What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Murox]

For starters-
Haynes Manual of Beekeeping
Practical Beekeeping - Clive de Bruyn
Kirk and Howes, Plants for Bees - ISBN : 9780860982715; Published : 2012 - A modern update by Kirk on the classic title by Howes. - essential reading for gardeners and beekeepers. Very well illustrated, showing plants good for nectar and pollen and their attraction to social and solitary bees.
and some more
Jürgen Tautz - The Buzz About Bees: Biology of a Superorganism
Mating biology of honey bees (Apis mellifera) by Keoniger
"The Bee Keepers' Field Guide " by David Cramp. - Spiral bound, waterproof pages -
Ideal for taking to the hive and lots of pictures of AFB/EFB/Sac brood,chalk brood etc to compare with what you have.

 

[For want of a better word]

18 nice black native queens to swibines set up to open mate in the hidden isolated Black bee valley.

Not a bad result from 25 grafts on an early run..... had to put a couple of extra boxes on the drone supply colonies..... never known it to run away like this!!

Yeghes da

 

[Adam Bourne]

Ah that's really helpful I'll take a look.

Cheers.

 

[Curly green finger's]

I'm just about to split my best black bee colony on double brood and three supers. The buggers have swarmed yesterday into a bait hive.
They have 16/18 frames of brood and I've found 20 odd capped qcs.
I plan to split them into four nucs with 2 chosen capped qcs.
Ive 12 qcs spare what to do??

 

[Murox]

I'm just about to split my best black bee colony on double brood and three supers. The buggers have swarmed yesterday into a bait hive.
They have 16/18 frames of brood and I've found 20 odd capped qcs.
I plan to split them into four nucs with 2 chosen capped qcs.
Ive 12 qcs spare what to do??

Oops!
If you want the genes "phone a friend" for some extra kit.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Oops!

If you want the genes "phone a friend" for some extra kit.

I've got the equipment to do the splits but the 12 capped qcs??
Seems a shame to just bin them.

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[Curly green finger's]

I've got the equipment to do the splits but the 12 capped qcs??
Seems a shame to just bin them.

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I've got an egg incubate or two, but it's a first for me.

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[Murox]

I've got an egg incubate or two, but it's a first for me.

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Nothing to loose - try it. ........and then what do you do with several virgins ?

 

[Curly green finger's]

Nothing to loose - try it. ........and then what do you do with several virgins ?

Well I've got a friend who has Mating nucs he said he will gladly have them.

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[Murox]

Well I've got a friend who has Mating nucs he said he will gladly have them.

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Great - go for it.

 

[masterBK]

Inspected all my colonies today, no swarm cells found, Most are on 14 to 17 frames of brood (double BC) so demareed 17 of them. Managed to find and clip every queen except one (I found her but at that moment couldn't find my clipping scissors (they had fallen into the vegetation around one of the hives (found it later). In two colonies the spring supersedure queens are laying well. They will be my first blue queens of the year but won't mark them for another few weeks. With no OSR in the area not alot of honey in the supers (normally extract spring honey about this time of year but not worth it this year as only got 6 to 7 supers of honey in total as against over 30 most years). Hope the lime yields this year (bees have access to hundreds of nearby lime trees).

 

[The Poot in Somerset]

Inspected three colonies out of four. Added a super to one - no queen cells found. Very calm and gentle. Second had two sealed queen cells, third had a dozen queen cells, four sealed. Carried out a/s into a nuc without finding queen so poss already gone? Bees feisty - one sting to a finger.
Supers filling slowly with no osr in the area.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Swarm swarm swarm
What a place to land

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[Hedgerow Honey]

Day off today as chocked with hayfever!!!!!!!!!.

Yesterday after spending far too much with Abelo & Fritz (new uncapper & heated extractor) put in twenty Murray Queens. Made nucs up for first load of UK Buckies from my supplier coming next Friday.
One site, twenty colonies from Rape, two wannabe swarmers dealt with and apart from one, put supers on, mostly thirds.
thirteen hours yesterday, back in workshop tomorrow, inspections start again Monday.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Cleaned and flamed the supers the rats had gone through.
Did a baiting patrol around Brynmair and the home apiary.

 

[E&MBees]

Shook out a queen less hive that had laying workers. Had my suspicions that there were problems 10 days ago when I found multiple eggs in random cells. Wide spread drone cells across the brood frames including in the stores. Also shook out a nuc which I also thought was queen less because of the random laying pattern, which actually wasn’t. I missed her because I panicked.

Found the queen on the floor, with a little group of bees. Caged her to keep her safe. Put the empty hive back together with fresh brood foundation and ones filled with stores. Waited for hive to refill with those bees able to return. Placed queen in cage on top of frames to judge their reactions. Positive, no sign of aggression, some were putting their proboscis through the gaps, so I’m assuming they were feeding her. I have hung the queen in her cage between the frames. There is a fondant plug in place for them to remove. Will check tomorrow or Monday that she has been released. Fingers crossed that all goes ok!

 

[thedozzer]

Inspected 2 hives & 2 Nucs, marked 2 newly mated Q's in one hive and one Nuc.

One hive and one Nuc Q- so mating flights not successful with all the swifts about. (bugger)

Extracted two supers so 55kg of honey from the 2 hives so far!!

 

[Curly green finger's]

Great - go for it.

So I've 10 capped qcs in the incubater on a make shift frame the temp is 35c is this OK. There 11 days old the qcs.

 

[Repwoc]

So I've 10 capped qcs in the incubater on a make shift frame the temp is 35c is this OK. There 11 days old the qcs.

I have mine set to 34.5 C but the extra 0.5 C shouldn't make much difference. You should also put some water in to increase the humidity.

Are the cells in individual cages?

 

[Bear]

Checked 4 of my hives only to discover 3 of them had queen cups with eggs / larvae in. So swarm preparation in place.