What did you do in the Apiary today?

[slangers]

Just done my second artificial swarm of the week, couldn't see the queen in the hive that was swarming, but that is most likely because none of my queens are marked and I am really terrible at spotting them. I do have a nagging suspicion that she may have already gone though. So now have 3 hives and 2 nucs with products of the split. Running out of space very quickly.

Also picked up second sting on the head of the week so am finally ditching my suit in favour of a fencer hood.

 

[philipm]

Just done my second artificial swarm of the week, couldn't see the queen in the hive that was swarming, but that is most likely because none of my queens are marked and I am really terrible at spotting them. I do have a nagging suspicion that she may have already gone though. So now have 3 hives and 2 nucs with products of the split. Running out of space very quickly.

Also picked up second sting on the head of the week so am finally ditching my suit in favour of a fencer hood.

Always wear a baseball cap under my hood now that I'm becoming folically challenged.

 

[SaraR]

My hive's (finally) grown into a full size colony. Added a super yesterday and am hoping the promised cold snap won't hit them too hard.

 

[rdmw]

Set up some starter strips as suggested by backwards Beekeepers Just need to wax them now


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[bjosephd]

Set up some starter strips as suggested by backwards Beekeepers Just need to wax them now


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I've never bothered waxing them.

 

[rdmw]

OK that would be easier. Do you find they draw the comb ok straight from the ply?
Glad to have my table saw today to cut these 3mm strips so easily and accurately


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[hexadecimal]

Got my first sting today... first in my 39 years on this planet!!

Wouldn't mind wasn't even inspecting just had one land on me, never noticed and managed to give her a little squash

 

[Hachi]

Re-housed my first swarm of the year into their new home. A nice big swarm too.

 

[pargyle]

OK that would be easier. Do you find they draw the comb ok straight from the ply?
Glad to have my table saw today to cut these 3mm strips so easily and accurately


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I wax mine .. dead easy .. old 1/2" paintbrush, melt the wax in a double boiler of some sort .. even a tin can in a pan of hot water does the trick .. slurp the wax down the starter strip .. the wax stays runny on the brush long enough to do a run down the strip .. brush back in the tin ready for the next frame.

I just think a dollop of wax melted on to the starter strip gives them a firm base to build out from.

 

[deanrpwaacs]

Helped out on 2 different apiary sites today . One very slow in heavy shade with a cold draft . Bees very slow to build up . Only one needed AS as queen cells present . Other site and bees were donated to a friend . All on double commercials . As we walked down there was a large prime swarm hanging in the apple trees . Knocked it into a box then went through the others . 3 out of 5 were good . 2 he warned us were angry . We could only get through one of them but found the queen . They were everwhere very angry . So we closed up and walked away . Great to experience such diverse bees . Makes my angry hive seem tame .


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[JWF]

Pootled through my colonies earlier.

As I was lighting my smoker I heard the sound of piping coming from the colony that swarmed two weeks ago. There was an opened QC and two sealed QCs in there - both queen cells removed and one was used to requeening a hive that i accidentally killed the queen in last week. The other was used to make up a spare nuc, just in case

Other colonies ok, one with a newly mated queen is laying well already.

One colony had plenty of cups, but not yet charged. This colony was a pain in the bum last year for swarming so if i find the queen she's going to get the chop and one of the spare queens will replace her.

 

[bjosephd]

OK that would be easier. Do you find they draw the comb ok straight from the ply?
Glad to have my table saw today to cut these 3mm strips so easily and accurately


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I do... I'll try get some pictures of drawn frames when I get the chance. Tricky now to be honest to tell which are the foundationless ones and which aren't!

 

[madasafish]

Set up one hive with Cloake board for queen rearing..

Moved a lady's hive to my garden temporarily due to bee aggression with the landowner.. stay here until requeened. Only 1 mile distant as the crow flies - but wooded and hilly so no line of sight. Moved Saturday 6.30pm when cool and covered entrance with cyprus tree branches. and opened up that pm..

Hive left at original site had 20 bees on Sunday.. all bees in hive reoriented on Sunday with no issues.

Three mile rule is not sacrosanct.

 

[Plenty of honey]

Set up First Cell builder yesterday. Many strong colonies for brood production.The drone frames all went in last week but wont be ready for a while but i the mean time, theres plenty of other drones appearing.
a couple of swarms at the hone apiary too, Small mating nucs that in the process of giving space to have swarmed right in front of me. hey ho!! At least i caught the two swarms. both strong queens from last year. try to keep those!
A dip in temperatures this week, but next looks in the 20's bring it on!!

 

[DerbyBee]

Inspected the garden hive which is on double brood and found quiet a few queen cells, swarming prep well underway. I went through and found four frames with some big queen cells on each and decided to make up two nucs. So I transferred two frames with queen cells into one and the others in the second. Those frames had some capped brood so I found a frame of honey and a frame of pollen for both, shook in a few bees from the super frames and added an undrawn frame on the end in both nucs. 5 frame nucs.

Went back through the main hive and knocked off any remaining queen cells I could see, popped back 8 undrawn frames for them and moved them to one side. Thinking of inspecting again in a couple of days.

Hopefully I've done the right thing?

 

[slangers]

Got my first sting today... first in my 39 years on this planet!!

Hurts doesn't it?

 

[coatesg]

Could do with checking a couple of hives, but too cold to even think about going near them... :-/

 

[AndrewD]

Got a new one near one of the biggest parks in Leeds, hive going in next week weather permitting

Happy days.

Andrew

 

[hexadecimal]

Hurts doesn't it?

In all honesty it was a slight scratch then a minor itch and i mean minor and then forgotten about (apart from every time I passed the girlfriend and told her I might be dying - I got no sympathy).

A few hours later all that remained was a tiny red dot.

Maybe it was a none painful place (inner forearm)?

 

[Robbo8916]

Haven't been able to get into my bees for over a week. Hoping to do so today but will have to wait for the workmen to bugger off. (Don't fancy leaving them with the dog).

Put MAQs on both colonies last Tuesday so they need taking off. Poly is going to need supering the rate they're going. They went from a 6 frame nuc to an 11 frame box in around two weeks, most definitely needed the space. Need to get organised to move them to the farm at some point too.

As I write this the wind has picked up and the sun has gone in! Brill