What did you do in the Apiary today?

[colinc]

last weekend was extraction of OSR did in a day and cleaned down great. One hive was making swarm preps so AS performed at same time. Didn't want daughters from this queen so went back in today.
Swarm colony no eggs lots of Queen cells in various stages so tore them all down and added a frame of eggs from my original lovely queen and marked the frame to recheck later in the week. Great.

Colony 2 with the original queen are going to supersede this year I am sure. tried once and knocked that down in April and today another single mid frame supercedure cell tore it down but couldn't find the larvae but actually saw the queen laying an egg in the hive during inspection. They aren't looking likely to swarm but laying is slower so maybe she has burnt out

Then I check the queen from my big hive in the AS. find her 2nd frame they had started drawing out new frames and have 1:1 syrup now. put frame back and take next frame and she was right next to my hand. Runs across my hand and flies off quick as a flash. marked but not clipped.

Didn't see if she went straight down into the hive or away it was that fast. Suspect 1 of three possibilities.

1, she went straight back in the brood box

2, she went AWOL and is lost

3, she would know the route back to her own original hive maybe??? and I find her back there next time.


Knowing my luck she will dive back into my original queens colony and do away with her mother.

 

[Tonyatcwfarm]

Got asked to call down to check a nuc I'd sold a few weeks ago as the guy was a newbie
A super of foundation added 3 weeks ago was 3/4 capped but first frame of BB fad 3 Q cells capped,10 more sealed cells found and 2 emerged from cells
Still plenty of bees in the hive
Took it there was a virgin (or 2) running around the hive so knocked down the remaining cells and closed up
No spare kit,no frames made up and no bait hives ready
He was lucky to still have a viable colony

 

[coatesg]

Inspected on Sat - not a great day bee-wise. Landed up shaking out one hive with laying workers (pepperpot drone brood, mutliple eggs in cells, on walls, etc) - lost queen from this in 2nd inspection, and clearly replacement queen has failed.

Second hive which i caught the swarm from 3 weeks ago (that then absconded) has no brood, no eggs, and a lot of backfilling of brood frames so signs aren't good, though I can probably give it another week or so before marking as hopelessly queenless. Again, potentially another failed mating (QC had hatched successfully),

The remnants of the absconded swarm was the only ray of light (!) - I managed to borrow a frame of eggs a week ago to test for queenlessness and they have made up a nice QC which i desperately need to hatch and mate and then I can start merging with above if required...

 

[madasafish]

Requeened TBH with a caged virgin Saturday. Cage empty so assume a success.
Remove queen from Nicot cage: eggs seen.
Nice quiet day.. Tomorrow is make up mini nucs day so will be busy.

Lovely day: bees all v busy..

 

[Wingy]

Been down to Kevin's today (kevrhcfag) only my second ever hands on experience of handling bees. Today we were checking newly hatched queens and feeding them. Weeding out anything Kevin wasn't happy with. Made up a few nuces and introduced virgin queens to 2 of them, 1 wasn't ready and gave the new queen a hard time so she was moved away for her own safety.
Kevin takes great pride in his bees and won't accept anything that he thinks is less than top quality. Seems ruthless but that's how it has to be.
Such lovely calm bees despite lots of handling and manipulation again no stings.
I know where my stock will be coming from when I'm ready
Wingy

 

[Swarm]

Been down to Kevin's today (kevrhcfag) only my second ever hands on experience of handling bees. Today we were checking newly hatched queens and feeding them. Weeding out anything Kevin wasn't happy with. Made up a few nuces and introduced virgin queens to 2 of them, 1 wasn't ready and gave the new queen a hard time so she was moved away for her own safety.
Kevin takes great pride in his bees and won't accept anything that he thinks is less than top quality. Seems ruthless but that's how it has to be.
Such lovely calm bees despite lots of handling and manipulation again no stings.
I know where my stock will be coming from when I'm ready
Wingy

*Like*

 

[Somerford]

Extracted half the supers this evening - another 20 to go

Lovely flavour. First time I've done starter strips for OSR to be melted out and it appears the bees take to them well but only where there is a strong flow. A couple of half filled boxes from an area with less OSR this year

KR

Somerford

 

[For want of a better word]

First super of cut comb removed from the wonderful black natives... fantastic white cappings... lime trees are flowering.... incredible flow on this afternoon.

NZ Italians are well into swarm mode after the frenzy on OSR filling the brood space... despite supering them up!..... going for the usual latino trick of AVS( Apiary Vicinity Swarming)

Nos da

 

[Nige.Coll]

Pulling supers finding small amounts of crystallized honey on some.
Not doing bad.

 

[Tonyatcwfarm]

Another large swarm caught after frenzied scout activity yesterday
3rd year in a row I've caught a swarm in exactly same spot
Had a quick run through the colony I hvve up there but they're showing no sign of swarming yet,added another super in case the hawthorn flow goes on a few more days
While the smoker was lit I ran through the home apiary colonies
All look good bar one and the swarm I got 10th may
The swarm has brood 5 frames drawn 2 super frames drawn and filled(6 frame poly with super)
2 frames capped brood but 2 q cells started,flying from wherever must have knackered her
Knocked them down see what they do in a weeks time

 

[masterBK]

Extracted 26 supers of OSR today. Wish I had done it last week when it looked OK but quite alot has granulated on the comb since. Swarm also arrived in a bait hive. From the direction they came from they probably came from the local convent where they have two colonies.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Spent an hour hunting for a queen. Had paired frames in boxes dotted about the apiary. No luck.
This is a Modified Snelgrove split with the brood in it. No queen cells and eggs present so where is she? Grrrrrrrrr. They need a super now! The other half, the AS, has had its queen cells torn down as planned and instead of the old queen a frame of eggs from a nice colony put in so we have restarted the Wally Shaw clock again; maybe.
I now have too many boxes of bees

 

[colinc]

Spent an hour hunting for a queen. Had paired frames in boxes dotted about the apiary. No luck.

This is a Modified Snelgrove split with the brood in it. No queen cells and eggs present so where is she? Grrrrrrrrr. They need a super now! The other half, the AS, has had its queen cells torn down as planned and instead of the old queen a frame of eggs from a nice colony put in so we have restarted the Wally Shaw clock again; maybe.

I now have too many boxes of bees

Ha ha ditto this was my weekend til the queen in the split flew off too. I have supplied eggs from my original queen but will be making sure they don't raise their own at the weekend.
Suspect this is my main queens last year and they intend to supercedure her though bit sad as she is the only bee I am really attached to and fond of.


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[B+.]

Have you ever had that feeling that you're going nuts?
I put my hive tool down somewhere and I can't remember which apiary it was at :-(
Lucky I have a spare

 

[Bosleeu]

Mum and daughter on the same frame. A first for me.

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[Erichalfbee]

Have you ever had that feeling that you're going nuts?
I put my hive tool down somewhere and I can't remember which apiary it was at :-(
Lucky I have a spare

One?
I have four long ones and seven of those little ones from Mann Lake
By the end of the year I'll be down to two. Time to get the metal detector out when the bees are asleep in the winter

 

[mjt68]

Hived a swarm in my first top bar hive. A new chapter...

 

[B+.]

One?

One....left. ;-)
I try very hard but often misplace items of equipment. Sometimes, they turn up again. Sometimes they don't.
If you listen to my wife, they're probably kicking around the house somewhere! I don't know what she means

 

[jeff33]

Rush back from work to meet my new queen, put her in her new palace and as a test run a spare virgin that just emerged in a Q- hive.

 

[madasafish]

My hive tool is bright yellow...

Started this am with no swarms :
4 phonecalls later, hived two large casts, refused one call on tree bumbles and have another visit tomorrow to sort out more tree bumbles.