What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Gilberdyke John]

Grrrrrrrr
Farmers around here barber the hedges to a whisker away from annihilation !
I'm going to ask our neighbour not to cut ours this year.....it shouldn't matter as they are supported by robust stock fencing anyway.
We have lots of dandelions around to......but lots of cows

Your farmers not afflicted by rules from the ministry desk jockeys about cutting hedges?

 

[Anduril]

Passed the new apiary at my cousin's farm on the way to see all bees industriously flying and noticed that all the surrounding fields are a carpet of dandelions - cousin informed me that all these fields are down to silage so won't be grazed in the near future.Together with the neighbouring farms that's a few hundred acres of dandelions for the bees to play with, then there's solid hawthorn hedges on the 500 acres in front of the hives.

Similar to my strongest apiary, but I end up with a delicate flavoured honey. Sheep in the fields for a few weeks till April, then left for silage. After cutting, sheep back in for a few weeks.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Your farmers not afflicted by rules from the ministry desk jockeys about cutting hedges?

cutting hedges is fine - promotes new growth and more blossoming shoots.
Arwyn does his in the autumn annually at the roadsides and not quite so frequently on the other fields. the top hedges towards the mountain get left to their own devices.
The difference is the boys are skilled in their work so the job is a pleasure to behold.

 

[Plenty of honey]

Dandelions emerging at last, hawthorn suddenly blooming but found a field of OSR 400m from home so will need to be considering spring extraction.


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You would need to consider a spring extraction anyway if you've got considerable Dandelion flower near you. Its nearly as quick to crystallise as OSR, not far in front of blackthorn!!

 

[Bearhouse]

Bearhouse...interesting, thanks for the reply. Where are you in pembs?
With the forecast for the week looking good and everything now bursting, i may be putting a second super on in a day or so.
Perhaps West Wales wet end to Winter is paying a divvy for a change?
I did read in Manleys book that once in a while the stars align for a willow flow...

Just outside Hundleton. We have willow in the garden, and about 30-40 elm trees along our boundary. Amd dandelions in the lawn.

 

[Brian Bush]

I moved a Dartington Long Hive on Saturday to my new apiary. There is a Beehaus there already that I am managing for the farmer.
Sunday morning I moved a poly nuc I have over wintered and placed the nuc box inside the Dartington for them to acclimatize. I drove over this afternoon to see what was happening. They are surrounded by 80 acres of **** that is just beginning to bloom. Both hive were very active and stained with yellow pollen at the entrance. The new bees were negotiating their entrance block and underfloor entrance as if they had always been using it. I will have to revisit later in the week, and smoke heavily as both hives are quite feisty. I need to add move frames to the beehaus and move the bees into the Dartington properly and give them some expansion room.
Got to refurbish another Dartington and find a likely colony to populate this by next weekend.

 

[GaryB]

I had a particularly strong colony (brood and a half) when i carried out my first insepction two weeks ago, so put an empty super on the following day.
Now i am Amazed to find it half full of fresh honey which they have started to cap off.
All i can think of is the wet jan and feb might have resulted in a mega flow of willow during the very good weather mid march. Dandelions only just out and the honey was already coming in two weeks ago .
Anyone else experinced significnat flows this early on?
29 other hives have of fresh honey but are nowhere near being able to take a super.

Yes me to, inspected on Friday. Mine on brood and a half, and they have capped most of the super, and have had to add another. Quick peek today and they are already starting on the new super. Very early flow here as well.

 

[Tonyatcwfarm]

Decided to inspect the 2 six frame poly nucs Im keeping,debated between a transfer to full hive or add a brood box of drawn comb.Went with the latter so now its stacked double brood double super,Ill leave it till end of month then do the transfer,hopefully by then the supers will have emptied a bit as still full of ivy stores from winter
One other colony inspected,smallish after winter as just on 4/5 frames but found the queen so she is now painted a bright yellow,3 from 7 queens now marked

 

[Helen]

Took a quick look at the girls. All coming along nicely in the Dartingtons. However, the one in the National had already filled it and was bursting. So, quickly built another dartington this evening so I can move the National bees into it at the weekend.

 

[Brigsy]

My first Bailey comb change coming on nicely. Changing frame size.

 

[SDM]

Last of my nucs hived, last year's queens clipped, supers added to most hives.
I hate clipping, when i was first shown it by my mentor he scratched the queen lifting up the wing and the queen was lost.
I've never lost one i clipped yet but i still find it the most stressful job in Beekeeping.

 

[masterBK]

A more stressful job is finding an unmarked queen (to replace her) in a powerful highly aggressive hive with double brood chambers and several supers but no excluder and where everything is propolised down.
On a more pleasant note had a look into my two garden colonies. One on 12 full combs of brood and the other on 16. Both very strong and bringing in nectar and pollen in great quantities. They were very well behaved and I reckon they are about 3 weeks ahead of what I would expect for this time of year. Off to see the rest of my double brood hives on sunday about 4 miles away on a farm and surrounded by hundreds of acres of OSR so will take a load of supers with me as I'm sure (hope) most will need them.

 

[drex]

Killed one queen and United to next door hive, as the colony was not doing too well, and wanted to cut down my number of hives anyway..
Most of my colonies are on double brood, and today it was fairly typical to find 8 frames of brood up top and 6 down below. Plenty of drones and some were making play cups, so I reversed the boxes. The bees were well behaved. All queens now marked except one and that is in a WBC, brood and a half. Thankfully that is the only WBC I have, having acquired it from an old beekeeper who was giving up. Typical that the one most awkward to inspect is the one I can't find HM in. However they are the gentlest colony I have and may breed from it later.
TBH Which I run out of interest, and is mainly " leave alone", is building up nicely. Gave them 3 new top bars to work on.
Last year I did not collect any pollen, so did not put patties on the hives. Pity as the **** and blackthorn came into flower so early this year.

 

[coatesg]

Inspection this afternoon, in final hive found queen laying in super above QE, despite being below last time. Found her and went to move her back and she flew from the frame, unsure if she jumped back into the brood box directly below, or if she's gone...

Will take a look in a few days to see if she's gone and i have emergency cells or not ...

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Took a ride over to the BABKA apiary where a couple of Bailey Comb Changes and a Shook Swarm were being demonstrated to our beginners.
Everything is well advanced compared with previous years.
The seasons practical sessions start in four weeks so the effects of the procedures will be available for all to see.
On arrival we found that one hive had been pushed over. It might have been vandalism but equally it could have been a deer rubbing against it. Everything was set to rights and within minutes bees were flying and returning with pollen and nectar. There is a field of **** just started flowering about 500 metres from the apiary so they will soon have plenty of stores if the weather forecast is correct.

 

[mr_so]

Took our 'commercial/national in a WBC' out of the lifts and set it up as a normal commercial/national so we can renovate the WBC lifts & floor etc. which are getting a bit rotten.

Put supers etc on two hives which are doing really well and need the space, lots of drones and drone brood present, they're enjoying the weather ATM. Planning to make some splits in a few weeks if the weather stays fine.

 

[madasafish]

Assisted at Association Apiary in am.

In pm inspected my 7 remaining langs. Supered two, marked one supercedure queen, added comb for drawing and changed one borod box.
Then drew up a plan after to deal with weaker colonies - which I shall implement today.

Did not inspect my one TBH - seems to be doing well.

 

[philipm]

Carried out inspection of hives they looked pretty good although one was a bit stroppy. Think I'll be requeening this year if things don't improve.

 

[masterBK]

Trip to out apiary . Two drone layers, two dead(one with very bad dysentery) and two very weak with only one comb of brood. Rest (all double brood) going well with 10 or more frames of brood and given their first super (a couple of colonies so powerful given two) as Oil seed **** now coming in. Assessed them to identify potential breeder queens ( three potential candidates) for later this month and also identify any queens that need culling (none obvious so far although in one colony bees a little too runny for me as I like bees to stay calmly on the comb when frame being handled ) Came across 3 unmarked queens (one of them dark and very large) now with white dot on thorax.

 

[PaulCarroll]

Inspected my 3 colonies all in varying states of progress. All on 14 X 12 so plenty of room for HM. One colony is a concern with only small amount of brood of which there appears to be drone brood. On one frame I found what appears to be a supercedure cell, so given the evidence of slow and inconsistent laying, it does appear that the bees have voted and intend to replace the head girl. At this stage in the season I think I will just let events take a natural course and await the outcome. Hopefully things will progress quickly but if no supercedure takes place I think I will have to change the queen very quickly.


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