What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Poggle]

Nothing done by us this morning as Sunday morning is my main "Working Morning" Then it was "Pettycoat Government" for the rest of the day

 

[chycarne]

well, checked all 9 hives - it is warm and sunny so last chance to give a good look through...
all have survived thymol tratment. All queens started alying straight after the rmoval of those trays- interesting... though one is only just starting after refusing to do anything at all for what looks like 3 weeks. We found her and she was frame walking inspcting cells and sticking her abooment in - laying at last then... took a chance with the hive least affected by the thymol and took a fram of brood (1 or 3) and put that i nthe weak hive as their final boost, now chewing nails over being too cold at any point and loosing them ah well tiz done, it will if they emerge be a great boost and make certain of the hives and that queen line... if not then it will be harderwork... sorted out the swarm we collecte a week ago discovered queen has already stared laying and bees ahve settled in and what a nice bunch they are. no disease, (e or a no deformed wings and very good stores) shifted up some wild comb above the frames for them to clean down... left the brood and eggy -wild - in place not certain how we are going to do this yet probably going to hope for a last chance bit more sort out or just have to work through it more next year. it will be a double brood box hive either way. but this one will be a bit faffy to dela with this winter hmmm i sense some new carpentary skills coming up. the rest are just feeding and watching now all disease free, low varroa counts now. weather permitting" hive clean" sometime around dec / jan. now looking at clearing a space in the poly tunnel if the weather gets really bad- with doors ajar and dark tarp over them we should be able to keep it cool and dark not freezing. they will all have space board roofs (insulating layer inside) the experiment last year kept the hives going well and gave a better start to this year. so will keep to the same design. still open mesh floors but probabaly over a super eke with slats so draughts cut but reasonable air flow possible. planeed and settled for the winter. Now fingers crossed are we right will we still ahve all of them next year? we hope so. we think we have done enough and we have plans for when thing are looking bad...

 

[Chrisfnvs]

Took the last of the apiguard out of the last 6 hives had a quick look to see if the queens are laying in the two hives i have been a bit worried about, all is well egg`s. larva and capped brood ! all hives taking loads of pollen in mostly bright primrose yellow, a bit of orange and white, not as many wasps about today but lots of earwigs as usual, went back tonight and feed them all Chris

 

[user 6228]

hive one is absolutely teaming with bees(quite intimidating to inspect) and the brood box is now wall to wall brood. the two supers are being rapidly filled again. hive 2 is keeping up its pace of adding a frame of brood capacity a week... Our bees not only dont read my bee books they dont appear to reading any other hives either. Built 3 monopole mkii hive stands

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Took my first ever super of honey offf no1 hive ( by agreement the bees and i have gone half shares) extracted said frames and the honey is now settling waiting for bottling - my first ever honey!!
SOMETHING IN THE BACK OF MY MIND TELLS ME I DON'T LIKE HONEY THAT MUCH - BUT I DO LOVE BEEKEEPING

 

[rae]

A lot of hefting. The bees have taken advantage of the decent weather and foraged for England. 5/8 hives are good for the winter, feed is on the remaining three. Started to move woodpecker protection back towards the apiary (it spends the summer in the veg patch).

 

[Bead]

Took out last Apiguard tray - BB&1/2 full of bees, the 2 supers on top of the QE are nearly full of stores again. Bees took a dim view of the disturbance, so I didn't do a full frame by frame of the BB/1/2, but plenty of sealed and unsealed brood in the ones I did look at.

 

[Bob Bee]

After putting my "resued" bees at the bottom end of my new out apiary, I put down some ground cover and started constructing hive stands. Fortunately the farmer had mowed the site for me a day before I arrived.

 

[Poggle]

Just come back from feeding the two hives. Little tykes had started building comb in one feeder though

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

put Apiguard on two hives -put MM feeder with a few gallons on No 1 hive, struggled to get the MM feeder off the next - little b***ers had built comb everywhere: between feeder and brood box, inside the cones anywhere there was space even though there was still a part drawn frame left in the brood!!too much of a mess to sort today with rain imminent so put it back over a clearer board and I'll address it soon.Checked my nuc - queen has started laying again so I've left well alone as they need all the brood they can get

 

[WelshPaul]

Put another two litres of 2:1 mix in the feeder, last lot only lasted 4 days. Is this normal?

 

[VEG]

yes as long as its not leaking lol

 

[Swarm]

Quite normal. They can easily consume a gallon in a week.

 

[wondervet]

2 of our 14 x 12s have been drinking 2 litres per hive every day last week. we did pinch all their honey tho.

 

[tonybloke]

combined 2 colonies in back garden, and shook out the DLW nuc.

 

[WelshPaul]

Wow thats astounding, thank you.

 

[user 6228]

observing the very very strong activity of both hives - looks we have a flow on in October? So we have stopped feeding before we have really started

Just following the bees, burning all the books inthe smoker

 

[chycarne]

got stung, from the friendly hive, 3 times (very unusual to get three in an 8 1/2 hive inspection let alone 3 from 1...) wandered around the others and all except the new bunch were teasy... gave them all some fondant and syrup i guess the bees weather forecast system has told them the good times is over for a while and they are not impressed... but why blame me i didnt tell them... ? ah well...

 

[czar1960]

I went into my hives with no gloves on for the first time and although a little worried i needn't have been as it was fine, i sure they will get me soon!!

 

[drstitson]

Once you realise how quickly bees can take down syrup (and how much in total) you realise why people are so concerned about sugar prices on here.

a 30p mark up on 10 bags once a season doesn't hurt much.

if you're needing a couple of hundred bags it smarts more.

should i mention T***o here at this point????