Blogs

BS Honey Bees
shop deals on amazon
Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum

Help Support Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

22nd December - Prepared fondant packs

Having observed a number of highly active days by all hives I spent some time preparing fondant pack "just in case". A couple of packs (8for £1) of clear plastic sandwich containers with lids from poundstretcher and an old carving knife employed to cut up a block of fondant into chunks that fitted into the containers and the lids snapped on. These will be ready for use if any hives get down to critical weight or other cause for concern. In the meantime they will sit in a cool dark place :) I simply uncover the feed hole in the clear crownboard and remove the fondant container lid before inverting over the hole. I've never found a problem with bees locating the fondant. Surround the container with insulation and refit the hive cozy...
View full article »

18th September - sublimated Api-Bioxal

I bought a pack of the magic dust, supposedly enough for ten hive treatments. Using an eBay sublimator for some and my copper block with glow plug for others I treated through the omf with the hot units sitting on damp hardboard. Pushed a hive tool into the joint between crownboard and brood box to check sublimate penetration then removed when wisping could be seen. A heating cycle of eight minutes for the eBay unit does the job or ten minutes for the copper block homemade unit. All operations carried out from the upwind side of the hive.
View full article »

9th September - removed supers for final extraction before treatment

Today I removed 5 supers. Mostly capped but all passed the shake test. Used my new trolley to transport to the extractor. Having extracted I found some of the frames were crystallised so these will be returned to the colonies in their boxes but placed under the brood boxes. The honey is a light golden colour and is passing easily through the filters into buckets to settle.
View full article »

What did you do in the Apiary today?

i know it's probably the wrong thing to do, but I added a super today. Reason, I have been feeding syrup and BB looks full of syrup with little space for the queen to lay, we do after all still have ivy to go and possible still 4 weeks of gathering. Also found an open queen cell, which I destroyed, even though late could they still be thinking of swarming. Hive is an AS I did on 21st June.
View full article »

What did you do in the Apiary today?

i know it's probably the wrong thing to do, but I added a super today. Reason, I have been feeding syrup and BB looks full of syrup with little space for the queen to lay, we do after all still have ivy to go and possible still 4 weeks of gathering. Also found an open queen cell, which I destroyed, even though late could they still be thinking of swarming. Hive is an AS I did on 21st June.
View full article »

4th September - a pleasant surprise.

I looked into the paper united hive 2 (q- with laying workers) and 5(q+) to find the bees fully mingled. Consequently I rearranged useful frames into 5, shook the other frames into the box and removed no 2. A part filled super is still on the hive and during the coming few days I will be removing capped frames for thue final extraction of the season. I was planning to carry out a unite of no3 with another hive as no3 had been apparently q- when I last looked in. Opening up today with newspaper at the ready and planning to unite with no4 I had to revise my plans as no3 contained bias with a good pattern of worker brood over 5 sides. Classic example of a brood break but a close shave for the queen.
View full article »

20th August - Becky harvests some honey

As tbe colony I supplied to Becky in a polynuc 2 months ago had been the most successful hive in the association training apiary and had mostly filled and capped a super and started on a second, plus the hives in that apiary are required to treat for varroa this month we felt it was time to harvest the crop. Accordingly I loaned her my rhombus clearing board and she put the full super on top of the hive with the rhombus beneath it and the just started super between the rhombus and the queen excluder yesterday evening. We met up at the apiary at lunchtime today just before the Apiguard dosing demonstration was due to start. The rhombus had done it's job, just one lonely bee left in the top super. We rapidly removed the super, covered...
View full article »

16th August - harvesting some honey.

Yesterday I went through the supers on all hives. No 4 and no 9 had almost fully capped combs but the other hives were only partly capped and failed the shake test. I put rhombus clearer boards between the full supers and the respective hives. This morning I removed the full supers which were empty of bees. (I think rhombus clearer boards are great) I loaded the supers onto my new four wheel trailer, put a cover on to deter inquisitive bees and towed it to the house. No struggling with a barrow trying to topple over and no weight on my arms :) The extractor, filters, bread knife for uncapping, buckets etc were already cleaned and waiting so I set about extraction. Most of the honey extracted readily but there were odd patches of...
View full article »

7th August - hefting hives.

I didn't open up hives today, contenting myself with a look through the clear crownboards and observation of activity at the entrance. As there were a number of boxes that felt nailed down I decided to invest in some mechanical assistance. I went online and ordered a four wheel garden trolley with a flat bed and removable sides. This will carry two super boxes fore and aft and stack two or three high up to 300kg with pneumatic tyres and a draw bar handle. I anticipate receipt tomorrow then it will be time to begin the second honey extraction session of the season.
View full article »

30th July - Association apiary session

I missed last week at the apiary due to it conflicting with the Beverley Bee Keepers social day. However this week I met up with the Barkston Ash beginners and they checked their hives. Tony's hive had an opened queen cell partly chewed down and no sign of the second which had been visible on the test frame a couple of weeks ago. The hive was closed up again. Becky's hive is almost fully drawn out and has had a super on for a week now. Several of the super frames are capped and the remainder are filling up. If the bees maintain the current rate of progress a second super may be needed before the season ends. Certainly there will be a honey harvest from this new colony. An encouraging start for a new beekeeper :)
View full article »

16th July - another afternoon at the association apiary

The Apiguard orders were being taken so attendance numbers were higher than usual. The beginners inspected their colonies with the exception of Becky so I checked hers for her. Still expanding and with well laid pattern of brood. There is going to be a surge in numbers when it emerges. The hive which received the test frame last week had drawn two queen cells. Both were left as heir and a spare. Also a swarm had been placed in a nuc next to this colony as a potential plan b if the test frame hadn't worked. It may still be united to form a strong colony for winter. The third beginners colony was inspected and was building up in numbers although not a lot of stores. The queen was found and marked using a crown of thorns. On completion...
View full article »

9th July - Association apiary afternoon

Spent a couple of hours overseeing the beginners as they inspected their hives. The colony I had provided for Becky was progressing nicely. New comb being drawn so moved the dummy board outwards to give two more frames to work on. Bias in a good pattern. Last weeks ailing hive showed no improvement and brood dwindling so added a test frame with eggs and larvae. Before doing this I went through twice looking unsuccessfully for the queen. The third beginners colony had had a frame of brood previously and was showing an improvement in strength plus the queen had improved her rate of laying. The owner wanted to mark her but she was determined not to be found. The beginners then inspected the association hives. Some had better handling...
View full article »
You must log in or register to post here.

Latest posts

Back
Top