After sightings of the Asian Hornet this month in Cornwall and Hull, we have been keeping a close eye on the situation in our own apiaries. We have emptied and refilled our Asian Hornet traps and will be monitoring these with increased vigilance. It is really important that everyone looks out for this invasive pest which could decimate our honey bee colonies. Identification is key so here I include a link to the National Bee Unit page on Asian Hornet where you can find ID posters and information on what to look out for: http://www.nationalbeeunit.com/index.cfm?sectionid=117
We have done full inspections of the hives this month and fed any that didn’t have sufficient stores for the time of year. This will give them chance to build up so that they can go into the winter months nice and strong. Last month, we treated for varroa using Apivar. One reason we chose this particular treatment was because it can be used whilst feeding, which can be critical going in to winter to prepare the bees with stores.
We have also united a hive which had become queenless and without intervention, would have died over winter. Luckily, we had a nucleus ready to go with a laying queen that we could merge with the queenless hive. Instead of using the normal newspaper method, we experimented using the Adapta Eke with a mesh screen to unite them. From the picture, you can see it looks just like a normal eke, but inside it has a mesh insert which acts as a barrier through which smells can pass through. This gives both colonies a chance to get used to each other without being able to kill each other. After a few days, we removed the Adapta Eke and let the bees merge together. This seemed to work well as the bees did not fight and are now living harmoniously as one colony.
Moving into next month, we will be looking to attach mouseguards to the front of our hives. As yet, bees are still bringing in plenty of pollen. Mouseguards can knock pollen off the bees’ legs so we will wait until less pollen is being brought in before attaching them.
