Swarm prevention.

It got an early-ish night on Saturday so were up and about fairly early on Sunday. I had a couple of boiled free range eggs and toast for breakfast. It was then off the do the poo trailer run. As usual Chris and I had a chat. He was tackling the footings of a big lead too greenhouse. I left him too it and ran the trailer to the lootie and emptied it. I picked some Rhubarb and drop it off with Chris when I dropped off the trailer. The Sankey trailer is working well.

I went up to see the bees whilst I was in the area. I had to get a brood box and super whilst at the apriary. I put what I needed in Degsy. The big hive looked very quite. I resolved to go back later in the day. I had to go the Matlock to see a leather suppliers. Miss L came with me. After I had done what was needed we had a brew and Apple pie, which was nice. Upon returning home Miss L was dropped off and I took Degsy up to the apriary. My instinct was right given what I had seen the week before so swarm prevention was in order.

The double brood was ready to swarm. It had six sealed queen cells on a couple of frames. This was handy for me. The first job was to find the Queen. Given I was running a double brood it was difficult to locate her. There are twenty two frames in a double a brood that is forty four frame sides. Forty four minutes later I found her and fit and fecund she looked. I followed the directions in Ted Hooper's Guide to Bees and Honey for an artifical swarm which demanded finding the Queen. Upon finding her she and the frame she was on was put in a new and empty brood box. The big box had three very full supers, full of not only honey but bees. I decided to take advantage of the early swarming and the availability of bees and sealed Queen cells.

The Queen was put in new brood box. I put in a couple of drawn frames and filled the remainder of the box with foundation. I put a super plus the bees it contained over the brood box. Above the crown broad I put an eke and a feeder which contained two litres of syrup. The double brood hive was moved to a new location "B". I took five frames from the twenty two in the double brood, one of which contained a sealed Quee cell, this created hive "C".  The five frames went in with all the bees. I dropped on a super with its bees. With a bit of luck it will build up over the summer.

Hive "B" has several sealed Queen cells and very many bees. I dropped on a one of the three filled supers and an empty super. The brood box had been filled with five frames of foundation to replace the frames taken out for the nuc on box "C".  I tideied up the boxes, queen excluders, door closures, crown boards and roofs. I only had only one feeder and syrup to go with. I figured Hive "A" needed a feed more than other hive so that is hwhere it went. Boxes B and C were very quiet but box A still sounded like a jet engine. I got stung many times but that was no real surprise. It was only 13 degrees centigade which is not really warm enough plus a pulled a very strong hive to bits several times. Luckily I do not react badly to strings but it does not mean I like it. The bees were not agressive but settled down after the initail dimantling of Hive A.When I had finished I leaned against the wire fence and made my notes whilst I watched the hives settle down. It was funny trying to write with bees buzzing round the pen. Now I just have to sit back and wait for the queens to emerge, mate and start laying.