Community Apiary

I have been talking to the leader of the Food Group of Transition Community Corsham (Transcoco) about a community apiary.

Of course, there will be the usual debate between the "natural"-ists who will want topbar hives with no intervention and the "regulars" who will want removable hives and regular inspections.

Where do I stand? Against chemical treatments, that's for sure. The last thing bees need is more chemicals.

But if you keep bees, then you should do your best to keep them healthy. You wouldn't keep cows and just leave them be, would you?

More as this story develops!

All three colonies are through the winter

It was about 8 degrees C when I inspected my three colonies last week.
I was expecting one or more to be dead, given the very harsh winter, but all three were very much alive.

It was a bit late, but I gave them their Oxalic Acid treatment.

Two colonies were very docile, but the third was very aggressive. I wore just a smock top and several bees burrowed into my pocket and stung me through the lining. Luckily, just my leg. Could have been worse.

This colony has always been feisty, even though they superseded the queen last autumn. I was hoping their disposition would improve.

This is the colony that I might move. It produced no excess honey last year and I think it's because it is just too exposed a position. They had plenty to eat, with a field of Oil Seed Rape just next door. But they never thrived.

Dismal end to the season

I have gone into winter with just three colonies.

Three weak ones were destroyed by wasps.

So I have two WBC hives for sale. Any offers before they go to ebay?

I will cut down the number of types of hive that I operate from three to two: Commercial and Polyhive.

Keeping more than one type of frame format is barmy - it just happened that way. So now I need to rationalise.

Next job: dose the hives with Oxalic acid. I did this last year and the bees survived. Would they survive anyway? Dunno. Do they have a big varroa infestation? I don't think so. But I'll follow the prescribed treatment.

News from the home hive: the weather has just warmed up to about 8C. A few bees are on cleansing flights and there are quite a few bodies on the landing board, so they have had a clean-out.

Honey Harvest

Photos by my son, Tom.


Took 65lbs off three hives. Not brilliant, but better than last year. We spun 47 frames- but some had crystalised a bit, so we didn't get the full yield. That's the problem with waiting until August to take the year's harvest.

Only one of the hives had a good year. It did two and a half supers.

The second was halted in May by going queenless - then got destroyed by wasps (see other posts). But it had done a super and half by then.

The third was the hive that started in May (?) as a swarm from friend's garden (see previous posts) - so taking a full super from that was a really good result.

Two queens installed into queenless hives

I bought two queens from Easybee.

They were in these bee cages, below.
I was confident about one of the hives. It had been queenless for some time (but see next post). So I knew it would accept a new queen.

The other hive I was worried about. Through pressure of time, I was not able to leave a day between killing the old queen (who was not laying) and introducing the new queen.

The result? Both queens laying very happily.

Thanks, Easybee.

Thieving robbing little bastards

One of my hives has been overrun by wasps. It was one that I had recently added a new queen to, and she had started to lay.
But too late. There were not enough bees to defend the hive and the queen has now disappeared, presumed dead.

I have moved the frames with brood and a couple of frames of brood from another hive into a nuc box, together with the remaining bees. The nuc box has two small entrance holes, so is much easier to defend.

Maybe they can make a new queen from eggs on the frames.

New Poly Nucleus box

Just bought a nucleus box from the excellent Modern Beekeeping in Devon for £29.

Admire the paint job! I like it. I wonder if the bees will. I bought a couple of sampler pots of "Shades" by Cuprinol, that were intended for the wooden bench that you see beneath the box. But looks good on the box, innit?

Unfortunately, it doesn't come with a central divider that enables one to keep two colonies in the same box. But a judicious hack at a sheet of Correx, the materiel du jour, fixed the problem.



See below with three brood frames in one side.


The final part of the job was to fashion a blocking panel for the entrance that will not be used if either the full six frames are being used as a colony or only one side is being used. See also the open mesh floor (essential for travelling any distance with bees on board).

I'm impressed with these hives. I have a colony in the full size polyhive and its doing well.