What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Erichalfbee]

AS'd two colonies today.
One desperately needs to go on new frames so Pagden for that
The other a Modified Snelgrove 2
Horrendous downpour out of nowhere in the middle of it
My new queen, in her newly made nuc, bought to requeen one of the hives I split today is missing and in her place is a queen cell.....Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr
One colony has sac brood but I've asked for an SBI visit.
Not a good day

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I thought you had them recently fixed!

I did - unfortunately I am one of the 20% or so that get a problem when the membrane the lens sits in starts to wrinkle after the implant is put in, not a big deal just means that eye is totally useless until a quick bit of laser surgery puts it right, just adjusting to be monocular now until the op.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Good couple of hours on the bees . All in order except when i got to top field there was a mass of swirling bees at the top of the tree line . Shoot i thought not another swarm . I then looked at hive fronts and one of them was boiling out . A virgin then waddled out and took flight . Within 20 mins the mass of bees up in the trees drifted down over me like a cloud the noise was amazing and started to re-enter the hive . Much fanning going on . By the time i had checked the others all was back to normal . Fantastic stuff .

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Must have imagined it - doesn't happen according to our skywegian friend.

 

[elite123]

Inspections - all ok, and transfer of swarm from bait hive to proper hive - lots of comb built, seem to be a friendly bunch

 

[Helen]

At last, managed to find my elusive queen. Haven't been able to find her up til now. Did an AS on the colony 2 weeks ago, splitting what looked like the main brood into a nuc, hoping the Q would be there. Checked today and there were eggs in the nuc. Hunted around, and eventually spotted her. Very quick queen ... ran to the dark side when the frame was pulled up. But managed to get her, and mark her so easier to spot in the future.

The main colony had 6 queen cells, so removed 4 and left the 2 largest. Did the rest of the checks on the other colonies, and then noticed there were 2 newly hatched queens in my tool bucket - where I had popped the queen cells. So made up a mini-nuc for each of them, added some bees from the colony where they came from, and now fingers crossed to see what happens.

 

[rdmw]

Looks like DWV to me ... it's a virus - it's possible for a colony to contract it even when you have a low varroa count ... it is spread by varroa as they pass it on when feeding on the bee's haemolyph but it can be spread by regurgitated food when the larvae are fed or even passed from the queen when the egg is laid. Varroa just vectors the disease and amplifies the effect on a colony.

It does not look that severe to me ... just one wing not looking fully functional so if it's only a small number of bees I would not worry unduly there's not a lot you can do about it.

It it's just an odd one or two it may just be a 'normal' deformity - queens lay thousands of eggs and occasionally one that it not the round penny is going to get past the bad larvae police ...

There's a possibility that it coule be K Wing ... but I can't see whether the second wing on the bee (which gives this virus its name is joined or not from the photo.)

Thank you


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[JohnRB]

First swarm

One of the association guys called to say he was dealing with a swarm - did I want it? 30 minutes later it was in the boot of my car and 20 minutes after that emptied into my spare hive. All seems good, I didn't see the Queen but they seemed happy with their new home. Fingers crossed the Queen is OK, she starts laying and they don't abscond. Quite an adrenaline rush for a new beekeeper

 

[Brigsy]

AS'd two colonies today.
One desperately needs to go on new frames so Pagden for that
The other a Modified Snelgrove 2
Horrendous downpour out of nowhere in the middle of it
My new queen, in her newly made nuc, bought to requeen one of the hives I split today is missing and in her place is a queen cell.....Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr
One colony has sac brood but I've asked for an SBI visit.
Not a good day

Oh no! The one to requeen the evil colony? When we thought they would be hard to requeen, this isn't what I had in mind

 

[Tremyfro]

The sky is dark as pitch...I need the lights on and it is almost 9 am! .....and today I was going to do colony inspections. I don't think that will be happening unless it changes quite a bit. As 5 of my colonies are in the process of getting queens...emerged/mated/laying/new swarm...there are only 4 beehausies to look in. At least they are all easy to do...if the weather improves.
Never mind...I need to tidy up in the Bee Shed...so it might be a good day for doing that instead.

 

[Fatbee]

A TBH hive I'm using as a bait hive has attracted something - although not a swarm but a blue ***! Will be plenty of space inside, hope a passing swarm doesn't evict her.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Oh no! The one to requeen the evil colony? When we thought they would be hard to requeen, this isn't what I had in mind

Yep....
I made a nuc up from my gentle Buckies.
Serves me right for giving the queen a name before I was sure she was safe

 

[Stiffy]

Took off spring crop over weekend and finished spinning off today. Not used to hard work and feeling knackered but nice to see approx. 120lb from 4 colonies, all at one out-apiary site.
S

 

[Tremyfro]

Yep....
I made a nuc up from my gentle Buckies.
Serves me right for giving the queen a name before I was sure she was safe

Bees just don't care do they...we save up our pennies to buy them a lovely new queen and they immediately start plotting her demise.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Bees just don't care do they...we save up our pennies to buy them a lovely new queen and they immediately start plotting her demise.

What's worse is that my neighbours who keep bees about a mile away caught a swarm so large it needed two brood boxes. They have no idea about sensible varroa treatment and lose colonies every year. They leave their kit out and catch humongous primes.

 

[Plenty of honey]

What's worse is that my neighbours who keep bees about a mile away caught a swarm so large it needed two brood boxes. They have no idea about sensible varroa treatment and lose colonies every year. They leave their kit out and catch humongous primes.

Yes, yes and yes, sickening isn't it. We do all the right things (supposedly) and other do completely arse about face and they get the swarms !!

 

[gregior]

Attempted inspections on mine today but had to give up after the 1st hive as they have become super aggressive,it's been raining the last 2 days and most of the foragers were indoors but even so this was ridiculous will give it another try in a couple of days but if they stay like this i'll have to look at requeening.I moved my bees away from a public footpath a few years ago after they became aggressive and boy am i glad i did now.

About 10 bees managed to get into my veil but I somehow managed to squish em all before they got me which is about the only plus point from today's drama

 

[maddydog]

Re-located a swarm from my apiary to home so I can vapourise and assess. Unfortunately they've been in the bait hive approximately a week so lost some comb and bias and caused a bit of chaos swapping them into a hive. Gentle bees considering the treatment they received.
2 primes so far this year which is good news.

 

[Brigsy]

Went to check my failed 'Wally'. Knocked back queen cells on Saturday so went and checked for emergency cells today. A few being fed and one sealed. (Day 4?!) No choice but to Nuc the queen and reduce queen cells. Sigh. What a palaver.

The other is going fine.

 

[madasafish]

Checked for QCs on my second round of queen rearing. At least 6 out of 14 cell punches but so many bees I could not tell. This time the source was three year old Buckfast Queen - never swarmed. Very gentle.

First attempt produced 5x QCs all enveloped in brace comb. Only one emerged . I assume my cutting off comb of day 9 after punching damaged the queens as the post mortem showed undeveloped queens.
Next time, leave it till day 11 and much sharper scissors..

Edit

Lady took away her hive which was resting here temporarily until moved to a new site - which took new fences etc. Good thing: the hive from hell. Stung son washing car and chased Mrs madasafish #..Don't want their drones mating with my virgins. Now 1 mile away but woods and hills intervene so hopefully out of reach.

# a BAD thing.

 

[drex]

Did another second manipulation of a snelgrove 2. The queen remained in double brood and was elusive. I was amazed at how quickly the bees reacted to being separated from their queen. I separated the two boxes. From the word go the bees in the top box were calm and not running, went through quickly and did not find her, looked in bottom box and the bees were running about and some flying up. Right, I thought, she is in the top box, where I concentrated my efforts and on third time through there she was. Marked her and relocated her pronto. Will remember this in future.
Also had a swarm in a bait hive. They had a choice of 3 brood boxes or one nuc. They chose the nuc