What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Swarm]

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.

fingers crossed.

 

[bjosephd]

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

Yup, I'd argue that swarmed bees probably often come from a local old school association taught beekeeper who still thinks a queen should be restricted to only lay in a single national.

Strange how these same 'swarmy' colonies sometimes seem less swarmy in a double lang brood.

All my bait hives being scouted though... fingers crossed!

 

[drex]

Checked two hives into which the queen was repatriated last week after doing a snelgrove 2. Both hives were queen right, eggs and marked queens seen. Surprisingly both were very feisty, Lots of bees in the air and running like mad, as they would if queen less. They had been very quiet bees before the AS. Any ideas?


United two over wintered nucs, with two hives in which queens were getting on a bit. Had checked the nucs yesterday and saw both queens but could not find the old queens, so could not unite yesterday. Today I found both old queens and dispatched them into my bottle of " queen juice" . Did not bother to check the queens in the nucs, just moved the frames into the new boxes. When I was clearing up, I was sickened to find a poorly, marked queen on the ground near the two hives. Guess I must have given her a bit of a squash when transferring. No idea which of the hives is now queen less , but will look for emergency cells in a couple of days. Still got a couple of spare over wintered nucs, so not the end of the world, but still sick about it.

 

[taurus]

I looked out of the window at lunchtime and saw the sky full of bees. 15 minutes later this was the view at the bait box on the shed roof

 

[colinc]

I looked out of the window at lunchtime and saw the sky full of bees. 15 minutes later this was the view at the bait box on the shed roof

Nicely caught. Are they yours or someone else's?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[taurus]

Not mine - or at least not unless they've built queen cells since last Thursday when I checked the hives.

We have loads of swarms round us because we have several beekeepers locally who don't inspect on a regular basis.

It was a magnificent sight to stand in the middle of them watching them move into the nuc. Several landed on me but they were no problem at all.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

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

Would you like to think about what you just wrote

 

[user 6228]

from 1pm to 6pm
then next day 8.30am to 4pm all to collect one swarm from a tree
horrendous... I got stung ~7 times, Elaine once. It appears we couldnt get the queen.

The tree had been repeated pollarded every few years rather than the usual few decades so it was a mass of small shoots and ivy.


Every time we got them, they would reluctantly walk in but they would eventually fly back. We gave up at one stage and put a frame of BIAS to try and get them to stick. it sort of worked for a while. We tried one last time, and they walked straight in ethusiastically. We will look in few days to see if we really got the queen.

 

[Anduril]

from 1pm to 6pm
then next day 8.30am to 4pm all to collect one swarm from a tree
horrendous... I got stung ~7 times, Elaine once. It appears we couldnt get the queen.

The tree had been repeated pollarded every few years rather than the usual few decades so it was a mass of small shoots and ivy.


Every time we got them, they would reluctantly walk in but they would eventually fly back. We gave up at one stage and put a frame of BIAS to try and get them to stick. it sort of worked for a while. We tried one last time, and they walked straight in ethusiastically. We will look in few days to see if we really got the queen.

I had an occasion like that, took me 2 days to get them. Old comb without bias works well, I retrieved one swarm out of leylandii that way. First frame queen walked onto it then other bees followed. If you could get a skep, lightweight polybox or cardboard box above the swarm then they will move up into the darkness, sometimes encouraged with smoke.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Would you like to think about what you just wrote

Why change the habits of a lifetime?

 

[Tremyfro]

Yesterday was a lovely day...not quite tshirt weather but fine and sunny...today...cold and windy...why??? Because it is inspection day...that's why...

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Yesterday was a lovely day...not quite tshirt weather but fine and sunny...today...cold and windy...why??? Because it is inspection day...that's why...

Correct. You've just won a chocolate frog.

 

[Swarm]

It's just gone 10:30 and the sun is out in Cowbridge, go light your smoker.

 

[Michael Palmer]

Moved a group of new hives from the nuc wintering yard to fill in empty spots in the production apiaries. Still have a couple hundred nucs to transfer into shipping boxes for sale or 10 frame equipment for use in my apiaries. Everything is on hold here. Way too cold to handle frames of brood...it snowed again last night. Hight temp today is supposed to be 48. Average high for today is 65. Wonderful weather.

 

[Fritillary]

the sun is out in Cowbridge, go light your smoker

First lines of new Welsh country/folk song there I think!

 

[Tremyfro]

It's just gone 10:30 and the sun is out in Cowbridge, go light your smoker.

The sun might be out...but it was still warm jacket weather up on our hill. Took a horse out for a ride in the trailer instead....for loading practise away from home. Much warmer now...so we are going to do a lightening rustle through the hives.

 

[madasafish]

4C this am. Sun came out at 2pm.. so transferred 5 xQCs (ex Cell punching/cloake board) into mini nucs. (2 x Kieler,2 x Rainbow,1 x Apidea)

Had to cut off brace comb which made it a slightly tiresome job. Mini nucs now in garage in the cool.

 

[drex]

Confined the queen in frame trap, so that I get larvae of known age for grafting. Was hoping to do that this morning, but something came up. Now my whole timetable has had to be re jigged due to other commitments over the weekend.
Transferred my two remaining over wintered nucs into full size boxes, as I was not able to keep up with removing full frames replacing with foundation ( brood factory). They were just getting too full and would soon have swarmed I am sure.
Anyway I want all my nucs empty for encircling the queen rearing colony. Am using cloake board as on Dave cushmans site. That is assuming I get any takes -this will be my first attempt at grafting

 

[Barbarian]

Getting to the end of a long sequence of sorting out a strong nasty hive.
Checked two nucs made from eggless and larvaeless frames from original hive and a frame each of eggs from quieter hives.
Each nuc had purposeful bees, polished cells, no eggs but saw one queen.
Looks like the method worked. I will have to be wary of the temper from the next batch of bees.

 

[Tremyfro]

Correct. You've just won a chocolate frog.

at least it wasn't a chocolate teapot..lol
Managed the inspections late in the afternoon. The sun was out and the breeze dropped. I didn't see many queens today....they were hiding. Saw our trusty ones from last year. Eggs seen in all the queen-right colonies though. Plus lots of sealed brood...so hopefully some colony expansions. The new colonies all have polished cells and were remarkably quiet. So will be leaving them alone for a few weeks now. All the colonies have fresh nectar and room for the queens to lay. None seem to be planning a departure...phew!