Catherine: Swapped feeder for full one. Bees had taken slightly more than half the syrup
Margaret: Empty. Filled to about 3cm deep/ about an eighth full.
Flora: Less than 1 cm depth of syrup left. Topped up to about 3cm deep, using up all the made up syrup.
28kg sugar used for syrup making so far. All hives were flying and bringing in pollen. Weather was slightly overcast but also warm.
Catherine: Topped up
Margaret: Filled to tray to half full.
Flora: Filled tray to half full.
Weather calm and warm.
Catherine: Topped up feed – feeder was empty.
Margaret: Removed two cleared supers, put large feeding tray on top of brood box. Feeder less than 1/4 full. Reducer added.
Flora: Removed three cleared supers, put feeding tray on top. Feeder less than 1/4 full due to amount of syrup available.
Stored empty supers & crown boards in bee hut. Supers are divided by newspaper.
Catherine: Topped up contact feed and added reducer to front of entrance to prevent robbing.
Margaret: Removed queen excluder. Put porter bee escape above brood box. Top super was busy with bees so left on for clearer boards to work. Bees were not in good form so entrance reducer not added.
Flora: Removed queen excluder. Put bee escape on as above, left all supers on to clear. Reducer put in entrance.
Syrup left in bucket for next feed – 8kg sugar/4L water
Honey Extraction Day!
The whole bee group extracted the honey. This involves cutting off the wax cappings to allow the honey to flow out of the frames when centrifuged in the extractor. The honey is then sieved into buckets and later cleaned further by straining through muslin cloth before being put into jars. We got about 18 kgs of honey, approximately 3kg from Margaret and the rest from Flora (the new hive).
Full supers removed from Margaret and Flora, the clearer boards worked well.
Ursula and Nicola put on the clearing boards and have two supers clearing on Flora and one on Margaret. We did not see much sealed honey on the supers that remained. Bees very calm and weather mild 18 degrees C although a bit windy.
Peter performed a brief inspection to assess honey and state of hives
Catherine: The queen was not seen but there was brood on 6 frames. Not much in the way of stores. They will need feeding come mid-September. Possibly allow the queen to continue through to spring.
Flora: With luck may get 40+ lbs from two full supers. When putting on clearer boards put the unfilled super above the excluder and then the clearer board, so the bees are cleared from the two full supers. This will leave them with stores and if September is a good month there may be another super of honey. Brood chamber not examined.
Margaret: Only extract the full super so put the empty one on top of the excluder and the clearer board on top of that. May get 10lb of honey from this hive. Brood chamber not examined.
29th July 2020 1:15pm weather: cloudy and warm
Flora: Have not started to store in top super yet
Margaret: 7 frames with lots of stores. Added a second super
Catherine: Bees covered densely six frames. Frames have a lot of brood and a little stores. Saw Queen marked green, this is the colour of 2019 if marked correctly.
1500 Tuesday 21 July 2020
Present: Richard, Ursula and Peter
Catherine – Seems much stronger and good signs of collecting stores. Peter suggested they have a new Queen. Bees were relatively calm.
Margaret – Super filling up. Next inspection to see if needs a new super – add on top if so. Bees a bit angry.
Flora – 2 supers pretty full. Added 3rd super on top. Replaced floorboard. No sign of queen cells. Next inspection possibly rearrange frames to help even out honey collection. Bees were super feisty. Couple of plot holders stung.
Next time: Mark new Queen in Catherine.
Bridgend Bees 