What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Monsieur Abeille]

Had a heft and pondered if I was going to give them more feed this weekend or start battening down. Seem pretty heavy but I'm not yet experienced enough to be sure so I may do one last batch, still plenty of thymol tincture left.

 

[Chris Luck]

The issue of "weight" for winter stores isn't the same for every colony which should be self evident by the different size "hives", both natural and man made, that are successfully used. Take for a good example the colonies in skeps that were posted on here in the videos recently, how much weight would be in one of them? I'm sure I've mentioned before that I have colonies that never draw or use more than 6 Dadant frames in the BB, survive the winter and still fill the supers.

Chris

 

[drstitson]

checked my varroa boards in the dark, topped up feeders and added a 3rd dose of thymol treatment to the one hive which had a significant drop over the last fortnight. rest were in single figures.

dropped off my honey at weekday digs ready to jar next week ahead of the NHS. My DIY poly bait hive is now occupied by what looks like a decent sized swarm. the odd bee was spotted around it early last week.

now need to sort out transfer to a proper hive/nuc asap and get some feed into them.

 

[drstitson]

"I'm sure I've mentioned before that I have colonies that never draw or use more than 6 Dadant frames in the BB, survive the winter and still fill the supers."

are you running them in 6 frame nucs with supers?

 

[Chris Luck]

Nope, 10 frame, that's bees for you.

In fact it's really quite interesting because unmanaged colonies are frequently quite small in my experience, occupying a relatively small space and managing perfectly well and it may well be that these bees came from such stock and would be better suited to one of my Warré hives....

Chris

 

[YorkshireBees]

Caused a stir in my home apiary as I was steaming wax off of old frames as it was cool and I didn't think my bees would be about. Then the sun came out and a couple of bees turned up (attracted by the smell no doubt, despite the bonfire we were having close by! Next minute the best part of a 100 bees turned up looking for a free meal! Had to get m beesuit on fast and close down my steam box and moved it!

Lesson learned, wait till later in the day or wait till the bees are already clustering before using my steamer!

 

[susbees]

Hefted the commercials and fed syrup where they seemed to need it. Masses and masses of ivy pollen going into all the hives, even the nuc I requeened last week from a Keiler. All was well, no smoker lit when I decided to nadir one which was a little edgy and seemed tight on space too.

Impressive minor powderkeg and following skills. Lit smoker. Proper suit and boots and amazingly only one sting to the back of the calf.

Now we'll see if they improve. Was a late July caste and are now on trial. No ankle stingers tolerated here!

 

[itma]

Sunny, still and mild (15.5C in the shade already).
Took advantage to have a quick rummage through the swarm collected Sept 1st. They have drawn and pretty tightly packed 6 and two half Nat deep frames since then, and are well into drawing more.
After dusting them with icing sugar, paused to admire the amount of stuff still coming in.
'Rapid' feeder is still dropping slowly, but I don't see the point in thinking of removing it while there are still 'active' days like today.

 

[MJBee]

Observed world war three

Yesterday I united two national broods using newspaper. It looks as if they have chewed through too quickly and all "L" was let loose. I can only leave them to it and hope that the queen is OK. This is the first time I have had a problem with the newspaper method.

 

[victor meldrew]

Been grass bashing around my apiary
Thought I'd done the last cut for the year last Sunday HA!.
Bees working happily , tiny numbers of mite drop from last Sundays thymol treatment !
Spent some time in garden with dog (weather so nice ) , watched honeybees working my next door neighbours Mahonia it's bursting with blossom whereas mine isn't as far advanced (not in full sun as hers .)
VM

 

[Swarm]

Scorched a couple of nucs and had a general tidy up.

 

[For want of a better word]

Removed and replaced a couple of contact feeders that were solid with sugar..... no idea why ... others from same batch of syrup mix had been taken down, bees were still munching away on it tho!!!!

 

[Chrisfnvs]

Topped up feeders in two yards, bees very active taking in loads of yellow and orange pollen, some hives had very strong smell of ivy coming from them, these were the most active ones taking in mostly yellow pollen, looking around i found lots of ivy and some honeysuckle in full flower, also lavender is still flowering in the garden! what a strange year we are having, Chris

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Took off my feeders and made up a couple of kinsgpan squares with replaceable cutaways in case winter fondant feeding needed. Started cleaning the garage up post season

 

[mark s]

I bloody fell over again !!!! i sodding hate brambles

 

[Luminos]

I bloody fell over again !!!! i sodding hate brambles

Never mind - just think how your bees like the flowers...

 

[victor meldrew]

I bloody fell over again !!!! i sodding hate brambles

Since going arse over tips a number of years ago whilst carrying a super full of honey and nearly breaking my nose as well as creating a bit of an incident . I keep my apiary well shorn . Once bitten twice shy , no more sneaky bramble runners tripping me up again. Every time I feel a little lazy about using the grass basher I remind myself of the perils of neglecting it .
Today I've been trimming the hedge behind the hives plus removing some medium thickness branches over hanging same ! Unlike yesterday, only the odd couple of bees per hive venturing out .
VM

 

[bees4u]

wires

Put the last of my wood peckers wires on, and had to figure out a way to guard my poly nucs from mice, so I've duck tape some mesh over the entrance & left enough room for the bees & attacking wasps!. sorry no ad today ha ha ha

 

[Erichalfbee]

Since going arse over tips

There used to be a magazine called Tidbits it had to be renamed after PC came into fashion. I don't think it was called Tipbits though

 

[Swarm]

Since going arse over tips a number of years ago whilst carrying a super full of honey and nearly breaking my nose as well as creating a bit of an incident . I keep my apiary well shorn . Once bitten twice shy , no more sneaky bramble runners tripping me up again. Every time I feel a little lazy about using the grass basher I remind myself of the perils of neglecting it .

VM

Yup I can only echo this advice, bramble runners through the grass are deadly. I was tripped by one of these when I was a kid, as I was running down a banking. One minute I was running, next thing my face was smashing into the road. Broken teeth, blood everywhere, not nice at all.