Practical beekeeping training at Cowdown apiary 2022 - Saturdays 10.00 until 12.00 noon.
See website main page for notice of cancellations
Activities Monthly Diary Guide
frame cleaning, adding foundation to frames plus Hands in hive TBA
· Record keeping BBKA model from BBKA website
· Personal equipment and bee inspection kit
· handling frames with bees
Hands in hive TBA - at Cowdown
Colony inspection process. (DEFRA acronym)
· D- disease
· E- environment (e.g. space)
· F- food
· R- ratio sealed brood: open brood: eggs
· A- aggression / amalgamation
Record observations; swarming predictions; suggest actions
Adding foundation in brood chamber
Preparation for artificial swarm
Club member apiary visit TBA
Hands in hive TBA - at Cowdown
Varroa monitoring/control. E.g.Use of Icing sugar
Swarm control- what do you do with Q cells
Other possible tasks
· Feeding
· combining below average size colonies
Club member apiary visit TBA
Main honey flow – super management TBA - at Cowdown
· Adding supers
· Moving outer frames to middle with new foundation
Disease inspection.
· Varroa check
· General health
Robbing
· Entrance reduction
Club member apiary visit TBA
· Assessing bee temperament; TBA - at Cowdown
· Check entrances (wasps)
· clearing bees off supers, honey extraction, return supers
· Autumn varroa treatment.
· Uniting colonies TBA - at Cowdown
· Assessing colony stores
· Winter feeding
· Preparing colonies for winter TBA - at Cowdown
Colony inspection using DEFRA acronym
D -- DISEASE -- Are there any signs of disease or brood conditions indicating abnormalities.
E -- EGGS -- Is the colony queen right and the queen laying the expected quantity and pattern of eggs.
F - FOOD -- Has the colony sufficient stores (food) to last until the next inspection.
R -- ROOM -- Has the colony sufficient room in the brood box for the queen to continue egg laying and workers to store nectar in the supers
A - AVERAGE -- (a) Early Season. Is the colony building up compared to other adjacent colonies.
(b) Mid Season. Are there any queen cells in the colony. Know what to do if open queen cells or sealed queen cells are seen.
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