It has been very mild here in Perth lately, and with the warmer weather the bees have become much more active. They are bringing in lots of pollen, indicating they are feeding lots of brood! There isn’t enough for us to harvest just yet, but won’t be long now!

Pollen laden bees (photo courtesy of Lucky Mac Photography)

Oh dear…the first hive (Hive 1) has really suffered. The bee numbers continued to deplete and eventually the hive died out. It is quite possible that by adding a second super in Autumn we, in our ignorance, doomed the hive to work too hard to keep warm over winter and not then be weak and vulnerable (there  was some wax moth in the hive).

What is interesting though is that at the same time as hive 1 was dying, we had a swarm of bees at the back of the house. In fact quite a few got inside! We have no idea if this is the queen and bees from hive 1 who left an ailing hive, or if it is unrelated, but we decided to capture it. What an experience that was! The bees were very docile, and willingly made a home in a cardboard box that we had put a drawn comb frame in plus a bit of honey.

After a day and night of them coming and going into the box, we lifted the box with sleepy bees at night and placed it into a hive box. After another day or so of getting used to this and a different position, we did the final change over- lifting the frame covered in bees and placing it into the hive box with other frames already in place.

opening a box full of buzzing bees!

lifting the frame

helping the remaining bees

It was amazing! The bees moved quite happily, and soon got used to coming and going from the hive box. We later added a bottom board and proper lid, and they soon realised the entry was now at the bottom of the box and not the top. Today we moved the box on a slightly different angle, and will continue to move it a bit at a time to where we want the final position to be.

Well we are finally getting some sunny weather and the bees are becoming more active after a cool wet winter here in Perth. We recently purchased a second nuc which is installed in a new hive and seems very busy. The bees are coming back to both hives laden with pollen, which they are busily harvesting from a variety of different flowers.

bee on strawflower

On the weekend we opened up our original hive to find that the queen has either died or is not very effective. There is brood in the cells, but the random laying pattern shows that all is not well.

random laying but brood visible

There is also a weird peanut shaped wax extension which is an indication of a new queen being developed.

odd peanut shaped section poking backwards

But….it appears the bees are sorting out the problem themselves so we closed up the hive again and left them too it! We used the opportunity to do some general maintenance like applying another coat of lanolin to the wood.

Giving the hives a coat of lanolin

Just 4 weeks after adding the super, the bees are making lots of honey! Seven of the ten frames in the box have honey and are feeling quite heavy, though there is no capping yet, which the bees do when the honey is ‘just right’. When the majority of a frame is capped, this is an indication that the honey is mature enough to harvest.

Honey production well underway!

We also took the opportunity to check the brood box, and found a lot of activity there too.

A healthy looking frame from the brood box