What did you do in the Apiary today?

[grahambee]

Busy today

16 1/2 c today in portsmouth a lot of bees flying bringing in pollen and bees doing orientation flights and general bee stuff (chasing me about)

 

[psafloyd]

As it is a lovely mild, sunny dau, I was at the Apiary removing the varroa trays. Daily drops roughly 13, 6 and 5 for my three colonies, though the first is much stronger anD three may be a false reading). All OK before OA next month.
Added top insulation to all three by filling eke for now. May add a super above next week as one at least needs feeding and put insulation back on. Added a kingspan dummy to the two smaller colonies.
While I was there, temp went up from 13 to 15 or so and the already active colonies got very, very busy.
Then I lifted the rest of my spuds from in front of the ladies.

Oh, and we still have raspberries out on our canes. In November. Someone's runners were also flowering, if you can believe that...

 

[tonybloke]

fumigated my supers with Sulphur this morning, and stacked my supers / spare equipment in the greenhouse after removing the last of the tomatoes.

 

[oliver90owner]

and stacked my supers / spare equipment in the greenhouse

Hope we don't have too much more of this silly weather before you need them, or you might just find your greenhouse is a rather efficient solar wax extractor!!

 

[itma]

After a couple of grey days indoors, they had another big working day today.
3 different colours of pollen coming in.
I installed their roof insulation ... the second layer of Xtratherm.

 

[susbees]

fumigated my supers with Sulphur this morning, and stacked my supers / spare equipment in the greenhouse after removing the last of the tomatoes.

What an excellent idea...however I've got Pak Choi, Chinese broccoli and winter lettuce in mine. So....will the sulphur candle (which I have) offend them and how airtight does the greenhouse have to be?

 

[TJSnapper]

Topped up the syrup that keeps getting taken down, all the hives busy with three types of pollen coming in today, a little worried about the numbers in one hive although 3 others are full to bursting...

 

[tonybloke]

What an excellent idea...however I've got Pak Choi, Chinese broccoli and winter lettuce in mine. So....will the sulphur candle (which I have) offend them and how airtight does the greenhouse have to be?

if the stack of supers is well fitting ( no gaping holes at seams ) just fumigate them outside. place supers on a board, in a stack. place a piece of mesh over the top frames. then place an empty super on top. put a piece of newspaper on the wire, a teaspoonful of sulphur 'flowers' from your sulphur candle tin, onto the paper. light the paper, put on crownboard, and leave alone for 12 hrs.
next day, break apart stack, 'air' them for a little while, then put away in greenhouse.


living plants don't like sulphur!!

 

[The Cumbrian]

What an excellent idea...however I've got Pak Choi, Chinese broccoli and winter lettuce in mine. So....will the sulphur candle (which I have) offend them and how airtight does the greenhouse have to be?

I can't say if the sulphur candle will do anything to your crop but it will work wonders for your greenfly/whitefly etc

IIRC they used to sell sulphur "bombs" for greenhouse use certainly they sold Nicotine smoke bombs.

 

[tonybloke]

remove all living plants before suphur fumigation ( dormant trees / vines are OK to leave in a greenhouse )

 

[susbees]

remove all living plants before suphur fumigation ( dormant trees / vines are OK to leave in a greenhouse )

OK, thanks. Return to plan A.

 

[DulwichGnome]

It was 15c here yesterday so I had a look at a couple of sites. All foraging and some orienteering flights and very peaceful. Feed a couple that were a bit light and wondering if they are going to run out of stores with this extended warm spell?

Mike.

 

[drstitson]

Finished shutting down hives for winter. Removed feeders and super ekes and gave fondant to those nucs still in need.

nice day - only 10C but sunny first thing. Hives all active with bees seen heading across the field to the Catalpae which have been in bloom for 2 weeks and have lots of buts yet to open. The three trees are absolutely humming.

However now the bad news - my first and best colony (which last weekend was definitely sending foragers out to the Catalpae) seemed quiet and hadn't finished their syrup. Few dead bees against mouse guard. Opened up to find nothing but a few black robbers. Frames well stocked with capped stores (50-75% coverage of all 10 frames) but absolutely no brood or pollen. single failed emergency QC attempt present (only the size of a pea projecting out from the comb, dead larva inside). Less than 50 dead on floor.

Guess i won't be using them to breed from or raise Queens next spring!!!!

 

[dickndoris]

Bummer! Sorry to hear that :-( They try us these little things eh!?

 

[YorkshireBees]

In the apiary I was watching the bees flying for toilet breaks and some collecting bright yellow pollen. Non of the 3 hives were ultra busy but still nice to see some bees flying.

Started work on my honey warming cabinet, using an old freezer.

 

[MJBee]

Nice cool morning with no bee activity so strimmed the home apiary. A few guard bees came out to see what was going on but soon returned to the warm and left me to it.

There were also two Asian hornets on the prowl - peering into the hives through the mouse guard but making no attempt to enter. Methinks I will have to recharge the hornet traps again.

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Nice sunny afternoon so went for a peek. 2 of the three flying nicely, the third quiet as it has been for a couple of weeks. I did an unsubtle heft and all of a sudden 20 odd came out to see what was going on. Guess these ones know that its mid november. Unsurprisingly they also seemed to have the most stores.

One of the other hives had a bee struggling to eject a drone corpse through the mouseguard. Was half way there but couldnt get any further, so I stepped in to help and ended up pushing it back inside. You could almost hear the "thanks a lot"

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Bees about but not many just mooching around and enjoying the sun although it's a bit cold now - i think they've finally finished foraging, they seem to be making inroads into the stores so fondant on the two hives and the nuc. Something tells me that the 12.5 kilos I bought isn't going to be enough so better be nice to Dai the Baker and ask him to add a box to his next order.

 

[nosmoking]

Quite warm today. Raked leaves from lawn. Had a look at my TBH and the bees were flying and still bringing in a little pollen. Popped another bung in the entrance just leaving 1 now. Hefted and the hive was still heavy. First time I haven't used my bee suit as well. Getting too brave so I better watch out! Pride, fall and all that, lol. Will get my camera out on Friday and do a quick video.

 

[drstitson]

Took last feeders off and finally fitted mouseguards.

top tip - either fit the two end brackets before installing bees in the boxes OR take a piece of wood or tape to cover the entrance whilst doing it (in my case very early before bees were out and about).

also make sure brood boxes are sat flush on the floors well BEFORE they get propolised down for the winter - absolute pain having to crack the seal to edge one or two forwards by a couple of mm so that the guards could slot down.

Little october swarm doing fine in it's dummied down poly nat and doesn't look to have been too ravaged by the wasps that were paying it attention last week.