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I looked into the out-apiary hives yesterday. I found about 20 frames of honey which can be harvested. I also found wonky comb in the super on top of Hive E.

I really want the comb to be built in a regular pattern. The comb from the new swarms in Hives F and G are beautifully straight and regular. This is the comb within the Commercial brood bodies. Large, flat sheets of comb which is at least as good as you'd get with foundation.

My approach now is to 'seed' each super with at least one frame of comb. This, I hope, will act as a guide. I hope that it will also attract the bees across the queen excluder and encourage them to build and store in a new super.

I've been waiting for the Small Leaved Lime Tree, Tilia Cordata, to flower. The time is near.

Not to be confused with the citrus trees which bear Lime fruits, this attractive tree is a big producer of nectar and it's common around Oxford. There are several large mature trees on Parks Road and South Parks road. There are many more around the city and in Headington

The flowers are said to give a very tasty honey and they produce lots of it. I think that I had some from a frame which I took from one of the (then) new colonies in the city. It was fantastic.

I can look out from a 2nd floor window into a Lime tree in Headington. I'm fairly sure that there are flowers showing. They attract the bees for a few days before they yield nectar. I'm told that it drives the bees a bit mad. The weather has turned wet so I rather hope that the trees are not flowering.

It may be time to check my spare supers.

Update 11/06/2017: The Lime trees in central Oxford are definitely flowering lower down. Their tops are not in flower yet. The trees in Headington flowered early, which fits my view of the different micro-climates. Central Oxford is colder because of the rivers. Headington is more windy but is warmer. I definitely notice this difference cycling down Headington Hill in the morning.

I had a look at the hive floors in the out-apiary this morning. In the order which I looked at them:

Hive G: lots more comb built. Small numbers of dropped Varroa.

Hive F: lots more comb built. Large numbers of dropped Varroa.

Hive D: lots of activity - evidence suggesting a large number of emerged brood. Large numbers of dropped Varroa.

Hive E: quieter than C and D. Some evidence of brood emerging

Hive C: lots of activity - evidence suggesting a large number of emerged brood. Relatively small numbers of dropped Varroa.

For at least the last 2 years I have observed a definite pattern in Hive A. In spring there are lots of crawling bees outside the hive. Some are clearly affected by Deformed Wing Virus (DWV); others maybe by another paralysis virus or by exhaustion.

They crawl around near the hive. If you launch them into the air they fall back to earth. They never make it back to the hive and have probably been ejected by the other bees. The Sparrows eat some of them. The others presumably die out of site.

By mid-May they have all disappeared. Mite drop on the hive floor has diminished so much that I've started wondering whether Ants are removing them.

I don't have an explanation. Maybe there is greater transmission of viruses when the bees are confined to the hive during the early spring build up. Maybe these bees have been in the hive for a while and are only ejected in spring.

I'm going to write to a DWV researcher to ask whether seasonal expression of DWV and other diseases is usual, and if she has an explanation.

Hive A has delivered another super of honey. Unfortunately it is crooked and cross-combed.

The bees built the comb relatively quickly. I'm not certain why it isn't straight. Strong nectar flows induce the bees to build on several frames at once and I think this encourages straight comb.

There are a couple of options for extracting the honey. It can be cut out into plastic boxes or pressed using an apple press. Neither option returns reusable comb which is disappointing.

I went to the visit the bees at my out-apiary this morning. I took the lids off the hives but left the brood area alone (except for Hive F) because the air temperature was cool. Everything was finished by 0630.

A side effect of looking at hives in the early morning is that all their flying bees are still in the hive. These are the bees which are most likely to defend the colony. As a result the bees seemed noticeably more angry when I opened the hives.

All the hives have plenty of space, with the possible exception of E.

Hive D. The hive floor had evidence of a lot of activity: comb building; hatching of brood; Varroa mite drop and a couple of dozen antennae. The antennae are interesting. Gareth says that when brood are ejected from the nest the antennae are pulled off first, where they fall to the hive floor. The body is then removed and will be disposed of by undertaker bees away from the hive. The brood may have been diseased or have been chilled. I would expect disease - specifically the effects of Varroa and their diseases. This hive needs further inspection into the brood nest. In any case, this is the hive where I was having difficulty with the Queen excluder so I ought to check that all is well.

Hive E. There seems to have been bearding yesterday. Bearding is when bees gather in large numbers outside the hive. This behaviour allows more space to cool the hive and suggests overcrowding. There were still bees outside the hive this morning looking wet and unhappy from the overnight showers. The hive floor had several splotches which I assume are bee poo. They may be pollen which has become wet. If they're poo then this suggests dysentry. Bees normally evacuate outside the hive. I need to read about dysentry and maybe have another look in the hive. I didn't look at the brood comb so I don't know whether there is more poo on the comb.

Hive C. There are signs that there's been a lot of activity in the hive. There are quite a few Varroa on the hive floor. This hive has a super which can be taken off.

Hive F. This is the recently established colony which swarmed from Helen's Top Bar Hive. There are still lots of Varroa on the hive floor but the rate of drop seems to be decreasing. This may not be a good sign because they're probably reproducing inside brood cells. It will be interesting to see how this colony fares. They have plenty of space. I get the strong impression that this colony is more aggressive than the others.

Hive G. This is the recently established colony which was caught as a swarm on the tree in front of my apiary. I gave them a Commercial hive with a super on top - and a Queen excluder. They have built loads of comb including new comb in the super. This shows a preference for building vertically through the boxes, rather than across the brood box as we might want. The colony looks very healthy. It has plenty of space and is dropping very small numbers of varroa.

When we look at a hive we usually only see the bees. Look closer and we see a host of other organisms so the hive starts to look more like an ecosystem. Other writers have described it as an organism in which the bees are just the mobile part. Both views are compatible, I think.

The most visible organism in the hive is the honey bee - Queen, Workers and Drones. Living in close proximity are Varroa mites and sometimes other tracheal mites. Each bee is host to a number of viruses. Deformed Wing Virus seems to be endemic. There more viruses than I can (or want to) list here.

Feeding on the comb are wax moth larvae. They eat the brood comb including propolis, stored pollen and presumably honey. I don't think that they invade occupied cells.

Down on the hive floor and around the edges of the hive are ants, slugs and red spider mites. A fair amount of sugar drops out of the hive as well as wax; bee parts; bee poo (but only when they are confined or ill); wax moth poo; and mites. I suspect that ants are collecting the bodies of mites from the hive floor in one of my garden hives.

Invading the hives are robbing Wasps and Bumblebees. Some Cuckoo Bumblebees apparently make nests in hives. A the hive entrance may be Hornets which catch and eat the bees. I've seen Sparrows feeding on the moribund bees which crawl outside the hive.

Back inside the hive are the organisms too small to bee seen. A sheen of bacteria, moulds and yeasts over everything. The mead which I made last year began a spontaneous fermentation caused by the Saccharomyces yeasts. Unfortunately the yeast was able to cope with the high starting gravity and the result was a stuck fermentation which I had to finish with a commercial yeast. The finished mead has an unpleasant aroma of TCP which is caused by poor yeast health.

This brief view only mentions those organisms which I've seen around my hives. There are an immense number and variety of micro-organisms and other organisms which are considered diseases and pests.

Parasites rely on another organism for aspects of their feeding and/or reproduction. Whilst parasitism is a complex subject, the relationship between Western Honey Bees and Varroa mites is relatively simple. The mites live entirely with and on the bees. Food, reproduction and transport is all provided by bees. In this case, if the host dies so does the parasite.

Some parasites have periods where they are hosted by a different organism - for example Influenza or Malaria. Some parasites have long lived dormant phases - for example Anthrax. These can fatally damage their hosts without killing themselves. Anthrax depends on killing its' host so that decay releases it from the body cavity. Varroa is not like this.

Until recently I have been looking for an increase in the tolerance or resistance of bees to Varroa and its' diseases. I now see that the virulence of the mite should also decrease. This will bring the relationship into a balance where the parasite will not kill itself by killing its' host.

The Varroa mite became much more virulent when they crossed to the Western Honey Bee (Apis Mellifera) from the Eastern Honey Bee (Apis Cerana). It started to infect worker brood, rather than just drone brood. This gave it many more opportunities to reproduce and so overwhelm colonies. I don't expect the Varroa to stop infecting worker brood, but I do expect some change in the rate of reproduction or the effectiveness of viral infection.

My untreated hives have survived for extended periods without suffering Colony Collapse Disorder. Maybe collapsing colonies are subject to multiple stresses: Varroa plus intensive apiculture and/or another disease. I don't see evidence of resistance but I do see tolerance and patterns of disease expression which don't have significant effects on the colony.

Two out of the three established colonies in my roof top apiary are big and vigorous. Meanwhile Hive B has stayed small since it was caught as a swarm a year ago. Why?

I've been told that some colonies are smaller than others. The bees like it that way. I'm willing to trust the bees to right-size their colony but I'd like to understand what causes the differences. I wonder whether Varroa and its diseases might be an explanation.

Since moving Hive B back home to ground level I have seen evidence of comb building in Hive B. This is co-incident with a nectar flow so I'd expect there to be some increase in storage space. I have also noticed an increase in the defensiveness and a high rate of Varroa mite drop on the hive floor, relative the colony size.

Varroa suck the bee's hemolyph whilst they are pupating in their brood cells and later while the mites cling on adult bees. The hemolyph is bee blood. Removing it weakens the bee, as well as transmitting viruses. My suspicion is that this colony in Hive B has a low resistance to the mite and is being progressively weakened by their action. Bees returning to roof top hives from ground level will have to ascend over 20 metres whilst carrying a full load of nectar. If the weaker bees were being lost this would limit the number of foragers. Younger bees would be promoted to foragers which limits the number of nurse bees available to care for brood. This would give a mechanism which explains why this colony, which superseded last year and are apparently happy with their Queen, haven't built up.

I will be watching whether Hive B builds up strongly at ground level and continues to shed significant numbers of mites. This would strengthen my suspicion that they lack the resistance to mite attack demonstrated in Hives C and D.

Our bee group was alerted to a swarm in Golden Cross square right in the heart of Oxford yesterday. The swarm had mustered under an umbrella at eye level. We scrambled to find somebody to collect but someone from outside our group attended before we could get organised.

Where there are swarms there should be colonies nearby. To have a swarm within metres of Carfax Tower (the 'centre' of Oxford) suggests roof-top hives since the nearest garden is a few hundred metres away (Jesus College; Christ Church College; Lincoln College; St Peter's College). It is possible that there are ground level hives but it would be harder to place them where they wouldn't be a nuisance to people.

There are 2 Freedom Hives in the grounds of Headington Hill Hall. One is on a tripod next to the garden; the other is in a small section of woodland. Both are now occupied. I don't know whether the colonies found the hives on their own or were brought there.

The Freedom Hive mimics a log hive. It is a perpetual hive without frames. Human access is through the base but there is limited scope to intervene. In the event of them contracting a serious (notifiable) disease the colony would have to be destroyed. In all other situations they will just be left alone.

UPDATE 27/05/2017 - only 1 of the 2 hives is occupied. The hive in the forest which is tethered to a tree definitely has activity. The tripod hive in the garden does not, although there is some coming and going. These may be scouts or the bait comb may have residual honey which they're robbing.

A few days ago I saw a Bumblebee nosing around the entrance to Hive D. It was going in and coming back out again without being visibly challenged by the guard bees. I was surprised that a bee which is so obviously different to my eyes could be ignored by the guards.

We're told that the bees use smell to establish which bees are allowed in. This colony specific smell comes from the honey in the hive and the nectar coming in. They all pass nectar/honey around between each other so they should all smell the same. This, I suspect, is why robbing goes unchallenged once it gets established - the robbers smell the same as the robbed. (as mentioned in...)

I suppose that stored honey varies in smell depending on which nectars were available when it was being made. I wonder whether there is confusion in the hive when all the bees rush to fill up on honey during an alarm (like a hive inspection with smoke)?

I opened all the hives today to look inside. Apart from the issues caused by queen exclusion, everything seems to be going well.

Hive G is building comb and looks healthy.

Hive F is building comb but still dropping lots of Varroa.

Hives C, D and E have space and show evidence of recent comb building.

They're all going well. I still see no evidence that any of these colonies swarmed to produce Hive G. I assume that it was a coincidence. That means that it has not come from an untreated colony.

Today I sorted out the queen excluder issues in Hive D. It wasn't pretty.

I have made mistakes. A surprising proportion have been to do with the use of queen excluders. This time I had left the excluder out and found brood in the super above the capacious brood box.

Eleven days ago I put the excluder back in, making sure that the queen was in the bottom box. I looked later and found that a substantial proportion of the brood were Drones. The Drones don't fit through a queen excluder so they'd need to be taken out later. I also found a Queen cell. A virgin queen above an excluder might lead to all sorts of issues. A swarming colony leaves with the mature queen, expecting their newly hatched queen(s) to mate and take over. If she's trapped above the excluder they might swarm whilst she is unable to mate.

I took the super frames out one by one and shook them above the entrance. When I was finished there was a puddle of milling bees in front of the hive, including quite a few drones. I hope that they'll make it in. During the transfer I deliberately destroyed the Queen Cell. I'm unhappy about that. I also removed a frame which had several dozen Drone Cells. I'm also unhappy about that.

I am supposed to be a low intervention bee keeper. This means trusting the bees and allowing them to organise their hives as they wish. I hope that the intervention of having a Queen Excluder is balanced by using a Commercial box which gives a very large comb area for brood. The harvest which the excluder makes possible will be, I hope, a genuine surplus. Opening the hive regularly and changing its' configuration is not low intervention. Today was a disappointment.

I visited my out-apiary this morning to see how the new swarm was doing. I arrived early - about 6am - when the air was still chilly.

There was evidence of comb building on the floor of the hives: wax platelets which are dropped when wax is produced.

I took off the lid and found lots of bees in a strong cluster. I had left out two frames to make room for the swarm when I had hived it the day before. I eased one of these frames in but the bees were too tightly clustered to allow the last frame. I put on a queen excluder and a super and then the lid.

I looked at the other hives and also saw evidence of comb building, which suggests that there is a nectar flow in progress. This should help to establish the swarm as a viable colony.

Today I caught the swarm which has been hanging next to my out apiary. It happened unexpectedly.

I had been worrying about whether the swarm would settle on the tree and then become a nuisance. The urge to build comb can be very strong so that the bees sometimes build in a place where they can't possibly survive. I saw this late last year when I attempted to recover an established colony which had exposed comb on an apple tree. They had been extensively robbed which must have aggravated the colony.

Today I asked about whether I could cut the tree which they were on. I also asked - because I felt I had to - whether they had a cherry-picker. The answer came back a few minutes later: "yes, our arborist will be there in 30 minutes".

I gathered my tools. This morning it had been: bee suit; box; sheet; gaffer tape; fishing line; spoon. This afternoon: box; sheet; secateurs; pruning saw; cherry-picker. Much better.

Up I went to the swarm, harnessed and suited. I tried not to look down. A wobble here; a wobble there and up to the swarm. A bit of light clipping and then a vigorous shake of the branch and most of the bees went into the box. I shut the lid and put the sheet over the box.

There were quite a few flying bees but very little aggression. The branch revealed that the swarm had not built comb. Possibly they would have moved on. I descended a little and brushed off the bees on my suit. A couple of minutes later I was on the ground with my veil off. The spectators, now entertained, dispersed.

Up I went to the apiary with the box. I opened the Hive G and gave the box a good bang. In went the bees, a few lumps at a time. Lid on; tidy up; get some lunch.

I'll look in on them tomorrow to see how they're doing.