What did you do in the Apiary today?

[colinc]

Congrats, first tenants?

Are they yours or did they belong to someone nearby?


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[B+.]

There was a problem with the incubator yesterday and I came home to hear the alarm. When I opened the door, it was VERY HOT inside. So much so that the few cells that were still inside had melted. Fortunately, I had just marked and introduced the previous batch of virgins or this could have been VERY annoying.
It seems the peristaltic pump had stopped pumping water into the incubator and it had just kept getting hotter and hotter.
I've never had this sort of problem with the Brinsea before. It could have been so much worse though.

 

[Fusion_power]

Incubator failure is one of those issues that can hit any time. I've had chicken eggs fried by overheating.

I've slowly been releasing the Carpenter queens into hives over the last 5 days. My bees are very reluctant to accept a new queen. One of the ten died in her cage before being released. I'm not sure why, but have been watching the rest very closely in case I made a mistake. There is only one queen left to release and I plan on letting her free a few hours from now. When I get back from Romania, I will move all of the Carpenter queens to a single apiary to use as a backup mating location for genetic diversity..

 

[Erichalfbee]

Congrats, first tenants?

Are they yours or did they belong to someone nearby?


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None of mine but will check on Monday as I do have one big colony, a result of a unite. They were already partly clustered in the tree but the stragglers appeared to be coming from a different direction to my bees so fingers crossed

 

[Lucky Bee]

Thanks Madasafish. Pics now attached.

 

[B+.]

Pics now attached.

Did you make the skep yourself?

 

[Lucky Bee]

No its from Maisy's I think I paid about £37 for it.

 

[Millet]

None of mine but will check on Monday as I do have one big colony, a result of a unite. They were already partly clustered in the tree but the stragglers appeared to be coming from a different direction to my bees so fingers crossed

I bet poor old Stan was hoping and preying it would not work, oh well he will have to get the ladder back out..

 

[Erichalfbee]

I bet poor old Stan was hoping and preying it would not work, oh well he will have to get the ladder back out..

No....no more ladders needed. They are up their on their own.
Actually he was quite excited and enjoyed watching them out on what might have been a mating swarm. Me? I was out bloomin shopping and missed it!!!!!

 

[Fusion_power]

I released the last of the Carpenter queens today. The bees had finally changed from biting and clinging to the cage to clustering on it and feeding her. I turned her loose direct among the frames.

I also marked another of the queens I raised and checked brood status but did not mark another. Two of the queens I raised mated and started laying 7 days after emerging from the cell. The rest were closer to 10 days from emergence to laying first eggs. I now have about 25 new queens in nucs that need to be prepared for winter. Most are in good condition but a few need to build up quite a bit of population. Moving frames of brood from the strongest to the weakest should do the trick.

 

[B+.]

Its always nice to meet other "forumites". Yesterday, I had a visit from Brian Bush and his good lady.
We visited my test apiary and inspected one of my test colonies (55-2-70-2016). I don't think he quite believed how stable her colony is, but, "seeing is believing".

 

[Barbarian]

Not a good week for me.

Wednesday .... Captured a prime swarm that had arrived mid-day. Took it back home. Thurs and Fri .... had the odd follower giving me a warning when in the area. Hope the trait doesn't continue.

Fri ... Inspected a hive at the out-apiary. Had hoped for a nice new Q after it had swarmed BUT now have a hive of laying workers to sort out.

 

[bjosephd]

Its always nice to meet other "forumites". Yesterday, I had a visit from Brian Bush and his good lady.

We visited my test apiary and inspected one of my test colonies (55-2-70-2016). I don't think he quite believed how stable her colony is, but, "seeing is believing".

Yes... I always wonder what all this rabble on this here forum are actually like in the 'real' world.

Maybe I'll do a little (world) tour to meet them all... or at least anyone who's game!

It would make a fun blog or photo book or podcast!

Who's up for a random WestCountry bloke visiting?!

 

[colinc]

Yes... I always wonder what all this rabble on this here forum are actually like in the 'real' world.

Maybe I'll do a little (world) tour to meet them all... or at least anyone who's game!

It would make a fun blog or photo book or podcast!

Who's up for a random WestCountry bloke visiting?!

I have green skin with warts and live in a swamp under a bridge. It's hard work for me to try to be a nice person as my forum persona.


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[bjosephd]

I have green skin with warts and live in a swamp under a bridge. It's hard work for me to try to be a nice person as my forum persona.


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Boom! You're first on my list... get the coffee on!

 

[alldigging]

Yes... I always wonder what all this rabble on this here forum are actually like in the 'real' world.

Maybe I'll do a little (world) tour to meet them all... or at least anyone who's game!

It would make a fun blog or photo book or podcast!

Who's up for a random WestCountry bloke visiting?!

If you make it up to the Manchester area and time it on the first Monday of the month you can meet a load of us over a pint!

 

[B+.]

Who's up for a random WestCountry bloke visiting?!

Any time after 22nd July. I have to get the bee breeders certificate out of the way first

 

[bjosephd]

Was just thinking how nice it was after requeening and good weather that I can finally not have to give my bees such a wide birth... a few minutes later... bang... a suicide bomber right in my temple. Damn it!

 

[Erichalfbee]

Finished uniting two pairs of hives.
We had two hot hives and both were split. Now after some careful requeening only one hot queen remains and her bees don't bother us as we haven't looked in the colony for six weeks.......bliss! Peace reigns again.
The bees in the tree box at the bottom of the garden are bringing in pollen

Spotted one live varroa walking about on an inspection tray under a unite so time to sugar roll them......Or maybe I might just put some Apilife on them; They have brood but no super as they are in an 8 frame nuc box still

 

[Millet]

Yes... I always wonder what all this rabble on this here forum are actually like in the 'real' world.

Maybe I'll do a little (world) tour to meet them all... or at least anyone who's game!

It would make a fun blog or photo book or podcast!

Who's up for a random WestCountry bloke visiting?!

Be very careful with that quote especially inviting folk, 99% of these forum member are good eggs but i bet the 1% holds a good number of undesirables that will be nice to meet and then all of a sudden out of the blue all your hives have gone, theres one person on here i can 100% trust near my hives the rest of the forum members are in the 99% category, i'm not discriminating all you good eggs but through out my life i have learned how too and how not too trust folk..