What did you do in the Apiary today?

Where is she from?

Nannysbees said:

Lovely day for an inspection, all five queens seen and doing well. Quite a few drones. Put a free supers on, maybe a bit prematurely. Second picture of psycho queen , laying like crazy, biggest colony out of the 5. Jury still out

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She’s a beastie!
I prevaricated about inspecting today, the wind from the NE was blowing directly onto the hives which I placed to be sheltered from SW winds. So, decided to put it off until tomorrow, when the weather guessers reckon there will be less wind and more sun.

Erichalfbee said:

Where is she from?

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Home grown!!!!! Swarm from my son's garden last year. Learning curve. Small swarm with about 50 bees. Silly me put them in a nuc but obviously not a big enough swarm to survive. So on advice from Emyr i did a split and made a new colony with her as the queen.

a miserable dreich morning, almost made me glad that I was working the day job, then, bang on 1300 the clouds buggered off and it was a wonderful sunny day so the ten minutes fiddling in the greenhouse became an afternoon doing the first full inspection of the last of the home apiary bees ( I managed the rest on Wednesday) and mowed the front lawn so it looks a bit tidier when SWMBO comes home tomorrow.

Made up an introductory nuc for the queen very kindly sent to me by @Sutty - a lovely looking queen, so I'm excited to see how she'll perform.

Inspected two other colonies that I took pre-emptive swarm control on, and tore down all QCs bar one in each. Bees didn't take it well, but the coming weekend is due to be worse here weather-wise, and the cells are due to hatch Monday/Tuesday. Two in the veil, which got pinched, and two made their way up my dungarees - they got their revenge...

New bee suit this birthday!

E&MBees said:

I’ve done that with a hive strap that wasn’t tucked in. Not pleasant for me or the bees.

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Oh crikey, i've done that too. Luckily went backwards into the long grass but nearly landed on the smoker which was in my hand as I went. Not sure I should be let out unsupervised!

I'm trying to get around the last few of my colonies. I happened to be passing some this evening so stopped just to see how much of a mess the place was. At the end of last Summer there were brambles encroaching everywhere and I was planning to take a few tools down and clear more space behind the hives to work.

They're actually next to a water pumping station that I was given the impression (by the landowner) was out of use. That turns out not to be the case. Someone (probably the local water supplier) has been in over the winter, trimmed the hedges and cut back a lot of trees which saves me some work. I feel guilty now though because the hives are between the pumping station and half a dozen manholes, so the manhole covers are all in the flight path of the hives. I might now have to go and have a chat with the owners about moving them forward so people can work there safely without getting in the way of the bees.

The hives face south and are in full Sun. Even after 6pm there was plenty of activity at the entrances (unlike my home colonies which face south-east and had already called it a day) apart from one colony which was a swarm from a bait hive last year. Bees were returning to the hive, but few and far between. I'll find out what's going on there tomorrow.

James

Disastrous season so far.. Early spring in February/March and now cold with frosts and prolonged cold spell when black locust is in full bloom. I didn't extract spring honey due to such prognosis which is turning to be right.. There will be no black locust honey at my place as it seems, and who knows will anything else manage to make surplus for me..
Honey - no one is asking for it due to imports over German ports of Chinese " honey", our shops are flooded with it and it is extremely cheap. So for now it seems, this is going to be end..

Goran said:

Honey - no one is asking for it due to imports over German ports of Chinese " honey", our shops are flooded with it and it is extremely cheap. So for now it seems, this is going to be end..

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That's one issue here too, with imports rising.

Goran said:

There will be no black locust honey at my place as it seems, and who knows will anything else manage to make surplus for me..

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There will possibly be another honey that might be unexpected. It happened here with a failure of one crop (terrible) , but good flow from another (fantastic). It's turned back into a disaster now with the dry (terrible), but perhaps something unexpected will bloom well for you Goran. Hopefully.

Antipodes said:

Did four sites today, and still going in the dark with wax recovery steamer, which is the best time to do it with a dearth like this.
Ok, there is a queen in this photo, taken today. Anyone?

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Ok. Here is a hint....same queen but she's much more obvious in this photo.

Antipodes said:

Ok. Here is a hint....same queen but she's much more obvious in this photo.

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Yes, clearer in this picture. I presume we don't say where and spoil it for others

Antipodes said:

Ok. Here is a hint....same queen but she's much more obvious in this photo.

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Unusually I spotted her immediately!

Fellstoflats said:

Made up an introductory nuc for the queen very kindly sent to me by @Sutty - a lovely looking queen, so I'm excited to see how she'll perform.

Inspected two other colonies that I took pre-emptive swarm control on, and tore down all QCs bar one in each. Bees didn't take it well, but the coming weekend is due to be worse here weather-wise, and the cells are due to hatch Monday/Tuesday. Two in the veil, which got pinched, and two made their way up my dungarees - they got their revenge...

New bee suit this birthday!

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I hope she is accepted ok

BeeKeyPlayer said:

Yes, clearer in this picture. I presume we don't say where and spoil it for others

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Yes, well done . Now, any guess where she is in the photo in post #39 288? You can circle her in that photo and post here...to win the prize.