With so many jobs to do and a toddler's party to rush back to there was no way we'd get everything on the list done today. We just made sure that anything that involved actually opening up the hive was finished because it will soon be too cold, even on a sunny day like this, to do that.Everything took a lot longer than normal today because of the huge quantity of both honey and bees. This is great for the health of the colony but it makes the inspection more tricky - thousands of bees defending their precious honey stores makes handling the heavy frames slow work!
They seem fairly used to us by now and are very placid most of the time, so long as they don't get squished by accident. It only takes one damaged bee to send out a distress scent and a placid colony can suddenly become very protective. This is the main reason for having the smoker handy at all times as one quick puff around the squashed bee masks this distress signal and the others don't react to it. We find we don't need to use the smoker much because we have time to move slowly and carefully, gently moving the bees out of the way as much as possible, but it's always at hand, just in case.
As expected, every frame in the super is completely full on both sides with capped honey. Just ideal stores to see them through even the harshest winter East Anglia is likely to get!
As I lifted off the super with all the full frames in some cells of brace comb broke off and spilled honey onto the frames of the brood box - some bees immediately formed a circle around the spillage and licked it all up - a drop of this stuff is far too precious for them to waste. It really makes me appreciate the value of a teaspoon of honey!
Checking the frames in the brood box took a long time, mostly because we were trying hard not to crush any bees as we went. Removing the first frame is the hardest as it's wedged in tight as well as being sealed down with propolis. First you have to lever up one end with the hive tool then hold it in place as you lever the other end loose.
Taking care not to nip any bees with your fingers you lift the frame directly up, trying not to roll any bees off against the side. Of course the queen could be on any one of these frames now and with this many thousands of bees all over the place it's practically impossible to spot her.
Having said that, my wife did catch a glimpse of her as I was holding a frame up but she'd disappeared into the mass of workers by the time I turned it round - even that is a slow process with so many bees all over my fingers!
We found that all was exactly as we could hope for in the brood box - plenty more food stores and a healthy pattern off eggs and larvae too.Unfortunately there are still varroa mites appearing on my varroa floor, even after the recent treatment. There aren't many, only 6 in a week - which is a minuscule percentage when you consider how many thousands of bees there are here now. There's nothing I can do about them at this time of year anyway - we'll be going to see a local demonstration regarding a winter chemical treatment against varroa, called 'trickling oxalic acid' but we're trying to avoid chemical treatments as much as possible - I've got some alternative and non-chemical ideas to try out in the spring, all being well!
These frames in the super are now full of sealed honey, with the white cappings on for winter storage. Sugar syrup alone would not store well for long (it begins to ferment and makes the bees sick) but now that the bees have processed it into honey and sealed it away it will store perfectly well for several months if required.
You can see how thick the honeycomb is now. With this much on each side of the frame they're fairly heavy to lift. Of course I had to lift the whole full super off the brood box to be able to check that - normally I can do it very gently but it must have weighed about 20kg today. I just hefted it down hoping any bees would have the sense to get out of the way quickly!
I stand the full super on top of the upturned roof like this. This means that there won't be many bees lost on the ground as I carry on checking the brood box.
There is loads of capped honey stored in here too - the side of the frame you can still see in the box here is completely full of it. The one being held up still has brood developing in the very centre, as do all eight central frames, but the priority for the colony now is to store food like crazy, not to raise new mouths to feed!
This is the ideal state to leave the hive in for the winter. I hope to do one last check through next weekend, if the weather's warm enough, then it'll be time to shut it all up for the winter and hope for the best.
They've taken an amazing amount of sugar syrup this week - I've had to make up a new batch every single day! That's 2kg of sugar plus 1 litre of water each time.
They've had 12kg of sugar in 6 days with no sign of slowing down! Things are looking pretty hopeful for the winter after all!
I think these dragonflies were tricked by the metal roof looking like a pool of water from the sky. Great to see them so close and still for once - they're usually just flashes of colour in the sky round here.
As you can see here, their larder is completely bare. They've only just begun to build up the wax foundation in the super - in fact they're in virtually the same state they were in a month ago! By now these frames should be full of honey - there's no way this colony would survive even the mildest winter in this state.
The brood box shown above is a different story - masses of bees and plenty of honey to feed the hatching brood. There just isn't much in the way of provisions to keep the adult population alive for very long.
It was interesting to see the bees' reaction here when a wasp invaded to try to pinch some honey. They didn't sting it as I would have expected but four or five of them just bundled on top of it and wrestled it out of the hive. It came back less than a minute later but it got the message when it was booted out the next time - we didn't see it again.
Seeing as the only problem facing this colony now (so far as we can tell) is a shortage of food, we just need to feed them plenty of sugar syrup over the next few weeks and hope that they can convert it into honey to store for the winter. The autumn sugar syrup solution is much more concentrated than the spring syrup - I use 2kg of sugar to 1 litre of water (approx.)