What did you do in the Apiary today?

[E&MBees]

Caught a prime swarm in my neighbours garden and put it in my nuc. Will rehome tonight into my spare hive as it’s very large. Feeling quite pleased as I’m a beginner!

 

[Hachi]

Its not from your hive?

 

[simonforeman]

What a lovely day...... Have had to add another super to my home hives, They have found the OSR and piling in the nectar. I have loads of fruit trees in full blossom but not a bee on them due to this.

 

[jeff33]

Adding 2nd bb on the majority of my hives preparing all mating nucs and queen rearing equipment ready for my 2nd attempt at grafting after a mixed experience last year. I revisited my thread on this to refresh myself with all the good advice provided.

 

[Goran]

Wind is weaker and flow stronger, a lot of nectar and pollen. Forests are white of wild cherries ( mostly), wild pears, wild apples - abundance of forage.. The spring is really special time of year..
Today found one colony without queen.. The rest more than OK.. Tomorrow a lot more to do.

 

[simonforeman]

Adding 2nd bb on the majority of my hives preparing all mating nucs and queen rearing equipment ready for my 2nd attempt at grafting after a mixed experience last year. I revisited my thread on this to refresh myself with all the good advice provided.

This year is going to be my first year of trying grafting, any tips...

 

[Repwoc]

Been getting the mating nucs sorted out. Added starter strips of foundation to 80 top bars.

 

[Murox]

Finally managed to do a complete inspection, still cold in the wind and cloudy, 11 degrees today. Looking fine, a slow start with little pollen available here this year - left them with some sub - plenty of honey left - moved full frames out and replaced it with empty drawn ones.

 

[deemann1]

Fruit blossoms starting here and a nice amount of dandelion out , hives are busy but not needing supers yet

 

[Cattleya]

Found and despatched the queen in the 'tetchy' garden hive. Brought the smallest colony back from the out apiary and united it with the tetchy hive over a QEx and newspaper. If all goes well will split this combined colony in the near future.

 

[jeff33]

This year is going to be my first year of trying grafting, any tips...

I grafted during a flow so the dark empty frame I put in 3 days before was filled with nectar rather than eggs. This year I will cage the queen on the frame. As I don't have an incubator I left the cells in the top box but after day 9-10 the bees drew comb on the grafting frame all around the cells, a real nightmare. I managed to save 3. This year I may put the cells in the mating nucs on day 8 or put a couple of frames of foundation in the box. The positive was 85% take on my first attempt.Good luck

 

[E&MBees]

Its not from your hive?

Yep, it is!! I removed the nadired super on Wednesday, the queen was obviously not impressed with the decrease in space. It was very full on Wednesday, and in hindsight I should have done a split straight away as there were drones flying. Added a super on top, but this was not enough.

Anyway, spotted the swarm emerging from the hive and managed to catch them in a nuc once they had settled this afternoon and rehoused into a new hive this evening. I hadn't clipped the queens wing as I didn't feel confident when I received the swarm last year. However, I have done so today to prevent it happening again. I have inspected the parent hive, taken down all the queen cells bar two, which I have marked the positions of, on top of the frames. The hive still has a good population of bees, including drones, filling approx 3/4 of the frames, plenty of brood in all stages and stores. I need to carefully monitor it now for cast swarms.

 

[ericbeaumont]

taken down all the queen cells bar two ... monitor it now for cast swarms.

Will you reduce the QCs to one?

 

[E&MBees]

Will you reduce the QCs to one?

Yes, I will. When do you suggest doing so?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Yes, I will. When do you suggest doing so?

They are likely to build more queen cells so five days after you were last in
I have lost swarms but never actually seen one leave the hive. If I had I would have jumped at the opportunity to hive them in a new box and put that back in the same position as the parent, taking that away to rear a new queen
That way you get all the foragers back

 

[jeff33]

Anyway, spotted the swarm emerging from the hive and managed to catch them in a nuc once they had settled this afternoon....... I hadn't clipped the queens wing as I didn't feel confident when I received the swarm last year. However.

There is a theme here: Carry on with that line and you will have to deal with swarms all the time, it looks as if your bees swarm at the drop of a hat, reminds me of the first bees I had . I would recommend to change your queens for better stock.

 

[Jimmy]

Checked all colonies over the last few days. Winter losses at approximately 10% with 14x12 colonies having a disproportionately worse survival rate. 2/3 of losses in 14x12 but they only represent about a quarter of my total hive count.
Only one colony across three apiaries showing any swarm preparations and this was a nuc colony headed by an ITLD sourced Italian raised Buckfast marked white, so 2016 vintage.

Going by the size of the brood nest colonies are large but I think it's a misleading impression. The more accurate impression IMHO is that colonies will be large in 2-3 weeks. Brood boxes are full of nectar and BIAS but very little presence in drawn supers - I think colonies are lacking the bee power to process and move the nectar up into the space available. The cooler weather next week may be a blessing, giving colonies a chance to achieve a more balanced population and deterring early swarms. At least that's what I want to happen.

 

[ericbeaumont]

Brood boxes are full of nectar and BIAS but very little presence in drawn supers - I think colonies are lacking the bee power to process and move the nectar up into the space available. The cooler weather next week may be a blessing, giving colonies a chance to achieve a more balanced population and deterring early swarms.

Went through about 50 this week and found the same. Bit alarming to see so much nectar in brood areas; they were even putting it under the nest into bottom boxes.

Made single box colonies into doubles (split the nest vertically, took out stores, added foundation) and doubles to triples (took out stores, put in foundation and added a box of comb in-between the original two). This is on a single National brood box system, as Tim Rowe demonstrates here on his Rose hives at 2.50.

 

[B+.]

This year is going to be my first year of trying grafting, any tips...

The easiest way to get larvae of the correct age is to confine your queen to a push-in cage on a empty comb near in the centre of the brood nest. She will lay that area up within 24-hours so you can go in next day and release her (after checking there are eggs in the cells). 3 days later the eggs will hatch and you will have larvae of the right age to graft. You will be able to see the area to graft from as the push-in cage will have marked the comb.
I use a Chinese grafting tool (Check Simon the beekeeper for good deals - I buy packs of 20 or so at a time as some aren't very good). Select one with a fine filament that moves freely to graft with.

 

[ericbeaumont]

Yes, I will. When do you suggest doing so?

Once they're sealed they need only to be kept warm, but I'd do it no later than day 14; you could make up a 3-frame nuc with the spare as back-up.