Author Archives: Ewa&Mikael

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”

English summary: Time for the first honey badge of the season, perhaps Maple but there are many flowers at the moment so probably a mix. Efter en eländig senvinter/tidig vår med massor av fula ramar och lådor att sanera är det härligt att konstatera att bina nu åter är i gång. Två samhällen är extraContinue reading “25 april: Första skattningen”

English summary: This year’s project was to build a “show hive” for two combs that we can bring on lectures, markets and other exhibitions. Årets projekt blev att bygga en visningskupa – den kommer vi ha med oss på marknader, föreläsningar och liknande. Byggbeskrivning:1. Skruva fast alla distanser på sidorna. Tänk på att förborra demContinue reading “20 april: Visningskupa”

English summary: We have successfully carried out the first test with Melicitos. We placed it in the middle of the brood chamber and after one week the comb was clean and prepared for new brood.Nu har vi gjort vårt första test med att låta bina processa cementhonungen då vi helt enkelt satte in en ramContinue reading “17 april: Ta hand om cementhonung”

English summary: Its somewhat logical to believe that its harder for the bees to survive a winter in the North of Sweden. However, pure cold wheather is no issue for the bees as long as the hives are kept dry whereas moisture in the hive creates an environmental where the bees cant keep the clusterContinue reading “14 April: Större vinterförluster i norr – är det sant?”

English summary: We have plotted the daily temperatures of Okt-Nov 2022-2024 and in 2023 there were fewer days with temperatures above the 10 degree C, which stopped the bees from late foraging of IVY and other autumn flowers. In 2023 we had no issues with dysentery but in both 2022 and 2024 we had highContinue reading “13 april: Orsaker till vinterförluster”

English summary: We replaced our lost hives with new ones but since they lived in 3/4 Langstroth we had to convert them into our combs which turned out to be a challenge. But end of the day we have 5 new hives in our apiary.Moa, en biodlar kollega utanför Arvika, ville sälja några samhällen menContinue reading “7 april: Äventyr i Arvika”

English summary: We have cleaned all hives and shook out the wet nectar from combs out of three hives which gave about 6 litres of unprocessed nectar. One can only guess how much they ate prior the colonies collapsed but for certain it was quite some considearble amounts. No surprise that it drove them toContinue reading “5 April”