What’s Hot

National - Sainsburys have joined the quest to help save bees and are looking to offer "bee houses" for solitary bees to use. A little direct help with honey bees wouldn't go amiss though.
                It is reported that wasps could well become a problem in August, and Pest Control firms are getting a huge rise in calls to deal with them. This should be an early warning call to bee keepers: be extra vigilant at inspections and apiary visits- any sign of wasps around, be ready to reduce entrances and put out traps to catch  these pests.
                The Co-op is high-lighting the plight of our bees and running its' Plan Bee Campaign. It supports the need for a review on the use of pesticides and promotes the importance of pollination in the food chain. 
                ITV News outlined research into honey bees bred to improve grooming and hygiene. This gives rise to bees being able to remove/attack the varroa mite which plague our colonies.   
 
Local- Birmingham Airport announced how it has funded equipment for local bee keepers to artificially inseminate queen honey bees in order to help try and readdress the problems besieging the colonies. It has donated £1,000
to buy the appropriate kit. Right or wrong? there are arguments on both sides.

Personal - I have bought this year and stocked a Dartington, a Top Bar Hive, and have engineered a Rose/warre hybrid. I am interested to see if alternative methods may provide help to the honey bees. Local associations don't seem too interested so I have invested my own time and money to give them a chance and a real go. These are being run alongside my mainstay colonies using "normal" methods of bee keeping.



Picture of my "Dartington" hive: Entrances either end- currently occupied by 2 colonies living back to back with a dividing board between them.

August 2010.

To date the Dartington has been a success; the artificial swarming method was employed and worked. The dilemma now arises because following the artificial swarm the original queen was replaced (by the bees) and now has a new queen. Both colonies are strong and have produced honey- which is easily removed in the half normal size supers. The "manual" suggests uniting the two colonies for winter (based on removing an older queen) and centralising that colony more toward the middle of the whole brood chamber; I have two new queens, so see my options as wintering the two as they stand or removing one colony into a separate hive for winter. One to ponder on! Any ideas anyone?
The Top Bar housing a swarm seems to be building okay though it has tended to disregard the starter strips of foundation I melted onto the top bars! I am a little concerned that they have not built as strong as I would have liked. Likewise my Rose/warre hive which was also a swarm- these are weaker as they threw queen cells whilst small (not happy with their original queen). The new queen is now laying but maybe too late to build well enough to survive winter; added to this they are being badly pestered by wasps- I have reduced the entrance and put a wasp trap close by (which is filling well!!).

All three have been interesting and regardless of fate will be pursued for at least another 2 years to give a fair assessment. My downfall may be putting unknown swarms into the latter two, but that could be a lesson learnt.