Super time!

The bees are now well established in their new brood box with plenty of new bees being produced. Since the queen has more room now they should build up numbers nicely. I still have the old box in place with a queen excluder between to stop her laying in the old box. I will give them another week with the old box in place - there should be no brood left now but they may move their honey stores up from there. I put a honey super ontop 2 weeks ago. Initially I put it on with a queen excluder below it but after a week they were still not interested so I did as Ted Hooper suggests and took out the queen excluder to get them interested. It seems he was right (no surprise there then) and within a few days they were drawing comb. Put the QE back.
Did an inspection today and there is half a frame of honey in the super!!! Plenty of eggs, unsealed and sealed brood in main box.

Wow, an exciting weekend!

So, I go and do an inspection on Friday, it was a lovely warm (20 C) day - they have gone crazy! They have built extra comb up through the crown board and into the roof space - about 5 columns of it containing honey and brood. Help! I scraped it all out and went through the brood chamber - no queen cells but very crowded in there. I think I was about 2 weeks too late putting on a super. There is obviously quite a nectar flow on right now. Could be something to do with a huge field of Oil Seed Rape (OSR) half a mile away behind Sainsbury's that has come into flower this week. Not sure what to do so shut it all up and came home and phoned Paul my mentor. He said I had 2 options:
1. Add a super and get some honey!
2. Take this opportunity to move them easily into the bigger Commercial box by putting it on top - the theory is they will move up into there, draw out the foundation on the brand new frames and then the queen should move up as she prefers laying eggs in fresh comb and there is more room.
I have gone for option 2 as this is my main objective this Spring. So, I went back and put a Commercial box with empty frames on top of the old box. (I had to use my old box for now as I am still waiting for my new ones to arrive but this is an emergency!!!)

I returned 2 days later with Steve (as helper) and Matt (as photographer) to:
Change the floor for a new Varroa floor, add some Varroa treatment ( Api Life Var) and to feed them some 2x1 syrup.
Checked the top box and they have drawn comb on most frames and there are eggs! In just 2 days!!

 Saw the queen and realised it was good opportunity to put the queen excluder between the 2 boxes to keep her in the top. Pauline brought it up for us and we slotted it in. Brilliantly, we forgot to move the feeder before we tilted the top box and ended up pouring syrup through the hive! Never mind, the bees will clean that up.

So, half the job is done. Did not need those filler frames I made last week but they are a long way towards moving house into a much bigger property with relative ease. Still so much to learn.
Big thanks to Steve and Matt today.

First inspection of the year

Went through half the frames. There were plenty of stores of pollen and honey and tons of sealed brood. Saw eggs and larvae. I am pleased to say they are still of a lovely temperament and a joy to handle today. I need to start preparing their move to a Commercial brood box and so I will start making the frame fillers soon so that I can transfer the National frames over. Need to buy the box too! My overtime money should pay for that.

Pollen

Nice day on Friday - sunny and 8C. Bees were flying and bringing in LOTS of pollen from pale yellow to bright orange. They still haven't finished the fondant - one tub has about one quarter left.

External inspection

Had a look today - plenty of activity in and out and pollen being brought into the hive - pale and bright yellow so must be from more than one plant. They must be so good at finding it - I don't see many flowers out at the moment - a few crocuses, snowdrop but no dafodils yet. They are taking the fondant and have eaten about half of one tub. Looks like plenty of bees in there.

Winter feeding

By now, the queen should be being brought in to lay again by the workers. This means big changes in the hive: winter bees can survive with a cluster temperature of as low as 65 F but once eggs and larvae are present a much higher temperature of around 90 F is required. So, the workers need to consume more stores in order to maintain that level of heat. Consequently, if they are low on their own stores of honey they can starve. 3 weeks ago I gave Genesis some sugar fondant - 2 Chinese takeaway sized tubs over the holes in the cover board. When I checked 2 weeks ago they were feeding on it and there were plenty of bees in the hive. I will check them again this weekend and see how much they are taking. I hope they will be bringing some pollen in themselves soon as they need that to make new bees!

Activity!

Just been to check Genesis. It is a balmy 10C today and indeed the bees are flying - taking cleansing flights - they don't pooh in the hive but store it up until they can get out. With this prolonged cold snap this is the first chance they have had in a long time. They were also dragging out the dead: it is certainly a question of survival of the strongest through the winter.