What did you do in the Apiary today?

[The Poot in Somerset]

Watched the bees peering out of their entrances at a dull and damp day and deciding not to bother flying today.
Lightweights! The bumbles are out in force....

 

[mike99]

Watched the bees peering out of their entrances at a dull and damp day and deciding not to bother flying today.
Lightweights! The bumbles are out in force....

One thing I noticed that around my hives there always seems to be a Bumble Bee circling the hives. Never going in but constantly circling.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Took delivery of four new queens, bit embarrassed to say they are foreign, but as the mating apiary is just over the Carmarthenshire boundary in Pembrokeshire I suppose it is acceptable.
Rushed around three apiaries in light showers with heavier rain fast approaching to install them, luckily all but one of the queens destined for the gateposts were quietly waiting for me on the first frame. I'll go around again on Friday to remove the caps off the candy.

 

[viridens]

One thing I noticed that around my hives there always seems to be a Bumble Bee circling the hives. Never going in but constantly circling.

As others have commented, this year there seem to be more bumbles showing an interest in hives and sometimes trying to get in. Any theories why?

 

[GuyNir]

Took delivery of four new queens, bit embarrassed to say they are foreign, but as the mating apiary is just over the Carmarthenshire boundary in Pembrokeshire I suppose it is acceptable.
Rushed around three apiaries in light showers with heavier rain fast approaching to install them, luckily all but one of the queens destined for the gateposts were quietly waiting for me on the first frame. I'll go around again on Friday to remove the caps off the candy.

Did that on Tue with 3 black Q’s received from Jonathan Getty. Will remove the plastic cap off the candy tomorrow.

 

[Angry_Mob]

Tried another 20 grafts, this time using the 000 brush which was much easier than the Chinese grafting tool.

Checked the splits in which I tried the travel cage method. Two queens MIA so shook them out. Will stick with the push in cage method which hasn't failed me yet.

Went the Orchard Apiary, witnessed a virgin queen emerging which was really interesting to watch.

Made up some crown boards for mating nucs.

Wind caught a stack of nuc brood chambers, one damaged beyond repair, another I fixed, another lightly damaged. Thats four this season already; storing my hive equipment outside hasn't been going well for me.

 

[madasafish]

Swarm which arrived unannounced and unwanted three weeks ago came with an unmarked laying Queen and is very bad tempered. After a long rigmarole today, found queen and marked her white so she can be despatched when I have a spare laying Queen in three weeks time.

Promoted a nuc to a hive.

Put clearing boards on three hives - one a step ladder job - 5 supers..

Exhausted... and weather turned cold , windy and damp...

 

[For want of a better word]

Went around all of the apiaries with nucs in them... most doubledekkers... and made sure they had stores... had to feed the yellow ones as had little or no stores.. also had to put fondant on some of the hives in the main stripey apiary......

No ApHa starvation warnings yet....


Check your girls stores!!

Chons da

 

[Erichalfbee]

No ApHa starvation warnings yet....




Chons da

No we won’t get that till we’ve all sorted it already

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

No ApHa starvation warnings yet....

No we won’t get that till we’ve all sorted it already

, mine have gone through the starvation stage and are piling in the stores again.
I suppose that's what comes of having a BBKA sistiffikit waver in charge - too busy shook swarming to notice what's happening to the flow

 

[StephenT]

Quite handy I’ve got 3 hives in the garden and so I can watch them in between Zoom/Teams calls. Interesting observation today. A bee on the landing board was face to face (transferring nectar?) to another bee whilst being harassed a tad by other bees. It then had is rear end ‘examined’ by the bee it had been face to face with. This went on for a while. Is this a bee begging its way in to the hive or just a transfer of nectar on the landing board?

 

[masterBK]

I have seen this loads of times. It is likely to be a worker that has drifted onto the landing board of an adjacent hive. It will have been intercepted by a guard bee and to avoid being attacked will take up a passive posture, regurgitate nectar and offer it to the guards as a peace offering. The guards will inspect all parts of the bee and maybe even nibble its hairs.

 

[The Poot in Somerset]

Checked a double decker nuc from a swarm in May. Transferred to a national brood box in readiness to be united with a queenless colony tomorrow - the colony it came from.
Bees very well behaved. Four frames of sealed brood in the bottom box and three frames above fully drawn out in a week.

 

[victor meldrew]

Spent all day on and off trimming a 100ft x 10 ft hornbeam hedge .
Finished it thank cod .
Each hive entrance resembled Euston station concourse from first light they are still at it
Both I and the bees have had a good day !



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[For want of a better word]

, mine have gone through the starvation stage and are piling in the stores again.
I suppose that's what comes of having a BBKA sistiffikit waver in charge - too busy shook swarming to notice what's happening to the flow

OMG you will get a caution from the Mods for saying such things!!

Put your self on the naughty boy step for 24 hours or 7 Hail Marys!!

​

​

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

The might just try to shook swarm me into submission

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Busy day today, got up early to see it was pis... persistently raining but at least it gave me a chance of a leisurely breakfast and a quick check of my notes - a few nucs needed checking as there may be a chance the queens have mated. As the rain stopped and the sun threatened to make it a glorious day I hastened up to the ranges (there was a plan, SWMBO had sorted it) checked some hives to see that three of the numerous queens that had superseded my 2018 queens (something about those red queens - I think they burnt themselves out after last year's bumper harvest) had mated, one will probably need a super next week, one was hinting at a second!
The June gap has definitely been and gone so I suspect I'll get the usual starvation warning fron the NBU this week or next. The bees were piling it in.

Next were the nucs I had up there waiting for the queens to go and see the boys.
One queen emerged 1st June - 3 frames BIAS
One queen emerged 8th June - a frame and a half of eggs and larvae, none capped yet but looks good with no sign of the workers extending cells. Which brings me to.....
I was on my knees scrubbing the propolis off my gloves and hive tool (bucket is on a pallet which serves many purposes at the apiary, and my back doesn't appreciate that much bending over) my nose not that far from the entrance of another nuc sat on the pallet from a Demarree whose queen would have emerged about a week or so ago............................
When the bees got rather excited, loads of toing and froing at the entrance and all over the front of the nuc, then (and I was not mistaken) out popped a queen, teetered on the edge for a monet, then too off with a small entourage - but then, as if the cork had popped in the story about the pig and the trained monkey, out poured the bees in a steady stream, the apiary was abuzz with them, it felt as if I was in the middle of a swarm (and I have been in a few) they then spiralled up above the trees, did a circuit of the quarry before finally coming back to the nuc.
I would have hung around for a while to see whether I'd see the queen coming back and perhaps seeing the mating mark (poor sods) but unfortunately, SWMBO's grand plan was that she was treating us to a 'takeaway' Sunday dinner (using my credit card) from the Cawdor hotel, and it was way past midday and I had a time slot to make.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Busy day today, got up early to see it was pis... persistently raining but at least it gave me a chance of a leisurely breakfast and a quick check of my notes - a few nucs needed checking as there may be a chance the queens have mated. As the rain stopped and the sun threatened to make it a glorious day I hastened up to the ranges (there was a plan, SWMBO had sorted it) checked some hives to see that three of the numerous queens that had superseded my 2018 queens (something about those red queens - I think they burnt themselves out after last year's bumper harvest) had mated, one will probably need a super next week, one was hinting at a second!
The June gap has definitely been and gone so I suspect I'll get the usual starvation warning fron the NBU this week or next. The bees were piling it in.

Next were the nucs I had up there waiting for the queens to go and see the boys.
One queen emerged 1st June - 3 frames BIAS
One queen emerged 8th June - a frame and a half of eggs and larvae, none capped yet but looks good with no sign of the workers extending cells. Which brings me to.....
I was on my knees scrubbing the propolis off my gloves and hive tool (bucket is on a pallet which serves many purposes at the apiary, and my back doesn't appreciate that much bending over) my nose not that far from the entrance of another nuc sat on the pallet from a Demarree whose queen would have emerged about a week or so ago............................
When the bees got rather excited, loads of toing and froing at the entrance and all over the front of the nuc, then (and I was not mistaken) out popped a queen, teetered on the edge for a monet, then too off with a small entourage - but then, as if the cork had popped in the story about the pig and the trained monkey, out poured the bees in a steady stream, the apiary was abuzz with them, it felt as if I was in the middle of a swarm (and I have been in a few) they then spiralled up above the trees, did a circuit of the quarry before finally coming back to the nuc.
I would have hung around for a while to see whether I'd see the queen coming back and perhaps seeing the mating mark (poor sods) but unfortunately, SWMBO's grand plan was that she was treating us to a 'takeaway' Sunday dinner (using my credit card) from the Cawdor hotel, and it was way past midday and I had a time slot to make.

This has been my first season to see queen's leaving hives to go on there Mating flights.. One hive did it 3 times in a week it is just like a swarm leaving very interesting to watch.

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[Swarm]

Had similar at the apiary two weeks ago, helping my landlord. The apiary is a bit strung out and we were coming back up from the bottom stand to take a quick look at the nucs before packing up. Lots of activity at the latest and a swirl of bees that crossed the yard but went no further than the trees. Back to the nuc and the commotion of loads of bees piling back in.

 

[Tim.S]

Not much to do this week as the new queens should have hatched end of last week so hoping for good mating weather, although we could do with the rain to be honest, our bit of Sussex has had barely 5mm this last month. Spent today making up new mating hives, and I have just secured a new apiary which will need stocking too.

The new place is at a fantastic old country estate that I didn't even know existed. The lady of the house invited me which is rather nice these days. She said and I quote 'I didn't know if we had enough flowers here to have bees'. All said while standing in the middle of 10 acres of unspoilt meadow that probably hasn't seen a plough in 300 years! Water, trees, unimproved grassland as far as you can see everything I could wish for. All I need to decide now is how many hives? Happy days.