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MAYS EXTRACTS
JUNES EXTRACTS
WET & WILD
Nature has a way of lulling you into a false sense of security and then slapping you in the face to make sure you are paying attention. A wonderful, warm settled April was followed by a cool May so being optimistic we thought June would be flaming. It is of course, flaming wet.
What nectar the bees have brought in is rapidly being consumed and now boredom has set in and their making queen cells. With the weather wet and unpredictable its a struggle to visit all the colonies on time.
Added to this challenge has been our mating nukes which are not fairing well. Queens have either mated poorly and failed early on or simply not returned. Long, hard hours for very little return, leads to a feeling of despondency and gloom. Then a few fine warm days come along and we can be out early and finish late. Oh joy!
It turns thundery, the bees become all tetchy, the mobiles never stop ringing because people have arrived home to find swarms of bees in their gardens. We call, skep the swarms etc. and on checking them a week later find that half of them are queenless. Without our field notes to refer to we would rapidly loose track of where we are and where we are going.
The New Zealand queens have faired better, except that two came into full lay and then promptly failed. Fortunately these have requeened well and our new site up on the north coast appears to be productive.
There are other compensations of course whilst beekeeping. Watching flights of Little Egrets in the twilight, as they fly over Grouville Marsh, on their way back from their feeding grounds out by Seymour Tower, heading for their roost in Flicquet woods. Then on a visit to our apiary in Swiss Valley we have been privileged to watch a pair of Hen Harriers carrying out a courtship display right over the top of us at treetop height. Moments like this help brighten an otherwise dull, challenging day.
On the insect front it would appear that Hornets are now a summer visitor, fortunately not the Japanese variety, however one to watch. On visiting one of our sites in St Lawrence a fast movement caught my eye flitting from hive to hive. Standing between them I was able to observe a hornet landing at the entrance to each hive testing for the presence of guard bees and each time it was quickly repelled. It does beg the question though, how long would a weak colony last if a hornet gained access to its brood.
On a more positive note whilst out walking our dogs on Anne Port Common, not for the first time, I watched a Swallow Tailed Butterfly flying in and out of some tree shade before it disappeared down over a cotil. Then just a few twilights ago I was buzzed by what I first took to be a bat as I made my way up the garden path to my workshop. It turned out to be a Convulvus Hawk Moth. June can be a very changeable month.
Amis. B. Flyt
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MAYS Extracts taken from a Beefarmers Diary titled OF BIRDS AND BEES.
18th May. Thick fog and cool for the second day running. Top garden full of the sound of fledging Great Tits out of the apple tree box. Mugged by the resident Robin demanding meal worms with menaces on my way to the workshop to feed the aviary birds. Waxed two boxes of brood frames and loaded the pickup with everything including the kitchen sink whilst Jill ran the dog. N.Z queens supposed to arrive today, though it doesn’t look likely.
11 am. Broken cloud and hazy sunshine. First call of the day to our West Grouville site. No 1 which was our first nuke of the seasons and now right across eleven frames. No 3 throwing Q cells. Found marked queen and placed her in a brood box along side with youngest brood. Rebuilt No 3 and gave its supers to No’s 1 & 2. Action, check again on 30th to see if queen right. Fresh supers onto No’s 4,5 & 6. Note, Strim site next visit.
North to Rozel site. No 1 which had been slow has now expanded well with good brood. No 3 no fresh eggs, queen failed, give supers to No’s 1 & 2. Leave No 3 with two good sealed cells and one part complete. Action, check on 28th to see if queen right.
Walked Sam down to Le Scez and saw two Little Egrets fishing the big gully. N.Z queens stuck in Exeter due to weather so returned home and did "make and repair". Mugged by Robin again.
19th May. Fine and hazy. I need a body guard each time I go up to the workshop now. Robin has now taken up residence on the vice till I feed him, so his brood must be nearly ready to fledge. Loaded pickup and ran Sam. Joined today by Colin, a second year beekeeper who is giving us a much needed hand for the day.
09:30 hrs First site Flicquet. Left No’s 1 & 5 for later. No’s 6 & 7 gave fresh supers. The Egret roost in the wood opposite must have young judging by the weird noises coming from it. Jill walked Sam across the fields whilst I took the pickup round. She came across a dead Barn Owl fledgling in the second field, half its head was missing.
La Coupe, Stiff breeze here and cool. All four have only just moved up into the supers that were placed on last week before the cold spell. Potatoes have now been dug and the Bumble Bee Mix has been sown. Should be interesting to see what comes up. Just as we are leaving get the call that the N.Z queens have arrived. Collected queens from Home Farm and then on to St Lawrence site.
Weather now warming up with good sunshine. Action. No 2 double brooded. Split, found marked queen and placed her in lower box with fresh brood, split rest into three nuke boxes and added N.Z Queens in cages. Split No 5, brood and a half and very strong. Found queen and then took three frames of brood for nuke 4. Rebuilt No 5 and added a frame of stores and the N.Z queen to nuke 4. Loaded nukes into pickup and dropped them off at home. Placed two on posts and released entrances, place others in shade with ventilation. Grabbed a cup of tea. Mugged by Robin again.
Next to Flicquet. Action. No 1 failing queen, found and and changed her for an N.Z. No 5 marked Greek queen with matching temper. Split and took two three frames for nukes, added frame of stores and N.Z queens. Removed Greek harpi, added N.Z queen and rebuilt No 5. Dropped nukes home and left ventilated in shade.
On to Swiss Valley. No’s 1 & 6 have continued to throw Q cells. Marked queens found and separated. Two three frame nukes taken, frames of stores and N.Z queens added. Shook bees in both colonies, added fresh waxed frames, reintroduced queens and closed up. Moor Hens on pond have two youngsters and saw Mallard by willow tree with 8 ducklings. Jill walked Sam out of East side.
Home. Placed 5 more nukes on posts and released two. Let Colin go home. Mugged by Robin again. Saw Sparrow Hawk crossing the back field when I was positioning nukes.
To North coast site to drop off last nukes. Jill walked Sam whilst I set them up.
20:20 hrs Back home released the last of the nukes. Time for a very large Gin & Tonic and a debrief. Tomorrow as they say is another day.
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JUNES Extracts from a bee farmers diary.
16th June: Last of master classes completed. Looked through last batch of nukes and gave short demo on extraction. Late afternoon visited young New Zealand colonies on new site, have expanded well despite the weather although the track up to the site would be impassable without a 4x4. Action: No’s 2, 3 & 6 will need to be supered up in a week to ten days depending on weather. The ling is just beginning to yield.
19t June: Lost a small prime swarm out of La Coupe No 5 which settled at Flicquet House but we got there to late and it had left. This site was due to be checked three days ago but it has done nothing but blow a gale and rain. In compensation called out to a swarm on Greve D'Azette coast road. Medium sized cast. Run into spare box, fed and treated.
Rest of week spent dodging showers, repairing kit and working through sites. The bees have really eaten into their stores with this wet weather, anything unsealed has gone. The first batch of home raised nukes has not faired well with only nine out of fifteen with queens in lay. All queens hatched and were seen but not all have made it through the mating process. Must work out which old queens need replacing and which new queens to set up in new boxes.
23rd June: Weather fine. Grouville site No 4 shows sign of deformed wing virus. Cleared and removed all supers. Fed and treated colony. Action: Check mite drop on Monday.
La Coupe: No 2 which was throwing queen cells has now pulled them down again. Marked queen seen and in full lay. Come across this quite a lot this season. Did not go into No 5, it seemed slow. Last call in at Les Platon: No 2 has failed. Not surprising given the age of the queen. No 8 has requeened ok and is in lay. Saw a Sparrow Hawk over Eygpt wood.
24th June: St Lawrence site: No 3 which is our NZ nuke bee supplier is now back up to full strength, gave it a super. No 4 has requeened ok and No 5 given a super. Action: No 5 needs another roof. The usual dodging of showers with little to show for it during the rest of the week. Did make and mend.
1st July ; St Martins Village skepped large swarm and ran into new box on D.G site. No 1 failing here. Action move nuke onto site, remove No 1,clean, sterilize and treat box and stand.
2nd July: Upped last NZ queen at Pump House and fed. No2, now well into lay. Looked into last batch of nukes at home, one drone layer and nine queen right, fed all. Action :Choose sites to move nukes to. Saw a Barn Owl quartering the top field at dusk when I was feeding the nukes.
3rd July: Watched Great Tit flying from the nest box in the apple tree to the hives in the garden. It landed by the side of a hive and picked up a few corpses and then flew back to the nest box. It repeated this so often I had to leave to do other things. Went through two sites all ok.
6th July: Put on two supers at Grouville. Fed NZ’s at Pump House. Called to a swarm in St Ouen’s village on the wall of a house. It was a small cast, popped it into a nuke box at home.
8th July: Rained all day, moved swarm box of bees from Swiss valley to Les Platon in the evening.
9th July: Set up bees from swarm box into empty hive at Les Platon. Fed NZ colonies at Eygpt site. Action: Three will need supers by weekend. Checked Bouley Bay site all ok.
13th July: Checked Valley des Vaux site,all ok but no’s 2 & 3 will need supers soon. Collected a swarm from a garden at Bel Royal. Small cast, popped into nuke box at home.
14th July: Checked through both Grouville sites and took two swarm calls at Portelet. Skepped ready to collect at first light tomorrow.
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