What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Millet]

Done all sorts today, i was sweating like a fat lass at a Disco but all was good.

 

[madasafish]

Preparing my mini nucs through uniting of Q- ones with Q+ ones and expanding nuc sizes in an attempt to overwinter 4 Queens . Emptied out two remaining and unwanted bees from Q- mini nucs so they can find a home in another hive...

If I succeed this winter , I will expand to doing it in some reasonable size for winter 2018-9 to take advantage of high spring prices for queens...

Checked varroa drops in those hives with OMFs.. Two hives dropped c 100 mites in 6 days: the remaining 3 dropped very little - less than 20..

Feeding a small hive (2 frames ) in a 4 frame poly nuc (HoneyPaw). Will be lucky if they survive the winter...

 

[Goran]

Grilling myself.. ***** of me says not so strong sun ( later read that it was apparently 35C.. in shade), and got my neck amber red while messing around hazelnuts.. Later gave syrup to colonies. They are really nervous these days, must be cause heatwave returned..
1st round of nozevit over. More-less all as should go in matter of the bees, other..

 

[Heather]

1) Picked up another b****** swarm.
Prime , filling Nuc box, so somebody has a rubbish hive for winter as there are few drones round now. They had been in a tree for a week apparently, and I was only called when half fell on the ground.
Most crawled into the Nuc from the grass, whilst the tree half were boxed and popped into the top of the Nuc. Still some reluctance from the ground stragglers, till I found the queen and popped her safely in. She looked a little weary but with no food for that time she must have needed the stores I donated . Unusually they had made no attempt to develop comb in the tree.

2)Prepared another Nuc for a demo talk. Queen marked yellow, but they had been foraging and another 10 bees looked like queens with identical yellow blobs centre thorax!! (Not OSR head blessing) Took some explaining to Joe Public who thought they were great at queen spotting!

 

[beeno]

1) Picked up another b****** swarm.
Prime , filling Nuc box, so somebody has a rubbish hive for winter as there are few drones round now. They had been in a tree for a week apparently, and I was only called when half fell on the ground.
Most crawled into the Nuc from the grass, whilst the tree half were boxed and popped into the top of the Nuc. Still some reluctance from the ground stragglers, till I found the queen and popped her safely in. She looked a little weary but with no food for that time she must have needed the stores I donated . Unusually they had made no attempt to develop comb in the tree.

2)Prepared another Nuc for a demo talk. Queen marked yellow, but they had been foraging and another 10 bees looked like queens with identical yellow blobs centre thorax!! (Not OSR head blessing) Took some explaining to Joe Public who thought they were great at queen spotting!

I was wondering if there were some late swarming coming with indiscriminate feeding for winter and this glorious weather.
Joe public and queen spotting

 

[bjosephd]

1) Picked up another b****** swarm.

Prime , filling Nuc box, so somebody has a rubbish hive for winter as there are few drones round now.

For what it's worth, a couple of my hives had a fair number of bumbling drones flying yesterday... different area though I know - obviously not suggesting that swarm flew from a hive in Somerset!

 

[drex]

Last week a friend on the allotments told me he thought there was a swarm up in the trees, and was it mine? I had a look but it had moved on. I have not checked my brood boxes thoroughly for last few weeks but doubted it was from my apiary as all queens but one are this years queens.
Today I had planned to unite the old queen hive with a new queen hive. On opening the old queen hive, there were no eggs, and one emerged queen cell, with no evidence of any others, and the old marked queen was nowhere to be seen. So it looks to me like they probably swarmed on a supercedure cell. I have let them be for the time being

 

[Eyeman]

Now is the season for greasy cappings- abandoned the hot air gun and back to the uncapping fork.
Why is it that honey in drone comb in the super is often left uncapped- see picture

 

[colinc]

Took out the nadired supers that are empty. On winter format now all double bs national brood. Vaping later.


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[Insy]

All my hives still have drones and small drone patches also had a virgin mated last few days with another virgin ready to go just hatched fingers crossed.

Had a lot of issues today, 2 mated queens in 1 hive together, 1 queenless several hives still on 8-11 frames of brood some have started reducing there brood sizes.

 

[Swarm]

Took the supers off and finally shook out a lost cause.

 

[Millet]

Took the supers off and finally shook out a lost cause.

That's a horrible thing to have to do i did it last year and this year i hope i do not have to do it anymore, however the last shook out on brood and half was to retrieve the brood frames and i left them a super in the original spot to return too and die out but i did not shake it out, luckily i did not shake the super out as the nice wight Queen i have now was in there from a test frame that i thought had failed.
A lesson for me learned on a positive note, i should have realized they was a Virgin Queen in there when the laying workers stopped laying.

 

[maddydog]

Now is the season for greasy cappings- abandoned the hot air gun and back to the uncapping fork.
Why is it that honey in drone comb in the super is often left uncapped- see picture
View attachment 14673

Had a few like that this year, no idea why.

Lots of Varroa treating and feeding

 

[Erichalfbee]

Always check under the OMF when moving a colony in the car....especially if you are not wearing a suit

 

[Millet]

Always check under the OMF when moving a colony in the car....especially if you are not wearing a suit

100% agree been there and worn the tea shirt, luckily for me they where cold and hungry so they stayed put stuck to the bottom of the OMF if the sun got out when i was driving it could have been emotional.

 

[MartinL]

Cleared out two poisoned colonies!

Someone's been spraying the blackfly!

 

[Wingy]

Applied the first dose of Apiguard. They just seemed to carry on as normal. Back to check in ten days to check and re apply

 

[drex]

In anticipation of putting thymol on today I put clearer boards under the supers remaining on just three of my hives. All are double brood and one was jammed with bees. Today on removing the clearer boards, the eke under the clearer board of the full hive was brimming with bees and half full of comb, so I put another BB on. Hopefully they will fill that with stores, which I can then dish out to the other hives. The nucs which all got half a dose of thymol yesterday were all bearding, but it is 75 degrees here.

 

[pargyle]

I was wondering if there were some late swarming coming with indiscriminate feeding for winter and this glorious weather.

I'm sure this is part of the problem ... new beekeepers beware ... if there is still plenty of forage about (and there certainly is where I live) they may NOT need feeding yet ... wait and watch ... get the supers off and see what they are putting away in the brood box before you start thinking about feeding them.

Two people on here this week with swarm cells in the hive and still reports of swarms in bushes and trees .... if your bees swarm at this time of the year you have a very weak colony to go into winter.

Only feed when you are sure they need it ...

 

[Heather]

All QE out today. Supers under brood boxes.
BUT, although pollen piling in from HB and courgette, there is lack of nectar. Had to feed 3 hives where nothing in supers, and queen slow laying. Hives are light so don't presume foragers are bringing back nectar.. Ivy yet to show.