MIni-nuc absconding swarms

[Adam]

This weekend I have witnessed two mini-nucs absconding - well they tried! Both were VERY full of bees so beware if you are in the same situation!

One Apidea had lost its queen a couple of weeks ago (I sold her) and had a laying scrub queen dumped in there a week ago - just because I didn't have the heart to squash her just yet! The swarm occured yesterday; As she was clipped she made about 3 feet and was seen on the grass with a few bees around her. I put her in a cage in a Swi-bine mini-nuc and ALL the bees followed. They left the brood in the Apidea - both old sealed brood from the previous queen and eggs fro mthe scrub queen and the new home is as full as their old one. (Still there today).


The other swarm was today. A plywood mini-nuc of mine had no brood but was very full. A virgin emerged about 10th - 12th August and finished on a high conifer hedge with all the bees. She has now been housed in a 5 frame nuc on the same site - I guess there must be enough bees to cover nearly 2 frames so they were definitely squashed in the previous home. I had assumed that I had longer as she hasn't started to lay yet and I had banked on bee numbers reducing until the first new bees emerge.

I'm not sure if the queen left on a mating flight (as Jon has witnessed) and the bees got confused. If I was a betting man I would say that she will be laying within the next few days.

The last couple of days have been good mating weather here. 21 - 22 degrees and little wind.

[Jon]

Yesterday I had 4 mating swarms from apideas go off within half an hour of each other - the first perfect flying day for over a week with temperatures around 20c.
They all landed on the same post. I got the first lot into an apidea, hopefully with the queen, but I lost 2 of the other 3 queens which were balled in the frenzy. the one I saved is still in a roller cage in an apidea which is now completely bunged out with bees. I got one queen out of a ball of bees but it was already dead.
This is what happens when you have a lot of apideas on a single site.

[gavin]

Saw a couple of more or less empty Apideas today into which queens had hatched a fortnight back. If I'd been more attentive instead of globe-trotting I may have had similar tales to tell.

[Jon]

Hi Deputy Dawg!

I also have a few which are empty due to being overrun by wasps.
I moved a lot of apideas to my back garden over the weekend as the wasps are making things impossible at the allotment.

The last 9 cells went into apideas on Thursday and 8 hatched. I have 6 of these in the garden so will be curious to see what drones they mate with. I have 3 colonies at the bottom of the garden producing decent drones.

[Jon]

This is the aforementioned magic post which has attracted well over a dozen queens and associated bees from apideas.

797

[gavin]

..... as the wasps are making things impossible at the allotment.



Cotton pickin' varmints!!!

[Jon]

Dag nabbit. Pesky critters.

[Adam]

It's not just me then. That's good.

I only have 2 Apideas; I was able to use two frames from the empty one instead of the feeder in the other Apidea as that's quite full too with the queen having laid up 3 the three frames. Most of my mini-nucs are swi-bine ones from the Buzzy Bee shop. With some offcuts of wood I've made a 7 frame box for the swi-bine frames so I can stuff some of the dregs in there. I either have to try to keep it going over winter with a second-rate (small) queen or I'll have to shake them out to strengthen another colony.

So far I have had no disasters with wasps but there are lots about and they worry me.
Bee heads on the grasss as the bodies have been carried off.

Jon, Gavin, What do you do with your Apideas at the end of the year?

[Jimbo]

Hi Adam,

I strip down the apideas at the end of the year and put everything in the dishwasher at no more than 50 degrees (usually when my wife is away visiting her mother!)

[Jon]

Jon, Gavin, What do you do with your Apideas at the end of the year?

I scrape off propolis and wax, spray with Virkon and fumigate any comb with 80% acetic acid.
I do this with the correx nucs and frames as well.

This year I am going to try and overwinter a few queens in double or triple apideas.

[gavin]

Jon, Gavin, What do you do with your Apideas at the end of the year?

I was an Apidea virgin until this summer, so I look to you guys for advice. :)

[Adam]

My Wife can get to her Mothers and back before the dishwasher has finished so that's not an option for me. I will say no more for fear of being chastised by the female member of the forum....

I've cleaned up a couple - that's polynucs and not female members of the forum - House bricks come into play again as in order to soak off anything the very buoyant polystyrene needs to be submerged. I have not used Virkon; is it just a bleach or does it contain and dissolving powers?

What do you do with the surplus bees? I shook one out in front of a colony yesterday evening. They walked up the ramp from the grass and kept going past the entrance! At 10:30 they were still clinging onto the outside of the hive. This morning they had all gone in.

[Jon]

What do you do with the surplus bees?

I am planning to unite apideas to try and overwinter a few in double or triple units.

Re. the Virkon, I don't think is will dissolve anything but it has very powerful against both bacteria and viruses.

http://www.farmchem.co.uk/virkon-s-10-kgs-563-p.asp

I bought 50 tablets for about 15 quid.

http://www.animalmedicationdirect.co.uk/virkon-s-tablets-50x5g-pr-4131.html

[Adam]

Here's the photos.
Queen on grass is joined by more bees. She was put in the mini-nuc in a cage and the rest followed. A full mini-nuc!