We have a Queen!

New Brood Box in place

It has been about a week since we did our first inspection of our new beehive.

It is important to check your bees at least every nine days during the summer months to make sure that your colony has enough room, and that they are developing well with no sign of disease or infections.

Last time Angela checked the hive it was very obvious that the spacing of the frames was all wrong as the bees had started to fill in the gaps between the frames with comb, leasing to the strange formations you can see in the pictures from then.

Revealing the colony

When I had got our hive last year it had come with a couple of strips of metal castellations, and so I had decided to fix these inside the brood box as I thought that was where they should go.

I now know that this was a mistake, as it made the spacings too wide.  A National brood box has space for eleven frames, but we only had ten in ours, hence the extra comb.

Moving the frames to the new brood box

Fortunately we already had a spare brood box without castellations, and we also had a handful of plastic spacers that fit over the ends of each frame to make sure that there is just the correct amount of gap.

We needed to transfer the colony from one box to another.

The first thing to do was to put a large piece of cardboard on the stand next to the hive, and to lift the whole brood box off the base and on to the cardboard.

The first of the drawn frames-frame 5

This was to make sure that the queen (if we had one) did not drop off the bottom of the frames and into the grass and get lost.


After that, each frame had to be lifted out of the original box, plastic spacers added to each end and placed into the new box.

Checking for brood

It was important to keep the frames in the same order so this was done very methodically.



Angela started to come across the first drawn comb five frames in, and was soon uncovering the bulk of the colony on the next frames.

Frame seven showing plenty of capped cells

Frames five, six and seven were where the main colony was, and Angela and Diane checked both sides of the frame for evidence that the queen was there, and was viable.



Fortunately there was a good brood pattern with plenty of capped brood which meant that our queen was still alive, and had mated.

Strange comb formation

As a viable queen she had started to lay and our colony looks to be on its way at last.



Frames seven,eight and nine were also quite heavy which indicated that not only did we have brood in the capped cells and pollen in the bright yellow cells, the bees were also storing nectar which would eventually become honey.

A very good sign.

Plenty of activity

It has only been seventeen days since I caught the swarm, and as it takes a minimum of 21 days for a bee to hatch we weren't expecting to see an increase in numbers just yet.


The numbers in the hive don't appear to be much reduced, thankfully, and now that we have seen that the queen is laying we can look forwards to seeing much more comb containing brood, pollen and nectar the next time we inspect.

Diane pointing out a cell filled with nectar

The strange comb formations will need to be dealt with at some point.



We will probably wait until all the brood have hatched before carefully slicing the surplus off and returning the trimmed frame to the hive.

The empty feeder

The bees had managed to eat all of the sugar syrup that we had put out for them on our first inspection which means that they are either very lazy, or that the flow of nectar and pollen coming into the hive is still not up to full speed.

We didn't have any more syrup with us this time so we decided not to feed the colony any more just yet and to wait until our next inspection to see how they have done on their own

Frame nine showing some development

Diane's bees drew out seven or eight frames on one feeding of sugar syrup, but ours have only managed five or six on two feeds.


I have been reading up everything I can find on the internet about Italian bees, and it seems that if you feed them they will prefer to raise brood with syrup rather than build comb.

 

 

 

Brushing the last few bees from the original brood box

This may explain the slow progress across the frames, but also means that we may have a sudden dramatic increase in population inside the hive fairly soon so it will be important to have a second box ready to put on top of the brood box to give the colony room to expand so they don't feel the need to swarm.

Fennel, Chicory and Manchester Carrots!

I had a quick visit to the plot tonight to finally get most of the seedlings into the ground.

These have been waiting in their pots for far too long, so I decided that I would have to squeeze them in wherever I could.

Fennel

I stuck my seven Fennel plants into my square foot bed planted one per square.

I have never grown this before, so I am looking forwards to seeing how it develops.

Italian Lettuce

Also in this bed are some Italian lettuce and also some Chicory.

I purchased a few seeds from Seeds of Italy this year, the plan is that most of the crops grown in Italy come from the Northern regions where the climate is similar to ours here in the North West of England.

Chicory

Chicory is another plant that I have never grown before, I believe it can be harvested through the summer for it's leaves to add to salads, but if the root is lifted and kept in the dark over winter it will form the chicory 'chicons' that we see in the supermarkets.

I'm really looking forwards to trying this out.

Little Gems

The Little Gem lettuce that I planted out about four weeks back have finally started to bulk up a bit.

Until very recently these plants had been shaded by some perpetual spinach and some chard that I had let go too far - the lettuces' progress seems to show that I made the right decision when I pulled up the giant plants to give these some more room.

Nantes Carrots

The Nantes Carrots have suddenly grown to a tremendous size, the fronds are now almost 2 feet high.

At one point I thought that I wouldn't be getting any as they took ages to germinate.

I also planted up loads of Manchester Carrots last night - hopefully these will not take as long to show.

Rocket with two rows of Celery in front

The Rocket I planted at the same time as the Celery has not responded well to the hot spell we are having - virtually every plant has bolted and produced a flower.

I have pinched out all the flowers and given them a good soaking - hopefully this will let me keep them a bit longer.

The Celery plugs in front of the Rocket are also doing well but are still growing slower than I had expected.

Nearly Ripe

Some of my strawberries are now ripening - I have had nearly 1.5kg so far over the past week, with probably ten times as many still to come as the various varieties I have ripen.


I think that I will be making strawberry jam this weekend.

\My first grapes

All of the fruit on the plot is at varying stages of ripeness.

Only one of my raspberry canes has ripened whilst the others are still at the tiny green berry stage.

The grape vine that I was given last year has loads of tiny bunches showing, and the gooseberries have lots of fat berries which are starting to change from green to red.

Black currant berries

Even the tiny black currant bushes have loads of fruit.

White Currant

Red Currant

The white and red currants that I was given last year have masses of fruit on them which is nearly ripe.

This is the first time that I have grown these, and as it was so easy to propagate from cut stems last year I think that I will probably have a few more this time next year.

Onions and shallots

The onions and shallots are swelling nicely, but some of the yellow onions have started to flop over which normally means that they are ready to lift.

These will be very small bulbs, but hopefully the rest will be able to grow a bit more before I have to lift them too.








Most of the shallots have split into four bulbs,but some have split into five or even six, and there are a couple of threes, but these are quite large bulbs.



I grew shallots from sets last year for the first time, but this year's offering looks to be a far better crop.

Shallots showing the split

This is probably due to the soil that they are planted in - last year they went into a bed that had been double dug, but was quite full of heavy clay.

This year they have been planted in a lasagne bed which had been used for my potato buckets last year, and so has had plenty of  compost dumped on top as the buckets were emptied.

Cara, Sarpo Mira and Pink Fir Apple Potatoes

Speaking of potatoes, this year's crop is doing well.

I have already had a few first earlies, both Red Duke of York and Maris Bard, which have been in the ground for just about 12 weeks.

My second earlies and maincrop are now outgrowing the first earlies and I am looking forwards to a good showing.


Now that I have started this season's harvest in earnest I have decided to keep a running total of how much it would have cost me to buy what I have grown from the supermarkets.

So far I have saved £16.50 - mostly on strawberries.

Mid Season Planting

The current weather has been brilliant for our crops, but unfortunately it has also been equally as good for the weeds.

Flag Iris looking good

As the weeds have grown where they wanted to, and not where we have placed them then they have an obvious advantage over our crops.

Sad reminder that nature tends to win

The natural cycle of things also cannot be stopped.  Earlier this year I planted out some swede seedlings that I had bought at the end of last season but didn't manage to get into the ground until March.  This weekend I had to admit defeat - every single swede had bolted and was producing yellow flowers which meant that they would never bulk up to produce a crop, so they all had tocome out.

I replaced them with six seedlings of cabbage 'Primo' that I had picked up at the plant sale at the Uppermill Museum a couple of weeks back, and they have joined the three surviving Brussel Sprout plants that were already in the bed.  As you can see from the picture above, one is doing really well but the other two have suffered with the slugs and are really weak.  I hope that they survive as it is a bit late to start more from seed.

On a more positive note, the white onions, shallots and Japanese onions that were planted out in April are, on the whole, doing well.

There have been a couple of casualties but I am pleased that I decided not to over-winter these.

The raspberry bed is filling out really well, and has been covered with white flowers over the past two weeks.

Now the bees from the Apiary have done their work lots of the canes are dripping with ripening fruit.

Last year some of the canes seemed to be either Tayberries or some other variant, this year I will try to look after the canes a bit better and actually cut them back after I have harvested the fruit

Grape growing wild!

The grape vine that I was given at the end of last season is doing well.  At one point I was afraid that it was dead, but just look at it now!

There are even several bunches of mini-grapes forming.

On the Beechgrove Garden TV program this Sunday they recommend pruning back the vines to one leaf past the grapes and each sideshoot to one leaf past the main stem.

I will give that a try over the next week

The strawberry beds are doing well with mostly green fruit as yet, but the ones I spaced out and planted through weed fabric look to be the easiest to harvest and best for less weeds and control of runners - if it works well I might re-plant the whole strawberry bed after the summer.






The current and gooseberry bed is looking very lush and green, but the currant plant nearest the camera has absolutely no fruit what so ever!

The leaves are different to the other currants on the plot, so I will have to wait until I get some fruit before I can identify it properly.

Waiting for a space

On my table I have loads of broad beans and peas just waiting for a space to become ready in one of the beds.

There are also a few brassicas that were originally in the poly tunnel but were attacked by a slug.  Hopefully they can recover enough to be planted out.

Cucumbers, Squash, Basil and Chives

On the stand on the decking I have got a few strawberries that were rescued after a communal tidy day a few weeks back.

They have been joined by a few  Crystal Lemon Cucumbers, Hawk Squash, Purple Basil and a pot of Chives.

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In my original square foot garden bed there are two perpetual spinach and a chard that have gone wild, and are now far too big for the bed.

I will take them out and plant up some new seedlings as they take next to no time to grow and I will try to keep on top of picking the leaves so they don't get out of hand so easily again.

Walking Onion bulbils

My walking onion (Egyptian Tree Onion) is thriving - there are loads of bulbils forming on the top of their leaves, the bulbils, leaves and bulbs are all edible, but I am leaving it to grow as it is a perennial.

Most of the long stems have been broken by something - not sure what but I hope it wasn't me.

This year I have three beds of potatoes in the ground, the varieties I am growing are Maris Peer and Red Duke of York (1st earlies), Cara and Sarpo Mira (2nd earlies) and Pink Fir Apple and Orla (Maincrop).

White Currant

Last year I was given a couple of currant bushes, one red and one white, which I stuck into either end of a bed just to give them a temporary home.

Both bushes have taken, and I am very happy to have them absolutely dripping with fruit.

Red Currant

The redcurrant bush was so large that I had to clip it down quite a lot to get it in the back of the car.

Rather than throw these clippings away I stuck them in the ground around the bush.

Every single one survived and grew on, so I will have loads of redcurrants for my wine making later this year.

Compost pile

Last year I had been using two dalek compost bins, but the amount of green waste I was producing soon filled these and more.

I was fortunate to be given a few pallets by another plotholder which I screwed together to make a compost baywhich as you can see is also nearly full already.

Bee Update

Before I get into this post, let me make a promise to all my readers (yes, all two of you! :))

This is not going to become a bee-dominated blog.

I still intend on keeping this a general allotment/veg growing blog, but it's just that at the moment a lot of our time has been spent on the bees, so it is only natural that the blog updates will reflect that.

Preparing to open the hive

 Last night was an important stage in our beekeeping journey as it was the first inspection of the swarm since they had been put in the hive.

We had hoped to do this on day 7, but the weather was against us with heavy rain and even thunderstorms so it wasn't until day 10 that the conditions were good enough to open the box.

Removing the empty feeder

The sugar syrup which we had given them on day 3 was virtually all gone which was a good first sign that we should see some decent comb production.

First sight of the bees

The crown board was lifted and put to one side and we got our first sighting of the bees.

They had clustered around frames 3, 4 and 5 and looked quite busy.

Starting the inspection

 The inspection had three aims.

Firstly to make sure that the bees were still in the hive and were making comb.

Additional comb made due to wonky foundation

It was obvious from the first frame that Angela lifted that comb was being made.  The large lump of comb you can see on the picture above, and what you will see on subsequent pictures is not a problem with the bees but a problem with the bee keepers.

The frames we used had been stored over winter and had also been bashed around a bit when we had tried to catch a swarm the previous year, and as a result the wax foundation which the bees use to build the comb upon was no longer straight.

Bees will fill any space bigger than 6-9mm with comb, so all they are doing is correcting our mistake.

Checking for stores

 The second goal of the inspection was to check that the bees were laying down stores of pollen and nectar.

Several of the cells had been filled with a reddish pollen, but there wasn't much evidence of nectar as yet, but as this was a very new swarm it's not too much of a concern at the moment.

Looking for the Queen

 The third and most important part of the inspection was to look for evidence of the Queen.

More strange comb

 We were looking for signs that the Queen was laying eggs, but if we managed to see her as well that would have been a bonus.

Still no sign of the queen

Unfortunately we didn't spot her, nor could we see any evidence of her laying eggs in any of the empty cells.

Although this was a bit of a set back there could be a few explanations - the Queen could be a virgin Queen who has yet to be mated - as long as she rises to mate before she is 41 days old there will be no problems, and as we have only had the swarm for 10 days we have about 3-4 weeks of that timescale left.

The Queen might be laying on the underside of some of the strange comb formations.

We might have accidentally killed the Queen during the capture of the swarm, or she may have died during the last week.

This is the worst case, but the bees were so docile during the inspection that we felt this to be unlikely.

If we did have no Queen we would then be reliant upon Diane having a spare frame from one of her hives which had brood on.

This frame would be put into our hive, and the workers, recognising that there was no queen present, would select one of the developing brood and extend the cell to make it a queen cell and create their own new Queen.

Adding more syrup

At this point there was no need to keep the hive open any longer so the feeder was put back on top and the bees were given another feed of sugar syrup.

This should be the last time we will need to feed them as they have started to forage for themselves so should now become self sufficient.

We will inspect the hive again this weekend to see if there is any change, and hopefully we will start to see some brood cells which will indicate that the Queen is present and laying.