May 23 Inspection
On this inspection the queen was found back in the lower brood boxes and not in the new top brood box. On my previous inspection during rearranging the frames I must have moved the queen below the queen excluder by mistake. This was no grate problem and it would just delay the time before I could remove the old frames and brood boxes.
May 30 Inspection
On this inspection the queen was found in the top brood box and the bees had made reasonable progress on building comb. I was also able to remove the lower brood box so the hive now was down to two brood boxes and one super as the weather not great was improving and some nectar available for the bees to make increase.
June 6 Inspection
On this inspection the bees were found to be making good progress and the hive was now at a good balance with stores, bees and brood. Temperament was ok but not great and not as good as the other hives in the apiary.
June 13 Inspection
On this inspection I gave them a 2nd super as the first was now three quarters full and we had a small flow on from the brambles perhaps. I was also able to remove the bottom brood box and remove it. This was a good thing to do as the bees are now on new frames and comb.
June 20 Inspection
On this inspection the bees were making good progress the 2nd super was filling up steadily. The brood box was filled with brood of all stages but although despite been not that aggressive they were more grumpy than other hives in the apiary and we have had a few uncalled fore stings to people in the flower garden and soft fruit and this is not right. So the decision was made to reduce the number of hives in the apiary and combine this hive with another with a very gentle queen and bees to see if that stops the random stings.
June 28 Inspection
On this inspection we combined the two colonies, one of my colonies with a gentle queen and HCFA hive.
To combine the two colonies we need the two hives close to each other and we already had that otherwise we would have had to move them together at 3 feet every 5days. We then had to remove the queen from HCFA hive as unfortunately she was producing the more grumpy bees from the two hives, she was removed to a small hive so not lost. We then removed the roof from the other hive and placed a sheet of new paper over the brood box and in the centre put two small holes in it and finally we place the HCFA hive over the other hives brood box. The reason for the news paper is to keep the bees apart for a reasonable time as they would fight if just put together and the queen may be killed (not good) The bees start to chew through the paper and their two scents mix together and they then don’t recognise each other as a threat and no fighting. Also as my hive had a super on the two combined hives now in the process of combining had three supers.
I am yet to inspect to see if all is ok with the hive as it seems the good old rain has returned.
