Lesson 12 May 2015

small groups inspecting hives

fancy hive

frames for emergencies

frame with sealed and open honey cells

Spotting the queen! She’s marked blue for 2015

the queen and her nurses

Open & sealed honey cells, drone cells

Michele inspecting the hive

a healthy colony

frame with fresh nectar cells

John setting up a frame

A “nuc” in a plastic container

Nuc with 6 frames

Bees don’t draw foundation where the wire runs

splitting a colony – “artificial swarming”

Adding a queen in a cage to a colony. The frame contains no brood cells.

brood & (yellow) pollen cells

The bees were very agitated and needed a good dose of smoke

Queen excluder

Queen cell (top of frame)

Setting up the brood box for the new colony. Frame in centre contains the queen in cage

Queen excluder on top of new brood box

Setting up the hive, adding supers.

Original hive boxes restored

Lid replaced onto artificially swarmed brood box

Smoke added to calm bees

Split hive complete and a new generation started