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The Evening Martin visited my Girls! 20th April 2009
or
So you think you are a beekeeper then?
Setting the scene….
I have a beautiful brand new hive that spent last summer residing in my dining room waiting for a swarm from our local pest controller, but as it was such a poor summer there were no swarms to be had. There it sat until we needed the space for our Christmas tree!
The tree came and went, the snows came and went, and so too the snow drops, spring arrived, and the hive, once again took its place in the dining room…. waiting………
My bees….
I think my colony is strong. Queen ‘Atilla the Hum’ has done well and the girls are prolific in numbers. Many are flying and there is a very strong buzzing from within the hive, in fact, worryingly it sounds like a riot going on in there! I have never heard this sound from a hive before- a soft buzzing yes, but not like this- it’s a little Scary.
Time to make a plan…..
The plan was to divide the hive in two, thus creating an ‘artificial swarm’. To be prudent I spent some time reading up on the ‘preferred’ methods (maybe in hind sight I should have got the girls [bees] to read this too) I am now totally confused so it’s time to call my beekeeping mentor, Martin, a truly delightful gentleman of mature years and my tutor at evening classes for all ‘up and coming’ bee keepers, and all things bee related.
Martin was happy to visit one evening and would arrive about six pm. We would either talk bees and hopefully I would be given a plan of action, or better still, if the weather was kind, we would open up the hive and do my first check of the season, after such a cold, cold winter who knows what we would or would not find.
We would look for signs of disease, the amount eggs and brood, how much space and stores they have left and with bucket loads of luck we might even find my queen ‘Atilla’ still wearing her red crown from last year. Each year has a different colour. You mark your new queens with a bee friendly paint on their thorax- the colour of the paint denotes the year in which they hatched. This year it is to be a green blob. This is a UK wide system for queen marking.
It was always going to be a bit of a rush….
But I got home on time, the roads were kind to me, and the weather was perfect with a beautiful warm soft evening in prospect. Martin found my house and we decided to open the hive.
Bits and pieces gathered, some how I even remembered to bring the matches to light the smoker, which has a complete mind of its own and is normally very ill tempered, tonight however my smoker was the perfect gentleman and lit first time- amazing.
Of we go…..
Oh dear, this is really not good, the whole front of the hive was black with bees, all those who should have been on the inside were now on the outside
Goodness knows I was so glad to have Martin with me. “Just give me a moment to think about this” he calmly and gently said….”yes, I have an idea”
“I think they were about to swarm so we will create the second hive now”!
Almost an hour and a half later I have my artificial swarm! I now have two hives, but when I say the word now I really do mean right now, right now as in, at this precise moment in time! come tomorrow they could all do a bunk!
We finally got done at almost eight in the evening, I lost count of how many times I apologised to Martin, he said he had enjoyed his evening very much and that it had be very exciting I guess the term ‘exciting’ can be felt in very different ways and I bet mine was not in quite the same way as the ever calm, kind and experienced Martin!
So what have I……?
Best case scenario- two hives full of bees - please!
First hive has old Queen (red dot) and the ‘swarm’ that was on front of hive, with just a few frames of stores- no brood and no queen cells (in which the new queen pupates)
Second hive has stores, brood and one new Queen cell ready to hatch (green dot) plus the nurse bees.
Other very bad options
First hive re-swarms so, NO queen, and just a few very, very, lost- returning from the fields - worker bees left in a big empty hive. Very very bad.
Second hive – queen does not hatch, is not viable, does not mate, does not lay eggs or dies! Colony is therefore considered ‘Queen- less’ this is bad
Second hive – could swarm too? Also bad
The next morning……(today)
Suited and booted early before going to work I took a walk over to the girls, the first hive looks much the same, slightly less busy and no ‘riot sounds’ from within. Good!
The second hive has a big clump of bees hanging from the front of it….hmmmm, not so good but I hope it’s just the flying bees wondering what the heck is going on and exactly where is home?
Any one know where I can take knitting classes??? ;-)
Oh, and the ‘riot sounds’ from within…. We think was down to the fact that they were so tightly packed in the hive more like sardines than bees. They had run out of room. So the noise translates into- get your foot of my head, mind where you put that…ouch! can you just move over a little, careful with that and your foot is in my ear!….. etc.
and,
Another little thing - bees don’t normally swarm as early as April, but then- me and mine are not really very normal are we???? ;-)
or
So you think you are a beekeeper then?
Setting the scene….
I have a beautiful brand new hive that spent last summer residing in my dining room waiting for a swarm from our local pest controller, but as it was such a poor summer there were no swarms to be had. There it sat until we needed the space for our Christmas tree!
The tree came and went, the snows came and went, and so too the snow drops, spring arrived, and the hive, once again took its place in the dining room…. waiting………
My bees….
I think my colony is strong. Queen ‘Atilla the Hum’ has done well and the girls are prolific in numbers. Many are flying and there is a very strong buzzing from within the hive, in fact, worryingly it sounds like a riot going on in there! I have never heard this sound from a hive before- a soft buzzing yes, but not like this- it’s a little Scary.
Time to make a plan…..
The plan was to divide the hive in two, thus creating an ‘artificial swarm’. To be prudent I spent some time reading up on the ‘preferred’ methods (maybe in hind sight I should have got the girls [bees] to read this too) I am now totally confused so it’s time to call my beekeeping mentor, Martin, a truly delightful gentleman of mature years and my tutor at evening classes for all ‘up and coming’ bee keepers, and all things bee related.
Martin was happy to visit one evening and would arrive about six pm. We would either talk bees and hopefully I would be given a plan of action, or better still, if the weather was kind, we would open up the hive and do my first check of the season, after such a cold, cold winter who knows what we would or would not find.
We would look for signs of disease, the amount eggs and brood, how much space and stores they have left and with bucket loads of luck we might even find my queen ‘Atilla’ still wearing her red crown from last year. Each year has a different colour. You mark your new queens with a bee friendly paint on their thorax- the colour of the paint denotes the year in which they hatched. This year it is to be a green blob. This is a UK wide system for queen marking.
It was always going to be a bit of a rush….
But I got home on time, the roads were kind to me, and the weather was perfect with a beautiful warm soft evening in prospect. Martin found my house and we decided to open the hive.
Bits and pieces gathered, some how I even remembered to bring the matches to light the smoker, which has a complete mind of its own and is normally very ill tempered, tonight however my smoker was the perfect gentleman and lit first time- amazing.
Of we go…..
Oh dear, this is really not good, the whole front of the hive was black with bees, all those who should have been on the inside were now on the outside
Goodness knows I was so glad to have Martin with me. “Just give me a moment to think about this” he calmly and gently said….”yes, I have an idea”
“I think they were about to swarm so we will create the second hive now”!
Almost an hour and a half later I have my artificial swarm! I now have two hives, but when I say the word now I really do mean right now, right now as in, at this precise moment in time! come tomorrow they could all do a bunk!
We finally got done at almost eight in the evening, I lost count of how many times I apologised to Martin, he said he had enjoyed his evening very much and that it had be very exciting I guess the term ‘exciting’ can be felt in very different ways and I bet mine was not in quite the same way as the ever calm, kind and experienced Martin!
So what have I……?
Best case scenario- two hives full of bees - please!
First hive has old Queen (red dot) and the ‘swarm’ that was on front of hive, with just a few frames of stores- no brood and no queen cells (in which the new queen pupates)
Second hive has stores, brood and one new Queen cell ready to hatch (green dot) plus the nurse bees.
Other very bad options
First hive re-swarms so, NO queen, and just a few very, very, lost- returning from the fields - worker bees left in a big empty hive. Very very bad.
Second hive – queen does not hatch, is not viable, does not mate, does not lay eggs or dies! Colony is therefore considered ‘Queen- less’ this is bad
Second hive – could swarm too? Also bad
The next morning……(today)
Suited and booted early before going to work I took a walk over to the girls, the first hive looks much the same, slightly less busy and no ‘riot sounds’ from within. Good!
The second hive has a big clump of bees hanging from the front of it….hmmmm, not so good but I hope it’s just the flying bees wondering what the heck is going on and exactly where is home?
Any one know where I can take knitting classes??? ;-)
Oh, and the ‘riot sounds’ from within…. We think was down to the fact that they were so tightly packed in the hive more like sardines than bees. They had run out of room. So the noise translates into- get your foot of my head, mind where you put that…ouch! can you just move over a little, careful with that and your foot is in my ear!….. etc.
and,
Another little thing - bees don’t normally swarm as early as April, but then- me and mine are not really very normal are we???? ;-)
double the time just watching them come and go! just love it! 
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