Tag Archives: Autumn

Preparing a double brood for winter

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Question:

We currently have double brood boxes below our QE. There are mostly stores and some brood in the top box. There’s mostly brood in the bottom box.

For winter, do we need to rearrange the boxes so the stores are below the brood?

Last winter we had a slightly different setup, so we put the brood box with 100% stores under the brood and it worked really well.

Not sure if it’s worth messing with this year?

Answer:

Yes, it’s worth messing around to get things right. I’ve consolidated some double BBs down to singles but I’ll wait until next month to put stores below brood nest, when I put on mouseguards.

If you have a question about beekeeping, please email us: ask@sheffieldbeekeepers.org.uk

Room for bees after removing honey supers

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Question:

How do the bees “fit” in the hive after you take supers off? (How do they have enough space?) Do we need to replace the full frames with empty frames just to give them some room?

Answer:

The bees need space to hang out. Supers with drawn comb preferably, foundation if nothing else available. Extract the Honey ASAP and return the wet supers for them to fill up again.

If you have a question about beekeeping, please email us: ask@sheffieldbeekeepers.org.uk

What to do about wasps?

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Wasps can become a problem for us and our bees at this time of the year. To understand why and what to do, it helps to know something about their lifestyle. Wasps are carnivorous. The larvae are fed chewed-up insects by the adults and they exude a sweet substance which the adults lick up and from which they obtain much of their carbohydrate intake. When the breeding cycle comes to a close at the end of the summer, the adults no longer have access to their “sugar fix”. They raid our picnic tables and they raid honey from weak colonies.

The fact that wasps eat insects means that they do provide a beneficial service to gardeners in controlling aphids and greenfly during the summer. This function is no longer available at the end of the summer. Most people do not like killing (even!) wasps but you should be aware that the breeding cycle is over and the adult wasps have no further useful purpose to serve and they will soon die (the mated queens hibernate until next spring).

  • if your bees are being harangued by wasps, you can do one or more of the following:
    narrow the hive entrance to the smallest practicable extent (say 30mm wide)
  • ensure that your hives are bee & wasp proof (many old hives have broken corners or joints that are opening or roofs with ventilation openings that once had mesh over them but which are now open to wasps and bees)
  • if you’re feeding your bees, do so in the evening and mop up any spills immediately
    hang up a large grey bag stuffed with newspaper in your apiary (something the looks like a wasp nest). Wasps will be deterred from coming into the apiary because they will be fooled into thinking that there is a wasps’ nest and they are safer elsewhere. (I guess it doesn’t hurt to try!)
  • put up wasp traps. These can come in two forms – traps that kill and traps that trap insects without killing them. The latter are useful if you want to release insects other than wasps that have entered the trap. You will find examples of both on the web – see http://www.nationalbeeunit.com/downloadNews.cfm?id=122 for a trap designed for hornet monitoring but which can also be used for wasps. Bait them with jam, beer – fermenting sweet concoctions of any type.

What to do with crystallised honey in frames

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October 2017

Question

I had an exhausting day yesterday extracting honey from my first super!

I did notice that there is quite a lot of crystallised honey still in the frames – one or two have pretty much a full side, where as others have patches of it.  Quite a lot of “runny” honey still came out as well.

I can’t remember what you are meant to do if you have crystallised honey in frames, and the internet seems to be very divided!

If I gave it back to the bees would they manage to get it out? Or are the frames effective “wasted” to be recycled into wax?

Answer:

In your neck of the woods your bees are likely to have access to Oil Seed Rape (OSR) which granulates very quickly. Usually it stays liquid whilst on the hive but supers need to be extracted within a day or so after being taken off the hives. You have several choices what to do with granulated honey, none of which produce honey for direct human consumption:

  • Use a heated extraction tray (or equivalent – say a jam pan on a low heat) which will melt the honey and the wax. When left to cool the wax will be set on top of the honey and the two can be separated. Since the honey has been heated to a fairly high temperature it is classified as “baker’s honey” and is only suitable for cooking with. If you jar it and label it it must bear  the words “baker’s honey” and “intended for cooking only” (more details here.)
  • Since the cells are uncapped you could place the frames in a container of water and let the honey dissolve out (I’ve never tried this myself but I am told it works). The resultant solution can be used as feed for your bees (but October getting too late for the bees to be taking liquid fed) or used as the basis of mead. If you want to us either solution for feed next autumn, you’ll have to freeze it to prevent it fermenting.
  • Place the combs in a box under the brood box. Whilst bees are not keen to take granulated honey they will utilise it when there’s no better alternative. It may help to spray the combs with water to help dissolve or soften the sugar crystals. Probably the best option!

Bad temper

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Question

I’ve just had a worrying experience with my hive (started as a nuc this year) – a big cloud of bees around my head and essentially attacking my head as soon as I took the (two full) supers off. I didn’t even begin the inspection – just closed it up and most of the cloud stayed around my head and followed me back to the back door of the house. This colony tend to be quite tetchy (the odd sting and follower) but never like this before. Any ideas about what I may have done? Weather etc. seems ok. I’m beginning to think I may not be cut out for this!

Answer:

Your colony sounds as if it might be queenless but don’t panic yet (there’s nothing you can do at this time of year if they are queenless except to try and buy a new queen from somewhere.) The bad temper may be for other reasons so it might an idea to give it another go.

Light your smoker, use it liberally and make sure you are well suited up – and look for eggs and small larvae.

How to get a small hive through winter when no eggs, larvae, or queen found

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Question

I’m new to beekeeping this year as I was given a 5 frame nuc early in July which had been left in the nuc box for several weeks.

  • I purchased a new hive and placed the nuc in it.
  • I put on my maisemoore rapid feeder for 2 weeks which I was advised was not necessary but according to the books i’m reading it was.
  • Subsequent inspections revealed eggs, larvae and capped brood including seeing the queen.
  • After removing the feeder I was told the colony needed a super even though they had only filled out 5/6 frames.
  • The colony has increased slightly but does not fill the brood box and the super looks as it did when I put it on, when I carried out my inspection today.
  • There is still plenty of capped brood and some emerging brood but I cannot see eggs or larvae or find the queen.
  • I have put my feeder back on today against advice from the local keeper who said it was too soon.

Should I remove the super and the queen excluder for winter or leave them, and should I be worried about the hive being queenless?

I am tempted to leave well alone and feed them through this coming month into October in an attempt to get them through winter. Any advice would be appreciated.

Answer:

I don’t know what type of bees you have (Buckfast? Local mongrel? native?). It makes a difference.

I don’t know who has been advising you but they seem to have got a few things wrong. For future reference:

  • The colony should have been moved into a full hive as soon as you had them and been fed continuously.
  • In the first year they should have a super as well as a feeder (you just have to be careful that you don’t extract stored syrup as honey)

Depending on your local weather conditions, you still have time to get things better and help your bees get through the winter. Please note the following:

  • Your bees need something between 15kg and 20kg stores (honey)
  • They need a colony size of 10-15,000 bees through the winter. Say 2-3 frames full of bees but more typically 5-6 frames partially occupied.
  • They need to be healthy and have been treated against Varroa.
  • They will not now draw comb – it’s too cold for that
  • The weather has changed here in Sheffield and it might be too cold for them to take syrup off a rapid feeder – a contact feeder might be more appropriate.
  • With no income, the queen may well be off-lay. One way of guessing whether they have a queen is to assess how “defensive” or “aggressive” the bees are. In a queenless colony they get very agitated and quite often you’ll hear them “roaring”

Action:

  • Feed them heavy syrup until they take no more (but be aware of ambient temperatures – a contact feeder might be best in this context)
  • If the supers only have foundation and no drawn comb, remove them.
  • Insert the varroa tray and calculate the average daily drop over the period of a week.
  • Look up the numbers on the Bee Base web site and treat if necessary. (If they have no brood then Api-Bioxal (Oxalic acid) might be good. Otherwise a Thymol based treatment such as Apiguard or Api-Life Var.)
  • Remove Qx and, if supers have honey in them, place the brood box above the super box.
  • Get yourself some fondant as a reserve emergency feed. Place it directly over the nest area.

Let me know how you get on. If you’re in Sheffield you’d be welcome to our monthly meetings or our beginners’ training course that starts every year in March.

If you have a question about beekeeping, please email us: ask@sheffieldbeekeepers.org.uk