This was the first apiary visit of the season, to Roy Knowles’s apiary at Hesket Newmarket.  The weather was cool and overcast but thankfully dry and still.  Twenty one members turned out for the meeting.

Roy Knowles

Roy has four colonies, all of which had survived the harsh winter, albeit some in a weakened state.  The first colony we opened was of moderate strength coming out of winter, but was not building up as rapidly as it should. 

Raised caps suggested there were cells containing drone pupae randomly scattered amongst the worker cells, suggesting the queen might be a drone-layer – meaning she is running out of sperm, even though she was born only in June 2009.  Also there were three or four queen cups in the central area of combs, evidence that the bees may be intending to supersede – though none contained eggs or larvae at this stage.  One to watch.

Roy expertly manipulates the frames

Is this a drone-laying queen? (She is the one with the yellow spot on her back.)

The next two hives had been weak at the end of winter.  Roy keeps his bees on a brood and a half in wintertime (a super underneath each brood box).  In both these cases there had been many dead bees in the supers and on the floor at the end of winter.  This was probably owing to the bees not being able to move up onto the brood combs during one of the prolonged cold spells, thus becoming isolated from the main cluster and starving.  Fortunately, in both cases, the queen appears to have been in the brood area with sufficient bees for the cluster to survive till spring.

The fourth colony, the only one in a polystyrene hive, had been quite strong coming out of winter, as they had the year before.  It had built up rapidly into a good strong colony and was storing nectar in a super in spite of the cold spring so far.  We artificially swarmed this colony, placing the queen, the frame she was on, two frames of comb with a some stores, and four frames of foundation, in a brood box on the original floor.  The queen excluder and supers went on top of this. 

The remainder of the colony went onto a new floor on an adjacent stand, from where the flying bees should return to join the queen in the original location over the next few days.  Roy can now go away on holiday without worrying whether this colony will swarm in his absence.

Roy’s wife, Susan, had made a fantastic tea for everyone to enjoy whilst catching up with each others’ news afterwards.  A very pleasant meeting, and a good start to the new season. 

Here’s hoping for good foraging weather in the months ahead.