The Ashton Apiary

5 July 2024

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What has been going on in the hives this year.

We came through the winter both the hives surviving and we were hopeful that we would have strong colonies for the coming season.

Lots of indoor work had gone on through the winter – cleaning frames and hives to get ready for the new year.

The cold, wet start to the year meant that the season was slow to start and that inspections had to be short as the spring weather was only just warm enough to go into the hive.

Hygiene is really important in Beekeeping. Clean hives help to prevent disease and the comb that bees lay eggs in should be changed every three years.

One way to change the comb is to perform a shook swarm. This involves shaking all the bees off their old comb into a clean hive with new sheets of wax foundation that they will make into new comb. We did this with one of our hives. It means a lot of work for the bees as they have to rebuild their hive from scratch, but it means everything is clean and new.

This hive went on to produce some queen cells – this means that the bees wanted to raise a new queen bee. This could be because she is old and not laying as well, or it could be that they want to swarm – this where the old queen will fly off with half of the bees and leave the other half with a new queen.

The Ashton Apiary (Queen)

We put the queen in a new hive and left the old hive to raise a new queen. They did raise a new queen, but she was born without any wings – this means that she cannot fly out of the hive to be mated. We decided to buy a new queen with a good pedigree. We have bought a new Buckfast mated queen who arrived through the post on Friday. This will mean that this hive, that has been without a laying queen for some weeks, can quickly get back in order as we have introduced the new mated queen.

Another of our hives put out a swarm. This meant that we had another hive with no queen in it. We had to wait and see if the bees had been successful in raising a new queen. Each inspection involves looking for a queen or signs that she has laid eggs. Not seeing either made each inspection a worry.

The Ashton Apiary (Larvae and Capped Brood)

We were so pleased when we could see that the queen was laying eggs. The eggs become larvae after 3 days. The curled-up larvae in each cell are eventually capped – they then transform into a bee, before making their way out of the cell.

The Ashton Apiary (New comb with Eggs)

This is what the fresh comb looks like after a few years. It needs to be replaced. This comb will be replaced this year. Once again, you can see eggs in many of these cells.

The Ashton Apiary (Old Eggs combed out)

Can you spot the queen amongst these worker bees?

The queen has a larger and more pointed abdomen. Once she has been found, beekeepers usually mark them with a dot of paint to make them easier to see. The queen in this hive has not been marked yet. Can you spot her?