On the 13th April we’re holding our first Apiary
meeting of the new season. As usual I've “left everything to the last minute”.
“Team Garood” and I have been working on the Apiary garden for a couple of weeks and today, 10th
April, we’ve made preparations for the meeting on Saturday, tidying the
Pavilion and stashing all the gear that was strewn about. I hope everyone will be a
pleasantly surprised. The site has taken a severe haircut with the objective of
allowing more sun to reach the herb garden and other areas of the Apiary. Numerous
shrubs have been planted and wild flower seed sown to provide a succession of
forage for the bees but the “piece de resistance” has to be the orchard, yes, orchard! 10 trees in all, if memory
serves, apples, cookers dessert and, sweet and sour cherries, plums and a pear.
I’m thinking of
carrying out Bailey comb change manipulations soon, possibly on Saturday, as I think for various reasons
including disease control, there is some virtue in the bees pulling all new combs
from starter strips and the existing comb is “manky” anyway. For this we will require, all sterilised, a spare brood box, a
full set of brood frames with foundation or starter strips, a floor/snelgrove
board a contact or frame feeder and a crown board for each colony operated on.
A quick check turned up 4 x Snelgrove boards, 1 piece of 9mm ply 2’6”x4’
possibly for 2 x cover boards, 1 piece of ¾” ply 8’x4’ which I have since cut into 8 pieces, 460 mm x 460mm to be made into spare floors, 3x
mesh floors and 6 x brood chambers (3 from H1 and H3 and 3 freshly made up).
There are quite a few brood frames in kit form plenty of old ones that can be
flamed and re-used and also a few sheets of foundation but these I need to
count. Some of the colonies are a bit weak and for these I favour the Bailey
comb change whilst for the stronger colonies I might go for the “shook swarm”. Note: I have typed up the procedure I intend to follow with explanatory diagrams but I've been unable to get the blog to accept drawings so I've printed off some hard copies in case anyone would care to check it out. I should be able to send it by e-mail.
Check out the logpile and relocated “wildlife hotel” which
are immediately in front of visitors as they pass through the Apiary gate.
Kevin’s and Kelly’s kids teamed up to re-locate the re-designed wild life
hotel. Kevin’s boys did the necessary research which I expect will be available
for visitors to the Apiary as a file. The “hotel” should enjoy much more sun in its new
location and I’m hoping this will result in many more interesting residents.
I’ve made 6 National floors/split/cover-boards with an entrance
that can be closed by a close fitting wedge. There’s a slot that will allow the
floors to double as cover boards above which one of the rectangular type
feeders will sit if required. I’ve also constructed 6 frame feeders of an
experimental design, they’re wooden and the inside surfaces have been dressed
with melted beeswax. Dummy frames of various widths are under construction.
They’ll be made of wood and will be insulated with polystyrene.
In my last posting I said I would put my video
of Vespa velutina (the oriental hornet) on ‘YouTube’. If you enter “The Asian Hornet filmed in Nepal”
in the ‘YouTube’ search box you’ll see it along with a
selection of other postings on the subject.Barry
ps I hope to get some photos of the changes to the Apiary and publish them on this posting later.
