“Getting Capped Honey” - by Malcolm Wilkie

Hi everyone, those of you who are getting honey are wondering when the bees are going to finally cap it so that you can do an extraction.

Well, here is a tip from Keith that Helen has used to get her honey successfully capped by the bees.

She took a wire frame Queen excluder and added three pieces of wood on three sides. She then placed it above the brood nest, creating an extra entrance below all the honey supers but above the brood nest (this obviously replaces the Queen excluder she already had in place). This new entrance faces exactly the same way as the entrance below. This enables a lot of air to flow into the colony which is what the bees require to cap the honey. It also means foragers can go directly to the honey supers to unload nectar. A win win situation.

Another thing that you should do if you want your honey capped, is to rearrange the super frames. Place any that are capped on the outside of the honey super and those that need capping near the centre. Remove a frame or even two from the super in question and create space between the frames. All of this will help with capping.

Sorry, yet another thing to do in your busy schedule as a beekeeper!

Malcolm Wilkie 13th July 2018

“Nectar Flow Quandry” - by Helen and Malcolm

Hi everyone, I am sending you this text that Helen has just sent me. I too don’t know what to do about this matter. You are all going to have to make your own decisions. However just be conscious that there is still a strong nectar flow going on and if we do get some rain it is going to continue.

Just looked at my nuke boxes with new queen. Last week moved frames around to give room for queens to get laying and added a super of drawn frames. Everything is full of nectar.😂 brood box is full of nectar, so where I am, there is still a strong nectar flow, it mad. I really thought as it’s so dry that we would have slowed down. 🍯🍯🍯 I have decided to remove queen excluder so the bees can easily dump nectar in supers and try to avoid clogging the brood boxes with nectar. My queens are off lay now 😠

Helen Hadley and Malcolm Wilkie 5th July 2018

The current nectar flow

I don’t know whether everyone has noticed, but there is a crazy nectar flow on at the moment. Lime is in flower and only exudes nectar when the temperatures are in the 20s and this also applies to clover. I had put a super on a badly diseased colony (chalkbrood) that I had just treated for a month with Apiguard and they filled it with honey in a week. I could barely lift the super and it had been empty last week!

In my opinion this nectar flow is going to continue for a while as sweet chestnut is just coming into flower and the temperatures don’t show any signs of dropping. When I inspected my hives yesterday a lot of the colonies were chucking nectar into the brood nest and, of course, one of the colonies had built queen cells.

The danger is that eventually if we get no rain the bees will have nothing to collect. However at the moment I’ve got honey coming out of my ears!

What do you do if you suddenly find Queen cells and you have absolutely no equipment left? Well, you commit the ultimate sin. You remove frames of stores and then you break the brood nest with frames of foundation.

Basically you try and give the colony a lot of work to do and that can be successful in taking their minds off swarming. You will have to put those stores in a sealed plastic box and it would be a good idea to spray them with Certan against Wax moth. Don’t sin if the colony is not strong.

However, if they are thinking of swarming, they must be strong!

The other thing you should do is extract the honey if the super frames have been capped. Then they will have space to collect all that nectar.

Enjoy the current flow and put supers on urgently. People say about gardeners that the difference between a good gardener and a bad one is a week. The same applies to beekeepers. The good ones have picked up that the flow is humongous and are busily putting supers on the hives. It may have dried up by next week but at the moment it is crazy. The bees are probably out from 4:30 in the morning until nine in the evening! Don’t forget we are also very near the summer solstice and that means that the hives contain the maximum number of bees, so the foraging force is at its very highest.

If you don’t do anything about this flow, then your bees will become congested in absolutely no time, the Queen will have nowhere to lay and the consequence of all that is that you will lose a prime swarm and, of course, your honey crop. Good luck everyone! The bees are giving us all a headache so make sure you return the compliment so that you don’t lose a swarm.

 Malcolm Wilkie 29th June 2018

“Hiving a nucleus of bees” - by Malcolm Wilkie

Perhaps you have just purchased your first nucleus of bees. How should you proceed?

The nucleus box needs to be placed where you will be permanently having your hive. Remember bees can only be moved three foot or three miles, otherwise they get lost.

Although putting them in a hive, you should not do so initially.

Malcolm Wilkie 14^th June 2018

“Advice about looking after a nucleus of bees” - by Helen Hadley

They need to settle in a big hive.

Feed, small entrance. Check brood nest is not being filled with sugar syrup.

Basically they need to draw foundation and build to be strong enough to get through winter. Treat for varroa.

Beekeeping is a continuous learning process.

To become a good beekeeper you need to think like a bee.

There is often more than one choice to solve a problem.

Bees will always try and sort out your mistakes, they just want to survive.

Honey is the best winter food for the bees, if you don't think you have left them enough top up with sugar syrup.

Biggest mistake is taking too much honey. If your bees starve in winter that's pure miss management and cruel.

Beekeeping is a hobby for most of us, it should be a pleasure, so if your bees are aggressive you need to sort the problem out, not ignore it.

Helen Hadley 24th May 2018