Full inspection on all three hives - couldn't skip the opportunity since this surely has been one of the LAST nice days this year at 24 degC and sunny.
Big colony with new queen doing great. Chocker with stores so I removed the Ashforth feeder and moved it over to my other Abelo poly which is doing good but only has bees on 7 frames. So hopefully they'll fill the spare combs with stores.
All three colonies have the same queen they has last time - an inherited 2018 queen in the nuc, the bought-in queen in the big colony and the home-grown queen in the other poly on 7/11 frames. That home-grown queen makes some nice calm offspring. Maybe the local bees here are nice? Hmm!
I also finally put on the Apitraz for the big colony, now they have the queen introduced and they're all united and settled. The Apitraz on the other two colonies will be coming off next week.
Mixed some more sugar syrup as I gave the last 5 litres to the small Abelo poly colony. The poly nuc needs a little bit more feed.
I collected some propolis as I've been asked for some by someone intending to use as a tincture. However, I'm not sure I should be giving them it if it has thymol in or comes from a hive treated with Apitraz. Any thoughts on that would be appreciated.
Big colony with new queen doing great. Chocker with stores so I removed the Ashforth feeder and moved it over to my other Abelo poly which is doing good but only has bees on 7 frames. So hopefully they'll fill the spare combs with stores.
All three colonies have the same queen they has last time - an inherited 2018 queen in the nuc, the bought-in queen in the big colony and the home-grown queen in the other poly on 7/11 frames. That home-grown queen makes some nice calm offspring. Maybe the local bees here are nice? Hmm!
I also finally put on the Apitraz for the big colony, now they have the queen introduced and they're all united and settled. The Apitraz on the other two colonies will be coming off next week.
Mixed some more sugar syrup as I gave the last 5 litres to the small Abelo poly colony. The poly nuc needs a little bit more feed.
I collected some propolis as I've been asked for some by someone intending to use as a tincture. However, I'm not sure I should be giving them it if it has thymol in or comes from a hive treated with Apitraz. Any thoughts on that would be appreciated.
Jazz