What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Erichalfbee]

Not quite in the apiary but I dropped off honey to a local shop and didn't pay for parking. I was only a couple of minutes but a warden was checking my car when I returned. I see you're a beekeeper, he said. (I had my B car.) We had an interesting chat. He's from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (I didn't ask until it felt safe to do so) and has 50 hives there on his father's farm The climate is warm and wet so the bees can forage more or less continuously. Varroa treatment is icing sugar. The resulting grooming keeps the mite population down. He said they do get brood breaks. Although they can't keep up with demand for honey, island life means that everything is very expensive. Hives they make themselves, but they don't have the tools for frame making. Seeing the long lugs of my frames he politely indicated that National hives were a complex way of solving a simple problem. Their volcano erupted a couple of years ago but the bees survived the hives being covered in ash. They did not survive a man made disaster though when a plane dosed the area in pesticide. We exchanged phone numbers.

What a great story.

 

[RJC]

Warm here today in the sun, so transferred two overwintered very full nucs into hives, and then checked all my other hives. Most rammed, with patches of drone brood (saw a drone in one on the nucs - i think an overwintered one though as no other brood). The one I was a bit worried about as it hadn't taken any food at all all winter was also rammed, and clogged with stores. Although eggs and brood present there were two sealed Q cells on adjacent frames. I knocked one down and left the other. They got bit feisty as the temp cooled thgis afternoon - can't say I blame them as I moved the nadired supers on top. Some of these had brood in as well, so hopefully after a good shake the Q is below, but will need to double check. Perhaps not ideal, but as someone once said 'I've started, so I'll finish', and I needed to get them sorted as the OSR is coming into flower around here.

 

[Antipodes]

But they have to start from somewhere....

Of course, but they don't have to start from your own apiary and often they probably don't

 

[pargyle]

Traffic jams this morning down here - it's a balmy 14 degrees, dry and no wind - loads of stuff in bloom and the girls were making the most of it. By this afternoon hunkered down in the pouring rain !!

 

[Mint Bee]

Looks a bit like Compton, West of Guildford.

further to the east, along the North downs

 

[Antipodes]

I would not bank on it over here with the dreadful weather we have had ... it's barely out of single figures and the rain is almost constant. I'm in the far South of the UK in a very mild microclimate and even down here there's no sign of any drones. If there really are swarm cells and the split was necessary I'd be forking out £40 for an imported queen from BMH or BS Bees ... better safe than waiting in hope - at least then you have some chance of a crop from the split.

Personally, I would want to be absolutely certain they were definitely swarm cells and not just the bees playing - ie: eggs and/or jelly in them. If they were swarm cells at this time of the year I'd have knocked them down to buy a week or two until the spring really arrives.

A beekeeper would have to be a fool if they concluded that there were no active drone congregation areas because they haven't seen any drones in their own apiary.

 

[Steve7962]

What a lovely place to spend your time in. Envy!

Thank you, fingers crossed it’ll prove to be a good apiary as well a nice place to tend to my bees.

 

[Anduril]

Helped my neighbour, with the hive he got from Bridgend. He'd gone in yesterday and said everything had fallen apart and he was afraid that the queen was dead. Went with him today. Took the roof off and found the queen above the crownboard. Underneath was a queen excluder, he had misunderstood where I wanted the excluder. Even though he had started this a bit too early, I had described a Bailey comb change. Anyway turned it into a cutout. Inside were 2 langstroth frames and a mass of wild comb and an abundance of bees. 2 hours later, after placing into DN4's and getting rid of branches, with well behaved bees we left.

 

[Antipodes]

what, they stay in a hostel there?

Mate, I reckon some on here wouldn't know if they had a Koala Bear up their jumper let alone be able to identify a drone in their own apiary.

 

[Antipodes]

Just speaking from personal experience, I have had Virgin Queens mate very well in mid-March before (and late September, for that matter). There always seem to be residual pools of drones. Furthermore it has occurred to me more than once whether the proportion of drone laying colonies exiting winter (c.a. 5% at a guess) helps to get early Queens mated. Whilst the weather is admittedly patchy (here in the Midlands), there are now plenty of mild/pleasant spells (today/now being an example), and I don't think that is now a big factor. Almost all my colonies have healthy, capped drone brood on the outer edge of the brood nest, and, whilst it will still be a couple of weeks until those emerge and are sexually mature, I'd personally be more than confident of a VQ flying today getting mated. Just my thoughts, anyway. The bees always find a way.

Absolutely boywonder. Spot on mate. A thinking and intelligent beekeeper!

 

[Antipodes]

I'd have knocked them down to buy a week or two until the spring really arrives.

 

[Antipodes]

Just speaking from personal experience, I have had Virgin Queens mate very well in mid-March before (and late September, for that matter). There always seem to be residual pools of drones. Furthermore it has occurred to me more than once whether the proportion of drone laying colonies exiting winter (c.a. 5% at a guess) helps to get early Queens mated. Whilst the weather is admittedly patchy (here in the Midlands), there are now plenty of mild/pleasant spells (today/now being an example), and I don't think that is now a big factor. Almost all my colonies have healthy, capped drone brood on the outer edge of the brood nest, and, whilst it will still be a couple of weeks until those emerge and are sexually mature, I'd personally be more than confident of a VQ flying today getting mated. Just my thoughts, anyway. The bees always find a way.

Have a look at this study boywonder. I'm sure you'll find it interesting.
Drone flight at dawn and early morning .... from 2am onwards. Drone activity across a 24 hour period.
Some drones spent up to four days outside the hive, that's probably when they were staying at the Jenkins Glanaman bee hostel.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8234112/

 

[pargyle]

A beekeeper would have to be a fool if they concluded that there were no active drone congregation areas because they haven't seen any drones in their own apiary.

Or, within a location, reading the signs ... there's always hope but there again, there's also reality.

 

[pargyle]

Or actually, as I said earlier, buy in an imported queen and be certain ...if they are, indeed, swarm cells.

 

[pargyle]

Have a look at this study boywonder. I'm sure you'll find it interesting.
Drone flight at dawn and early morning .... from 2am onwards. Drone activity across a 24 hour period.
Some drones spent up to four days outside the hive, that's probably when they were staying at the Jenkins Glanaman bee hostel.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8234112/

Just to be certain, in case the other side of the world is providing you with rose tinted spectacles of the UK climate this year .. dawn does not arrive until 05:18 earliest and it's still darkish at 06.00 .. nights are 5 or 6 degrees tops, most days striuggling to get into double figures, rain most days, further north snow and hail, the wettest month since records began has just passed and there's little sign of the weather improving. Even if there were a few drones about what do you think the chances are of a virgin finding one, let alone 10 or 15 and successfully mating in these circumstances. Assuming she could find a window long enougn for a mating flight. Yes, she could get lucky but in a couple of weeks their chances are going to increase exponentially, more drones in the DCA's then more chance of matings and a long lived queen. A random study in North West Argentina doesn't really do it for me ...

 

[Antipodes]

Just to be certain, in case the other side of the world is providing you with rose tinted spectacles of the UK climate this year .. dawn does not arrive until 05:18 earliest and it's still darkish at 06.00 .. nights are 5 or 6 degrees tops, most days striuggling to get into double figures, rain most days, further north snow and hail, the wettest month since records began has just passed and there's little sign of the weather improving. Even if there were a few drones about what do you think the chances are of a virgin finding one, let alone 10 or 15 and successfully mating in these circumstances. Assuming she could find a window long enougn for a mating flight. Yes, she could get lucky but in a couple of weeks their chances are going to increase exponentially, more drones in the DCA's then more chance of matings and a long lived queen. A random study in North West Argentina doesn't really do it for me ...

Take a breather and go back and re-read post #38915 and try to calculate when you think the relevant queen might take a mating flight.
After that, re-read post #38933.

 

[Moobee]

Of course, but they don't have to start from your own apiary and often they probably don't

True but as @pargyle is not a million miles from me and we share a similar climate, it’s a good indicator of what may be going on locally.

 

[Nannysbees]

Helped my neighbour, with the hive he got from Bridgend. He'd gone in yesterday and said everything had fallen apart and he was afraid that the queen was dead. Went with him today. Took the roof off and found the queen above the crownboard. Underneath was a queen excluder, he had misunderstood where I wanted the excluder. Even though he had started this a bit too early, I had described a Bailey comb change. Anyway turned it into a cutout. Inside were 2 langstroth frames and a mass of wild comb and an abundance of bees. 2 hours later, after placing into DN4's and getting rid of branches, with well behaved bees we left.

Ooo my neck of the woods where did he get his hive from?

 

[Anduril]

Ooo my neck of the woods where did he get his hive from?

From Bryncethin. The beekeeper is going to live in the US, he was a complete novice and the Langstroth hive wasn't even nailed together. The frame design should have housed plastic foundation, instead, coated garden wire was used horizontally across the frame, supporting unwired foundation.

 

[E&MBees]

Received notice from my bees that they are emigrating to a warmer drier climate when they make swarm preparations later in the season.
3c and sleeting. I’m fed up with the weather!