Local Beekeeping Group Hästveda

I visited my local beekeeping group in Hästveda and even became a member :) Fine people but all are into conventional beekeeping so many things I can not apply in my natural top bar beekeeping. But I did learn from the bee inspector (who sold me the 2 colonies I now keep) how to check for disease. He told me to always open capped cells which are on their own and see if inside is a dark jelly-like liquid. That would be American Foulbrood. This is a good lesson learned indeed.

 The local beekeeping inspector inspecting hives, those in suits are beginners, including me.

 Most beekeepers here cull drones for Varroa control and Varroa counting. I am against this, in my opinion, brutal technique. My bees are allowed to have as many Drones as they wish, Varroa or no Varroa. Bees have raised Drones for more than 40 million years, I'm sure they have a good reason for having so many Drones.

 All beekeepers in this group treat every year with Oxalic Acid for Varroa control. I still didnt decide if Im going to treat or not. I'm most definitely not going to treat every year but most likely only if I notice "deformed wing virus" which which comes from Varroa.

Checking the brood pattern  ....

 ... which is very spotty. Not a great sign.

 the huge hive is the traditional swedsih hive called Trågkupa. It is a horizontal hive with frames.

 This too is a Trågkupa which they use for splits.

Peters Stuga is where this local group meets. They have a group's apiary there for raising Queens which are then sold very cheap to the members.

At the top bar hives entrance

The bees are being very busy for the last few days. Even today when it was grey and cloudy. The Maple trees are blooming like mad and the Dandelions and Cherries are blooming too. As well as Sloe and Horse Chestnut :) Lots of pollen and nectar coming in! Short video showing how busy they are :)

Che Guebee Apiary is Buzzing

The bees are settling into the Top Bar Hive

 This hive has a large window at the back which makes visual inspection very handy. One can tell a lot by simply looking at the bees through it.

 These bees are Buckfast

a short video at the entrance taken late today. They are much busier during the middle of the day

Second colony moved into the Top Bar Hive

Me performing Chop'n'Crop. I did make a video but after You Tube told me it will take 895 minutes to upload the video I gave up. So sorry, next time maybe.

I had no one to help me do the chop'n'crop today so I had to do it alone, and it was no fun. I would rather prefer to have someone holding the frames while chopping them. Anyway I did it and the bees seem to be settling in BUT ... there is a BIG BUT! I have not seen the Queen, so I'm guessing that I shook her into the top bar hive when moving frames. I would move one frame at a time and would first shake bees into the top bar hive then brush off what's still on the frame and then I would do the chop'n'crop. I did look for the Queen but for some reason I could not find her. This colony has many bees and lots of capped and uncapped brood. Now its too late to inspect after such disruptive procedure. So will wait for 4-5 days or longer before inspecting for egg presence and try to spot the Queen.

I called the beekeeper who sold me the colonies to ask if he clips Queen's wings and he does. Im against such practice and will never do such thing. In my opinion we beekeeper should start releasing at least one swarm into nature to rebuild the feral honey bee population. We lost many feral bees due to Varroa decades ago and if all beekeepers clip Queen wings there is no chance the swarm can leave the hive without a flying bee.

Beekeepers of the world report feral bees returning to their localities and such bees are now treatment free and are adapting to the Varroa mites. This is of great importance. Treating bees is not sustainable and is something to be let go of at one stage. We don't treat ourselves with medication all the time so why treat bees on regular bases with Varroa treatments? If I ever treat I will treat only the colonies showing "deformed wing virus". My two colonies which survived the harsh winter of Värmland were not treated. They survived anyway and are one step closer to co-adapting to Varroa. With Neonicotinoids now being banned in Europe the forage will be much healthier. With healthy biodiverse forage which we do have in this part of Sweden I see no need to treat regularly for Varroa.

One colony moved into the horizontal Top Bar Hive

I was very happy to have Marco from the network Mykorrhiza helping me today to move one bee colony from a framed hive into my empty Top Bar Hive.
I have blogged recently about me helping Marco build a new Kenya Top Bar Hive which will be placed in the University of Agriculture Alnarp. This was a good opportunity for him to see how chop'n'crop is being performed before he acquires his bees in May. Chop'n'Crop is a way to fit framed wax comb into the top bar hive with sloped V-shaped walls.

 In this photo Marco holding a framed comb while I'm cutting away the bottom and the sides of the frame. The top part of the frame is kept and the wax comb remain attached to it. I cut off the bottom corners of the rectangular comb to fit the sloped side walls of a top bar hive. The Top Bar is then being screwed on top of the top side of the original frame with two screws.

 We made sure to cover the framed hive with a hessian cloth to preserve the hive temperature during each frame transition. We worked one frame at a time and we tried to work as fast as possible not to chill the brood. The outdoor temperature today was 16'C. In this image I'm looking for the Queen since I never had the chance to see the Queen when I bought the colony yesterday. I've found her and was surprised to see her wing clipped :( I am against such practice. Many conventional beekeepers do this to prevent the Queens from swarming. In case a colony wants to swarm the Queen can't fly because she is missing one wing and the colony has no other choice but stay in the hive and abort the planned swarming. I find this practice very disturbing :( This Queen has a very spotty laying pattern also known as a "Shot Gun" pattern.

Me observing while Marco screwing a top bar onto the framed comb. The West wind was very strong at one stage so I placed a long window on the side of the hive as a windbreak and placed a cover to protect the brood combs from direct sunlight which can dry up the eggs.
The bees were not aggressive at all :) we chopped'n'cropped 12 framed combs without even one bee being agitated. We must be very good at this or these bees are  very gentle ;) It must be the second ;)

The second colony remains in the framed hive until tomorrow. They were very busy today bringing in loads of yellow pollen :) I will have to move this one on my own tomorrow and that will be a challenge since chop'n'crop is usually done by two persons. I didn't have time to think about making a video today but will do so tomorrow, I promise  :)

 We ended this lovely and exciting day with a BBQ :) Marco in charge of the food prep :)

Kristine enjoying a well deserved beer (she did the photos from inside the house because she is allergic to bees)

The Bees Have Arrived

Yes :) the bees are home now :) 2 strong colonies!
I've made 2 transport boxes which can accommodate 12 swedish låg-normal frames. I was supposed to get 20 frames with each colony but I told the beekeeper to keep 8 which were empty because I will not use frames with mono-cell foundation in my Top Bar Hives. Each colony had 10 frames with cupped brood and uncupped. There are also newly laid eggs in the cells :) we couldn't see the Queens but the eggs are a good indicator that these colonies are Queenright. Not just that, these bees are also very gentle. Not even one bee attacked us yet we moved all of them into a new hive.

As you can see in this pic I have placed the transport hives in front of the top bar hive they will be moved into. I will move the bees tomorrow into the horizontal top bar hives but first I will have to perform a so called "chop'n'crop". The frames are rectangular and top bar hives have sloped side walls in a V shape. To place a framed comb I will have to do some cropping and removing of the frame sides and the bottom. I have designed the top bar hives so I don't have to crop too much of the framed wax comb. I will try to make a video of me doing the chop'n'crop tomorrow since it can be very educational. I have learned this technique from Phil Chandler's video on you tube.
Stay tuned :)