Saturday 28th January 2012

We carried on feeding the Dolphins and Nectans over Christmas and into the New Year.
Checked them all last week and was distressed to find that The Nectans had all died. On examining the nucleus box with Jim, we were pretty sure they had starved. We felt awful, but are unsure if we would have been able to get enough fondant in there to save them. There were an awful lot of bees in a very small box. We think our main mistake was not getting them into a hive last Autumn, so we could have looked after them better. We were unable to give them any syrup in the Autumn because there was no room to put a feeder in.The Dolphins were fine and very active. We put 3 bars of fondant in for them. The Lizards seem to have plenty of honey left, so we didn't offer any fondant.
Jim checked both hives today and found they were both very active and bringing in pollen. He also saw new bees flying from The Lizard hive, so they must have been raising brood for a few weeks now. Decided to put fondant in both hives, just to make sure. I will check again on Monday.
Mick has built one new hive for The Lizards and Jim is going to make another one for The Dolphins, we will then be able to use the 2 smaller hives for nuclei and avoid what happened to The Nectans, hopefully.

Thursday 8th December 2011

A week ago Jim & I checked all 3 hives, as we were worried that the bees may have used up their supplies during the unusually mild Autumn and early winter we have had. We checked the Dolphins and found some empty combs, we removed one of these. Decided to offer them some fondant to see if they took it. We had prepared some TBs with about 1" fondant attached along the underneath. We put one of these in. We then checked The Lizards. They seemed to have used up some of their supplies; we found an empty comb (which we removed) and then one with just a small amount of honey still in it at the LH end. After that the combs seemed to still have quite a lot in. We put in one bar of fondant to see if they wanted it. The Nectans were harder to check. They are still in the nucleus box and it is completely full. We tried to lift a bar at each end, but both had bees on, so we decided to leave it until they cluster to one end. Jim hefted the box and felt it was much heavier than when he brought it back from his parents house. Realised that we need to get them out of there pretty quickly in the Spring. We put the third bar we had prepared into the Lizards hive.
Yesterday I checked to see if the fondant had been taken. The Dolphins had taken the lot, so I put one more bar of fondant in. The Lizards had taken one bar, but hadn't finished the second, so I just left that one in there. I put the bar I had prepared for them into the Dolphins hive, so they now have 2. I decided to just take a look in one end of the Nectans and found I was able to remove the end bar now, which was empty. I went back to the house and prepared another bar of fondant and put this in for them. They seemed immediately interested. Will check again in a few days.

Friday 25th November 2011

Checked the Apilife Var a week later in both the Lizard hive and Nectans' nucleus. Still some left, but decided to add some more. Checked again a week later and not much had gone. Because of this and also because the temp had dropped a little to about 13˚C decided not to put in a third lot. Last week I removed the remaining pieces and started a varroa count. Removed the tray 48hrs later and it was 101, that's 50 a day. A bit better than last time, but still a lot. Discussed our options and decided to shut them up for the winter. We could pour acid over them in the middle of the winter, but that can kill the queen. Covered all three lots of top bars with towels and blankets. We are rather worried about their supplies.   
The weather has been very   warm for the time of year and the bees are out flying most days. We feel they are using up their supplies and are not able to replace them. There is very little Nectar around, although we do have a few Spring and Summer flowers around!! In November?
I took these photos on 23rd November 2011.

Celandine

Nasturtium

Bora

Oxeye Daisies

A Rose  

Saturday 29th October 2011

Well, we fed The Lizards 7 jars of feed with Tea Tree & Lemongrass and then did another count 1 week later. The count was 166 in 48 hrs, that's 83 a day!!! Decided to use some Apilife Var. Probably a bit late, as it's best if used when the temp is above 15˚C. However the temp, down at the hives, did get above that for a few days after putting it in. We also put a few bits of it in the Nectans nuc as we thought they might have a high count too, as they came from The Lizard colony. Checked today and some of it had gone, so I put in some more. Will check again in a week.

Monday 10th October 2011

Finished feeding the Dolphins now. They are all ready for the winter, apart from some insulation on the top of the bars. Did a 48 hr varroa count on the Lizards and it was 155!!! That's 77 a day. Started feeding them syrup with tea tree & lemongrass 3 days ago. They have taken 4 jars so far and have 2 more in there since last night. Will give them one more jar, then do another count after a few days. If it's still high, we will consider putting in some grease patties.
The Nectans (Nucleus) is now back here and doing very well. We are a bit worried that they haven't got enough supplies for the winter, so will try and give them a comb of honey from the Lizards. It's a bit tricky feeding them with syrup as there isn't enough room in the box for a feeder. We will probably give them some fondant in the winter instead.

Friday 23rd September 2011

Jim did the varroa count last Friday. The tray had been on approx 3½ days and the count was 119. Most of those probably fell on the first day, but if averaged out it's 34 a day. He did another icing sugar dusting on both hives and also on the nucleus, at his Mum's. I then did another one on the Lizards yesterday and have put the tray in to do another count today.
I have also put 6 drops of tea tree and about ¼ tsp of Lecithin (as an emulsifier) into one of the jars of feed (Approx 500ml) and fed to the Dolphins. They took it well and so I have made up 2 more jars to give them over the next couple of days. This was a suggestion from Phil on the last course and I've also looked up references to it online. People who have used it seem to have found it effective against varroa. Once they have stopped feeding (soon hopefully) we plan to give some to the Lizards.

Wednesday 14th September 2011

The course went very well at the weekend. The weather wasn't too bad, so they managed to look in the end of The Lizard hive, as well as through the window. They took the varroa tray back to The Barton to do a count. Not good news; there were 41 varroa in 24 hours!!! I did a dusting of icing sugar on Monday and replaced the tray, to do another count later in the week. This will probably be even higher, as the icing sugar should make the bees groom each other and, in the process, knock off varroa. We will then do another count a few days later. I also dusted The Dolphins and Jim is doing the nucleus, when he goes to his Mum's on Saturday.