What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Curly green finger's]

Just capped QCs are prone to internal damage when moved.

Normal practise is to add QCs 2 days from emergence...the queen is then near fully formed and less susceptible to movement and temperature changes - likely in small nucs with few bees. (or so I have found not living in the balmy South

Thanks madasafish I've learnt alot this year to do with queen rearing..
Next year I'll try things a bit different and maybe give grafting ago thanks for the advice.

I was thinking to have ago this year would you say there's enough time in the season to try?


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[madasafish]

Thanks madasafish I've learnt alot this year to do with queen rearing..
Next year I'll try things a bit different and maybe give grafting ago thanks for the advice.

I was thinking to have ago this year would you say there's enough time in the season to try?


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Time to try? Yes.. if you have enough drones.

Personally I am unlikely to try any more queen rearing as mating nucs in August here are very prone to wasp attacks and robbing. (so I found last year where every one of my mating nucs was invaded and killed by wasps in August)

 

[Curly green finger's]

Time to try? Yes.. if you have enough drones.



Personally I am unlikely to try any more queen rearing as mating nucs in August here are very prone to wasp attacks and robbing. (so I found last year where every one of my mating nucs was invaded and killed by wasps in August)

There's still lots of drones about and still a goodish flow by the looks of it.
It's a case of how many more colonys do I want for winter and i think 35 will do this season.. There's no reason to rush, it will give me the winter months to learn a bit more about grafting.
Cheers

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[Curly green finger's]

Line side apiary, first hive (left side)
Spring nuc, now single and super added today.
Second single brood had a second brood box this spring and super.
Third was a deep nuc now deep single and super.

Second colony has had a nuc taken 5 frames and third got requeened.

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[40-ODD]

I was just out in the garden, enjoying the sun. Noticed a few wasp's about. Got a couple of nuc's going in polly hives, lifted the top cover off the feeder and saw a wasp through the clear plastic bit. He got jumped by a crew of bee's pretty quick. First time I've seen them mob a wasp like that.

 

[madasafish]

There's still lots of drones about and still a goodish flow by the looks of it.
It's a case of how many more colonys do I want for winter and i think 35 will do this season.. There's no reason to rush, it will give me the winter months to learn a bit more about grafting.
Cheers

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I have posted this before (! boring) but grafting is all about practice. If you set up the starter colony so access to the grafts is easy, then you can graft one day, check if the grafts have taken the next and regraft into cups not accepted.
(This assumes you have time available of course).
So as it's a leaning process and teaching your co-ordination, the more often you do it the better.. both for your muscle memory and to recall what you did (wrong) the last time - if you are like me......
Most important is not to grow disheartened at failure...

I grafted 12 times in a month and a half and went from not knowing what I was doing and miniscule success, to not knowing what I was doing with moderate success.

Once I got to the latter stage, I became much more confident...and approached grafting without trepidation....despite poor eyesight and coordination

 

[pargyle]

Just capped QCs are prone to internal damage when moved.

Normal practise is to add QCs 2 days from emergence...the queen is then near fully formed and less susceptible to movement and temperature changes - likely in small nucs with few bees. (or so I have found not living in the balmy South

That's what I do as well but I live in the balmy south not the barmy south ! Isn't English a wonderful language ?

 

[drex]

Went through the top brood boxes today, after having been away for 12 days. Have had no signs of swarming at all this year ( yet) and think it could well be my first swarm free year ever. Put extra supers on before I went away and they had not been touched, but a fair bit of honey in top brood boxes. Like others in the area, it has been a poor year for honey. Think the bees might be preparing for an early winter. I will see how it goes but I like to leave them the honey in the brood boxes.

 

[masterBK]

In low swarming years which often coincide with poor honey years ( and for me this looks like one as I have had only two colonies out of 25 try to swarm and yields are down. I did have a large swarm up a tree in the apiary which eventually hived itself, but after checking every colony and finding every queen present and correct and no swarm cells, it turned out to be an incoming one with a virgin queen) you often get, in my own experience, a higher frequency of supersedures than usual in late summer.

 

[drex]

Already had two supersedures, both were solitary queen cells, just left to get on with it, both at the bottom of frames. I have never taken a lot of notice of position of queen cells on the frame. One new queen laying like the clappers.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I have never taken a lot of notice of position of queen cells on the frame.

Same here, also seems to me that some beekeeprs can only think in one dimension which b*ggers them up even further.
Few supersedures kicking in with me as well.
Suppose we'll get the usual comedians telling us it's getting too late for them to mate shortly.

 

[G4WIL]

Same here, also seems to me that some beekeeprs can only think in one dimension which b*ggers them up even further.

Few supersedures kicking in with me as well.

Suppose we'll get the usual comedians telling us it's getting too late for them to mate shortly.

Getting too late to mate matey LOL .


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[Swarm]

I have one almost lost cause that are getting eggs as a **** or bust last attempt at success tomorrow.
They will or they won't but drones aplenty at the moment.

 

[Tim.S]

Checked the mating hives and found a few more that have decided to start laying so not as bad as first thought. Also I seem to have 2 beautiful golden queens that have appeared obviously from someone else's genetics close by - makes a change from my nearly black mongrels to have some yellow ones instead!

 

[Angularity]

Saw a lizard scavenging for bees under the hives at home. Can't be many for him, the wasps tidy up very quickly.

 

[The Poot in Somerset]

I have one almost lost cause that are getting eggs as a **** or bust last attempt at success tomorrow.
They will or they won't but drones aplenty at the moment.

Same here Steve, but after they rejected a bought in queen.
Anther lesson learned the hard way...

 

[drex]

Did one of my infrequent inspections in the TBH. Loads of drones, but very low on stores. This is the only colony in my apiary in that situation, even if the overall crop has been poor. Sealed and just ready to be capped brood. No young larvae or eggs. Queen not seen, but the bees were happy, so I presume she is off lay due to low stores. I gave them a feed and took out some of the old empty comb. Once on its feet again this colony needs a good spring clean.

At long last found the one unmarked queen in my Nationals. She is a poor layer and a bit of a runt. Marked her. Tomorrow one of my students has asked me to show him how to unite a couple of his nucs, so may well bring the spare queen home. Confident of no disease risk as I started him off with my bees in spring and have regularly looked through them with him.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Yesterday I went to do an a/s on a colony but found they were superceding the old queen who is only last years queen..
There was lots of worker brood still albeit a bit patchy.
My records show that this colony did the same last year,
Very calm and stable all season they have been, which for a mongrel queen has surprised me in some ways.

 

[Tim.S]

Went up to one of the apiaries, 17 hives in 70 minutes so not too bad. One or two not laying but all otherwise ok. The flow has well and truly stopped or just a trickle, it's almost like the end of August in a normal year. The honey can come off, probably a few hundred pounds which considering how dry it has been and that I have robbed the hives blind for brood during the season for increases is not too shabby.

 

[Fritillary]

I have one almost lost cause that are getting eggs as a **** or bust last attempt at success tomorrow.
They will or they won't but drones aplenty at the moment.

I've just found that my "almost lost cause" has just ignored what I said was its last chance!