Author Archives: Ewa&Mikael

Englis summary: One colony seems to plan to make a silent change and have thus made some queen cells. We took the opportunity to cut out two of them and nailed them in an empty comb which we will place in a small nuc.Svärmen vi tog in hade uppenbarligen en gammal drottning då de redanContinue reading “25 maj – skära ut ett par viseceller”

English summary: We moved one colony from our backyard to the forest apiary since they showed a bit of attitude. We have made a transportation cap with ventilation to not get the bees overheated. In the lower image our first born new queen for the year is now mated att fully egg laying. The beeContinue reading “24 maj-nyparad drottning samt flytt av samhälle”

English summary: In below images we can see how Varroa mites and brood develope. Fig 1 and 2 shows the brood development and fig 3 describes the evolution of mites in the brood cell. The high fecundity in drone brood is the reason why drone cutout is so efficient and will delay the problem ofContinue reading “23 maj – kvalster och ynglets utveckling”

English summary: Time for extraction of rape seed honey but the unusual dry spring crashed the hope of a good harvest. We hope the rain will enable some additional honey next week. Dax för årets första rapsslungning och det fanns gott hopp om en bra skörd då rapsen stod hög och gul. Tyvärr verkar detContinue reading “22 maj- slungning av raps”

English summary: First result of this year’s drone cuotout and colony 8 had about 19% infested cells when the brood were newly capped and seem to have cleaned out about 40% of the infested cells 5 days later.Nu har vi börjat skära ut drönare och analysera angreppsgrad och eventuell DBVSH (Drone Brood Varroa Sensitive Hygien)Continue reading “21 maj- första resultat ur drönarramen”

English summary: The bee colonies developes quickly in may and it is important to add supers and move full combs from the brood chambers (honey or brood) to the supers and replace them with fresh drawn frames in order to prevent swarming. Our strongest colony got a third brood chamber since all combs were fullContinue reading “20 maj: Snabb vårutveckling”

English summary: We were invited to Gävle beekeepers on May 11 to carry out a presentation why it is a good idea to let the bees use honey all year, also during the winter. The presentation was well recieved where we also took the opportunity to debunk several myths and fairy tales around beekeeping (HeatherContinue reading “Föredrag i Gävle”

English summary: In last colony check we saw swarmcells which mean we must find the queen and place her in a new hive together with all egg frames and nurse bees. We create new nucs of the swarmcells and leave only one swarm cell in the old hive – more than one then they canContinue reading “15 maj – svärmceller”

English summary: Today we checked the new nuc and did indeed found a new queen running around. Strangely enough, it appears that the bees choosed a 5 day old larvae instead of any of the eggs that were present. Maybe this is another myth – that the bees can only use eggs and that olderContinue reading “12 Maj-nykläckt drottning och svärm”

English summary: Time for the yearly drone cutout as mite control. In order to evaluate if the hives have show Drone Brood Varroa Sensitive hygienic behaviour (DBVSH) we use 6 split frames where half 1/3 portion is cut out one week before the 2nd half. We compare the number of cleaned out larvaes, between theContinue reading “30 april- dags att sätta in drönarramarna”