighbouring blank frames in S4. 
That's the theory anyway. 
We'll see if it's worked when next we inspect.

The amended supers 3 & 4 and the lid are replaced and secured with the hive strap.

I've also re-inserted a varroa tray. I took it out to help with air circulation when it was really hot a few weeks ago, and as there weren't any issues in the hive, I've been a bit slack in getting re-inserted.

Varroa Tray Re-inserted





Tuesday 26 February 2013

Winter Feeding for the BeesofSpike: Getting Fondant into the Hive

Tuesday 29th January.

After 3 weeks of wintry weather including sub-zero temperatures and a liberal helping of snow, the weather changed for the better and, for one day only, the temperature in the Apiary rose to a daytime high of 13.4C.

It was mild enough for the bees to be out stretching their wings and finding forage.

This was the window of opportunity.
Having failed to get fondant into the hive during the mild spell over Christmas and the New Year, this was the chance to make amends.

Adding fondant to your bees' stores of honey helps to decrease the likelihood of the colony starving to death during the long winter months.
It's not good to expose the inside of the hive to the cold so inserting the fondant would have to be done swiftly. The plan was to keep the roof off for the minimum amount of time possible.


It was also the time to see if the new homemade wooden eke would fit onto the polystyrene hive.
The fit had been tested on a spare hive but this was going to be its first use on a live box full of bees.


Dry fitting the unpainted eke on a spare brood box

An eke increases the available vertical space between the top of the frames and the base of the roof or top feeder. 
Without an eke in place there would be no room for the block of fondant.






It would also be the first chance to have a peek inside the hive since the last inspection of autumn. 
And the only chance to look inside before the arrival of the nice spring weather.



The operation went incredibly smoothly.

After smoking the entrance, LandofSpike and Neighbour Jane popped the top off the hive and gave them another small puff of smoke. 
The bees were, as usual, extremely placid and accommodating.

A quick inspection revealed that there was still plenty of capped honey left in the super and in the, ahem, large chunk of burr comb also nestling in the same super.
All seemed well.

The fondant packaging was slit open across the underside to expose the sugar and then placed on top of the uppermost frames so the bees could access it directly from below.

2.5kg of fondant in place, eke in place and, erm, prodigious amounts of burr comb in place.
However, you can see plenty of capped honey on frames 2 & 3 and on the burr comb.

Adding the homemade eke was extremely satisfying.
It was a snug and perfect fit.

Like a glove...

Perhaps the EPS hive makers could consider stocking EPS ekes for their beebox system as it is a pretty essential bit of kit and seems like a bit of an omission from their catalogue.
However, it's so relatively simple making your own that the lack of a store-bought eke is no great hardship.



So with the roof safely strapped back down, the BeesofSpike have their supplementary winter feed sitting nicely on top of their own stores. 
Their hive is now shut to humans until the spring.


Although the winter closedown is in place, LandofSpike will still be observing the little fellers on a daily basis, observing any activity and recording temperatures in the Apiary. 
He also needs to construct some new frames, paint some supers and brood boxes and build a new hive stand. 
And he really needs to get reading and bone up on what to do in the springtime.



Friday 13 July 2012

The Empire Strikes Back... Apiguard vs Varroa



The previous episode of BeesofSpike ended with a pretty sorry colony of bees blighted by a rather nasty infestation of the varroa destructor parasite.

A new BeesofSpike worker afflicted with varroa

Varroa can very quickly destroy a colony so LandofSpike needed to start medicating his bees straight away.
The batch of Apiguard that he had ordered online was not due to arrive till the next week, which would be too late.
However, one emergency trip to the not-so-local Bee Supplies Shop across town later, and this was no longer a problem. 

So before he set to work dosing the hive with his newly purchased bee medicine, there was just time to find out about Apiguard.
What is it and what does it do?

Varroa Destructor does not like this

Apiguard is a shallow tray of thymol in a slow-release gel which is placed in the hive.
It's the thymol which is the active ingredient. 
It kills the varroa mites.
A treatment period runs for 6 weeks and uses 2 trays of the stuff.
The first tray is left in for 2 weeks. 
It is then replaced with a second tray which is left in for a further 2-4 weeks.

The bees themselves distribute the thymol around the hive. They see it as something which should be removed and whilst the house cleaning workers are busying themselves cleaning it away their activities distribute it to every part of the hive, and therefore to every varroa mite.

The distribution happens more efficiently in warmer temperatures as the thymol sublimes more quickly and is easier for the workers to detect.
The varroa particularly dislike the thymol vapour.

Housekeeper bee cleaning away thymol. Vapour can be seen disabling varroa

Varroa, at the moment, has no resistance to thymol.
Some strains of varroa have already developed resistance to some pyrethroid varroa treatments but the non-specific effects of thymol on the varroa mean that it's likely to continue to be an effective deterrent for the foreseeable.

Currently, Thymol is LandofSpike's favourite chemical


Before the treatment, LandofSpike removed, cleaned, oiled and replaced the varroa board.
the varroa count was 67 individual mites across the whole board which amounts to 33.5 per day over the two day period.
This is way too many.

Waaaaay too many varroa


Inserting the Apiguard was pretty simple.
LandofSpike and BKJ1 suited up, fired up the smoker (not particularly brilliantly this time, must work on our technique) and smoked the entrance.
The roof and top feeder were removed and the brood box smoked.

BKJ1 tests his smoker

There was time for a quick inspection to reveal that, although still small and beleaguered by rain and varroa, the colony was making new honey and pollen stores. Also, the queen, although not spotted this time, was laying new brood.




The Apiguard pack was opened so that all but one corner of the foil was removed and the lid was folded back. The open tray was then laid on top of frames 4, 5 & 6, above the most active part of colony.

Opened Apiguard tray laid on top of broodbox frames


A super was placed on top of the brood box with the corresponding super frames removed to make space for the Apiguard tray.


The queen excluder was left out out for the time being.
The reasons for this were:
a) to give the bees clear access to the Apiguard tray, the QE may have acted as a barrier.
b) to give the bees unchecked access to the top feeder if they needed to use it.
c) it was decided that there would be little risk of the queen starting to lay in the super frames as there was as yet no comb on them, just foundation.


The entrance reducer was fitted partly to stop too much of the thymol vapour escaping that way and also simply because our small colony didn't really need that big a front door in this grim weather.

I'm sure this door used to be bigger...

The base of the hive should really be shut during treatment to trap the thymol vapour inside but that isn't an easy option with the EPS hive so, with the varroa mesh screwed in place, the varroa board approximates a partial seal.

With the thymol installed, the roof and top feeder were replaced on top of the new super and the hive secured with its strap.
Mission accomplished.






As a little schoolroom addendum to our in-the-field account, here's a little extra theory.

Instead of using a super to make space for the Apiguard, LandofSpike could have used an eke.
An eke is simply a shallow, and hollow, 4 sided box, the same dimensions as the hive, which fits above the brood box and acts as a spacer so that the tray of Apiguard can sit on top of the frames in the newly formed space between the frame tops and the queen excluder or the super.
Without an eke to make the space, well, there's just no space.

An eke is so-called because with it you can 'eke out' extra space

LandofSpike now knows that one of the drawbacks of the EPS beebox is that it doesn't have a designed-in option of fitting ekes into its system.
Which is a bit pants.
However, this becomes an opportunity for LandofSpike to put his legendary carpentry skills into practise and supplement his EPS hive with a custom built, homemade wooden eke.
It'll be ready for winter when we'll again need that space above the brood box to house a big lump (that's a technical term) of fondant.





So with everyone now up to speed on ekes, even though we haven't got one yet, and a big blob of thymol sublimating nicely on top of the frames we can rest assured that the housekeeper bees are just starting to distribute the stuff around the hive. 
Best of all the varroa are just starting to get a nice big dose.


You can run but you can't hide, my pretties...








Saturday 16 June 2012

Up Above the Ground... Bees on Stilts



LandofSpike and BKJ1 have built a stand for the Beebox.
It needed one.
Because Beeboxes like to be raised above the ground.

There are several reasons for this:

a) Working at a Manageable Height
If the hive is positioned too low or too high it's going to be a difficult job hefting honey-laden supers and brood boxes.
Even day-to-day inspections are more arduous if the box is positioned incorrectly.
Ouch to beekeeper back problems.

b) Fresh air
Keeping the hive away from the ground helps to minimise problems with the damp and helps with the ventilation of the hive.

c) Creature Incursion
An elevated hive helps keep crawling insects, especially ants, at bay.
Setting the legs in a margarine tub of cooking oil is a good idea. The sea of oil is a good insect barrier.



CONSTRUCTION

Making the hive stand was a simple enough job.

LandofSpike made it 30" long x 20" wide.
He used 4" x 2" lumber to construct the hive stand and fixed it together with 5mm x 75mm screws.

LandofSpike's Secret Blueprints


The platform was designed so the base of the hive would be at 14" above the ground.

The back legs continued above the deck level to form an end stop for the rear of the hive.
At the front a landing board for the bees was fashioned from an offcut of 15mm planking and it was held in place by some strategically positioned supports.

Without landing board


And with landing board

Once completed the stand was given a couple of coats of garden wood preserver. 
The landing board was painted with the more bee-friendly Dulux Weathershield. 
A landing board isn't really necessary but it's nice to watch the bees crawling around on it rather than just darting efficiently into their front door.
Apparently they like a highly visible landing area so it was painted a highly visible Classic Cream colour.


Weatherproofed stand with hive and landing board
LandofSpike now has to do a little more work on the western borders of Spike Acres before it is fully transformed into the new BeesofSpike Apiary. It just needs a bit more screening along its eastern edge, some more grass and a bit of weatherproofing.

Then all we need is some Livestock.





Tuesday 12 June 2012

Living in a Box... Some New Accommodation


It's all very well waxing lyrical about the splendour of being a beekeeper but at some point our beeless blogger does need to have some actual real-life contact with his own boxful of bees.

It does cost though.

So LandofSpike has eventually had to bite the bullet and release funds from his Empire's not particularly vast Reserves of Wealth.
Over the last few weeks Purchase Orders have been raised and orders have been placed.

Subsequently, the Post Room at Spike Towers has been kept busy receiving regular deliveries of Bee-related Equipment from a worthy array of suppliers.


It's very tempting to list all the exciting new arrivals but this post will put aside hive tools, bee brushes and smokers for the time being and deal with our Most Important Piece of New Kit...



The Hive has arrived.
It's rather smart.
It's from Finland and is called The Beebox.
It takes National frames and is made not of cedar but is lovingly crafted out of EPS.
Yes, that's Expanded Polystyrene. 
Not particularly traditional in this country, but hopefully functional, user-friendly and warm in the winter. And with any luck, the bees will love it.

LandofSpike and BKJ1 have spent some time piecing it together and painting it.
It comes flat-packed and slots easily together.

The unpainted Beebox
It currently comprises of (from the top down) a roof, an inner cover, a top feeder, 2 supers, a queen excluder, a brood box and a base with varroa mesh and tray. And a big strap to tie it down.

The Beebox has a cool entrance reducer

Modern Beekeeping recommended painting the Hive with Dulux Weathershield Smooth Masonry Paint. 
So it got several coats of the stuff in different colours for the different components.
LandofSpike thinks it looks pretty good.


How it all fits together


The boys have also been constructing a big stack of frames.
The delightfully and cunningly designed Hoffman ones.
Ten full size frames for the brood box and ten smaller frames for each super.

Frame components
Completed frame
It's a goodly task once you get your rhythm and is extremely satisfying.
BKJ1 was particularly good at it.
LandofSpike will spend some time on frames and frame making in a later post.



The Beebox, painted, but still masked up
So with the Hive now looking box-tastic the next task is to make a stand to keep it well above the ground.
LandofSpike will be lovingly handcrafting this himself.
Anyone who has seen his previous attempts at woodworking will have some idea of exactly just how magnificent this will be...





Wednesday 2 May 2012

The Land of Bees Schoolroom... A Bit of Latin


Today, the Land of Bees will be taking us back to school.

This will be happening pretty regularly so stop moaning and settle down.

While LandofSpike understands that it's not totally necessary to know which Suborder or Phylum bees belong to when you're tucking into some bread & honey, knowing a bit about which branch of the Tree of Life our bees have built their nests on is no bad thing.

So sit up straight and pay attention at the back of the class, it's time for a bit of Latin.


Our subject is the European Honeybee, Apis mellifera.
Apis is Latin for Bee.
Mellifera can be split into melli meaning honey and ferre meaning to carry.
So Apis mellifera is the Honey-Carrying Bee. 
Easy peasy.

Every organism has its place in the Hierarchy of Biological Classification, bees being no exception.
Our handy chart will guide us through the Classification of the European Honeybee with, hopefully, a minimum of glaring errors.




Those creatures at the bottom of the Classification are just a few subspecies of Apis mellifera, but they're the important ones for beekeepers.

In our next visit to the Land of Bees Schoolroom, LandofSpike will be casting his gaze over these fellers and seeing why beekeepers need to know all about them.