What did you do in the Apiary today?

[jenkinsbrynmair]

received three foreign queens from the post - all the way from the far West of Wales so had to brave the drizzle to requeen a few colonies with mediocre to poor queens - first one I opened at the home apiary which has not been regularly inspected the last month or so due to the fact they weren't going anywhere and I've been a it busy had taken matters into their own hands - already had a new home grown queen which had started laying!!. Others went to plan so now have two requeened colonies and a nuc all of which will be left for a few days before the candy gets uncovered.

 

[Fusion_power]

Extracted some more honey this evening. Estimate a bit over 200 pounds so far. Still have honey at one apiary to remove. I'm debating how much to retain for winter feed given that I am setting up a bunch of nuc colonies. They will make a bit from the fall flow, but I like to have a few frames extra just in case they don't make enough for winter stores. I need 40 pounds per colony for winter.

 

[Finman]

I need 40 pounds per colony for winter.

I use too 40 pounds per colony in Winter. It is mere sugar. I extract all honey. My bees live with sugar 9 months. Pollen is essential in winter.

No need to debate. Sugar is 50 cents per kilo. Winter food 10 €/hive.

On my pastures raspberry has started blooming. Spring canola starts next week.

 

[Tonyatcwfarm]

The lime trees up the village 100m from my apiary in bloom
We've got 30km winds and 15 degrees temp
Lovely fn lovely

 

[B+.]

The lime trees up the village 100m from my apiary in bloom
We've got 30km winds and 15 degrees temp
Lovely fn lovely

You should move lol

I look after some hives for a lady (requeened last year with daughters of my best test queens). It was nice to see 2 supers on each packed full of honey (added another super to each today). The colonies are doing very well.
There are some quite mature trees very close by. I noticed that the lime tree had about finished flowering. How long do they flower for? It doesn't seem very long since I was commenting that it hadn't started flowering (probably a week or so).

 

[Erichalfbee]

Managed to find a window in the wind and rain to consolidate nuc being united to a larger colony. These were two swarms arriving a day apart. The larger drew queen cells on a frame of brood I popped in, the smaller was a cast but now has a laying queen. Just in time. The bees were busy shifting all the stores up into the nuc box. Lovely calm bees even in the horrid weather. Keeping them

 

[JWF]

Took some more supers off for extraction this evening, should be getting a few more off tomorrow too.

Found that three of my new 2017 queens (homegrown) have either gone AWOL or have a poor laying pattern and are being superseded. I am going to combine as it's getting too late to do much else now.

 

[colinc]

Marked the new queen, flipped the double brood boxes to make them lay up and move stores. Merge went well and they still want to supersede in third hive


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[Swarm]

Bees have released the new queens, removed cages and closed up. I'll check for eggs in a couple of weeks. Added more supers.

 

[Millet]

Bees have released the new queens, removed cages and closed up. I'll check for eggs in a couple of weeks. Added more supers.

Do you not need to check sooner ie one weeks time to see if any have been zapped so you can re ReQueen sooner or does the extra week make little difference.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Some take longer than others to start laying and the less disturbance they get in the first few weeks the less chance of a late rejection

 

[Millet]

Some take longer than others to start laying and the less disturbance they get in the first few weeks the less chance of a late rejection

That,ll do thee ..

 

[Swarm]

They were settled, quiet and content, cage was empty and no corpse outside. She now needs time to lay up the comb so best to let her get on with it and watch the entrance.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Do you not need to check sooner ie one weeks time to see if any have been zapped so you can re ReQueen sooner or does the extra week make little difference.

JBM and Swarm are right. Leave alone.
I looked into a nuc I had requeened and I caught the bees crowding the queen. She was ok and not really being balled but crowded. I thought she was a goner. Looked 2 weeks later and BIAS

 

[B+.]

Imagine being woken by your neighbours car alarm at 3.30am. Now, imagine coming downstairs for a drink to find the first of the next batch of queens have emerged in the incubator...then, gluing an opilath plate onto her thorax when your eyes are not quite with it yet. That's how my day started :-(

 

[Fusion_power]

I purchased 10 queens from carpentersapiaries and have spent 2 days setting up hives and nucs for them. I got them unmarked then spent 30 minutes putting bright yellow nail polish dots on all of them. I am setting up an apiary that has only Carpenter queens so I can use it as a mating station for queens bred from my line. I will also evaluate the Carpenter queens and do some selection for better performance and reduced swarming.

I am setting up 4 apiaries for honey production and breeding work next year. My intent is to have 8 to 12 colonies at each location. One will be Carpenter queens, one will have Buckfast queens mated to drones from my line, one will have queens from my line selected for reduced swarming and increased honey production, and one will be for some mixed queens that won't be used in breeding but will be used for honey production.

 

[Barbarian]

30/6/17 Brought home a bait hive from a friends that had bees going in and out for 2 weeks.
1/7/17 Checked the bait hive and found a swarm in residence, 4 sheets of wild comb built down from the roof. Transferred 2 largest sheets into empty frames with rubber bands. Awkward because the new comb was so soft. Gave 2 frames of foundation. Intend to check in a few days.

 

[denise washington]

been and checked all my hives all doing well 2nucs ready to go into brood boxes later this week, found a few wasps in one hive so need to make some wasp traps

 

[wightbees]

I'm not having wasp trouble yet, wonder if it's these under floor entrance?

 

[Erichalfbee]

I've seen a few sniffing around underneath the hives