D Hive

More extreme weather this week as Storm Gareth hit the UK. Oxfordshire experienced high winds gusting up to around 40 knots. This caused Hive D to blow over.

I discovered the stricken hive on Monday afternoon. The hive straps had held it together so it had only fallen over on one side. I put a veil on and placed it on its stand. Amazingly no bees came out of the hive. When I looked in through the door there were no bodies on the floor of the hive.

All my current hives (A, D, E, G) are upright (after the recent windy weather) and sound. The hives are fairly heavy, which is reassuring. A peak through the door shows the floor to be fairly clear. Their colonies (1, 4, 8, 12) appear to be fine. They were flying when the weather was warmer; there is evidence of activity on the base board.

The base boards have darker chewed wax which usually means brood hatching. It's hard to know when this was fell because I've only occasionally looked. It does suggest that there has been a slow but steady rearing of brood.

There may be a problem in Colony 4. There is no pollen on the base board and there are Wasps which are not being challenged at the entrance. This suggests that supersedure or swarming may have left them without a Queen. There is evidence that mature brood is still hatching out.

The Wasps are becoming more persistent. I saw at least half a dozen around the hives at dawn. If they get access to the hives then they'll rob until there are no stores left.

I was away from Oxford for the last week of June. It seems that there was a swarm on the tree in front of my out apiary on 28th June. I suspect that this was from Colony 4.

I have no real evidence that this swarm was from any of my hives. There seems to be less going on in Colony 4 -- less pollen on the hive floor for example -- but I can't be sure.

Colony 13 is dropping Varroa. They are also cleaning out old comb so there is a lot of debris on the hive floor. I found 2 or maybe 3 Varroa bodies.

This colony is new to my apiary, having been established elsewhere. I haven't really included it in my Varroa Zero post because it's new. Hives D and G are included. There were no Varroa on the floor of either this morning. There doesn't appear to much activity in Hive D at all. I shall have to check them.

I regularly examine the floors of my hives. The stuff which falls out of the hive tells a story about what the bees are doing. I always look for Varroa mites. I've found none on the floors of any of my hives for several weeks. I don't know why.

Three hives in the out apiary appear healthy. It's still too cold for them to fly but there's detritus on on the removable screen beneath the brood nests.

It's less clear how Hive A is in Headington. The Ants are active on the removable board. There's some evidence of activity. The hive still has supers on because the brood nest moved up. It always appears to be very big so I assume that it's strong. Let's hope that's still true in a fortnight.

It's cold, so there isn't much to see at the hives. I'm still keeping an eye on the colonies by inspecting the removable base boards.

All the hives (C, D, E, F, G) are showing evidence that they're uncapping honey and eating it. There are some darker cappings which indicates that brood may be hatching. The colour of the wax suggests that it is from brood comb but the cause is not certain. They might be tidying or repairing damage. Midwinter brood is more common than some literature suggests so I'd be confident that they're still rearing.

I visited my out-apiary today and examined the removable hive floors for evidence of recent activity.

Three hives (D, F and G) show evidence of recent brood emergence. There were also hundreds of dead mites. Hive D had been especially prolific. There was also crystallised sugar which suggests that old honey is being eaten or cells are being cleaned out.

I harvested 5 different honeys this season. It's been a privilege to compare them and see the differences.