What did you do in the Apiary today?

[E&MBees]

A day of highs and lows today.

Harvested my first crop of honey. Looks quite dark, measured 17% and the scrapings tasted delicious! Letting it settle before jarring.

Lost a colony and nuc to CBPV. Spent the day cleaning and sterilising. Hoping to get some native black bees to replace the bees lost. My first year of bee keeping has been more eventful and challenging than desired.

 

[thedozzer]

Bad Beekeeping part 3

Made a complete mess of an inspection and massive beginners error.

Have two hives that we have re-queened with GMs.
We also have three nucs, with the old Qs and a split, two are doing really well.

One didn't have any brood with just a few drawn frames, so we inspected them first, and it looks like most of the bees have left when we looked in, there were less than 50 bees and the queen was very agitated, while we were inspecting she then flew off, we didn't see where she went.

So we moved on to inspecting the main hives.
First one is doing really well, lots of eggs and larvae and very calm, with the the Blue dot wandering around happily.

Second Hive had 4 emergency charged QCs made from older larvae in normal worker cells, but eggs so think they are not sure about the new Q. and as we got to the last frame there was a ball of activity, low and behold the old queen from the nuc had got into the hive and was being balled by the bees.
We managed to get her in a clip cage, but Mr butter fingers let her out again.
We went though the hive again but couldn't see he, so have no idea where she has got to.
Now wondering what colour queen we are going to find on next inspection and if the they are going to carry on replacing the new Queen?
Is there any reason that they should throw up so many QCs with a new queen? she looks OK but the lack of eggs does bother me.

 

[StephenT]

We've got one supersedure, one bought in replacement queen and a swarm so doing least invasive inspections as possible, on the basis that they should not be looking to swarm (probably 2nd year beekeepers famous last words). Re-queened AS filling out the brood box nicely so put on a super. The hived swarm is quite slow to get going so just some sugar syrup to help them finish drawing the brood box frames. The parent hive with the supersedure queen is going well so put a 2nd super on. Did lift and check the bottom of the upper brood box (brood and a half - oops) for queen cells. All well but only one hive in a position to make the most of the Lime.

 

[drex]

Put clearer boards on today. Harvesting 3 weeks later than normal. Very poor crop, despite plenty of bees. 1 super per hive, whereas normally 2-3. However for the first time ever there has been no osr near. It is very very dry here. My polle.n trap is producing little pollen too. Never mind, the bees are healthy and no swarms so far.

 

[madasafish]

Extracted Spring harvest.
Poor .. 1/3rd last year.. cold wet winter to March then fine weather then wet mid May.. Bees eating stocks...

Waiting for limes or season will be poor.

Honey smells gorgeous..never smelt it as strong. And very viscous..(to be tested)

 

[gmonag]

Picked up two swarms in the last 24hrs and delivered them to grateful new beeks.

 

[The Poot in Somerset]

Went through two home hives, first one has a new queen they've generated themselves laying a nice pattern, so didn't check many frames.
Second one I found a queen cell with the tell tale hinged opening last week, today no sign of any queen activity, so will check again in a couple of weeks to see if a new queen has started laying.
Don't want to lose the colony as its been the only one to fully cap a super this year.
All in all I don't expect much honey this year, it's been too dry and I'm aware a couple of them have swarmed. They got ahead of me before I was furloughed and It seems I've been trying to catch up with them since.
Will be combining a swarm into another hive this evening after flying has finished.

 

[GuyNir]

Checked 3 of my hives today. All well, no Q cells, flow definitely on, frames dripping nectar. Welcome heavy showers this evening.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Sweltering heat here - and close with the promise of thunder, but apiary inspections have to be done, all colonies (except from my good old laid back queen line from a swarm of dark bees I caught ten years ago) are a wee bit tetchy.
The flow is on here, brambles blooming and bees piling the nectar in so supers going on colonies that last week were running on fumes - still waiting patiently for the NBU to send us a starvation warning telling us when and what to feed, doubtless it will turn up next week
Queens mating quickly here, one queen already laying and she only emerged a week ago.
Went back up the apiary this evening as I remembered I'd left my pocket notebook on top of a hive and the bees were packed outside on the lobbies of the underfloor entrances to allow room for air circulation for the ripening teams.

 

[G4WIL]

Sweltering heat here - and close with the promise of thunder, but apiary inspections have to be done, all colonies (except from my good old laid back queen line from a swarm of dark bees I caught ten years ago) are a wee bit tetchy.

The flow is on here, brambles blooming and bees piling the nectar in so supers going on colonies that last week were running on fumes - still waiting patiently for the NBU to send us a starvation warning telling us when and what to feed, doubtless it will turn up next week

Queens mating quickly here, one queen already laying and she only emerged a week ago.

Went back up the apiary this evening as I remembered I'd left my pocket notebook on top of a hive and the bees were packed outside on the lobbies of the underfloor entrances to allow room for air circulation for the ripening teams.

We’ve had two days of thunderstorms .
In between storms the bees have been going ballistic! Lol


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[Swarm]

Change is coming, some colonies on edge. They were all busy piling nectar in while they have the chance and didn't want to be disturbed.
Stripped down two Demarrees, shuffling frames about while these bees sat and watched.
Nice to see some action in the supers, a few more needed soon.

 

[masterBK]

Yesterday went through 16 hives and 10 five frame nuclei at the out apiary. Marked several of the new queens. What was disturbing was finding four of the nuclei had drone laying queens so they had to be shook out. Used two other nuclei to requeen a couple of underperforming colonies (one of which had really bad chalk brood earlier in the season). Only one colony had swarm cells (have now only seen swarm cells in a total of two out of 25 colonies this year) so removed queen and paper united in another nuc. Not alot of honey coming in and bees a bit edgy. Arrived home just in time to see an incoming swarm (probably from the local convent where they have half a dozen hives) entering a stack of supers through a gap at the edge of one super. Let them settle down for an hour then shook the swarm (likely a cast) out of the supers into 5 frame nuc.

 

[Swarm]

Took a fourth super to the apiary as that Demarree had looked a bit full even after the nuc had been made up. Glad I did, they were stuffed with bees.

 

[Erichalfbee]

New queen in my pocket went to queen a hive with queen cells on test frame 3days ago
Heaven knows what made me look in the super but eggs everywhere. Every cell!
In the brood, more eggs. Why did they raise queen cells for heavens sake??!!
What in earth do I do with this queen with thunder rolling in the distance.
Hastily put a nuc together with angry bees everywhere and finished up under the brolly in torrential rain!!!!!

 

[The Poot in Somerset]

Nice one Dani
Huge rain drops here today with thunder. Only thing I did was check how much chewed paper was under my united colonies. Looking good after a day and a night.
I have noticed an appreciable increase in bees in a queenless nuc that was beside the donor colony. I think a lot of the flyers have returned to their old position, which I didn't think they did. I understood they would re-orient at the new position?

 

[G4WIL]

Change is coming, some colonies on edge. They were all busy piling nectar in while they have the chance and didn't want to be disturbed.

Stripped down two Demarrees, shuffling frames about while these bees sat and watched.

Nice to see some action in the supers, a few more needed soon.

I’ve inspected my colonies . I spite of the thunder clouds massing, the bees were in a submissive mood .
I’ve inspected two this years swarm . One which only arrive 2nd June is quite small. Not surprising given the weather conditions.
The other which arrived mid May is filling a super . They are both healthy ..



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[G4WIL]

New queen in my pocket went to queen a hive with queen cells on test frame 3days ago

Heaven knows what made me look in the super but eggs everywhere. Every cell!

In the brood, more eggs. Why did they raise queen cells for heavens sake??!!

What in earth do I do with this queen with thunder rolling in the distance.

Hastily put a nuc together with angry bees everywhere and finished up under the brolly in torrential rain!!!!!

Oh, dear ! A good few years ago same scenario!
it was a deluge out of the blue . I covered the brood box with the roof and covered the stack of supers with a sheet of plastic .
The rain stopped in half an hour .
I relit the smoker , went back, took the roof off the brood box and carried on with the inspection . Uncovered the supers and replaced them .
Oh, what fun. Lol


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[Erichalfbee]

Oh, dear ! A good few years ago same scenario!
it was a deluge out of the blue . I covered the brood box with the roof and covered the stack of supers with a sheet of plastic .
The rain stopped in half an hour .
I relit the smoker , went back, took the roof off the brood box and carried on with the inspection . Uncovered the supers and replaced them .
Oh, what fun. Lol


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Yes the shenanigans we go through. Somebody told me this week that my honey was too expensive at £15 for a three pound tub! I wish they’d been with me !

 

[Murox]

New queen in my pocket went to queen a hive with queen cells on test frame 3days ago
Heaven knows what made me look in the super but eggs everywhere. Every cell!
In the brood, more eggs. Why did they raise queen cells for heavens sake??!!
What in earth do I do with this queen with thunder rolling in the distance.
Hastily put a nuc together with angry bees everywhere and finished up under the brolly in torrential rain!!!!!

Murphy's Quantum Law: Anything that can, could have, or will go wrong, is going wrong, all at once.
Hope it all works out well in the end.

 

[G4WIL]

Yes the shenanigans we go through. Somebody told me this week that my honey was too expensive at £15 for a three pound tub! I wish they’d been with me !

Expensive ! You’re selling in the wrong market place Lol. Same as I , £5 per Lb for a few years now .



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