Activities, Saturday our first open day of the season..

We've received some very interesting plants for the pond, (Kevin and Colin again), and they were planted in the pond on Saturday last our first "Apiary open day of the season". This was the first sighting of the Apiary garden this year for many of our members and we received some very gatifying compliments. Anyone with ideas on how we can make the garden more attractive and or bee/wildlife friendly and wants influence the way it's growing, (forgive the pun), is welcome to join Colin and I on our regular maintenance days, Wednesday and Saturday starting at about 10.00 am to somewhere between 1 and 3 pm.  Phone either, Colin on 07890074454, or me on 07427431108, just to make sure we're there and again when you reach the allotment gates to gain admission, (the Tredegar Allotment Assoc. keeps them locked to deter vandals and so the Apiary is completely isolated from the public footpath).
On Friday Colin and I decided we'd use the use the swarm control method described by Ken Basterfield in the April issue of Beecraft, (pages 9 to 12).  Although there was a sealed Q. cell present we decided that they probably hadn't swarmed because the hive was still very heavily populated.  We duly opened the hive (H3) and searched for the Queen.  As with most swarm control methods you must first find the Queen.... You've guessed it, we couldn't find her, so because we couldn't find the Queen we decided to perform a "Demaree" for which all the bees are shaken over foundation in one brood box which is separated from another brood box, (containing all the brood including the sealed Q. cell but no bees), by a Queen Excluder.  The theory is that the nurse bees come up through the Q. Excl. to cover the brood leaving the queen and foraging bees below, more or less as they would be if they had swarmed.   On Saturday after most of our guests had left Colin and I with the knowledge of where the Queen was carried out the original Ken Basterfield  manoeuvre.
Today, Monday 16th, we inspected H1, H2, H8 and the Beehaus and in all of them except H1 we spotted the Queen!  Wouldn't you know it!
I'm going to see if I can append the Hive records to this blog so that members know what's going on in the Apiary.  They're on an Excel spread sheet.
Barry