Author Archives: Ewa&Mikael

English summary: The first week of September will see some decent temperatures and the bees will have a last chance to collect a bit of nectar and pollen. We prepare the winter in and we have supplemented the smaller colonies with some sugar since we unfortunately do not have enough honey. The bigger colonies areContinue reading “30 aug – slutspurt på ljung och invintring”

English summary: We are now getting closer to end of the season and we must determine which colonies to treat against Varroa mites, and if a treatment is needed then which to use. We follow an IPT strategy where we try to avoid chemicals and, if needed, firstly use the most harmless chemical, which isContinue reading “26 augusti – behandling av kvalster”

English summary: This season have been a struggle regarding the honey harvest and we have pretty much missed all the big flow due to unfavory wheather conditions. Since we have increased the number of colonies drastically the result is that all honey will go back to the bees but, even so, we still have toContinue reading “24 aug – säsongen börjar närma sig slutet”

English summary: The mite situation is pretty good wher only 3 hives of 14 show a mite population that need actions. Orange color is still under the threshold but must be monitored and probably need a lactic acid treatment to stop the increase before it gets critical. The red one is above threshold and willContinue reading “Aug 13-Kvalsterläget ser bra ut”

English summary: Suddenly we saw many queen cells which pointed towards a swarm despite the late season. However, we search for a long time but couldnt find her so we beleive she must have have died during the move the week before. So, we removed some of the queen cells and hopefully we made theContinue reading “12 augusti- Viseceller i augusti vill man inte se”

English summary: Plenty of pollen that appears to origin from Heather.Vi hoppas att ljungen kommer igång och i vart fall verkar de dra in ljungpollen med beige/grå färg

English summary: Yet another mite infested cell that the bees have opened.Vi fotar en ram dagligen för att se ifall bina öppnar upp celler med kvalster. Här är ännu en cell som bina öppnat och minsann satt det inte ett kvalster alldeles under locket.Vi kollade ett annat samhälle där vi också har noterat DBVSH ochContinue reading “31 Juli – resistenta bin del 2”

English summary: No nectar flow so the bees can easily rob a weaker colony in case they found it. This small colony had no chance once the bees entered and when we checked all bees were dead and the food gone. Luckily, the loss was limited since it was a new born unmated queen.Just nuContinue reading “29 Juli – röveri”

English summary: In our resistent colonies we have seen about 60% cleaning rate in the drone combs (DBVSH=Drone Brood Varroa Sensitive Hygiene) and now we want to check if the bees also clean out worjer brood. We have taken photos everyday of one comb and yesterday we saw one cell that was opened. We tookContinue reading “28 Juli – Indikation att DBVSH är länkat till VSH”

English summary: We released our newly purchased black queens that have been caged for one week to ensure they will be accepted by the colonies.Eftersom svarta nordiska bin luktar annorlunda än de gula buckfasthybriderna är det svårare att få en ny drottning accepterad. Vi har insett att man måste börja med en liten avläggare ochContinue reading “27 Juli – frisläpp av svarta drottningar”