Bee per view

Me, Steve and a couple of other lottie holders had an outing to the Railway on Friday evening. I crawled into bed at 2am. Needless to say Saturday morning came round too soon. I had an appointment with the trailer at 9am. It was a beautiful morning that turned into a beautiful day. I did the trailer duty then dropped into see Mrs Kirby for new keys to the gate. My next appointment was at 11 to meet the new lottie member along with Steve. I am glad to say he was looking at least as bad as me. We did the newbie thing for an hour and then said out goodbyes having completed the paperwork and handed over keys.

I went home and had a fried egg butty and tea to ease the pain. I had a bit of the rest then went to the Bees. I had a good look through the boxes. The supers I put on last Monday are a third filled. The Queens are laying good style.

The serious bit of the visit was to test for Vorrora, a mite which is a parasite preying on Bees. Vorrora is thought to be responsible, at least in part, for the Colony Collapse Disorder which has been reported in the media recently. I should say at this point that modern hives have wire mesh floors instead of solid wood floors. The idea behind the mesh floor is that when Vorrora mites are dislodged from the bees, which happens regularly, that they fall through the mesh and out of the hive. My hives are eighteen inches of the floor so they have a very slim chance of climbing back in. The test is quite simple, first put a tray under the hive. Second break the hive down to access the top bars of the brood chamber frames then sprinkle a cup of Icing sugar between the frame bars. This of course cover the bees. The Bees make a fuss which creates movement, the icing sugar make the mites loose grip on the Bees and they fall through and out of the hive. The board catches the mites and excess sugar. It is a simple job to count the mites. My research suggests 80%+ of the mites will fall out in the first ten minutes. It was along ten minutes. I checked the board...nothing. I checked again, the board was clear. I did the same test on the other hive with the same result. I will retest in two weeks when the present capped brood emerges and again in about six weeks. The bees are not affect by the sugar in fact they were licking it up off the flight board and off one another.

I was not expecting Vorrora but it pays to keep an eye out.

Click HERE for a YouTube video of the Bees.