[sss]

Well, the first decent weather coinciding with a day off. So off to the apiary.

Cleared the hive of the winter detritus, found the queen, moved her and her brood downstairs. I ran a double brood over the winter. Laying well, and looking good in there. Not a huge amount of stores so the left over fondant I shall leave on.

Hope you all have a good season.

[Greenerlife]

Nice bees!


Sadly, my hive didn't survive the winter and the hive next to mine has a drone laying queen, so all not well 

[HesterF]

One good, one not so good here. Going back in on Tuesday (weather dependent) to see whether I do have a drone laying queen in the second - and if so to try and transfer eggs across from the good hive. All complexity I could do without in my first full season! I had double brood over the winter too but both brood boxes are still being well used so not sure quite how to condense back yet.

[sss]

Greenerlife, that is a shame. Hopefully you can get a swarm in the spring and get back in.

I to lost a few hives over the winter, thankfully not all so I can do a few splits through spring and get my numbers back up.

HesterF, I have yet to have a simple year. Every year one or more hives will keep me on my toes. That's girls for you! I do not normal run double brood circumstances just made this happen. Thankfully mine had only laid in the top box, so just swapped a few frames about. Getting the brood down and food up. Hopefully if you can get in soon you should be able to manipulate the frames around enough to tidy it all up.

[Sudanpan]

This year I hope to succeed in marking my 2 queens so that I can find them a bit more easily...! 


Still too cold for inspections down here, but did take a peek by uncovering the side feeder hole in the crown board of one colony to see if there was a problem in terms of space - think there is enough for the time being, the colony is very active (they are pretty much totally black bees which is the local variety here). The other colony is not as active - they are more orange/black variety and don't seem to be as active in the lower temperatures.

[benkt]

Had a first look at our hive on Saturday and we've got a queen and eggs but the colony is pretty small. Should survive now given we're having such a lovely spring and they can really get cracking. Main problem was that I caught the queen ready to mark her and found my pen had dried out over winter - so remember to check yours before you start!

[cloddopper]

One good, one not so good here. Going back in on Tuesday (weather dependent) to see whether I do have a drone laying queen in the second - and if so to try and transfer eggs across from the good hive. All complexity I could do without in my first full season! I had double brood over the winter too but both brood boxes are still being well used so not sure quite how to condense back yet.

Why not leave it as a double brood, they produce a lot of honey if the pollen & nectar are available . they are also a good way of increasing your stocks using a neuc with two empry drawn frames , two of part sealed honey and in the middle two of sealed & new eggs .
 To get the bees  in the neuc
 stopp the double brood box with a foanm strip  at about 16.30 hrs. , site the newly made up neuc right infront of the double brood box a lost of the flying bees will fill the neuc .

Now stop the neuc it up with a foam strip , unplug the double brood box , take the filled  neuc at least three miles away just before it gets dark to somewhere safe & secure  ( I had a farmer pal who let me use a thorn hedge down a long farm track that led to a dead end .)   Pull the foam plug and leave it for five days  to establish then bring it back to the apiary just before dark one evening sit it on top of the new hive site over night and in day light stock the new hive brood box with the contents  Unless your confident in a bee suit using an red filter headlight to do the operation in red light darkness .

If on the next two days you look at the new hive you don't see a drawn queen cell but you do see eggs for insurance use the "  bring a different hive frame into the new hive " to be sure you are getting a new queen , then take normal re queening precautions .