What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Goran]

Some different from winter grey colours. Few pics from last spring..
These days temps around zero, some rain. For weekend some snow may be..
No outdoor activities for bees these days..

 

[colinc]

Thin wet snow today. Wandered down and hefted the hives and they are still heavy and I wouldn’t want to try to lift them. Liking the double brood system, it works for me.


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[Goran]

Gave first fondants today.. here we go again.. I wanted to wait more but after talk with mentor I listened his advice.. He claimed that some of his colonies already have brood on 5 frames palm size.. That's too much and too fast for our place..
Temp was about 3-5C, after strong rainfall till the midmorning.. According to condens on nylon brood started, I didn't took frames out.. Colonies are all alive ( so far, long way till spring), from 4-7 seams of bees, avg 5,5. Majority 5-6 seams.

 

[drex]

All colonies flying today. Took advantage of the mild spell to check fondant on nucs. 5 out of 6 completely out, and one had a little left. All topped up. One nuc is bursting at the seams and will need a full hive pretty quick come spring.

 

[madasafish]

Rain stopped this am, still grey and misty.Approx 8C but wind gusting. Weighed nucs and those hives which were lighter than average#. Fed all nucs with fondant or sugar board. Lighter hives OK Some bees flying - toilet breaks only.
Still very damp- rain forecast this pm.
Fingers now warmed up - cold even with vinyls.

# Last weighed 4th December 2017.

Beekeeping outside finished for January

 

[linoleum bonypart]

All checked.... 14c today

 

[Wingy]

12*C here at lunch time, nuc very busy with lots of bees coming & going, lots of dead being brought out but many bees flying further afield but nothing obviously coming in. Nice to see

 

[Millet]

Bees out and about today with a few foraging on the winter wallflowers, god know what they where gathering though.

 

[Finman]

.
-17C today. After 2 days it is +4C.
.

 

[Curly green fingers]

Bees out and about today with a few foraging on the winter wallflowers, god know what they where gathering though.

theres a bit of gorse still flowering ive seen wallflowers flowering in jan before. they were up against a house though. nice to have a brake from the freezing weather.. for us and the employed

 

[Angularity]

I looked into two hives yesterday, at about 14C. Two of us just couldn't find a queen; I thought that as there should be fewer bees it would be easy, but I'm really poor at it.

One thing I did notice was that in a hive with a lot of ivy honey, the bees were tearing down the cells to get at the honey. The numbers seemed high though (8 frames of 14x12 covered with bees), so they don't seem to be suffering from it.

 

[wightbees]

Loads gorse here, snow drop also in flower , even seen some not so good looking dafs .

 

[drex]

On a trip to Tesco I saw two hazels full of catkins.
Finishe putting together all my stuff from the sales and made up a few extra bits and pieces.
Pouring with rain, so not been to look at the bees. Glad I gave the nucs fondant in the sunshine on Monday

 

[Millet]

theres a bit of gorse still flowering ive seen wallflowers flowering in jan before. they were up against a house though. nice to have a brake from the freezing weather.. for us and the employed

Plenty of Gorse here in flower and also snow drops but i have never seen the bees on snowdrops to date..

 

[philipm]

Hobbled up to the hives this afternoon as one had blown over in the wind,rabbits had undermined one leg. Lucky the hive stayed together as it was strapped, still a struggle to put it back up as I'm still recovering from a broken fibula and can't do great deal.

 

[Uncle Betty]

Hobbled up to the hives this afternoon as one had blown over in the wind,rabbits had undermined one leg. Lucky the hive stayed together as it was strapped, still a struggle to put it back up as I'm still recovering from a broken fibula and can't do great deal.

Jaysus, serious rabbits !

 

[masterBK]

I have also had hives toppled over courtesy of tunneling rabbits. Some years ago I found an owl perfectly still sitting on a hive roof (presumably waiting for a rabbit to show). My immediate thoughts were "why has someone put a plastic owl on top of my hive". It didn't fly off as I walked towards it until I was about 6 feet away and the suddenness of this made me jump.

 

[Tomlow bee]

Plenty of Gorse here in flower and also snow drops but i have never seen the bees on snowdrops to date..

Almost the only time that i see my bees in the garden is when the snowdrops are out as was the case on Monday. I normally have 3-4 hives in the garden plus the odd nuc. They seem to appreciate the early pollen.

 

[enrico]

Bees love snowdrops as long as they are en masse. In our last house we had thousands of snowdrops and they were always buzzing. Grey pollen.

 

[taurus]

It was lovely and warm in the garden so I took the opportunity to clear out a holly bush right next to the hives. They had been flying the past few days but no sign of them at all today.

When I finished cutting back the holly there was still not a bee in sight so I called - right you lazy blighters, time you were out of bed - and behold, within moments the sky was full of bees.