BBKA Forum

Steve 1972 wrote: ↑

02 Aug 2020, 19:38

AndrewLD wrote: ↑

02 Aug 2020, 17:08

Then I saw that they were all fanning with their nasanov glands exposed, the crush reduced and now bees are defending the entrance.............

I have found that the Nasonav gland being fanned is not a sure sign that the little darlings have a team leader..lol

In fact it can be a sign of desperate bees fanning in the hope of attracting a passing queen (or so it is said!).

That's an interesting idea..

Checked bees on the heather, the first inklings of a flow and the moors are pinking up nicely. At least in the areas not affected by heather beetle.
Interestingly my bees (or some of them) were working the bell heather.

NigelP wrote: ↑

07 Aug 2020, 14:08

Checked bees on the heather, the first inklings of a flow and the moors are pinking up nicely. At least in the areas not affected by heather beetle.
Interestingly my bees (or some of them) were working the bell heather.

Cracking picture Nigel..

Almost ran out of Fondant so i sliced four pieces into MR Kipling slice size pieces and put them on the top bars under a eke on all four nucs..

Went through three colonies today to assess things and do a bit of juggling....the first one was on double brood with a unmarked 2020 mated Queen running around in there..i found her fairly quickly and marked and clipped her..while the paint was drying i put all nine frames of brood into one box and removed the second brood box.. one of the frames was a super frame full of capped brood that i used to fill a gap with a while back so that was put into another hive on the outside edge to boost numbers,,hopefully with less space the bees will finish of the six supers above them...
The third one was one of two laying worker colonies..both still had a fair amount of bees but not enough to fill the supers..i removed one of the colonies and placed the other on the stand of the removed hive..i then shook all of the bees out of the moved colony which quickly gathered on the front of there now new home..that has doubled the work force so fingers crossed i can get the supers of in the next couple of weeks..
To end the day i gave a problem wasp nest a dose of Bendiocarb as they where in a hollowed out tree stump garden ornament and stings where to many when cutting the lawn around them..

Today i went through four Nucs with bought in Queens..three of which where made on the 19th July and on five frames of brood in all stages but most capped with little space for the Queen to lay..i have removed the ekes as the three of them have enough stores for now because i do not want them filling the void with wild comb..
Hopefully the weather is nice this weekend which will allow me to transfer the three of them into Abelo poly brood boxes..

I did a visual inspection of the hives this morning as is my usual routine, and noticed that the bees were crowding / covering half the entrance (Fully opened on a national). I could not see them flapping their wings, they were just standing there in a large bunch. I have placed a entrance block reducing the size. I have for the past couple of weeks that they are returning covered from top to toe in white pollen, no idea what it could be except Balsam.

Making up nucs with queen cells

Cable_Fairy wrote: ↑

13 Aug 2020, 17:16

I did a visual inspection of the hives this morning as is my usual routine, and noticed that the bees were crowding / covering half the entrance (Fully opened on a national). I could not see them flapping their wings, they were just standing there in a large bunch. I have placed a entrance block reducing the size. I have for the past couple of weeks that they are returning covered from top to toe in white pollen, no idea what it could be except Balsam.

Balsam is the one at this time of the year..we call them ghost bees..