Back from a short break in Scotland. Pulled about 35 pounds of honey from hive 1, the new Queens are going well. All in all, good progress.
00:05
Welcome back to a Beekeepers Diary podcast. I'm back. I've had a couple of weeks off podcasting, mainly because I was away on a holiday up in the lovely northwest of Scotland on a wildlife holiday and work has been pretty busy. So it's got in the way. Sorry if I sound a bit croaky because I'm run down as well.
00:35
The voice might be a bit Barry White. So a few things to update on, I think since we last spoke, m I've had a little honey harvest. em We have successfully requeen hive two and yeah, things are moving on. So starting off in hive one.
01:03
which is the original queen and colony I inherited when someone gave up of unknown providence. So they tried to a good while ago. So I split them, kept the old queen.
01:24
and
01:29
Thought it was getting buzzed by a bee then. Yeah, kept the old queen. Let them raise a new queen in that colony, who is currently in residence and she is laying well. The bees are very productive. I've got one, two, I've got four supers on there currently. Three of them are filled, but not ripened off yet. And one is empty, basically ready for...
01:59
any flows that we should be lucky enough to get coming up. em Yeah, so they're all good. I still don't like their temperament, but it's not, they're not terrible. They're a bit followy and up in your face, but I can live with this for the moment. I've walked away to my little spot here. I record the podcast from when I'm not, they didn't follow me more than a couple of meters. um I can live with that, that's fine.
02:28
two that was em the nuke that I took with the old Queen I then bought a Queen from Becky's Bees and I introduced that Queen into the nuc too because this temperament they were they were not great they were very very followy all up in your face
02:53
I don't know if you've ever had it when you open the hive and you can smell ripe bananas, which you know, it's a good, it's a sign that they're very agitated and are going to go for you. So this hive, that hive regularly released that pheromone and became a handful. So I requeened and there's been enough time now.
03:19
for those worker bees to start emerging and the new temperament of the colony to take over. And on this occasion they were much nicer, much easier to handle, didn't get the banana smell. She's still in residence and I can see that she's not drone laying. The eggs that she has laid have now gone full cycle and I can see worker brood has been.
03:50
laid. There was quite a lot of drone at the start, I was a little bit worried but it looks fine now so I'm happy with that. Taking a little a few pictures of her cat brood with her on a frame if you want to look at it. I'll put it on my Instagram beekeepers diary podcast Instagram feed you can have a look there if you fancy it. Might even play a bit of spot the queen. If there's any beginners out there that want to practice.
04:20
Yeah, so there's two supers above that colony. One's full but not ripe and one's sort of half-filled ready. I think we're going to go through a bit of a dearth at the moment. The blackberry is out here but it has been quite wet and cold so I don't know if they've got much off it. That doesn't seem to, they don't seem to have expanded.
04:49
Can you hear that? I don't know what bird that is.
04:57
was brought to you.
05:07
can't work out what that is. It's obviously a young bird of some description begging for food with the parents I think. Anyway, yeah so that colony I'm quite pleased with the way that one's going, seems good. Yeah so we're in a good place. They've got food, they've got some stores they're ripening off, two laying queens, what's not to like?
05:32
As I was going through the colony I had a marbled white butterfly land on my hand. I'm wearing orange nitrile gloves. They're sort of thick nitrile gloves and maybe it thought I was a giant plant that came and landed on me briefly. Didn't have much luck though. Yeah, so all is good. I had an amazing time in Scotland on my wildlife holiday. It was mainly based around raptors so we're out hunting.
06:00
with binoculars, not rifles, golden eagles, white-tailed eagles, ospreys, buzzards, sparrowhawks.
06:13
You've to see it. What are you? eh It's a baby squirrel. Don't trick me.
06:25
baby squirrel making a nuisance of itself. Yeah so that was amazing plus waders you know coastal birds shorebirds, Ida duck, King Ida duck was among the flock highly recommend. Agass Field Study Centre if you want a fancy holiday based on wildlife in the northwest of Scotland.
06:52
I managed to do a few sporting things while I was up there, a few things on my tick list. Pulled off, I thought I was putting on a bit of grass but it was my mic lead. em Yeah, some interest outside of beekeeping, managed to do some things up there as well so it was brilliant. I'll stop waffling, hope you're all good. Hopefully I'll be back with some more regular updates and hope your seasons are going well as well.
07:21
you lot soon.