Well it's amazing how things can turn around in a couple of weeks. With the slightly better weather we have had over that last couple of weeks and all the moisture from the previous 2 weeks before that, we now have some decent nectar flow. I am only taking honey from 2 hives this spring but when I had a look at these 2 hives last friday, to my surprise both supers were nearly full. In my excitement I have added another super to each hive and even though I am not expecting these two additional supers to be full by next week ( which is when i intend to harvest) it hope fully will give the 2 hives more space until next saturday when I intend to harvest and also artificially swarm the two hives afterwards. I have also given them some brand new supers to get to work on, which will make them more attractive to fill up for the summer honey and hopefully will be putting these supers back on, around the first week of june or as soon as the oil seed rape has finished flowering.
I carried out performed 4 artificial swarms which seemed to have gone well, but i will not look inside the nuc until a clear 4 weeks have passed in order to give the new queen all the time she needs to get her act together and start laying.
I have also received a call this week from a friend who has found a swarm of bees that has now turned in to a small colony, behind a shutter of a house she looks after. So this coming thursday I will be going to cut out this swarm and place the "football sized " nest in to a nuc or hive depending on its actual size and condition I find it in. All very exciting and also a nice early swarm which should also be ready for the sumer honey crop.
I will be filming it and also taking pictures so stay posted and all will be revealed probably over the next weekend. But before I get too excited I will see what I find when I get there.
RE My swarm Traps,
Now I have heard of a swarm from early last week ( probably around then) I am going to start to watch my swarm traps more closely. I have seen a few bees around many of them already so thats a good sign a gives you more encouragement after all this cool weather.
The other bit of good news it that we have nesting barn owls on our house box. I managed to get a few seconds of the female last week and have posted it on u tube. she is rather cute!
Heres the link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAAwq8GJuGs&feature=channel&list=UL
Richard
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