I am now a Beekeeper!!
Discussion
Jambo85 said:
Nimby said:
There seems to be a lot more OSR around this spring. Something to do with the shortage of sunflower oil from Russia and Ukraine?
Most of it is autumn sown so I think unlikely, the price was already high for it last year, not sure of exact reasons.https://www.fwi.co.uk/arable/uk-research-begins-to...
Which is good news for us Flowhive users
Edit: there is now no OSR within my bees flight range but I just drove past a field (about 5 miles away from my apiary) that had what looked like a corner of old OSR growing wild and the flowers are already dyeing off.
Edited by dickymint on Friday 22 April 13:40
dickymint said:
There has been a sharp decline in OSR planting due to "cabbage stem flea beetle" .......
https://www.fwi.co.uk/business/markets-and-trends/...Nimby said:
dickymint said:
There has been a sharp decline in OSR planting due to "cabbage stem flea beetle" .......
https://www.fwi.co.uk/business/markets-and-trends/...
dickymint said:
Demaree has failed!! They're up a tree as I type 
Update: no longer in tree.......last seen flying over house and heading for town
Eek. Catching them when they’re heading out is tricky. We had one swarm land in a tree about 4ft off the ground. Perfect. By the time we got suited up and back with a spare box they were 20ft+ up. Update: no longer in tree.......last seen flying over house and heading for town
Edited by dickymint on Sunday 24th April 18:30
If it’s any consolation, I doubt you’re alone this year. Colonies are just growing so fast at the moment and we’re seeing quite a few scouts checking out a bait hive we put out a few days ago.
It’s still early though so a good chance your remaining ones will recover and still leave a surplus of honey.
LooneyTunes said:
dickymint said:
Demaree has failed!! They're up a tree as I type
Update: no longer in tree.......last seen flying over house and heading for town
Eek. Catching them when they’re heading out is tricky. We had one swarm land in a tree about 4ft off the ground. Perfect. By the time we got suited up and back with a spare box they were 20ft+ up. Update: no longer in tree.......last seen flying over house and heading for town
Edited by dickymint on Sunday 24th April 18:30
If it’s any consolation, I doubt you’re alone this year. Colonies are just growing so fast at the moment and we’re seeing quite a few scouts checking out a bait hive we put out a few days ago.
It’s still early though so a good chance your remaining ones will recover and still leave a surplus of honey.
I'd just finished doing a full inspection on my other Flowhive and was chuffed not to find any queen cells in a very busy hive and put their super own. Turned my back for a ciggy and can of cider and it all kicked off.
Until I check the hive, probably tomorrow, my only guess is there was an emerged virgin queen on the same frame as the original queen in the lower brood box. Quite intriguing really.
Jambo85 said:
Bugger! My money would be on a sealed QC somewhere, did you grub out all the started ones when you did the Demaree?
You'd get odds on with that bet but i'm 100% certain the queen on a single frame of brood (and all other frames being brand new) had no QC's even the few drone cells I dug out! The top brood box I shook off all bees and did similar and besides any queen in the top box would have had to get through two queen excluders to get out!Probably go into hive tomorrow to find out what I can - the camera will be rolling lol
Will be interesting to see what you find!
Look on the bright side though. Althing having to do a lot a lot more with the hives this year, there are so many early bees that it’s giving us the chance to try a few new things knowing that there’s a good chance we can recover if something doesn’t work.
Look on the bright side though. Althing having to do a lot a lot more with the hives this year, there are so many early bees that it’s giving us the chance to try a few new things knowing that there’s a good chance we can recover if something doesn’t work.
dickymint said:
Jambo85 said:
Bugger! My money would be on a sealed QC somewhere, did you grub out all the started ones when you did the Demaree?
You'd get odds on with that bet but i'm 100% certain the queen on a single frame of brood (and all other frames being brand new) had no QC's even the few drone cells I dug out! The top brood box I shook off all bees and did similar and besides any queen in the top box would have had to get through two queen excluders to get out!Probably go into hive tomorrow to find out what I can - the camera will be rolling lol
I have seen bees take shortcuts making cells, starting from a larvae on day 4, so that gives only 4 days from last intervention to sealed cell and swarm departure. You can end up with very sneaky emergency cells that look like slightly turned down drone cells - queens would be small I think. I’ve only seen that on a mental clover flow in July with huge frustrated colonies though, would be odd in April IMO.
Interested to hear the update, good luck!!
Cheers Jambo and Looney 
quick update: didn't get chance to go in today but had a brainwave just now and ventured out with my thermal camera..................
Fairly conclusive that indeed the original queen (bottom box) has gone with her attendants and all activity is now with the old brood upstairs.
Assuming that is the case and assuming they're creating emergency queen cells is there an argument to leave alone to fight it out? Thinking is this would avoid them cast swarming to oblivion as they'd have to get through both queen excluders to get out!
quick update: didn't get chance to go in today but had a brainwave just now and ventured out with my thermal camera..................Fairly conclusive that indeed the original queen (bottom box) has gone with her attendants and all activity is now with the old brood upstairs.
Assuming that is the case and assuming they're creating emergency queen cells is there an argument to leave alone to fight it out? Thinking is this would avoid them cast swarming to oblivion as they'd have to get through both queen excluders to get out!
dickymint said:
Cheers Jambo and Looney quick update: didn't get chance to go in today but had a brainwave just now and ventured out with my thermal camera..................
Fairly conclusive that indeed the original queen (bottom box) has gone with her attendants and all activity is now with the old brood upstairs.
Assuming that is the case and assuming they're creating emergency queen cells is there an argument to leave alone to fight it out? Thinking is this would avoid them cast swarming to oblivion as they'd have to get through both queen excluders to get out!
You do like the toys! quick update: didn't get chance to go in today but had a brainwave just now and ventured out with my thermal camera..................Fairly conclusive that indeed the original queen (bottom box) has gone with her attendants and all activity is now with the old brood upstairs.
Assuming that is the case and assuming they're creating emergency queen cells is there an argument to leave alone to fight it out? Thinking is this would avoid them cast swarming to oblivion as they'd have to get through both queen excluders to get out!
There's obviously going to be a delay whilst they try to rear a new queen (which then needs to be able to get out at some point to mate) which might not be ideal. You could let them get on with it, but I'd find it quite tempting (especially if they were a bit grumpy or unproductive) to buy and introduce a new queen, although you're almost certainly looking at imported ones this early.
Mobile Chicane said:
Oil seed rape is bad news for bees. Since this was planted in the fields below my house I have observed a drastic reduction in the number of honey bees in the garden. Literally, 5-10% of their former numbers. Reason being, the seed is treated with neo-nicotinoid pesticides.
This is true, and IIRC, only since Brexit….Turn7 said:
Mobile Chicane said:
Oil seed rape is bad news for bees. Since this was planted in the fields below my house I have observed a drastic reduction in the number of honey bees in the garden. Literally, 5-10% of their former numbers. Reason being, the seed is treated with neo-nicotinoid pesticides.
This is true, and IIRC, only since Brexit….MC is your observation over a number of years, or only while OSR is flowering? The reality for most beekeepers is that they absolutely thrive on OSR.
dickymint said:
Cheers Jambo and Looney quick update: didn't get chance to go in today but had a brainwave just now and ventured out with my thermal camera..................
Fairly conclusive that indeed the original queen (bottom box) has gone with her attendants and all activity is now with the old brood upstairs.
Assuming that is the case and assuming they're creating emergency queen cells is there an argument to leave alone to fight it out? Thinking is this would avoid them cast swarming to oblivion as they'd have to get through both queen excluders to get out!
Interesting! Knowing that bees keep brood warmer than anything else that could well be an expected result irrespective of a swarm? I think you can see the one frame in the bottom box too? Am I right in thinking you don’t have a super between the brood boxes? (I didn’t watch your demaree video!) quick update: didn't get chance to go in today but had a brainwave just now and ventured out with my thermal camera..................Fairly conclusive that indeed the original queen (bottom box) has gone with her attendants and all activity is now with the old brood upstairs.
Assuming that is the case and assuming they're creating emergency queen cells is there an argument to leave alone to fight it out? Thinking is this would avoid them cast swarming to oblivion as they'd have to get through both queen excluders to get out!
As Looney said you’re going to have to allow at least one queen out to mate so I wouldn’t rely on the excluder to prevent swarming. I would thin down to your best looking cell and put it in the bottom box.
Jambo85 said:
Turn7 said:
Mobile Chicane said:
Oil seed rape is bad news for bees. Since this was planted in the fields below my house I have observed a drastic reduction in the number of honey bees in the garden. Literally, 5-10% of their former numbers. Reason being, the seed is treated with neo-nicotinoid pesticides.
This is true, and IIRC, only since Brexit….MC is your observation over a number of years, or only while OSR is flowering? The reality for most beekeepers is that they absolutely thrive on OSR.
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