What did you do in the Apiary today?

[wightbees]

Lots of activity today with bees flying, great to see: )

 

[Wingy]

Very busy again today. This time some scraps of bright orange pollen coming in. Watched a few doing a frantic waggle dance on the landing board.
Forecast for frost again by weekend

 

[wightbees]

Two days of good weather here then drops to zero. Had to feed couple of hives today.

 

[Tomlow bee]

Sunny and warmish here

Lovely sunny day with lots of bees on the snowdrops. Not just 1 or 2 but probably 40+.

 

[Uncle Betty]

Plenty orientation going on today, all colonies. And a little pollen coming in as well.

Deep joy.

 

[deemann1]

I see them working on the evergreen dafney today lots of bees on them . I see them bringing in bright orange pollen

 

[Millet]

Same as most checked the bees visually today and got hit in the forehead by one during orientation flights, they where very active and the amount of bees in the air was similar to a cast swarm, good to know they are all still alive and well for now, weird but several crocus have popped flowers up near the hives which is far too early for this area.

 

[oGri]

All hives with lots of activity and all weighing a fair amount so all looking good.

 

[Goran]

Relative warm, around 10C, few days even 13-15C. Bees were on hazels, snowdrops, primroses these days and seems cornel start to open. With cornel they should have real first significant nectar of new season. For weekend they say sharp change to snow and minus daytemps..
They take first batch of fondant which I gave week ago. Have to prepare next one.. All for now seems OK. Will be at least awesome colonies for selling, as I am sceptic for the honey..
This more looks as beginning of March than January..

 

[Swarm]

Dropped off a few 4x2 frames, ready to replace the hive stands on the weekend.

 

[linoleum bonypart]

I think the beast from the east is coming by next weekend unfortunately

 

[nantmoel]

Had a quick check on the sugar blocks I gave then a few weeks ago, a few needed topping up. They do seem to eat the sugar blocks faster than fondant.

 

[wightbees]

I have tried sugar blocks also on some, seem to be doing ok

 

[Tom Jay]

Gave strips of fondant to last season's largest colony, guessing that with so many bees they could be running low of their winter store. They are in a 12x14 brood box. I was delighted to see that there were five seams quite full of bees. Q: is that promising for end of January colony size in NE England?

 

[Heather]

Checked all hives . Lost 2 with queen failure but rest are fine and some raring to go, dammit...no peace for the wicked. With the respite this week but colder weather back soon I grabbed the chance to remove any empty lower supers to reduce the hive volume. Off to tidy apiary hedges today.

 

[Heather]

Yes, Tom, think sounds ok as with 12x14 they may extend down quite a way too. Patience now.. just heft to check stocks.

 

[madasafish]

Sugar blocks here seem to go down quickly..

 

[Brian Bush]

I have spent 5 hours today cutting an apiary hedge with the assistance of my 81 year old neighbour. The hedge was last cut 3 years ago and the contractor who cut the landowner's hedges last month made a feeble excuse to avoid doing the stretch near the apiary. We set out this morning with 3 strimming/hedge cutting devices. long handled fork and pruning shears. The hedge is mainly a mixture of blackthorn and hawthorn and the cuttings are a nightmare to handle and move. We will return tomorrow to attempt to finish the job. One more apiary left to trim blackberries, the hedge and generally tidy up after this one.

 

[Tom Jay]

Likewise clearing growth around the apiary. Especially on the south side where holly shrubs were up high enough to shade the hive entrances from low winter sun.

Checked another hive for winter store levels, not by hefting as this one is a 12x14 with a super also. Five untouched super frames full of store so that's more than plenty for them.

Reason for that strange arrangement: a swarm I caught mid-summer and at the time the only thing I had to put them in was supers. Later I gave them a 12x14 to get drawing out, but they only made a beginning with that before the season closed, so then I put the super on top seeing as that was where almost all the stores were. Spring and I'll get the queen 'downstairs' and wean them off the super. Perhaps not the best practice but I did what I could with limited equipment at the time!

 

[justsmith]

Tryed to lift my hives, 1 was a lot heavyer than the others opened them all to add some fondant as they was geting a bit light.
The heavyer one was going to suffer from isolation stavation as they had eaten all they stores on one side with the other side full of honey still so moved frames and added a bit of fondant to them as well