My colonies have all survived the looooooooooooooong winter.
This is the first "in depth" (taking brood frames out 1 at a time) inspection.
My hives are identified by the colour of the large painted stone
set in front of the entrance to guide the worker-foragers home.
*BLUE HIVE* - colony calm covering 6 brood frames.
2 frames eggs & larvae. 3 frames sealed brood. This Queen lays
right to the sides of each frame but didn't see her. (White marked 2011)
Super very light but some nectar and pollen in the brood frames.
*RED HIVE* - Queen decided to lay in the top super and ignored
the brood frames! What to do? Moved all workers and Queen (Blue marked 2010)
down into empty brood frames. Put QX on top. Put Super of sealed brood/eggs/
larvae/honey/pollen back on top and hoped for the best - see 9th June.
*YELLOW HIVE* - Saw Queen (White marked 2011) looking for empty cells.
1 frame full of eggs both sides. 3 frames full eggs/larvae/sealed brood.
This colony was slow last year and had quite a lot of chalk brood. No sign of
this now - thank goodness. Bees calm and working well.
*SILVER HIVE* - Can't find Queen (Blue 2010) - Don't panic !!! See 9th June.
Great to read how the bees are doing, and thanks for posting the artificial swarming technique.
ReplyDeleteWe have brood on 4 1/2 frames and good stores at the sides. They have been very busy in this weather, perhaps busier than I would have liked as it seems the queen may have swarmed (no sign of queen, no eggs, no larvae and less bees). Kicking myself for leaving it 12 days since the last inspection (note to self: try not to let life get in the way, especially in swarming season!).
Perplexing lack of queen cells, perhaps I missed it. I hope that there is a virgin queen in the hive somewhere.