What did you do in the Apiary today?

[madasafish]

24C, lovely but hawthorn is fading and bees much more aggressive..

Inspected everything today except recently hived swarms/requeened TBH. No QCs ( I have given all hives new foundation to work on through the weeks).

Two fourth generation carnie hives each with three supers decided it was time I had new innoculations against bee venom in my fingers and up one trouser leg. The thumb one was especially painful - it was on my good hand whilst holding a jumbo frame of bees & brood so I could not let go..my left hand would have not carried the weight. I then put on nitriles and got more of the same!

By then I was on my last hive so at least it all ended quickly...Asda hydrocortisone cream for stings sorted the swelling on my ring finger..

Not the most stings I have received at once but one of the more painful sessions. All ok now. The joys of beekeeping.

Collected two tree bumble nests in bird houses and rehoused in our garden...(£20 callout fee for everything)

 

[victor meldrew]

I once, after a very long search, found my mobile in the microwave

My mum once filled her oven will pies and custard tarts etc for us kids ,
She went out for coal to stoke the fire , returned , opened the oven door and pitched to coal in !
Sat down pinnie over her head and sobbed !
We kids melted and stayed away for hours ,


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[bpmurray]

I made sure I had everything I needed and went up to the bees. But my smoker was misbehaving and wouldn't puff smoke & went out easily - couldn't understand it, but started anyway. The first few hives are small and we're no problem, but once I started into the bigger ones, even the spray bottle couldn't really quieten them. The worst was when I arrived at The Hive - the've been bad-tempered ever since they found the OSR and, well, didn't we have fun! And it went from bad to worse - I must have let HRH above the excluder since she had put broodnin loads of the super frames - 2 supers contaminated. Anyway I gave up, mover the QX above the top super, gave them another, and cursed myself.
When I arrived home, I dismantled the smoker & found that the little hole in the bellies was clogged with tar & burned fuel. A 2 second job to clear it!

Q: is there any way to salvage the honey, or is it considered bakers honey?

 

[Erichalfbee]

My mum once filled her oven will pies and custard tarts etc for us kids ,
She went out for coal to stoke the fire , returned , opened the oven door and pitched to coal in !
Sat down pinnie over her head and sobbed !
We kids melted and stayed away for hours ,


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Oh no......that is so sad
Poor poor lady

PS....I'm so glad you're still around enjoying the forum antics. I still remember that gorgeous Samoyed of yours. Did you ever get another dog?

 

[colinc]

Relieved

As it was so nice today and I got home from work early enough, checked my 2 hives in transition.
4 1/2 days since queen flew off from my AS hive. Eggs in the hive so she found her way back and is there somewhere but hiding today.
Big hive that she came from is still queenless, no eggs, removed 1 nearly capped QC from a frame of the AS queens eggs, nice capped cell on the donor frame from my original queen and 2 more in progress so will leave them alone for a couple of weeks in the hope that the new VQ gets mated quickly.

Will Check my original colony at the weekend.

sometimes things work out as you hope they will.

 

[victor meldrew]

Oh no......that is so sad
Poor poor lady

PS....I'm so glad you're still around enjoying the forum antics. I still remember that gorgeous Samoyed of yours. Did you ever get another dog?

No we didn't Erica !
We live on a lane frequented by dog walkers and have many doggie friends call every day . If we're indoors they peer up the drive looking for us [emoji23]
We consider ourselves too old to have another dog 80 .
Odds on a dog out living us .

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[Brigsy]

Ah bless. Lovely picture.

I'm glad I went back and checked my colony that I removed a queen from and reduced to one juicy QC on the morning of day six. The blighters had made five more in the afternoon. Phew.

 

[DerbyBee]

Got a swarm call for honeybees. They took up residence in a smoke shelter, it was just a quick shake job. Then received another call from a lady about honeybees in a bird box and how her elderly mother couldn't use her garden etc. typical sob story. I knew they were more than likely bumblebees but went and collected them and will relocate to my parents allotment. Let them work their magic on the crops.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Got a swarm call for honeybees. They took up residence in a smoke shelter, it was just a quick shake job. Then received another call from a lady about honeybees in a bird box and how her elderly mother couldn't use her garden etc. typical sob story. I knew they were more than likely bumblebees but went and collected them and will relocate to my parents allotment. Let them work their magic on the crops.

The last elderly mother with bees in a bird box I was asked to look at (by her daughter) didn't want them moved at all as she was enjoying watching them. It was the daughter who worried about them on her once a week visits. Elderly mother overruled her

 

[Brigsy]

Good to hear!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I made sure I had everything I needed and went up to the bees. But my smoker was misbehaving and wouldn't puff smoke & went out easily - couldn't understand it, but started anyway. The first few hives are small and we're no problem, but once I started into the bigger ones, even the spray bottle couldn't really quieten them. The worst was when I arrived at The Hive - the've been bad-tempered ever since they found the OSR and, well, didn't we have fun! And it went from bad to worse - I must have let HRH above the excluder since she had put broodnin loads of the super frames - 2 supers contaminated. Anyway I gave up, mover the QX above the top super, gave them another, and cursed myself.
When I arrived home, I dismantled the smoker & found that the little hole in the bellies was clogged with tar & burned fuel. A 2 second job to clear it!

Q: is there any way to salvage the honey, or is it considered bakers honey?

Why do you consider it 'contaminated' ? wait for the brood to emerge and the bees to backfill with honey and all is back to normal (apart from the fact that if it's OSR it will be rock hard)

 

[GaryB]

Inspected the AS I did on 4th May. The 5 frame nuc has a new laying Queen (thankfully). She has laid one side of a frame, and all larvae are very small, so suspect she only started laying a couple of days ago. They have some stores, but will feed so they can draw the other 3 frames.

Main hive on double brood is rammed full of bees. Had lost the original Queen 2 days before I did the split, so hive was left with 1 sealed QC which hatched, but so far they are still Q-, and back filling the top BB with stores. Thinking VQ didn't make it back from mating, or she was a duff. Will take a frame from the nuc with eggs and larvae when she gets up to speed on laying, and try and raise an EQ in the main hive. Had thought I was going to be left with 2 Q- splits.

Bees in main hive very calm considering they're queenless!

 

[colinc]

Inspected the AS I did on 4th May. The 5 frame nuc has a new laying Queen (thankfully). She has laid one side of a frame, and all larvae are very small, so suspect she only started laying a couple of days ago. They have some stores, but will feed so they can draw the other 3 frames.



Main hive on double brood is rammed full of bees. Had lost the original Queen 2 days before I did the split, so hive was left with 1 sealed QC which hatched, but so far they are still Q-, and back filling the top BB with stores. Thinking VQ didn't make it back from mating, or she was a duff. Will take a frame from the nuc with eggs and larvae when she gets up to speed on laying, and try and raise an EQ in the main hive. Had thought I was going to be left with 2 Q- splits.



Bees in main hive very calm considering they're queenless!

Just 3 weeks, she may start to lay imminently but test frame will prove one way or other.

 

[Rock_Chick]

3 days ago I put in a VQ to a nuc usung a cage, This morning I noticed a lot of bees on outside of the NUC ( poly nuc ) So I planned to have a look to see if they had relised her, when I went back the cluster had gone from the front.
I checked cage and she had been relised. Everything seemed very calm,so I went away happy. 1 hour ago a large cluster again was on front of nuc, I'm not really wanting to open them again in case I lose her to flying off.
Would it be possable because its a polynuc they getting to hot ?

 

[einsteinagogo]

A quick check this morning and bees still present from the captured swarm and hived swarm on the 24th May. Lots of bees coming and going now.

This weekend, I need to cut all the nettles that have grown up in this apiary in the last 12 months, they are about 8 feet, anyone for nettle tea, beer or quiche ?

Might wear my bee jacket, just in case as I do not know the history of this swarm. I'll certainly not be using a petrol strimmer!

Manual sickle and scythe.

As for the bait hive, that is still a mystery, still lots of interest during the day - but nothing as yet, and the other remaining bait hives in the area - not a sausage!

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Trying to isolate scrub queen by moving brood box and putting new on in its place

 

[Anduril]

3 days ago I put in a VQ to a nuc usung a cage, This morning I noticed a lot of bees on outside of the NUC ( poly nuc ) So I planned to have a look to see if they had relised her, when I went back the cluster had gone from the front.
I checked cage and she had been relised. Everything seemed very calm,so I went away happy. 1 hour ago a large cluster again was on front of nuc, I'm not really wanting to open them again in case I lose her to flying off.
Would it be possable because its a polynuc they getting to hot ?

If they were clustered outside for most of the time I would say bearding. Otherwise if they were flying away and back, it would be mating flights, leave them alone.

 

[Rock_Chick]

If they were clustered outside for most of the time I would say bearding. Otherwise if they were flying away and back, it would be mating flights, leave them alone.

can't see it being matting flight she only came out of cell tuesday

 

[Erichalfbee]

can't see it being matting flight she only came out of cell tuesday

Three days is time enough to be out mating

 

[gregior]

checked 2 mating nucs and a bait hive-2 mated queens and a nice prime swarm in residence!