Anyone been up to their bees today ?

[grizzly]

Just off to see mine, gonna tidy up the apiary and check to see how many frames the bees are on in 1 hive.

Anyone else doing anything ?


Just got back, cleared loads of leaves etc, had a nice bonfire, bees were flying in the one hive i wanted to check, considering its only 6 degrees i was a little surprised. tried to check under the crown board, but did not have my smock with me, i managed to run the hive tool round the edges, but they have built comb up through the CB hole and into the Fondant bag, i decided if i yanked off the CB they would be considerably hacked off, and because of the temperature i did not want them to take to the air, i peeked under as much as i could and there is a good number of bees, so will wait till another day to check the number of frames they are clustered on.
They are loving the fondant.

 

[Polyanwood]

Mine not doing much today. Just looked without opening them. There are a few orangey brown streaks inside the entrance of one of them that I did not like the look of. I was fretting that maybe they have diarrhoea (thank you spell check). My advisor told me off for just treating prophylactically with Fumidil B last year (for nosema) without testing whether they had it, so I didn't treat this year as i couldn't get it together to test. Now I think I may have made a mistake.

 

[victor meldrew]

Fumidil treats the bees , the combs still carry the bacterium .
During the time when the ( just in case use of use of fumidil ) was in vogue every second year was advised .
It's a little too late to do anything now with your colony , should they survive to winter a Bailey comb exchange next spring followed by a scorching of the old brood box would be in order !!

John

 

[Polyanwood]

So how will I know whether it is nosema or just diarrhoea? Can I assume that if there are still lots of bees in the spring then, it was nothing serious? I guess if I treated last year, on the old binnual treatement regime, I shouldn't have treated this year anyway?

 

[Hivemaker.]

I have not fed fumidil to bee's for over ten years,may have to think about it with new nosema if it becomes a problem here.Had a couple with a touch of dysentry/nosema last winter,but they pulled through okay,no good if queen gets it.I think i would just give treatment with formic if i had any problems,helps with this and the mites.

 

[Polyanwood]

Thanks Hivemaker. So should I treat just that hive with formic acid and when? And if I treat with formic acid, should I not bother with the oxalic acid trickling later?

 

[Hivemaker.]

No, not now this year, use oxalic next month,formic is used instead of thymol at end of honey flow in warm weather,learning curve to using this stuff also.If it was not for formic though i would of lost lots of bee's when resistant mites hit here 6/7 years ago.

 

[bobandbec]

I am currently fencing around one of the apiaries due to damage from livestock for the first time (did the other apiary last month).
Was knocking in a post on Friday when the bees in the nearest colony took a dislike to it and came to say hello. Stung on my eyelid as a result. Very painful and lesson learned, smock worn today. The bees were out even today, although not for long and not many.

Peter

 

[BKF Admin]

Hi Peter Your bees are like mine(still flying) we will have to get them to read the beebooks that say its time for bed.

 

[Bcrazy]

I have just noticed this thread.

off topic chat (2 Viewing)
Chat about anything and everything not connected to Bees and Beekeeping

Not connected to bees.

Am I seeing things?

Regards;

 

[Finman]

.
Just stupid intro!

 

[BKF Admin]

Thanks Bcrazy I have now moved it to Beekeeping forum.