To ensure that the bees have enough food for the winter, we have given them invert sugar. They will seal it in the combs, replenishing the supplies in the hive.

Another move before winter is reducing the number of frames in the hive. This makes it easier for the bees to heat their nest in winter. In addition, we reduce the risk of mould growth on food supplies stored outside the centre of the frames.

Before winter, we reduced the size of the hive exits to make it easier for bee colonies to maintain suitable thermal conditions when it becomes cold outside.

After applying the varroa treatment, we checked the condition of our bee colonies.
We paid attention to the amount of brood and food reserves in order to determine the needs of each hive in terms of preparation for wintering.

After collecting the honey and rearranging the nest, we began treating the bees for varroa before winter. We chose Biowar 500 as the medicine. Strips soaked in the active substance were hung in the hive, between the frames.

After collecting the honey from Ulopolis, we couldn’t resist tasting it. We cut a piece of honeycomb, popped it into our mouths and … that was amazing!!! 😊

At the end of the beekeeping season, we harvested surplus honey from hive no. 3. It turned out to be linden honey. Once the honey was removed, the colony may be prepare for overwintering by removing the super and rearranging the nest.

In the recording, we can observe the unique nature of the bees. Once outside the hive, they all immediately find their way back. Without hesitation, they head for the opening in the ceiling to return to the nest.

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Mr. Antoni Teuerle for donating a queen cell breeding to Ulopolis. Thanks to him, we now have a queen bee with the desired breeding characteristics in our apiary. We are honoured by the kindness and support of such an experienced beekeeper.

Queen bees are marked with 5 colours: white, yellow, red, green and blue. This year we have blue. The number of colours results from the fact that queen bees live for 5 years. Thanks to the colour of marking, the beekeeper knows how old the queen is.

We transferred the frame with food from hive 2 to hive 1 with the nucleus colony. This procedure helped the bees in hive 1. The nucleus colony consists mainly of young bees, and such a colony is not able to collect the food necessary for its development on its own.

We purchased a bee nucleus colony. It is a young colony. It fits on four frames. It arrived from the Podkarpacie region. We transferred the nucleus colony from the transport box and settled it in hive 1.

The colony, left without a queen, began to build so-called emergency queen cells (photo 2). We
removed them all (photo 3). Then, a queen cell attained from queen cell breeding (photo 1) was
introduced, so that the bee colony would have the desired characteristics. One values bees, which
are non-aggressive, disease-resistant, and not willing to swarm.

We divided the bee colony, i.e., we created a split. From the original hive (photo 1), we transferred
several frames with sealed brood and the old queen (visible in the centre photo 3) to the new hive (photo 2).
Soon, a queen cell will be introduced to the colony that has been left without a queen.

As soon as we delivered a new comb, the bees immediately started to prepare cells for raising brood.
The photo shows the result of their work. Eggs laid by the queen appeared at the bottom of the cells.
The cells' construction rate and the fact that eggs were laid so quickly indicate that the colony is
strong.

If a bee family wants to divide, the bees build queen cups into which the mother will later lay eggs. A queen cup has appeared in our hive (see near the camera). Fortunately, the cup is still empty, which means the bees may decide to raise a new queen in some time. If the weather is nice and the plants are producing nectar, the insects are busy working, which delays the swarming mood.

The frame from our hive contains a lot of drone brood (large cells). Also the wild construction under the frame consists of drone cells. The presence of drones in the hive indicates that the bee family is strong and is gradually preparing for division e.g. swarming.

In the photo we see a comb with a large amount of bee bread. Bee bread is the colony’s protein supply, which is needed to raise subsequent generations of bees. Our colony is strong and prepared for intensive development.

During the inspection, we added a honey box on top of the beehive so
that the growing bee colony would have enough living space. We separated
the top section from the brood chamber with a queen excluder. It
prevents the queen from laying eggs in the frames of the honey box.

We observed that the colony has consumed a significant portion of the recently added feed. It has resulted in brood increase, since the last inspection. The colony grew stronger. For that reason, we expanded the brood nest. The straw divider was replaced with an additional frame containing feed.

We placed extra frames with food above the beehive cover. Now, the colony has an easy access to additional nourishment needed for its development. This way, we avoided increasing the size of the nest .

We conducted a routine inspection of the bee colony. We checked the recently introduced wax foundation, the food reserves, and the number of frames the bees occupy. The nest has not been expanded yet. The colony is still too weak.

We completed the first spring inspection of the bee colony. Its condition after the winter was checked.
We paid attention to the number of frames occupied by bees, the amount of brood and food reserves.

I found a swing and that’s it.

How to get to the pollen when the plant wanders away?

kalendarz_1 Participants in the event came from different countries. They found the monitored urban apiary, at the university of science and technolgy, a very intriguing

Plants have started growing. The first flowers have appeared.

Some work was needed after winter. Dry parts of plants were removed. Flowerbed was covered with the bark.

TVP3 Wroclaw recorded a segment of the popular program at our apiary. We got our minute in the episode: “Dr. Haust and Strictly Open Secrets: Insects”.
https://wroclaw.tvp.pl/70343271/doktor-haust-i-tajemnice-scisle-jawne
Time slot: 4:54 – 6:00 min.

kalendarz_1 Sometimes it is necessary to look at the bees at night. At this time, the apiary looks, smells and sounds completely different than during

kalendarz_1 When a bee colony lacks a queen, her duties are taken over by one of the bees. She transforms herself into an “alternative queen”.