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General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #4290  by NigelP
 27 Jul 2019, 17:26
AdamD wrote:
26 Jul 2019, 16:55
On Wednesday I poured out the contents of my wellies after looking at some colonies. 35 degrees.
Adam, you really need to treat yourself to an Oz armour triple layered ventilated suit. You can work in speedos only (or less)....as I did earlier this week (guaranteed sting proof).. Much more comfortable in warm weather....,But in the temps we had this week you would perspire even if you inspected buck naked.
 #4293  by Chrisbarlow
 27 Jul 2019, 19:18
just bought an oz armour. very impressed. Feeling the breeze as i bee keep is great.
 #4295  by Japey Edge
 27 Jul 2019, 20:19
Was heading to the garage to pick some stuff up and noticed a few wasps lingering around on of the hives - the weakest one. As I was watching I noticed a wasp come out the hive casually. Others were going in and seemed to be spooked off. I reckon I saw 4 or 5 individual wasps harassing the hive.

Is it entrance reducer time or wasp traps? Not sure if wasp traps will just attract more attention? Maybe catch bees too?
 #4296  by Chrisbarlow
 27 Jul 2019, 20:30
Japey Edge wrote:
27 Jul 2019, 20:19
Was heading to the garage to pick some stuff up and noticed a few wasps lingering around on of the hives - the weakest one. As I was watching I noticed a wasp come out the hive casually. Others were going in and seemed to be spooked off. I reckon I saw 4 or 5 individual wasps harassing the hive.

Is it entrance reducer time or wasp traps? Not sure if wasp traps will just attract more attention? Maybe catch bees too?
both, if they are cruising in and out casually they have already overwhelmed the hive. doing nothing and the colony with die. The wasps will kill colony off.

I would minimise the entrance with duct tape down to a couple of bee spaces and set up wasp traps. The duct tape will mean that the bees have to queue to get in and get out but wasps cant get in anymore. I would also make sure the equipment is in good order and there are no other entrances, Will the traps attract more wasps, possibly, but they will trap an aweful lot more. I would set up several traps as well. I use 2litre milk cartons with a letter box entrance in the side and sugar syrup as bait inside.
 #4297  by Japey Edge
 27 Jul 2019, 20:37
Cheers Chris,

The colony is in an Abelo poly national. I'll stick their entrance reducer on for now and narrow it down until next inspection.

Also done a bit of googling, I'll check the underfloor tray and wash it when I get a minute. May have dribbled something down there.
 #4298  by Japey Edge
 27 Jul 2019, 21:26
Entrance reducer on. Two wasp traps set up - one milk bottle and the other is a tonic bottle (all I had) set up the way you learn as a kid.
Also washed out the under mesh tray. It has wasps in it do must have dribbled some honey when I was trimming comb and what not.

Really need to be more careful not to drip nectar out of frames or be tempted to cut back bulging comb...
 #4299  by Chrisbarlow
 27 Jul 2019, 21:55
I suspect if you had been careful , you would still have had wasps there taking an interest in your bees. There seems to be an aweful lot of wasps around already.
 #4300  by Adam Bee
 27 Jul 2019, 22:44
There were wasps at the association apiary and a few tried to get into my hive as I inspected. Shooed them out, but they were there. Last week I saw wasps hawking bees off the flowers in my backyard. From what I hear this is the expected time of year for it.
 #4301  by Adam Bee
 27 Jul 2019, 23:00
The Mystery of the Trapped Queen

So, after all of the warnings of honey production and the hope of removing my darned DN4's from my top box, things didn't go as planned! (How unexpected...)

Last week, my top box - the one with the 6 DN4's and the eke - was all honey except for a ripe band of drone comb on the bottom of a few frames. The suggestion was to add a new box below this top box which would act as a barrier to the queen in lieu of a queen excluder. This would allow the drones to emerge and the honey to be harvested and the DN4's to be removed.

Wah-wah-wah.... sad trombone.

I arrived at the apiary today and started an inspection. My son was acting as assistant beekeeper.

The top box had honey frames on the outside, but the majority of the inner frames were either freshly polished cells, eggs or uncapped larva. The honey had been removed! And HM was laying up a storm.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot! Where'd my honey go and why was HM suddenly interested in this box!? The one I was hoping to pull off or at least denude a bit!?

I took the top box off after a B+ inspection, observing BIAS and putting the 3 full frames of honey back in, as I didn't want to try extracting only 3 frames at that time.

We looked at the second box which was full of bearding bees and a good start on building comb and some nectar, but not the full box as predicted. My son was about to put the dummy board back when he said "Look, Dad! The Queen!" and there she was on the top of a frame in this next box down.

Facepalm.

The advice of using an empty box as a QE was a sound one. However, we missed the Queen in our inspection and all that I could surmise was that we had trapped her ABOVE the empty box rather than below it, so this week, she spent the entire week laying in the honey frames.

Le sigh.

So, we buttoned up the hive and put everything back.

Had I been prescient, I'd have either found the frame she was on and put it down below the now mostly empty box, or just put that box with the eke back into a lower position; but I didn't. We'll just have to see how she gets on. By the time I'd really had a think about what I'd done, the hive was getting settled and I didn't want to open them up again.

Live and learn!
 #4302  by Patrick
 27 Jul 2019, 23:31
Adam, sounds like a fun day out!

There are plenty of ways to keep bees successfully depending on your particular objectives, most have merits and demerits. Mine included, I would freely admit.

I totally get the all one size of box idea, but I am less convinced about running colonies without a queen excluder. I have known folk who do it and it can present real challenges down the line, some of which you have already found with brood and honey all over the shop and the queen just about anywhere. The supposed merits I fear are often wishful thinking.

It’s one thing running a queen over a couple of boxes, but when next year you are looking for a swarming queen over 5 or 6 boxes and cells raised all over the shop I think it may become quite challenging.

Don’t fall for the old “bees swarm because they run out of space so if you give them unlimited space you don’t need swarm control” schlock. It’s simply just not true. Bees in nature have access to huge voids and can make gynormous wild combs - and swarm freely.

I would suggest reconsidering the no queen excluder idea, its going to make your beekeeping life a load more complicated than it needs to be. Sorry to be a bit dull, just trying to help.
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