Too many bees and not enough Queens

It was a cold, wet miserable weekend right up to 5pm yesterday when the sun actually shone.  We got suited up and then did our checks. 

On checking the first of the Carni hives, we couldnt find a queen, just about to put the middle frame in when O/H noticed a lot of bees on the underside of the open mesh floor.  We lifted the hive, took the floor off and brushed the bees into the hive... There was a Queen!!!!  No idea how or why she was there but we put her back and hopefully she is mated and will stay.  There are no eggs/lavae/brood in that hive now.  O/H went out later on to see if they had calmed down but there was another clump of bees in the same place.  we are hoping that they can just smell the queen from previous (fingers crossed).

The other 2 Carni hives have no queens at all!

Buckfast Nuc is doing well, we have had some robbing there from neighbouring black bees (cute bees but a pain)  our girls are doing an outstanding job of fighting them off though.  The Queen cell is capped and should be hatching soon, its small but hopefully it will produce a good healthy queen. 

Buckfast hive is as always just constant although there was no sign of eggs unless we missed them.  There was early stage lavae though.  It was pretty shaded by the time we did our check...
The Varroa appears to be cleared up now too. 

The 2 new Buckfast Queens should hopefully arrive soon, then we can introduce them to the queenless hives before its too late and hopefully they will build up. 

Ahh the ups and downs of bee keeping!!

Queen or no queen... oh and another swarm!!!

The day began well, the sun was out but a bit windy so we decided to wait a while to inspect the bees.  Had a cuppa at the allottment then came back.  Our nephew and his partner came round for a cuppa and always interested in the bees, asked if they could take a walk down to see them.  There it was... another swarm on the same archway as last time!!  Hubbs set to it catching the swarm, which was a bit unnerving as I had never seen that many bees together before but he caught them.  

As the swarm was settling down we began checking the rest of the bees..

Buckfast first as always are calm, busy and just get on with it.  Moved on to the Carnis (Harmony 2)  checked twice but not a queen in site and no eggs??  put the lid on, moved to nuc. 

The Nuc was pretty full so we decanted the colony into the new hive.. No Queen?!?!  however, there were 7 big queen cells and one was massive!!  we removed 6 cells and left the monster cell with the nuc/new hive..

Checked the final hive, no queen again so we put the swarm into it.  They will either, fight each other to the death, the swarm will move on again or... the queen will stay and lay..

What ever happens, we "will" be changing the carnis to Buckfast later in the season!! carnis are too much trouble!!!!!!!!!!

First harvest of the year

Its now practically a year since we started our "little" hobby.. how we've grown!!

The warm weather brought the rape on 3 weeks early and the spring blossom has been amazing.  So much so that we took 2 x full supers off both the Buckfast and Harmony 2 (carnis).  57lb we spun off in total and there is still more on the way!!!  Thank you Mother Nature for your lovely warm weather and blossom. 

2 weeks ago I mentioned that we had gained not one but 2 new Carni queens.  We decided to leave them alone after the initial inspection, let them make themselves at home.  Saturday is the next time we check them... so until then.

Weekly check

All appeared to be well so we suited up and got started on the checks. 

Harmony 4 -Where the swarm ended up being dumped yesterday.  They had already began to draw out the comb and there were signs of honey (a day).  Had a thorough check and then we saw her...  our new queen.  I called her Queen Louise after my neice.  We gently put her back and closed the lid.

She's the big shiny one.

The Nuc (soon to be Harmony 3) - took the lid off, considering there is no queen in there now, they are very active.  Bringing in plenty of pollen.  I think they must be missing having the queen because they have already begun to make a queen cell.  So in 16 days there will be another Queen.

Harmony 2 - The original Carni hive, now hosts a rather large colony.  On inspection, we found brood, stores and honey  and also eggs.  This was a bit of a suprise as we didnt expect the old queen to lay straight away.  Having looked for her several times we decided that the bees must have killed her.  Just as we were getting to the end of the inspection and to the frames with nothing much on, we saw her... another new queen.  This one will be named Queen Deedee after my other neice. 

Harmony 1 - My Buckfast babies.. These girls are a pleasure to work with, they are calm, busy and productive.  Queenie was on the next to last frame, reliable as always.  The varroa has died down, so the icing sugar has definately done the trick.  We didn't bother this week because they were all a bit stressed but next week its back to normal.  Below is a picture of them coming back to the hive loaded with pollen from the rape.

Swarm

I dunno, I go out shopping and leave him on his own...  I'm in Meadowhall doing what I hate most and get a call. "they've swarmed"  The other half has read about swarm catching but no hands on experience.  What a learning curve!! 

Apparently he was going for a wander down the bottom of the garden, thought there was a lot of bees out, then found them. 

 Not one but two swarms!! at least they were handy enough to catch.  Now they are in the new hive and hopefully the new queen is with them.   Down to lack of experience and because we werent sure there was a queen, we put the old Carni queen from the nuc back in to the big hive with the remainder of the bees.  Fingers crossed they are there tomorrow!!!!!

All fun and games.  oh and now we have 4 hives.

Expansion

We did our usual check this morning.  Starting with the Buckfast, Queenie is not laying as much as the Carni but getting there, this will definitely be her last year.   Carnis are good, the new queen hasnt hatched yet, that won't be long then its fingers crossed for the next stage...

Both hives have just had a 3rd super put on, that means potentially 75lb honey all being well (each hive btw).

We seem to be on top of the Varroa, having decided to use icing sugar each time we check,  why use chemicals when you can give them a nice thank you dusting of icing sugar and shake off the mites at the same time?!

Carni nuc is growing, she is a busy girl our queen.  They will stay in there until all 5 frames have a mix of eggs, brood stores.  The hive has been bought and is painted green ready for transferring. 

Below are pics of the nuc with some young bees having a sniff around the entrance and all three in a row.. Harmony 1, 2 & 3.. Loads a honey!!!