Author Topic: Bees (Read 31098 times)

rustyme · « **on:** June 07, 2008, 11:47:19 pm »

Here a couple of video clips , of some empty beehives in my yard ,awaiting repair. The clips show bees flying round and I think robbing the hives of any honey that is still on the frames inside. The bees aren't mine , mine are a couple of miles away , but there were loads of bees showing a lot of ionterest in the hives today . The video isn't really high quality , but you can just about make out the bees ( and me shouting at my dogs !!! ). Something different I thought ...anyway here they are :

rustyme · « **Reply #1 on:** June 08, 2008, 08:35:15 pm »

I have some really good news, well good for me anyway !!!! . The bees in the video around the hives , are a swarm that has moved in to the front left hand hive. I tried to video them tonight when I opened it to check , but the batteries went on the camera. Batteries are on charge and I will video the hive and bees tomorrow, weather permitting. The really great news is they aren't nasty stingy ones. I opened the hive at first without my bee suit on . Boy did I jump , 5 or 6 frames full of bees . They didn't get all nasty and mental though ...like mine....but just slowly moved further down the frames away from the open lid. Will update tomorrow , oh and Arnie and Al got stung today ....they wouldn't listen when told to move away . They give the hives a wide birth since then though

It was earlier in the morning when the bees were very active that they got zapped, I waited till 8 o'clock tonight to check , when they were settling down.

cheers Russ

hexhammeasure · « **Reply #2 on:** June 08, 2008, 10:57:58 pm »

A swarm in june is worth the silver spoon.... lucky you

rustyme · « **Reply #3 on:** June 09, 2008, 07:40:15 pm »

lol..yes cheers H ...here is an update of the swarm . The video is a little dark at first when I open the hive , but it does show them in the end. I want to disturb them as little as possible for a while , so I will make a better clip of them working inside in a few days time.

Sarah · « **Reply #4 on:** June 10, 2008, 12:29:24 pm »

Lucky you, we picked up a small swarm with a virgin queen last night as ours disapeared last summer (before we got any honey!). They were our first bees so we are hoping for second time lucky!

The new bees are on super frames at the moment so we need to move them over.

The biggest trauma came when we went to collect them and got our suits out for the first time since ours went last year and a mouse or moths (or both as there were weird lavae things and what looked like mouse droppings) had got to them and they are full of holes!

rustyme · « **Reply #5 on:** June 10, 2008, 02:29:02 pm »

cheers Sarah,
hope you have some better luck with your new bees. Last year was a bad year for a lot of people , I have heard a lot say they got no honey at all , so even those that kept their bees ,through a bad year , were no better off. Bad news about the suits too.... not the cheapest of things to have to buy again, if the old ones are unrepairable.
Lets hope this year is better for everyone ,and that we all get at least some honey...

cheers

Russ

Sarah · « **Reply #6 on:** June 10, 2008, 07:00:10 pm »

Here's to homey!

I'm on patching duty tonight, just need to convince Will that his suit (which was the worst) is bee proof once I'm done!

Sarah · « **Reply #7 on:** June 10, 2008, 07:00:40 pm »

oops, honey!

rustyme · « **Reply #8 on:** June 10, 2008, 07:15:04 pm »

lol...only ever one way to find out .....put it on and then wait for that high pitched bizzzzzzzz (instead of the bees normal buzz) of bees INSIDE the veil ...

heheheeee . Good luck with the stitching .

rustyme · « **Reply #9 on:** June 15, 2008, 05:49:06 pm »

here are some update pics of the new colony of bees. They are settling well now apart from where I had left a frame out of the super they had actually moved into . I know they should be in the brood box , well they are moving into that now slowly. I really didn't think about the missing frame and then after leaving them in peace for 4 days I checked them and they had made a complete new drawn wax comb almost exactly the size of the other frames:

I felt really guilty cutting off their new wax , but I had to do it so I could put on a queen excluder and a new super for any honey they may make as time goes on now. The new wax is pictured removed here:

I have since melted this down into a mould . I use my bread machine measuring jug for this as the wax doesn't stick to it , it just pops out once it is solid and gone cold, after a couple of minutes in the fridge. I haven't got anything to filter the wax through now so it is a bit bitty, but it is yellow wax as opposed to the really old wax that I have been melting down which is a dirty brown colour.
Sorry for the blurred picture :

At the moment they seem to be drawing and filling the frames with brood etc , some of the brood frames were just that , frames without any wax foundation at all . Well they are correcting that on their own . More news as and when there is some....

cheers

Russ