What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Goodwood]

There is a flow on the Wysteria here. Ive been watching our bees biting the backs of the flowers and sticking their tongues in to get at it. I have heard they did that to some flowers but first time I have seen it. The whole wall is buzzing, they are all landing, ignoring the pollen and scuttling around the back of the flowers where they seem to be stuffing themselves.

 

[bjosephd]

Bait hives being investigated..........again. Sunday is the day most folk around here look in their hives so I suppose all will be quiet tomorrows

Yup! All bait hives busy! Particularly one of them that is 3 national broods with 5 or so mixed frames of comb and foundation at the top. So many bees that I actually suited up to check... particularly as I saw one bee going in with pollen!!

But ho hum... just a box full of scouts on inspection.

Fingers crossed.

 

[Anduril]

Two bees made it through a gap between the zips, got stung on the neck twice. Bees doing well, had to add extra supers.

 

[Plenty of honey]

Cleaning up nucs, scraping out and blowtorching. Going through new frames at a rate of knots! lots and lots on. Queen cells in to the incubator tomorrow. Second set straight in afterwards. Then another cell builder stocked tomorrow. another 28mm of rain last night!! lovely!!

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Yup! All bait hives busy! Particularly one of them that is 3 national broods with 5 or so mixed frames of comb and foundation at the top. So many bees that I actually suited up to check... particularly as I saw one bee going in with pollen!!

But ho hum... just a box full of scouts on inspection.

Fingers crossed.

A bait hive with 3 national brood boxes?

 

[bjosephd]

A bait hive with 3 national brood boxes?

Haha... wellll... my first colony was a swarm that moved into a double national brood hive which had foundation in the top box... I've since moved to Langstroth but happened to have 3 national broods knocking about so basically put a floor and a roof on it and some old national frames in the top box.

I have bait hives of various sizes and am always curious which sizes and locations the scout bees seem to prefer.

And right now the scouts are obsessed with this particular stack compared to the others... I'll keep you updated.

Below is image of the first colony I got via a visiting swarm...

 

[Fritillary]

I've forgotten who it was who suggested using paper masking tape instead of rubberbands for holding eg broken comb in frames - ? Thank you if you're reading this - that was a very helpful tip. Made a pig's ear of cutting comb from top bar format to put into National frames a few days ago... as part of moving a prolific queen from TBH into a National. The tape had got wet... comb slumped against bottom bars... was sure it'd be a mess when I next looked. Instead though today found that the bees had welded all together expertly, and the paper was in tatters on the floor. Instead, today's bad beekeeping was in connection with not counting days after splitting... Looked into Q- part today, and heard piping! (Would have left well alone if I'd realised.) As I was actually holding the comb which was the source of the piping when I first heard it, I couldn't resist trying to see the virgin before I put the comb back. I knew she was right in front of my nose - but I just couldn't see her!

 

[JWF]

I had written off this weekend as far as beekeeping​ activities as it was so cold, but the sun appeared at the end of the afternoon so I got stuck in. There's a flow on from somewhere, though OSR looks to be turning over so it may well be tree blossom which is still abundant.

Plenty of queen cups but none were charged, so fingers crossed that's another week of the swarm season done

And a tiny colony that I ran a VQ into a couple of weeks ago has a small but nice looking patch of comb laid up. Hopefully the other two colonies with VQs will soon be in a similar state.

 

[Swarm]

Spent a wonderful hour or two at the apiary with the landlord. Checked our bees, all very busy and then went through his as he wanted advice. After swapping the half of both his brood and a halfs beneath the deeps, I've left him with some jobs to do by next week.
Seeing double brood with my bees and his brood and a half at first hand, he wants rid of his current set up.

 

[Millet]

I went all prepared today with a spare hive and all the bit's just in case a Artificial swarm was needed, what a waste of a day when i got to the hive it was dull blowing a hooligan and freezing cold, the weather forecast said the wind would ease of for tea time, did it hell it got worse so i did not open up again to have a quick look, the 14th of this month last year a artificial swarm was done and the last time i got the weather to open up this year was the 8th March so god knows what is going on in there, please cold wind pee off.

 

[Fusion_power]

Seeing double brood with my bees and his brood and a half at first hand, he wants rid of his current set up.

This is pretty much the same reason I wanted rid of my double langstroths. I converted to square Dadant with 14 frames. It is incredible to see a queen laying when she has all the room she could ask for. I'm getting plenty of hives with 12 frames of brood.

I pulled a couple of frames of mature sealed honey from one hive yesterday so I could enjoy some of the early good flavored honey. I started some sourdough bread a few minutes ago and used 3 tablespoons of fresh honey in the mix.

 

[B33K33P3R]

Wow!

I made my first visit to an apiary today courtesy of thorn. I cannot thank him enough for showing me his set up and the cup of tea while we had a chat.



It was thrilling to hear the buzz of a few thousand bees going about their business. I even got a tiny sting through my trousers but to be honest that too was an interesting experience!

It has given me a valuable measure of just what space I will need for a hive of my own and how much storage and secondary equipment I will have to procure.

I am still *buzzing* from the experience.

B33K33P3R.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Wow!



It has given me a valuable measure of just what space I will need for a hive of my own and how much storage and secondary equipment I will have to procure.


B33K33P3R.

I'll bet that was a lesson in itself

 

[B33K33P3R]

Yes it was Gilberdyke John.

I cannot wait to get my own hive and swarm.

B33K33P3R.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Been a nice day here...lots of virgin queens out on mating flights.

 

[rdmw]

Established an out apiary in some lovely woodland [emoji3]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[rdmw]

Reached 65 degrees in my homemade solar wax extractor. Nice clean wax. Works a treat [emoji106]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Yes it was Gilberdyke John.

I cannot wait to get my own hive and swarm.

B33K33P3R.

Keep in mind that a swarm, while "free", are inherently swarmy bees and you should expect your colony to make preparation to swarm again at some point in the future. You will need sufficient additional kit to ensure you can carry out suitable swarm control procedures BEFORE you see the signs. Getting extra kit after they start is generally too late.

 

[beeno]

Keep in mind that a swarm, while "free", are inherently swarmy bees and you should expect your colony to make preparation to swarm again at some point in the future. You will need sufficient additional kit to ensure you can carry out suitable swarm control procedures BEFORE you see the signs. Getting extra kit after they start is generally too late.

All my bees originate from collected swarms and they are not swarmy.

 

[beeno]

Saw honey bees on hawthorn for the first time ever yesterday. One bee every 50cm and they were not collecting pollen. Here's hoping. Cold and windy today though.