Hello and welcome to my first bee blog post. I'm Alex, an amateur beekeeper in his first season.
The story starts with my other half who has been a beekeeper for a couple of years; I left her to it after buying her first setup as a Christmas gift. She had successfully kept her first colony throughout last season but sadly due to the exceptional cold weather, the structure of the hive came apart and our bees sadly perished. Whilst we were pleased to see plenty of stores and no signs of any mites or pests, she was devastated and was left questioning whether to continue with her new passion or not.
I decided it wasn't really a choice but for the hive failing she would have got them through the winter and had already invested so much of her time into learning how to keep them safe.
Second time is the charm…moving forward!
Due to the failings of the previous hive, we were very nervous about what direction to go to ensure the safety of our new colony. Having researched different types of hives, materials, pros and con’s, I decided to purchase a Payne’s national poly hive this time around due to the evidenced benefits (heat management, brood production and honey) especially given our negative experience with a traditional wooden hive.
Top tip: Be consistent with your manufacturer. We have since bought Abelo poly hives and lack the cross-compatibility due to different manufacturers. Ideally, we would’ve gone for the same brand both times around to share resources between them.
With our new hive on order, I reached out to Greg at Myst Tree to purchase a fresh nuc. However, we didn't realise that his apiary is practically a stone’s throw away from where our bees would be coming to live...This led to more late nights, significant research, and multiple conversations with other beekeepers. Leading to an excellent beekeeper based in Anglesey, Wales who was selling over-winterised nucs. Order placed.
What can be better than buying a new colony? Catching a free swarm? It can’t be too difficult surely…
While we had a little wait before delivery, I decided that I would take a chance to see if I could catch myself a swarm for some free bees! Having bought a poly nuc and some questionable "queen bee pheromones" I set aside a few frames of foundation and set it up as per my research. However, a few weeks went by with relatively no interest except some scouts and a few robbers. Sadly, no swarm for our empty hive.
Luckily, our bees arrived from Anglesey (despite Royal Mail’s best efforts and me having to go to the mail depot to rescue our colony) and settled in brilliantly...However, I've got a swarm trap - I may as well try and get more free bees, right? I think I can see why beekeepers end up with so many hives...
I quickly realised I was missing some old comb to make the nuc a more appealing home to the swarm. I decided to reach out Greg again, this time I wanted some old comb frames and would buy them from him. Greg being generous, instead offered to swap the frames like for like with some fresh foundation frames. Happy days!
However, over a period of about 1.5 seconds, Greg remembered that he had a somewhat troublesome small swarm nuc that he had believed to have died off during the winter. Much to his surprise, they were not only incredibly healthy – they were thriving.
Greg kindly offered for us to take the problem nuc for the mere cost of the frames!
"It will be a big job, lots of cutting out but if you are up for it, you can have them..."
So, without hesitation and with much excitement, we jumped in the car and off we went to the apiary. Sure enough, there was Greg suited and booted with his troublesome nuc in hand. He talked us through how this situation had transpired and then provided his tips and guidance for dealing with the nuc as the colony had broken through the feeder and built out significant burr comb in the lid.
Greg’s top tips
- Start with the lid as the Queen will probably be in there
- Get a big box for all the extra burr comb
- Shake bees from the lid into the new hive
- Scrape out comb from the lid
- Twist off the feeder and do your best to clean out
- Inspect the frames carefully and squish all queen cups/cells
- Move into new brood box with fresh foundation frames
Parting phrase: "careful, you will probably kill the queen, best of luck to you"
On our way we go...except of course, our location is too local to the apiary so they can't go to our home and they are already bursting at the seams.
Cue a quick 9.30pm phone call to the in-laws asking if us 2 and our 20,000 guests can come for visit/stay for a few weeks. We found a lovely spot sheltered with sun and clearing next to the adjoining woodland. We opened the nuc entrance for the girls to settle into their new home for the night. They immediately started coming and going with their orientation flights despite the late night.
The following day we returned to relocate them to their new home, very excited and completely curious as to what we would soon be faced with...
We followed Greg's advice to the letter and wow; it was amazing! As someone who hadn't bothered to do too much in previous seasons, I was now face first into tonnes of grumpy bees looking at tonnes of honey, brood and burr comb.
The key takeaways from the transfer inspection:
- How incredible it looked, the industrious nature of the bees and the artistry of the comb in EVERY single nook of the nuc box.
- It was dripping with honey; this colony is incredibly productive. Overwintered from a small fist sized swarm to this. Wow.
- The lid and feeder were packed out
- Queen cups and swarm cells. Everywhere as expected.
As soon as we began transferring the frames, our new girls were super aggressive and bearding on the new hive. No sign of her majesty and we'd had no idea if we had crushed her cutting the comb or transferring them.
Once the frames were in we went through all the comb and nuc pieces one final time looking for the queen. Sure enough, there she was and in the excitement of transferring her into the hive (and relief we hadn't squished her...) we forgot to take our photo. Never mind. We scooped up the final few stragglers, gave them a nice big glug of sugar syrup and left them alone with what we had recovered of their honey comb (for them to steal back).
On the advice of our mentor, we returned a few days later to make our second inspection with the aim of 2 things:
- Crush any queen cells
- Find Queen Diana (named by the MIL)...
On inspection we found 4 more queen cells which were crushed. We took plenty of photos throughout whilst checking each frame. But alas, still no queen.
Or so we thought, upon reviewing our photos we saw her. Finally. And here she is and isn't she a beauty!?
Find the queen:
Top tip: For any less experienced beek’s or those who struggle the find the Queen in the heat of the battle. Take photos both sides, static hide and seek is way, way easier! It also provides a good archive for you to check on brood, patterns and pests!
At the time of writing this, we are 2 weeks and a half post-transfer. A few more queen cells have been squished but so far, no swarm! The girls have almost filled their new foundation and are close to filling their second brood box much happier with their extra space. Their productivity is as good as any hive I've seen before.
Interestingly, the story doesn't end there…
Whilst sat in the hotel lobby on day 1 of our summer holiday I checked our house CCTV out of interest to check our other hive to see that our poly nuc has been taken over by a new swarm!
Cue eye rolls from my other half who only wanted 1 hive and she has ended up with 3 because of both, Greg's generosity, and my impulsivity.
Yay free bees [minus the costs of syrup, hives, frames etc]. Oops.
A huge, HUGE thanks to Greg for his guidance, expertise and wisdom but of course not forgetting his generosity.
Please go and follow Myst-Tree on their socials and visit their website Myst-Tree honey and cider. If you are wanting bees or honey, Greg sells both!
Alex
After thoughts by Greg:
Hello Everyone,
I just want to thank Alex for writing this blog post and for the kind words he put in it. I'd also like to thank him for leaving Kat and I a jar of honey and one of the mementos from his wedding. Exceptionally generous of him =)
I also feel like I need to explain how the "Troublesome Nuc" came about. Last year I was called out in October to rescue a tiny late season swarm from someone's shrub. It was just bigger than my fist and so I didn't expect much from it. I popped it into a nuc box and gave them a slab of fondant as they had no real time to establish themselves and prep for the next few cold months. I think they had 2 weeks before daytime temps were below 10°C, which is when you shut up your hives and hope they survive until March.
I spent the following months expecting them to have died in the horrible, frigid cold but when March came around, I lifted the lid to see a box bustling with bees! About half of the frames were full of brood in all stages.
I did disease checks and treated them for varroa with an oxalic dribble and then left them closed for another month as March was quite cold and damp. By April, when the weather had started to brighten up a bit, I opened them again and they had started to fill the roof with burr comb... it's a bit of a nightmare to fix spur of the moment, especially as I only get around 3-5 hours a week to do my inspections these days. I closed them up again and made a note to fix them next inspection.
As with all things you put off, if you leave it then it will get worse! Spring this year was a bit of a nightmare with almost every colony trying to swarm. With my restricted time frame, I just couldn't prioritise the nuc sadly.
Fortunately, Alex got into contact with me about wanting to catch a swarm and it just made sense to offer him this one as it is probably the most surprising colony I've had. It takes absolute beasts to get through winter without any prep. I'm really happy that it seems to have worked out for him and that the colony have been doing well this year.
I absolutely love hearing about people getting into the hobby and I always enjoy helping new-bees with any questions they have, so please feel free to send me a message any time. I am also always interested in giving prospective writers a place to talk about their interests. If you would like to be a guest writer for us then please get in contact with me through this website or via one of our social media pages asap =)
Hope you're all safe and well!
Greg