Get a grip woman!

foxgloves

@MissRikkiC - No, I don't have any intention of starting again. I started a new diary just a few months ago, so will stick with it.
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MissRikkiC

Ahhh! I think I’ve missed the new one restarting 😭 @foxgloves

Suffolk_lass

It has to be a bee day today. We need to proper inspect all of them. Even the vile hive. 

I have seen several queen wasps since we got back. One was indoors, one in my (warm) greenhouse and two stealing wood from the toolshed door that needs treating (always a giveaway). All left or released. Much as I dislike them, they are a valuable part of the ecosystem.

No wins on PBs and DH has been on the phone about his that has not been added to his online account. He has already written. Apparently he has to write again. With all his previous addresses. How frustrating. For a £1 bond!
My pension has gone in to the account today (hooray!). The first of two credit cards on the RC account has cleared and it looks very poorly. Mercifully the second CC for this account is only £17 this month. I keep looking at the old stamps. I must send them off.

Baileys_Babe

I had been procrastinating about swapping my stamps @Suffolk_lass I finally sorted it out in early April. I downloaded the over £200 form and filled it in, took it to the Post Office as I needed to send it special delivery, I mostly paid for this using a part-used book of 1st class nonbarcoded stamps 😉 remembering to add the postage costs to the form so they are reimbursed (in stamps). I was impressed with how quickly I received my exchange, 10 days, taking into account that 2 of those days were bank holidays and 2 days was the weekend. Everything was present and correct.

I can see you are busy with the bees today but set yourself a date to sort it out, no point giving yourself extra stress in late July as the deadline looms. In the end, it only took a minute to fill in the form.

beanielou

Get your stamps sorted out 

Suffolk_lass

My computer is playing silly Bs this morning and just swiped my post right and emptied it. So annoying when that happens.

I will get the stamps sorted, but just not today. 

DH had his fifth eye procedure yesterday. Clear perforated eye shield for five nights, drops for three weeks, another appointment in six weeks. More to the point, no driving, no lifting, and nothing strenuous.

Bees

We still have two colonies of bees to inspect, and three colonies to move. A large colony at the farmhouse are just a bit too ansi to leave there, so I want to move them to the farm (same village, so they need to go elsewhere for a few weeks first), and we have two colonies here in the garden, I would like to take to the farmhouse instead. Both quite quiet over winter, they are building up nicely and more suited to the large grounds/garden. The people lost their chickens to foxes so we can put them closer to the access path (and crucially the car, to reduce heavy lifting). 

Our first inspection has resulted in two colonies being split into three. I really need to go in and look again, checking for emergency queen cells and working out which has no Queen. Today the forecast is rain but tomorrow will be the day, and they would swarm if I’ve missed any. I found supercedure cells (that means the bees are doing a controlled replacement of their queen) and swarm cells (the swarm cells mean they have an impulse to swarm, and would continue to do so, to extinction, if left to their own plans). 

In both cases, we moved a charged QC and knocked down three on the same frame, into a small box (a nucleus) with some stores and frames of brood, and moved the box with the freshest eggs and larvae to another floor, leaving the colony with a charged supercedure (uncapped) queen cell to proceed with making a new queen.

Clearly, in at least one instance, the queen isn’t where we thought she was as DH was stung on the face, unprompted, when he was doing a job about 5m from them. Defensive (aggressive to us) bees and a roar when we open them up, is an indication of a queen less colony. Mind you, we had just ripped the roof off their home, rummaged around and reorganised things to suit us and then left their order in our our chaos, so it might just be that.

In money news, I bought three toys for the dog, a cup of tea and a fruit scone, and no plants at the garden centre, while waiting for DH. I declined to buy pelargoniums for £4.99 each when I had looked at the same size for £3.50 in Morries, earlier that day.

I went back to Morries in the morning to use the £2 basket bonus on more cat litter, and they had no organic milk or cream when I shopped on Tuesday, so I got these too. The main thing was to ask for a replacement bag of baking potatoes but I forgot to take them back. 6 out of 9 were badly damaged and while fine for mash, hopeless for jackets. So I texted DH and asked him to take a picture. After wondering why I wanted a picture of the veg garden (!) he realised and took a picture. The lovely Jo on the CS desk gave me a refund and a replacement bag, and we have 6 large mashing spuds too. That's what it is all about! Very happy

foxgloves

Always interesting to hear about the realities of bee-keeping, @Suffolk_lass.
I bought a tray of 6 pelargonium jumbo plugs from our little village garden centre last week - £3.99 per tray, variety "Violet". I potted them.up & put them in my new coldframe & they have already put on at least 50% growth. If they carry on at this rate, they should be a good size for my baskets & containers....in which case, I think I will do this in future, as I usually buy individual plants at £3.99 each. 
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Suffolk_lass

Blimey, that's good value @foxgloves, I might have to look at stalls outside people's houses to see anything that good here!

Suffolk_lass

Yesterday was a bee day!
All Bees
I inspected the two colonies against the workshop and neither had new brood (there was uncapped larvae but no eggs) and I knocked down several queen cells, leaving each with just one (now capped) queen cell. This cell is longer and the bees crawl over them when there is a new queen in there. The bees were also not happy with me, and my cuffs (think the things butlers wore over their lower sleeves when polishing the silver and crystal) took several stings. This is a strong indicator of the colony being queenless. So we must wait for about 3-5 days for the queens to emerge, fully formed, - she emerges on the 8th day after the cell is capped, but these have both been capped for something between Monday, when I split them with open QC and yesterday. I was slow, methodical and calm. I was also on my own, as DH s not able to help for a few days.

I moved on to the colony elsewhere in the garden with three split colonies from one. The first was a nucleus, five frames (so a half size) and that was fine. The second, in the original position, had all the flying bees and they were very unhappy to see me. Again, I knocked down all but one capped cell. I was followed by these for a few minutes, so their defenders were being very zealous. It was quite unpleasant and so after the second, I left them to it, and planned to come back and inspect the third, after lunch and a cup of tea. The problem with the stings on the cuffs is that there is an associated alarm pheromone, so where there was already that odour, the next hive was expecting trouble from me. 

I was still pottering in the kitchen, having reboiled the jelly marmalade that had failed to set enough, washing and sterilising the jars, and baking a large loaf of sourdough, and DH had taken dog for a walk when something made me open the back door and listen and look. The unmistakable buzz of a swarm. A large prime swarm at that (I believe they came from the hive I had yet to inspect and would have included the original queen - so that hive needs looking at to ensure there is only one capped QC, or there will be more swarms as Virgin Queens emerge, if there are more, resulting in significant weakening of the colony.

I donned my suit and DH's cuffs (as mine were in the washing machine!), my skep, sheets and a chair and I climbed up and firmly shook the branch I could reach. I got about two thirds of the swarm with a bit whomp as it landed in the skep. I put that upside down on a sheet with a brick under one edge and had just collected a box to try and reach the rest when DH got back. He quickly put his suit on and collected the rest (just a little too high for me. The scout bees had already gone looking for a nice new home, which meant when they returned, they clustered in the swarm spot, because that's where everyone was when they left. I set up a brood box on a floor, grabbed a crown board and had it ready to be their new home when DH arrived back.

We set up the hive and instead of marching the bees in, we shook them in. Unfortunately, while there is certainty that they are there, you don't get the signalling (fanning) by the bees to tell the rest how to get in. It depends how many you want to lose. For the rest of the afternoon and evening, there were little clusters of bees around the outside of the hive, and a few hundred back inside the skep. I went off for hymns and pimms at five in the church, and while there our neighbour pressed me about having some bees at theirs that I would look after. Long story short, we went round in the early evening, agreed our spot and set up a pallet with bricks to level it. We were going to move the bees too but DH didn't want to lose the stragglers, so he spent a good hour, in the dark, with a torch, hand-guiding bees into the hive. Then he closed it up, strapped and taped it, and moved it onto a sheet. We will wrap it this morning and move it to the Hall to be their new home.

I always feel slightly trepidatious but I think we are OK!

I still have six hives to check...

Merlin's_Beard

Quetion from a clueless: how would you march bees into a hive?