We're supposed to be opening two of the colonies today to check that both our 'old' queens are still laying happily but the weather's dreadful again. Heavy rain and cold too so we'll only do the jobs which don't involve exposing the bees to this weather!
First of all, that nuc (N1) shown above on the far left needs to be relocated today. One of the queen cells I left in it was already sealed so that queen could hatch out tomorrow. This nucleus hive will not be on a permanent site here so we just quickly found a clear spot not too close to the other sites - it's about 20 yards away.
This is the colony to be moved - we noticed two worrying things straight away.
First, a sickly-looking bee, and second, a load of tiny brown splodges all over the front of the nuc. This, unfortunately, is bee diarrhoea. They have obviously picked up a gut infection, meaning that they are not able to control their bowels long enough to fly a good distance from the hive before they relieve themselves. [All bees are extremely fastidious with cleanliness inside the hive - only the queen defecates inside the hive, because she can never leave, but her attendants remove it immediately].
The other nucleus hive (N2) has exactly the same splodges in front of its entrance too - they clearly are suffering from the same illness.This looks like the sickness called 'nosema' and is usually remedied with a short course of antibiotics added to their feed - I'll come straight back out and give it to them later on today.
Just like last time, I stuffed a handful of grass in the entrance, just to make sure no bees came out to investigate as I carried it along.
(Sorry about the very blurry photo - probably a raindrop on the lens!) I set it down on the new site and removed the grass plug. One bee did peep out but didn't venture any further - not surprising, considering the awful weather and that they were poorly!
The other colony I recently moved is due for some more feeding too. There was no sign of sickness here, though the bees were of course staying tucked up inside during the downpour!
The 4pt feeder was completely empty so I filled it up again.
I quickly cooked up a batch of sugar syrup with the added bee medicine. I fed each nucleus their dosage and closed up again - there's nothing more we can do today but I'll check for more nasty splodges over the next few days!...
