Mrs Fiddlesticks
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We've got an inspection coming up!Fellow beekeeper friend went to a bee health meeting today and discovered that there is European Foul Brood in the next village so we have to be inspected... Dunno what to expect though..
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jocorless
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Oh heck - How awful for you - the inspection isn't anything to be worried about itself - its if they find anything - although EFB doesn't necessarily mean that you have to destroy them - it does mean however that you would have to do a shook swarm onto clean comb and loose all the brood - but I'm sure its just precautionary
Let us know how you get on - A worrying time for you
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Mrs Fiddlesticks
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we did a sort of shook swarm a couple of weeks ago as the hive was split in to two. The third hive on the plot is a nuc of bees bought from an outside supplied some 3-4 weeks ago.
Off to read up on how quickly these things develop
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Mrs Fiddlesticks
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looks as though its quite hard to detect then, according to Ted Hooper. Only when it builds up to a certain level is it spot-able?
Our hive got split when it was moved from the field ( the otherside of the EFB village) to the plot as it had a lot of queen cells and no sign of our orginal queen. Some sealed brood but not lots by any means. We ended up with 2 hives each with a virgin queen. This was only done a fortnight ago. We've been feeding them and have only just started to see pollen go in so we are hoping that means the queens are starting to lay. My guess is that if there is EFB then it hasn't had time to build up?
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gil
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Very best of luck !
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Mrs Fiddlesticks
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our bees passed the Ministry's inspection!!!  and we have two laying queens now so the work that Tim and Steve did to divide our original hive has worked and we're in business with 2 hives now. 
Steve was in a rush so I'll get a more full SP later but the girls had clearly worked hard in preparation of his visit and everything looked good, clean and sparkling!
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TAVASCAROW
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Excellent news.
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jocorless
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Wonderful - you must be relieved - Reminds me I really must go and have a look at my girls - think I'll do it now whilst the sun is out and it seems to fairly calm wind wise
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Mrs Fiddlesticks
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I honestly didn't think they'd have got EFB because of knowing what we'd done so recently - but what do I know so was going with the flow as it were.
Shame we missed meeting the inspector but Tim had meetings he couldn't get out of and I had school sports afternoon
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jocorless
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I've just had a look at my girls - the hive I've had all the problems with looks like it may just have a queen about to come into lay - All the weird patches of eggs have gone and the empty frames where the brood nest should be are "polished" - fingers crossed she's about to start laying properly - I'll give her another week or so - I'll be delighted if I've managed to pull this off - I know they are probably going to need to be fed for most of the summer but at least they will go into winter a strong colony
The original queen is going great guns - there are an awful lot of bee's in there and finally they are capping off honey - I would say I have almost a full super done - so I'll leave it another week or so and then take it off
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Mrs Fiddlesticks
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| jocorless wrote: | - I know they are probably going to need to be fed for most of the summer but at least they will go into winter a strong colony
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All sounds good Jo!!
that's where we're at I think with our two hives. The only other thing the inspector noted was that the ventilation netting on the roof needs replacing on one hive as its rotted and there are dead wasps in the feeder  easy one to sort out.
Do you bulk buy your sugar or go to Sainsburys like everyone else. As we've not had long term feeding to do before we've normally managed with small bags but I can see how large would be better with 2 hives .
Our bees were complimented on their gentleness and almost no smoke was needed so I shall pass that on to them. I do think its like Osfed for bees  and they passed beautifully!
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jocorless
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I just buy our sugar in bulk from Netto or Aldi wherever its cheapest
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TAVASCAROW
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| Mrs Fiddlesticks wrote: |
that's where we're at I think with our two hives. The only other thing the inspector noted was that the ventilation netting on the roof needs replacing on one hive as its rotted and there are dead wasps in the feeder easy one to sort out.
Do you bulk buy your sugar or go to Sainsburys like everyone else. As we've not had long term feeding to do before we've normally managed with small bags but I can see how large would be better with 2 hives .
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I have bought sacks of sugar from bakers & also asked the lady who runs the local convenience store to buy bulk packs from the wholesaler. Gave her a couple of jars of honey & she was happy.
I try now to keep feeding to the minimum, rather go without honey & let the bees have it than feed sugar.
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Jonnyboy
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Wow, you lot certainly know your stuff.
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Mrs Fiddlesticks
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| TAVASCAROW wrote: |
I try now to keep feeding to the minimum, rather go without honey & let the bees have it than feed sugar.
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we have young bees and split hives. The inspector said we were doing the right thing in feeding to encourage the queen to lay and for the workers to draw out comb. Right now both hives have about 3-4 frames of eggs and a little brood.
Inspector said he's seeing odd things around the county like there should be blackberry flowers etc etc and there isn't that flow so his advice has been to feed if in doubt. That way we go in to winter with a very strong colony. Both our hives have a super on I hasten to add ( although the inspector thought that was unecessary) on the basis it'll give them something to do.
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TAVASCAROW
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I wasn't being critical.
In your situation with two young colonies & no backup you have little choice.
When you have strong colonies & want to start a third you can take frames of stores from the strongest colonies with little effect on the overall crop.
Might even be doing them a favour giving the queen more room to lay & delay swarming.
One thing you need to watch for if summer feeding is robbing.
I would reduce the entrance to 1 or 2 beespace until their numbers build up.
& I tend to agree with the inspector on the supers, you don't want sugar syrup mixed with good honey in the super so better to restrict them to just brood frames till you finish feeding IMO.
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