Ste brought his GoPro to our weekly bee inspection this morning, so here is a short video of the inside of “Mango” hive. There are three clips:
1. Using the smoker
2. A frame of honey
3. A frame of brood, which is baby bees as larvae and pupae in capped cells
I had a call yesterday from the Regional Bee Inspector, asking if he could come and inspect my company’s hives. To say I was surprised would be an understatement – we’ve had them less than two weeks!
The Regional Bee Inspector works for the National Bee Unit, which is a government funded body, part of the Animal and Plant Health Agency. The NBU’s role is to assist beekeepers and in particular help to prevent the spread of disease between apiaries. So we were very pleased to welcome the inspector to the office car park to see our new bees and offer advice.
He was very happy with the health of both colonies. We asked him if there was a reason for inspecting our bees so soon after we got them. It turns out to be coincidence. The inspection was made because there has been an outbreak of American Foul Brood in the Oldham area, and their policy is to inspect all apiaries in a five mile radius of a notifiable disease outbreak. We just happen to have appeared on their records at about the time the outbreak happened. We were very pleased to hear that there was no sign of disease, which is a good job because the mandatory method of dealing with this disease is destruction of the colonies.
Whilst he was here, we asked advice on adding an “extension” to our bees’ homes. He recommended that we add a second brood box to both hives, which doubles their capacity and will give the bees a great deal more space into which to expand and prepare themselves for the winter. They now have 22 frames onto which to build honeycomb, lay eggs and store food. Below are photos of our hives with the new boxes added on top.
Ste and I conducted our first inspection of the office beehives this morning. Although it was overcast, it was baking hot and we both nearly melted in our beesuits. But the inspection was successful and we were able to confirm that our new colonies seem to have settled in very well.
We found the queen in both colonies – not difficult because they are clearly marked with a red dot on the back of their head. Queens are marked with a colour according to the year they are born. Queens born in years ending 3 or 8 are marked with a red dot.
We checked that the queen is laying eggs OK, which they are in both colonies. We saw eggs, hatched larvae and also “sealed brood”. This is where the larvae are sealed into their honeycomb cell with a wax cap by the worker bees. During their time as sealed brood they pupate into an adult bee. When ready to emerge as an adult (after 12 days), they nibble their way out through the cap.
So that was all good news. In addition both colonies have at least two frames full of honey which means they are finding plenty of nectar to collect to enable them to feed and grow the colony. No, it doesn’t mean we’ll have any honey for sale yet!
We’ll be performing another inspection in about a week.
After months of waiting, I took delivery of my office’s two bee colonies late on Wednesday night.
Beehives have to be moved either first thing in the morning or late at night, when the bees are all back home in their hive and not out foraging. So I collected the hives from the breeder late at night and delivered them to their new home at the end of the office car park at about 11pm.
Here are some photos of them in place, and of me and fellow beekeeper Ste.
On Thursday morning there was a great deal of activity because there is plenty of nectar and pollen in the local vicinity for them to start foraging.
Keep checking back on this blog as I post more photos of us looking after the beehives over the coming months.
The hives in place at 11pm
