Early Evening Inspections

[gwt_uk]

Hello all,

I am due to do my weekly inspections on 4 colonies but work M-F and am away this weekend.

Therefore, I thought I would check the colonies Friday evening when I get back from work which will be around 6.30pm. It is due to be 20+ degrees and sunny here at that time. Not ideal I know but Just looking to check that this I ok and if people do similar?

Thanks

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Given up inspecting altogether in this weather and with this flow on. If one really needs checking, I have a quick look, the others just get a fresh super

 

[user 20297]

Hello all,

I am due to do my weekly inspections on 4 colonies but work M-F and am away this weekend.

Therefore, I thought I would check the colonies Friday evening when I get back from work which will be around 6.30pm. It is due to be 20+ degrees and sunny here at that time. Not ideal I know but Just looking to check that this I ok and if people do similar?

Thanks

In my limited experience I've found that other than very careful handling, higher temperatures and lack of wind have appeared to have had the greatest influence on the inclination of the bees to stay put during inpections. I went through a nuc last Sunday at around 7pm, having come back after a few days away. Obviously, a nuc is a smaller challenge, but the bees were still flying and hardly noticed me as I went through them; I'm also in Scotland.

 

[GuyNir]

As above, shouldn’t be an issue but I personally leave them alone now unless I really need to do something. Just make sure they have enough supers on.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I was sent photographs from Tanzania last week, the group are desparate to get the honey off before the robbers (four legged and two) discover it. There are people working in the fields though and the village elders have forbidden them to open the hives until work has stopped. They were working the hives in the dark!

 

[DaveG23]

Jenkins, any pics if the honey from Tanzania? How does it taste?

I have some from Madagascar, in. 1 litre plastic bottle, it solidified and then left about an inch or so of black liquid sitting on top

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Left is Tanzania forest honey from the South, Fragrant, not too strong tasting. the other two are stingless bee honey, totally different with a distinct citrusy tang

 

[REDWOOD]

I was sent photographs from Tanzania last week, the group are desparate to get the honey off before the robbers (four legged and two) discover it. There are people working in the fields though and the village elders have forbidden them to open the hives until work has stopped. They were working the hives in the dark!View attachment 27366

They guy in the pointed hat looks dubious

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

They guy in the pointed hat looks dubious

It's the design used with locally made suits, I suppose stems from the first Bees Abroad maize sack suits which used the corner of the sack to put over the head.
They're very enterprising out there - it's always been the way to encourage them to make their own suits to save money, but especially in Tanzania they want 'proper' suits so a few local bee dealers have got tailors on to it. When I was researching for the WWF project I found a few commercial beekeeper supplies companies out there and commercially produced suits were a whopping £60.00 each (the daily wage of a teacher is around £22.00) when we started the Mwamgongo project on Lake Tanganyika, the cost of buying our own materials (including a stiffener for a fencing veil type suit) and paying a local tailor to make them ended up at around £28.00 for a suit, very much like the ones we wear here.
This week I bought two locally made suits from a dealer as a gift for another group in Mwamgongo that's asked for help but I can't include them in the project. Off the peg suits, and they cost £22.00 each. It's now cheaper to buy in than to get them made in the village!

 

[Hebeegeebee]

I inspect until the dawn to dusk outside light comes on if I have to. At this time you don't have to be worried about disturbing virgins on mating flights - so it's especially a good time to have a peek at them if you need to. I have a small torch that I use to help with seeing eggs.

 

[Finman]

Bees use to be angry when you inspect them before evening. Some quite much.

 

[enrico]

I agree with finman. they can be quite tetchy in the evening. Worked hard all day and defending their hard work. Nothing wrong with it as long as you realise why they may be a bit miffed!

 

[Midget Gem]

I went to add extra supers yesterday just before 7pm. Lovely evening - warm, no wind, sun out.

1st mistake - I know it's evening but it's ages before the sun goes down so they'll still be lots out and too busy to bother with me.
2nd mistake - I won't need a smoker. I'm only adding supers. I'll be in and out before they even notice.
3rd mistake - forgot to fasten the horizontal zip on my veil.
4th mistake - on my flight out of the apiary (turns out my fight instinct is by far the weaker of the 2 instincts) having been stung on the lip and with several angry bees inside my veil, I managed to lose my glasses. I didn't notice this until I had got all the way back to the house so had no idea where I'd lost them and no way of finding them myself.

Other half went in search of and found my glasses - undamaged - phew!
I went back and shut up hive. It had calmed down but flared up again on my arrival impregnated with attack pheremone as I was. Stuck roof on quickly and left.
Beesuit and veil straight in washing machine.

Lessons learnt the hard way!

Just saying, don't be too blasé. I still have a fat lip as a reminder to be more circumspect

 

[Martimart]

Given up inspecting altogether in this weather and with this flow on. If one really needs checking, I have a quick look, the others just get a fresh super

I wasn’t going to inspect them this week, but decided to this morning and glad I did, removed a queen cup and a queen cup with royal jelly inside, and that’s in my 3 week old nuc that I put in a 14x12. Everyone I spoke to said they would not try and swarm this year… but the bees decided otherwise. I guess now I’ll have to keep up weekly inspections just in case.

 

[pargyle]

They guy in the pointed hat looks dubious

No ... I think it's his brother Obvious ...

 

[Wilco]

It's the design used with locally made suits, I suppose stems from the first Bees Abroad maize sack suits which used the corner of the sack to put over the head.
They're very enterprising out there - it's always been the way to encourage them to make their own suits to save money, but especially in Tanzania they want 'proper' suits so a few local bee dealers have got tailors on to it. When I was researching for the WWF project I found a few commercial beekeeper supplies companies out there and commercially produced suits were a whopping £60.00 each (the daily wage of a teacher is around £22.00) when we started the Mwamgongo project on Lake Tanganyika, the cost of buying our own materials (including a stiffener for a fencing veil type suit) and paying a local tailor to make them ended up at around £28.00 for a suit, very much like the ones we wear here.
This week I bought two locally made suits from a dealer as a gift for another group in Mwamgongo that's asked for help but I can't include them in the project. Off the peg suits, and they cost £22.00 each. It's now cheaper to buy in than to get them made in the village!

£28 a suit? How much is it to import them back to the UK and start a business supporting Tanzanian tailors?

 

[pargyle]

It's the design used with locally made suits, I suppose stems from the first Bees Abroad maize sack suits which used the corner of the sack to put over the head.
They're very enterprising out there - it's always been the way to encourage them to make their own suits to save money, but especially in Tanzania they want 'proper' suits so a few local bee dealers have got tailors on to it. When I was researching for the WWF project I found a few commercial beekeeper supplies companies out there and commercially produced suits were a whopping £60.00 each (the daily wage of a teacher is around £22.00) when we started the Mwamgongo project on Lake Tanganyika, the cost of buying our own materials (including a stiffener for a fencing veil type suit) and paying a local tailor to make them ended up at around £28.00 for a suit, very much like the ones we wear here.
This week I bought two locally made suits from a dealer as a gift for another group in Mwamgongo that's asked for help but I can't include them in the project. Off the peg suits, and they cost £22.00 each. It's now cheaper to buy in than to get them made in the village!

I still have two Safari suits I had made in Tanzania last time I was there ... in the heat of the last few days I should have got them out ... they always had good tailors there .... and so cheap ! Mind you when I was there you could get a wheel barrow full of 100 shilling notes for a $10 bill !

 

[Erichalfbee]

I still jabe two Safari suits I had made in Tanzania last time I was there ... in the heat of the last few days I should have got them out ... they always had good tailors there .... and so cheap ! Mind you when I was there you could get a wheel barrow full of 100 shilling notes for a $10 bill !

I have a couple of dresses made from Tanzanian Kangas
1998 I took my daughter on Safari to The Selous, Ruaha and Tarangiri. We ended our trip with a few days in Zanzibar. On the ferry from Dar es Salaam they packed us all in so tight that the boat listed all the way over.

 

[enrico]

I wasn’t going to inspect them this week, but decided to this morning and glad I did, removed a queen cup and a queen cup with royal jelly inside, and that’s in my 3 week old nuc that I put in a 14x12. Everyone I spoke to said they would not try and swarm this year… but the bees decided otherwise. I guess now I’ll have to keep up weekly inspections just in case.

Believe what the bees tell you and not what people tell you! They may have done nothing with them, a play cup is nothing at all to worry about and one with royal jelly in may not mean anything but then again!!!!!! Be prepared for a swarm at the very least. Just removing them will do nothing if they are thinking seriously about it!

 

[Hebeegeebee]

It could easily be supercedure at this time of year and sometimes queens don't get well mated or have a problem so the bees will replace her. It's worth seeing if they try the queencell thing again and if it's just one, I would be inclined to leave them to it. You could see mum and daughter queens together (I hope Mum is marked) before Mum suddenly disappears or Mum kills the daughter in the queencell before emergence (cell broken down from the back/side) and remains in the hive and live until another attempt of regicide!