What did you do in the Apiary today?

[JazzJPH]

They will cope with queuing it just slows things down and they may knock pollen loads off. if just one hive and no near neighbours, robbing is unlikely, defence is less critical til the wasps switch to sugar feeding. On my large colonies the doors are wide open across the full width of the box and they congregate and queue through a 2 “ gap at one side.

It’s a British thing queuing isn’t it?


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Thanks Colin! I've widened the entrance as far as it will go in its current position. It's around 50mm wide I'd say. I'll see how they get on and observe their comings and goings, then I'll maybe take out the slider as Angry Mob suggested.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Thanks Colin! I've widened the entrance as far as it will go in its current position. It's around 50mm wide I'd say. I'll see how they get on and observe their comings and goings, then I'll maybe take out the slider as Angry Mob suggested.

I would ditch the slider

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I must have missed one

Inspected some of the hives at the home apiary, one for extra QC's as I had left one open one in there last inspection but anticipated emergency cells. I hadn't marked the position of my selected queen cell as I was a bit distracted last inspection (SWMBO had experienced a rather severe reaction to a bee sting the afternoon before and had hinted that either the bees go or she would - I was just wondering whether we had sufficient suitcases)
Anyway, found two sealed queen cells but was sure they were on a different frame than last week's, everything else fine, bees as placid as usual (lovely line of bees, third or fourth generation these) began to close up when something caught my eye on the top (super side) of the queen excluder - a nice new queen just mooching around having a nose!! anyway, managed to get her back in the brood box, closed up and await the next inspection with interest!!

 

[philipm]

Completed a modified Snelgrove ,Hopefully should sort their urge to swarm.

 

[youngyoungs]

Yep, been there, know the feeling

So pleased it's not just me. I dropped her last week. This week she was back in the box and then when I went to pick her up, she flew off. Looking forward to next weeks inspection!!

 

[Curly green fingers]

Added two honey supers to two hives at home and completely removed entrance blocks .
I was going to extract on the weekend from these colony's but I'll wait untill this flow has finished first none osr this honey will be lush!

 

[Poly Hive]

The "cunning plan"

Having been away for eleven days in mid swarming season what did I do and what have I now?

I added brood boxes where needed and supered up so anything with one got a 2nd and if not supered and strong enough I added one.

The nucs were all given a 2nd brood box apart from two which were too weak.

On my return one have has tried to swarm and lost the clipped queen. I need a cell starter anyway so they will do nicely for that. However as they are queen minus they need moving out the garden to the out apiary and that happens tonight. Why the move well they are being a touch defensive so off they go. Another was in advanced cell mode though the queen was thankfully still there so she is in an A/S and one open cell is in the other half.

The nucs with the double brood are being split tonight so that one half goes to the out apiary and the bottom half in a couple of days time so that any lost bees are homed again. In a few days time I will move the remaining half to the out apiary and then find the queens.

The queens from the nucs are going to be used to kick off mini nucs with the intention down the line of scrapping last years queens and using cells to achieve 2019 matings to over winter for any losses I might encounter and or to have for sale in Spring 2020.

The nucs themselves will be supplied with cells from the cell starter and split into two frame nucs so that all my nuc boxes will be back in use so that from 2020 on I am not hitting production colonies for queen rearing purposes.

That's the “cunning plan”. Time will tell.

 

[colinc]

Put clearer boards under 2 supers on 2 hives that are heavy. 4 supers to extract tomorrow then another single super to remove from 2 other hives, possibly a deep full of honey to extract too.

The hives are getting honey bound and I have no empty supers left. 2 of the hives are queen less so they were cross tonight.

 

[GuyNir]

So pleased it's not just me. I dropped her last week. This week she was back in the box and then when I went to pick her up, she flew off. Looking forward to next weeks inspection!!

Sure. The best thing you can do is close the hive back up, hope she’ll be back...

 

[The Poot in Somerset]

Checked final colony this evening - split into nuc as six queen cells found - mainly sealed.
Bees a little more feisty this evening but no stinging.
Have gone from three hives to four and three nucs so far this year.
Run out of deep frames tonight. Second Abelo poly arrived today.
The bees are having a larf at my expense this year - I just don't have the time to get on top of things...and have not experienced a swarm season like this.

 

[Goran]

Rushed before the storm to take out some mnucs and split from cellar... While I was leaving downhill.. The sky broke and gales with ice hammering and strong rain struck.. Couple times had to stop cause can't see anything outside.. So far seems car survived ice struck.. Russian car..
Talked with one beek, he said swarm swarmed again.. already ( as he explain to me as cast with little bees and queen). I forgot to mention him, maybe in his splits he left too many qcells and that pushed bees to swarm with young queen or in confusion when queen went to mating flight somehow they thought it is time to swarm..
When he was telling me this I remember of stories of Iberica.. When we have such problems this season with carnies.. I think would have nervous breakdown with Iberica..

 

[JazzJPH]

Went down to one of the association apiaries today. With the seasoned (25 years) beekeeper and 2 other newbies we looked through 6 hives. The beekeeper had one poly hive, he's not keen on them and today didn't help... It was the only problem colony. No sign of queen, but 13 QCs and testy bees.

Was a fantastic experience for me. Confidence has shot up already. My colony won't be as big as most we looked at tonight so I'm looking forward to confidently approaching inspection Friday or Saturday.

This 7 day rule sucks!

 

[Newbeeneil]

Spent the day taking off supers from my apiaries near OSR and then christening my new Konigin extractor. Great piece of kit!
Best part of 200lbs off of 5 hives...... once I've creamed it I can start supplying my customers again.

 

[Millet]

Someone is liking the bait hive on the coal shed roof..it started two days ago and the numbers treble every other hour..all I can think is they like my colour scheme..

 

[colinc]

They are attacking that giant wasp box thing


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[Millet]

They are attacking that giant wasp box thing


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That was my thoughts ... I have googled it but I can't get a definitive answer.

 

[simonforeman]

Went to do some weeding in the garden yesterday evening and there was a swarm hanging on my fence....

Now in a nuc box. Checked my hives and not from them.

 

[Angularity]

I went to check on my bait box near the allotment. More of a bait bell, as it's a cast iron bell-shaped thing with a crack in it making a bee entrance. think of a cast-iron skep, and you'll have the idea. Anyway, I couldn't see any bees, so I turned it up to have a quick look and found a queen hornet, just starting her nest. She was the size of a small cat and sounded like one of those annoying drones the kids next door used. I ran.

 

[coatesg]

Took off another full super off the large hive - all uncapped, all OSR honey at <18% water according to refract.

While I was there, moved a super onto the swarm I collected a week and a bit ago - they have piled in about 5 frames of nectar and in danger of running out of space to lay at this rate, despite still having 3 frames to draw out. Moved some of the empty frames into the nest to try to stimulate them to draw more comb... let's hope they decide to start using the super...

Top part of the Snelgrove 1 looks hopelessly queenless - if still that way, I'll shake them out, spin out the frames and give drawn frames to the swarm at the weekend.

 

[JazzJPH]

Took the entrance reducer completely off the hive (finally) and checked to see if the nuc was taking the syrup and thankfully they are!
Inspection tomorrow, finally!