Spruce's honey bees

Looking forward to this years project Spruce thoroughly enjoyed last years read. Just been having a wander through some of the old posts.

 

I thought I better come up with something interesting

Spruce

 

Brilliant Spruce....i'm really curious to know of this 'green' pollen

 

it seems to be a bumper year for dandelions here...practically every green area around the neighbourhood looks yellow from a distance! i must admit it looks quite pretty & great to hear they'll do the bee's some good

 

Been to check the bees , they are thinking about swarming "both" of them , one hive in a right old mood just as well I have a quality bee suit otherwise I would've been stung to hell and back bouncing of the viser and landing on my suit , but didn't bother me as I knew I was safe , a guy that own's the house was cutting the grass along the lane and the smell of cut grass can make them irritable as they think it could be grazing animals so they go on allet I did warn him to just keep away for 1/2 hour to settle down a tad.

So I will recheck Tuesday/Wednesday and decide what to do , but I do have spare equipment so may do a " artificial Swarm" won't go into the details of that yet but I promise to update all as its a good method when the bees have decided they are going to swarm I tend to go with what the bees want to do, rather than have my own agenda .
Anyway I have rattled on.....

Spruce

 

Spruce, we LOVE IT when you rattle on about your bees. It brings that bit of nature a little bit nearer for us all.
And I never knew that freshly cut grass can give them a strop!!
Glad you were suitably attired,
Jenny

 

Spruce, feel free to rattle on to your hearts delight, i for one find it fascinating learning about the lives of these wonderful little creature's...plus my Grandad was a bee keeper so yeah, finding it all very interesting, please continue you'll have to spill the beans about this whole "artificial Swarm" of yours though...you can be sure we're waiting

would you know why some bumble bee's are so terribly small Spruce? i know i said we had noticeably fewer bee's around here the last few years & that they were considerably smaller than the norm, well on the whole they seem larger this year but just now out in the garden i've just seen the smallest bumble bee i have ever seen!!...seriously, i thought it was a little house fly!! any idea as to why this one in particular was so teeny tiny?

 

Hi HB

Bumbles do come in different sizes , but I have never seen one as small as a house fly before ?

There are 24 species of bumble bees in the UK , the small ones you see are normally the worker bees get that camera out photos.

Artificial swarming
By carrying out an artificial swarm procedure you can benefit from another colony and possibly prevent your bees from swarming. There are many methods of doing this but this method is most probably the easiest and most straightforward. This method can also create another colony without affecting the honey flow and the later harvest.
There are many reasons why bees swarm, this can be due to lack of room in the brood, an old queen which is unable to create enough queen substance for all the bees and a breed of bees that are swarmy by nature.
This is probably the most commonly used method of carrying out artificial swarm control. The rule of thumb is to master one method before trying others, do not try to attempt various methods because you could confuse yourself, or at worst even loose your bees.
The method described will hopefully maintain the maximum amount of foraging bees with the queen who can continue to lay eggs without interrupting the honey flow. The key to success is to carry out careful inspections and to ensure you don't miss seeing any queen cells.
If during an inspection you see a queen cell (unsealed) containing larvae, its time to carry out an artificial swarm procedure. When a queen cell is found do not shake any bees off the comb because this is likely to damage or injure the developing queen. Gently push the bees aside with your finger or use a bee brush (brush with very soft bristle) so you can see the whole comb and look to see if there are more queen cells.
After checking each comb in the brood box, note which frame has a queen cell or cells. This can be done with a marker pen, making a mark on the top of the frame directly above the cell or by using coloured drawing pins.
The roof, supers and queen excluder would have already been removed, so in order to carry out the artificial swarm procedure you will need a brood box and floor, full set of frames preferably with drawn comb, but if not with foundation, crownboard and roof.

1. Move the original yellow hive with the brood, bees and queen about one metre to one side of its original location with the entrance facing the same direction.

2. Put the empty spare hive (blue) in the place where the yellow hive was. Remove three frames from the centre of the blue hive and put them to one side for the time being.
3. Check the colony in the yellow hive. Take a frame with the queen and brood in various stages, ensure there are no queen cells and put it into the middle of the blue hive, also put a frame of drawn comb either side of this frame so the queen can start laying straightaway. Remember the blue hive is in the original place of the yellow hive.
4. Ensure there is food reserves on the combs of the yellow hive and replace the removed frames with the three removed earlier. This hive is now left with nursery bees, queen cells and some foraging bees. Replace the crown board and roof. Do not feed straight away, wait a couple of days. Feeding sugar syrup immediately could cause robbing. For brood promotion use a 50/50 mix.
5. All the bees flying will return to the blue hive thinking it’s the yellow original hive. The nursery bees will bring on the queen cells in the yellow hive until one is hatched or selected.

6. Put the queen excluder, supers, crownboard and roof back onto the blue hive. This procedure has now produced an artificial swarm, giving you another colony and without the loss of honey production.

After seven days, usually one day before the new virgin queen is due to emerge from the cell, follow these guidelines:



7. Move the yellow hive one metre on the opposite side of the blue hive. The flying bees from this yellow hive will return to find their home missing and will go to the nearest hive, which will be the blue. This will help build up the loss of bees in the blue and will encourage the growth of the colony in the blue hive. This procedure also reduces the risk of flying bees leaving the yellow hive with a new queen, known as a cast swarm, because it leaves fewer flying bees in the yellow hive.
8. Check the blue hive to see if the old queen has continued to lay and there are no queen cells.
9. After another fourteen to twenty-one days check the yellow hive to see if the new queen has been mated and is laying.

10. If the weather has been bad or there is no sign of eggs or larvae be prepared to re-unite the two hives. This can sometimes happen if the queen cannot fly to mate. Once you know the queen is laying in the yellow hive you can either unite the two hives and remove the old queen or increase your number of colonies.


Spruce

 

so much to do and so very informative! How long does it take to complete that process?

 

Once I have all the equipment ready about 20 minutes, the longer it goes on the bees get a bit stroppy finding the queen is the problem. Without her you can't do much else.

Spruce

 

fascinating stuff Spruce, your making me want a bee hive now more than ever lol, if only there was room for one...hmmm...maybe if i could somehow suspend one from the chimney!...there's loads of space up there!

i'll keep my eye out for her if she returns again, she was on the Cotoneaster again this morning but numpty here never thought to go get the camera it never crossed my mind she may just be from a small species, i was thinking she must be ill or if there are more like her then perhaps the sign of a hive that's struggling.....i much prefer what you said, yeah that'd suit me fine

 

so im pretty sure the neighbours think i've finally lost what few marbles i have left! i spent the best part of the day leaping to my feet with camera in hand every time a vaguely bee shaped winged critter ventured into the garden, oh well i got a pic of the little un' anyways.....here you go, i got my finger as close to her as i could to show how little she is

 

I had a quick google and it turns out that Bombus Pratorum or the Early Bumblebee is small. The queen has a body length of 15-17mm, the worker 10-14mm and the male 11-13mm. Maybe it's one of these? What d'ya reckon Spruce?

 

A beautiful petite bee that is in proportion to the flower it is on,
thank you Fern,
Jenny

 

Fern
Had a look as well you look spot on, so any more identifications ferns our girl.

HB great photo , I want all 24 varieties by the end of the summer so you will have some traveling to do though , a new one we all have to look out for is the "tree bumble bee" only been in the UK a couple of years