What did you do in the Apiary today?

[witchcraft]

Went up and tied down the roofs on both of my hives. Loads and loads of ivy pollen coming in. Both hives weigh a ton now (Nationals with Supers under).

 

[Bob Bee]

Polystyrene sheets over crownboards and sheets of ply over the top. Nothing now until the Christmas Oxalic. Still flying , still some Ivy, but not for long now I suspect.

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Entrance blocks out. Mouseguards, kingspan and straps on. Quick heft. Thats it

 

[victor meldrew]

Wall to wall sunshine , wind veered from east to south east and warmed up appreciably
Removed oasis blocks from last treatment ,also ekes !
Exchanged floor plus stand on a hive I had earmarked for a feed 3/4 weeks ago .
No roof, just 14x12 brood box , to be lifted off the floor onto upturned roof .
God what a weight !! I estimate 60 lbs of stores in there .
New stand and Dartington floor in position , then I had to carefully hump the BB back on the new floor! . Phew!!!!!!! , I'll get help next time .
I did it today before lunch to give the colony a chance to re-orientate before night fall . This was the colony with the rat damaged floor !
VM

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Just watched the bees going back and fore loaded with pollen. Started preparing my honey for the show on Tuesday will bottle the rest shortly, and i mean shortly, using 1/2 lb jars to make it look like more, but hey, first year and I've got some honey

 

[Erichalfbee]

New stand and Dartington floor in position
VM

I meant to ask when you mentioned this in a previous post.
What is a Dartington type floor?
Is it one with a smaller area of open mesh than a standard OMF?

 

[For want of a better word]

Dispensed another 6 liters of 2:1 into a Millar feeder.... this was on a colony that was totally ignoring a contact feeder... making up for it now!!!



Made up 10 gallons of oxallic acid................. not for bees ( not after last years deaths!!)
but to soak my little boats sails in.... gets rid of rust stains nicely!

 

[victor meldrew]

I meant to ask when you mentioned this in a previous post.
What is a Dartington type floor?
Is it one with a smaller area of open mesh than a standard OMF?

Yep entrance is about frame three in the warm way configuration
It was designed by Robin Dartington for the 'Dartington long hive'
I now have 6 in use So a fair enough number to do a proper assessment hopefully
VM

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Yep entrance is about frame three in the warm way configuration
It was designed by Robin Dartington for the 'Dartington long hive'
I now have 6 in use So a fair enough number to do a proper assessment hopefully
VM

I've been using them all this season, no problems at all and the bees seem to like it! I've even made an entrance reducer for it - full test in the winter now

 

[victor meldrew]

I've been using them all this season, no problems at all and the bees seem to like it! I've even made an entrance reducer for it - full test in the winter now

I haven't bothered with an entrance reducer but my alighting boards are detachable !
Just a personal thing , idea being , to discourage mice a little during the quiet time but mainly to ease stacking both floors and hives for moving
Photo's when I get around to it
VM

 

[Erichalfbee]

Can anybody point me to a site with drawings please? I've had a fruitless Google so far

 

[The Cumbrian]

Can anybody point me to a site with drawings please? I've had a fruitless Google so far

Not sure if this is what you want but it is the nearest I have come across.



http://http://www.edinburghbeekeepers.org.uk/downloads/diy_open_mesh_floor-graham-white.pdf

I hope this is allowed within forum rules.

 

[Nose Ma]

Not too much good, but there is this pdf here too - http://bit.ly/nYb14B

Rgds.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Thanks for that I shall show the plans to my "joiner"

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Yep - that's where I got the pattern from slightly modified, I only use 1 1/2" timbers (2"x4 planed for the three sides to give room to staple the omf - the other pieces I use 1" planed

 

[Rosti]

Final heft (still got a light hive!)
Mouse guards on
Top insulation on
strap down's on

Will slap some fondant on the light one, the rest can wait until Boxing day OA for their next visit.

remaining jobs; warm book, interesting fire

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Went to the BKA apiary to help shut down the hives for winter - quite a few of the colonies were light, one had cleared a 3/4 full super and any stores in the brood in the last 4 weeks so will need some serious cossetting, fondant put on most hives.
Then went home and put fondant on the nuc I'm overwintering (i'm always worrying about that one even though it seems full of bees and stores) just in case and topped with two layers of Kingspan.
Prepared kingspan for the other two hives for when the Apiguard comes off next week.
all my hives were busy as heck today even though it wasn't that warm and blowing a good un.
Just looked at my honey again for a while

 

[TOBY-3652]

Just went to look at hives watched bees coming and going then bang got stung on neck

 

[Chrisfnvs]

Watched the hives in the garden today, very active taking lots of pollen in, (yellow and beige) looked around to see what they were working saw them on the last of the Ivy and some Wallflowers, no sign of them slowing down yet ! Chris

 

[VEG]

took the last apiguard tray off. 2 hives light and will put fondant on all later this week just to be safe.