What did you do in the Apiary today?

[JohnRB]

Checked on the Q+ and Q- colonies I united 2 days ago. Bits of shredded newspaper outside the entrance and, as far as I could see, no dead bees so assuming it has worked. The bees were very active at the entrance making the most of the sun. Everything has exploded into flower here in Oxfordshire with OSR in flower and I reckon some of the horse chestnuts will be flowering in the next couple of days. They've gone from sticky buds to leaves and flower candles in just a couple of days. I guess they are all making up for lost time. My next worry is that both brood boxes had quite a lot of bees so I now have a large colony. I've bunged a super on and will check it tomorrow to see whether they have enough space. This is the first time I've united 2 hives so any advice on things I need to think about gratefully received.

 

[Goran]

Oh, well..

 

[Hivemaker.]

Did a hundred grafts yesterday, bit later than the last few years by about a week.

 

[B+.]

Did a hundred grafts yesterday, bit later than the last few years by about a week.

Still earlier than me. It'll be another couple of weeks yet before I start. You have a good spot!

 

[Angry_Mob]

Did my first inspection. All frames covered in bees, eggs even on the very rear most frame where I managed to spot the queen despite the yellow marking almost wearing off. Few drones already and a bit of capped drone brood.

Decided to add a QE and partly drawn super. In hindsight I maybe should of lifted the national frame with the queen; placed in my new 14x12 box and put the QE below it and above the national box. I might do this on my next inspection and add a clearing board to get the bees back out of the super...

 

[Michael Palmer]

It snowed here today. Again. 2-4" tonight. Not a bud to be seen. No pollen loads seen as of yet.

 

[Wingy]

From a 5 frame nuc a couple of weeks ago to a full 10 frame Langstroth BB yesterday. Just added a super above QX to give a bit more space. Hopefully they will start to take stores upstairs and give HM some more room for brood

 

[philipm]

Saw the first Swallows today.

 

[Beefriendly]

Saw the first Swallows today.

They have just hit North Yorkshire as well. Same timing as most years.

 

[Stedic]

Inspected 3 hives. Glorious.

Hive one not doing much in the super but brood patch is expanding, I was perhaps a bit early with the super.

Hive two, just moved from nuc 4 days ago so was happy to see eggs. Just as I decided to be proud of myself for not searching for the queen she walked straight over my finger!!!

Hive three - wow. They gone from evil at end of last year, to grumpy last week, to model citizens today! Quite a few queen cups and a noticeable increase in drone brood. Patches rather than just the odd cell. They've drawn and almost filled a super so they got a second one. They mean business!

A beautiful morning of beekeeping!

 

[Swarm]

Looked through the bees on Thursday after work and added a super to my 2015 queen, seven frames of brood and a bit of a flow judging by the nectar.

Amm colonies also filling cells with nectar and needing space which was added this morning. Beautiful bees, black as sin and very calm.

 

[thibault]

Looked through the bees on Thursday after work and added a super to my 2015 queen, seven frames of brood and a bit of a flow judging by the nectar.

Amm colonies also filling cells with nectar and needing space which was added this morning. Beautiful bees, black as sin and very calm.

Same here, beautiful black bees, very happy with their temper as well, even the daughter of my f1 amm queen, so calm, could inspect without veil, I'm quite surprised.

Sent from my SM-J710F using Tapatalk

 

[The Poot in Somerset]

Finally the good weather coincided with a weekend away from work.
Inspected two colonies - one Buckfast - beginning to build up, but brood pattern very erratic. Two frames of unsealed brood in the super left on for winter.
No 2 - a loss caused by nosema / dysentery.
Transferred swarm captured last June from poly nuc (two brood boxes) into wooden hive.
Much stronger than the Buckfasts. Added super and QX to give more room. Found bees festooning to build comb on a foundationless frame. Wonderful to see a row of bee bums & fanning once in the new hive - attracting the returning foragers to the new home.
Set up bait hive to hopefully attract a replacement for the failed colony.
First sweaty day this year in the bee suit...

 

[Beefriendly]

No 2 - a loss caused by nosema / dysentery.

How did you discover it was nosema?

 

[Goran]

Apple flowers spread the scent over the place, bees all over it. Black ash seems give the nectar, after.. almost forgot for how long this happen, true service tree start to open flowers - new source for the bees, soon will aronia start.. If such tempo continue I will have few barrels of spring honey ( which I like the most to eat). Nearest OSR field I see in yellow from my hill ( about 15- 20 km away).. I am not sorry for that..

 

[Curly green fingers]

Moved brood frames to new brood box today I've got rid of the metal spacers. 4 frames of stores pollen on the out side nectar on the in side all capped 3/4 frames of brood bias. There was 6 frames of stores I've removed 2 and replaced with foundation. I have a supper on and the middle frame is being capped already nectar a plenty this last week.

 

[maddydog]

First time this year for a full inspection of all colonies. Couple of drone layers, some booming colonies, few weak ones.

 

[Zante]

The hot weather has finally arrived.
It is 27 celsius today and the sky is so blue it seems photoshopped.

Only have one and a half frames of BIAS, but many more bees than last time, I'd almost call it twice as many. A slow start seems to be normal though, from what I recall beekeepers have to make a bit of an effort here to get bees ready for the acacia flow, which is supposed to start in two weeks' time. I'll have to find out next time I go to the bee supplies shop (which is also my reference for information).

I'm making no effort and they didn't come out of winter in tip top condition, so they started with a handicap. Also there is to consider that I don't know how old my queen is, so she might be on her last legs. I'm no commercial beekeeper though, and there'll be plenty for my own use anyway, so I'm satisfied: I'll have a proper demographic explosion during the acacia flow, rather than before.
That's also why I was planning to split them after the acacia flow if they didn't prepare to swarm beforehand.

There is more than twice as much pollen stored as two weeks ago, and plenty of sugar/honey stores, and there is loads of forage around, so the bees will be fine per se.

I also moved the last two nasty frames to the edge of the brood box. Now all the brood is in those frames. Hopefully the queen will move more to the center of the nest, and I'll be able to remove them.

During this week I'll have to prepare and set up the traps, or it might be too late. The acacia flow is the best period for swarming. Some beekeepers even add supers in twos and many don't even use a queen excluder for this flow, so abundant it is, and the demographic growth during this period is a proper explosion.

 

[Brigsy]

Re-marked my 2016 queen. Pretty sure I got some over her spiracles (spelling?) as she was not well putting her back. Feeling pretty gutted to be honest. If have done her in, the drones will be out a couple of days before a new queen, judging by my own cells. Sigh.

 

[JWF]

Full inspection today, well almost anyway!

1. On 14*12 - four frames of BIAS, only expanding slowly so they got a frame of emerging brood from my biggest colony
2. On std nat - no eggs or brood last week, 3 frames of eggs and young larvae this week so looks like she has just started to lay. One partly extended queen cell which didn't appear to be wetted or have an egg in, so maybe they were thinking about supercedure? Ripped it down anyway as there's lots of eggs, so they can make another if they really want to.
3. On 14*12 - 2 supers put on last week, and the top super is nearly full of nectar, so they got another and they now have three supers on. Couldn't carry out a full inspection as they were up and all over my veil the moment I took the Qx off, chucking out a strong pong of bananas. Discretion is the better part of vapour, as I've found out to my cost previously, so I will try and inspect them after work in the week. They were following quite badly so if they continue to misbehave they will get requeened.
4. On 14*12 - 8 frames BIAS, lots of emerging brood and starting to get rather populous, though they're well behaved. On two supers but they haven't put on as much as colony three.

No signs of OSR forage on the bees, presumably the huge volume of tree blossom we've got in Kent is closer and more productive for them - we look to be getting all the spring flowering trees in bloom at the same time and it looks glorious.

Fingers crossed for a beautiful spring crop .