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General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #10585  by Bobbysbees
 16 Apr 2021, 22:18
Did my first inspections yesterday. knocked down a few charged qc and removed a full frame of drone brood from my smaller colony. Gave both a super of plastic foundation and some thin syrup to see if they will draw it.
about a month ago I took a split off my larger hive went through that and found a sweet little virgin queen and very little brood left to hatch. So today gave them a frame of capped brood to try and keep the numbers up till the princess is mated and laying.
If I'm right she has around 2 weeks to get mated or she will be no good. I have plenty of brood/eggs to give them if she doesn't come to anything.
Think I may have been a bit premature with the split but there are plenty of drones around now and I saw capped drone brood when doing the split. So thought I would give it a try in the hopes of giving them a head start on the season.
Anyone find their bees arnt keen on plastic foundation?
 #10586  by Alfred
 17 Apr 2021, 06:26
Could well be internet bs ( surely not...)but Ive read ,like old proper foundation,heating it up first makes it more attractive to them.
Its still a tough old game rendering that stuff down completely though :lol:
 #10589  by Bobbysbees
 17 Apr 2021, 15:37
Alfred wrote:
17 Apr 2021, 06:26
Could well be internet bs ( surely not...)but Ive read ,like old proper foundation,heating it up first makes it more attractive to them.
Its still a tough old game rendering that stuff down completely though :lol:
It came "prewaxed" but as most of it was in the bottom of the box I gave it a lick with some molten scraps from last year. might turn out to be a waste of time .
I wonder if its recycled plastic its made from.... but I doubt it.
If its a bust I'm sure I can find a use for it. Dont like my chances of melting it down though lol
 #10592  by MickBBKA
 18 Apr 2021, 01:36
I managed to inspect half my colonies today although it was 11c, I called off the rest as the wind of death from the sea picked up about 12.00, plenty of drones running free so hopefully your early queen may find a lucky few in your area. Only had 1 charged queen cell in a colony with 14 frames of brood so removed it for now.

What was amazing is quite a few colonies are filling supers given the daytime temp has not got above 7c for the last 3 weeks and average nights have been -4c. Have lost loads of plants at the allotment.

Looking today it appears that most have had a brood break as there is lots of sealed brood and lots of small larvae but not much in between. Its been the coldest April I have known, hopefully May isn't as cold as last year here. OSR, Cherry, Apple and Hawthorn starting to flower now, please god let it warm up.......................
 #10597  by NigelP
 18 Apr 2021, 15:06
Yup, seeing brood breaks all over the place.
A couple of colonies near starvation and almost out of stores, yet others adjacent to these are filling supers. All on massive amounts of brood for this time of year.
Apart from an odd colony they have burned through their excess stores, which is good. Weather set fair for the next week and May blossom is about to explode.
Soon they will turn their thoughts to swarming.
 #10605  by Spike
 19 Apr 2021, 20:27
Bobbysbees wrote:
16 Apr 2021, 22:18
Did my first inspections yesterday. knocked down a few charged qc and removed a full frame of drone brood from my smaller colony. Gave both a super of plastic foundation and some thin syrup to see if they will draw it.
about a month ago I took a split off my larger hive went through that and found a sweet little virgin queen and very little brood left to hatch. So today gave them a frame of capped brood to try and keep the numbers up till the princess is mated and laying.
If I'm right she has around 2 weeks to get mated or she will be no good. I have plenty of brood/eggs to give them if she doesn't come to anything.
Think I may have been a bit premature with the split but there are plenty of drones around now and I saw capped drone brood when doing the split. So thought I would give it a try in the hopes of giving them a head start on the season.
Anyone find their bees arnt keen on plastic foundation?
What part of the country are you in?
 #10623  by Liam
 22 Apr 2021, 13:31
Caught my first swarm today Image
May is my first full year bee-keeping so hopefully I can nuc these and they stay as I really need the bees :)
 #10635  by MickBBKA
 23 Apr 2021, 00:46
Have asked before, but it would help us all if folk would list their location as England has massive local differences in season, wind, temps and forage. We don't all live in the BBKA southern utopia.
 #10639  by NigelP
 23 Apr 2021, 08:24
Not sure I'd say the south is a bee utopia. Apart from ivy; their main flows are just about finished by late July early August. Whereas we are northern wasteland beekeepers are just taking our bees to the heather and the balsam is in blossom.
The ivy here flowers late October/Nov far too late to be any use as a nectar source
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