What did you do in the Apiary today?

[pandtpoultry]

Landing Platform

I saw this thread so I thought that sounds like a good idea, so trundled up the fields and yes today they were out but as I planned just to look not even go near the hive so no protection was put on, only to find they thought I was a great landing platform. They were not agressive but as I had 15-20 bees successfully landing on me and I really dont like the idea of being stung.
'What did i do in the apiary today?' well I walked away slowly but they did seem very industrious and happy today.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Not really much to do in apairys at the moment,but being such a lovely summer type of day i went for a deco round one of my biggest over wintering apairys,consisting of 94 colonys,and the bee's were flat out pollen collecting...all seemed very good tempered,got well crapped on,then came home and played around with a new hi-ab we bought recently.

 

[Bee-Key-Pur]

What's a hi-ab? is it a weight loss thing?

Brian

 

[Haughton Honey]

Not really much to do in apairys at the moment,but being such a lovely summer type of day i went for a deco round one of my biggest over wintering apairys,consisting of 94 colonys,and the bee's were flat out pollen collecting...all seemed very good tempered,got well crapped on,then came home and played around with a new hi-ab we bought recently.

Never mind hi-abs, get off yar a*se and make my kit! lols

 

[beebreeder]

Hi WPC
Me thinks he spends a lot of time on his a*se this time of year, but boy does he make up for it in the summer, hope your still speaking HM LOL
Kev

 

[Hivemaker.]

What's a hi-ab? is it a weight loss thing?


Sorry BKP.....shuld of wrote Hiab....without the thingy in between...

Hydraulic thingys....for lifting...http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=e...esnum=7&sqi=2&ved=0CGAQsAQwBg&biw=800&bih=459

WPC.......the boys are on the case...lol.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Me thinks he spends a lot of time on his a*se this time of year, but boy does he make up for it in the summer, hope your still speaking HM LOL
Kev
Thats the end of your easy week on holiday this summer Kev....lol.

 

[Bee-Key-Pur]

Yeah... I want one of them....lol

Brian

 

[wondervet]

Not strictly speaking today but yesterday....

it was warm (10C anyway) and there were hundreds of bees out -pooping, socialising on the fronts of the hives, visiting snowdrops and drinking. Then at 3.30 it suddenly went very cool and the decking in front of our 2 hives was covered in chilled and dying bees -must have been 500. Disaster!

 

[beebreeder]

And answering the phone a few times perhaps, as well as the tea drinking. LOL
http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=8700
And by the way I work all year round
(Perhaps I better shut up don't want to upset admin)

 

[beebreeder]

it was warm (10C anyway) and there were hundreds of bees out -pooping, socialising on the fronts of the hives, visiting snowdrops and drinking. Then at 3.30 it suddenly went very cool and the decking in front of our 2 hives was covered in chilled and dying bees -must have been 500. Disaster!

There is a very simple answer to that problem, keep the bees like most of us do with grass in front of the hives and the dead bees disappear, this is what happens in spring, some of the early winter bees are time expired, and they do get caught by the cold, when you have 60,000 in the summer this will seem in the distant past

 

[margob99]

What's a hi-ab? is it a weight loss thing?


Sorry BKP.....shuld of wrote Hiab....without the thingy in between...

Hydraulic thingys....for lifting...http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=e...esnum=7&sqi=2&ved=0CGAQsAQwBg&biw=800&bih=459

That's a handy little tool for hefting hives

 

[tonybloke]

helped 'picton bees' collect a van-load of 2nd hand national broods for her bee keeping project.

 

[psafloyd]

Hive was like heathrow airport. Still haven't seen any drinking at the water supply I left for them, nor seen them pooping, but then again, it's not like elephants...

However, in the couple of minutes I was watching, I must have seen a hundred bees coming and going. Some pollen coming in, mostly greyish, a little yellowish.

 

[viridens]

Early!

I fed the little buzzers some syrup. Only available food crop is a little butterbur around and about. They were working hard. Amazing amount of activity for mid Feb. Stacks of pollen being taken in, yellow=hazel catkin, orange=crocus. The amount of heat from top vent makes me think brood is imminent or already under way -early!

What is happening down your way?

 

[tonybloke]

heat from top vent?

 

[viridens]

heat from top vent?

Yes. Your point is??

 

[Hombre]

I think that the point being made is that certainly with an OMF, insulation on top rather than a through draught is advisable. With heat escaping through vents the inference is that you are short of insulation and heat is honey and a shortening of bee life generating the heat.

Unnecessary work and use of stores.

But, I'm sure that Tonybloke will clarify if I have read it wrong.

You might be on a solid floor and so need to vent moist air however. I'm just having a good guess.

 

[tonybloke]

Hombre beat me to the explanation!!
with the current trend of OMF, top insulation is usually the way folk keep hives.

 

[sahtlinurk]

cleaned/changed all the floors, checked fondant, added where needed, got stung and discovered that six out of ten colonies are nice and strong and evil, four are bit weaker but should get through. so far so good.

Lauri

PS I did on Saturday, had no time to post.