All About Bees: Busy time in the sun

The build-up in a lot of cases has been very slow this year as colonies were very small coming out of the long winter, but they are large enough to take advantage of a very good nectar flow in this warm spell.
By The Newsroom
Published 17th Jul 2013, 12:33 BST

Lime and clover need it warm to release the nectar so this weather is perfect.

Blackberry and sweet chestnut are flowering well.

The only problem is that the topsoil is drying out rapidly so clover and blackberry will dry up if we don’t get some rain.

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My wife is always telling me if there could be a problem with the bees I will always point it out. I usually reply I am only being realistic dear!

4th July Faygate. Watching the bees flying in and out of the hives for a couple of minutes tells me they have changed gear and are flying with determination unlike a week before.

Sure enough looking in the hives there is nectar everywhere, the honey supers are heavy and they need more supers on quick.

If the queen doesn’t have room to lay her eggs it could induce them to swarm.

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Alas one colony has decided it would be a good time to prepare to swarm so I removed the queen with a few frames of brood and stores into a Nuc (small Brood box).

The next inspection will be very important, I need to leave only one queen cell and must take out any others, the bees would swarm if there were more than one.

Usually the bees will be lively without a queen so it’s not easy.

Driving up the A264 at Faygate, I have seen some Oil Seed Rape, about half a mile from the bees which explains the sudden rush of nectar.

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10th July Southwater. Inspected the three parts of the split I did on the (10th June). All three have laying queens now, daughters of my best queen, which is great news after losing their mum.

This has increased my colonies back to 2012 spring total and the split at my hive in Faygate means I will have one in hand, if this survives the winter I can pass it on.

10th July Nyman’s Garden. Pleasantly surprised that the honey supers are heavy with nectar/honey luckily I have brought some empty supers to go on top.

Both colonies had built up so quickly the last few weeks, I never thought they would do so, as they were so small in the spring.

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12th July. Getting prepared to help in the BBKA marquee at the Hampton Court flower Show tomorrow 13th. Last year it was very busy with a lot of interested and concerned visitors. We share the marquee with the Bumble bee Conservation Trust with their “bumblearium” which is very popular. A very tiring day but very worthwhile.

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by Melvyn Essen - Chairman, Central Sussex BeeKeepers Association

Related topics:BeesBlackberry