What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Swarm]

It was the last chance for the no queen nuc today, if no sign of laying, shake them out. Nice as pie again, peeping from the seams, second frame in and bless my soul, eggs and young larvae. Brilliant!

 

[beeno]

It was the last chance for the no queen nuc today, if no sign of laying, shake them out. Nice as pie again, peeping from the seams, second frame in and bless my soul, eggs and young larvae. Brilliant!

Shows what a good beek you are!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Thymolised half a pallet of invert, loaded up the truck with syrup and feeders. Start the feeding run tomorrow.

 

[Swn58]

Use clearer boards?

I do use them sometimes, but lapsed, due to never really having any trouble. I have to admit that the speed that my new apiary has developed took me completely by surprise. I put it down to the poly hives. They will all be getting custom built clearing boards next year for sure. Lessons learned!

 

[HarryO]

The hives are in an orchard. Numerous different fruit trees (Apple, pear, plum, ‘juvenile’ walnut).
Anyway the point of this post is that 3 Bramley Apple trees with giant apples and one of them has 3 or 4 clusters of full on blossom! Just what is going on?
No wonder the bees sometimes appear a bit confused.

 

[Swarm]

Last night, a first for me. Went to collect supers off four hives, thousands of little eyes peeping at me, could have sworn I heard a little voice "Yes?"
Could it be that Carys had told them what I was up to? I checked the other three and found the same!! Doesn't look like a single bee has left the supers.
All four boards are rhombus of some type, with eke fitted. Quite surprised, I'll have another look later.

 

[Michael ECB's]

3 removals today...
Tried something new today with a column removal, trap out cone through an elbow and into a spacer box under brood box...

No2 was a tree forced removal.

No 3 roof colony..... What a day....

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

After another early start for a Bees Abroad Teams meeting (aren't online meetings great!) due to one participant being a farmer and eager to get to his stock.
Started the feeding rounds, hives all pretty light, just bringing in enough to keep going by the looks of it, some colonies were into the syrup before I had the lid back on. Nadired some supers, not because there was much stores in them but these colonies are so strong, they needed the space.
Had a long socially distant chat with my mate at Garn Cottage, he hasn't moved in yet but all his mam's stuff is cleared away and they're doing a few changes to the old place so I was given a quick tour to say goodbye to the rooms in what had been my second home all through my teen years and I can now look forward to another transformation, and maybe another generation if (but not for a few years) the grandkids turn up. I think the cottage has been in constant transformation for the 200+ years of its existence. we chuckled at the though that the next change after this one will be the installation of a Stannah stairlift!!
Hopefully the bees will have a home there for another few years.

 

[beeno]

Hoovered up ca 4,000 wasps in my roof as they started to become a burden to the bees. Whilst I was doing it one honey bee came and sat on my thumb nail.

 

[pargyle]

Use clearer boards?

Yes... I think I would have put a clearer board under the top super ... once it was cleared I'd have slid a ply board under the super above the clearer board, strapped that up with the roof and taken the lot back to the car - gone back, moved the clearer board down.... perhaps even put an empty super under the last one then following day same again - ply sheet on the bottom, crown board and roof on top.

They would probably hardly notice it had gone. ... but thereagain .... this is very much theoretical - vicious colonies really are a PITA ... I would have done everything possible to avoid disturbing them. If you took the supers off in the evening after doing the above you could also seal the entrance up whilst you took the super off ...

Hindsight is wonderful isn't it ...and I appreciate that I was not there ... !!!

 

[Hachi]

Final clearer boards on and feeding started on remaining hives. Final extraction tomorrow, treatment starts in the next couple of days when I've looked to see which day suits me for four treatments.

 

[MuswellMetro]

made twelve 3rd grade super out of fifrteen bought from thorns sale and tthrough the rest away, works out at £6 per super

 

[The Poot in Somerset]

Last night, a first for me. Went to collect supers off four hives, thousands of little eyes peeping at me, could have sworn I heard a little voice "Yes?"
Could it be that Carys had told them what I was up to? I checked the other three and found the same!! Doesn't look like a single bee has left the supers.
All four boards are rhombus of some type, with eke fitted. Quite surprised, I'll have another look later.

That Carys is a bit of a character. You didn’t notice her telling the other colonies by semaphore?

 

[madasafish]

Last night, a first for me. Went to collect supers off four hives, thousands of little eyes peeping at me, could have sworn I heard a little voice "Yes?"
Could it be that Carys had told them what I was up to? I checked the other three and found the same!! Doesn't look like a single bee has left the supers.
All four boards are rhombus of some type, with eke fitted. Quite surprised, I'll have another look later.

I had the same in July when we had a cold spell with overnight lows of 8C..Bees were very torpid and would not move out of supers . Had to shake them off..

 

[simonforeman]

Checked all 14 hives this morning (7 at home and 7 at apiary) All hives in good shape, all are bringing in different colours of pollen and are working the ivy. The 2 hives at the out apiary that lost their queens and had QCs 3 weeks or so ago now have laying queens.
Start OA treatments this week and top up their stores to mix with the ivy.

I'm now on the look out for another out apiary lol......

 

[jeff33]

Started preparing the hives for winter. Dble brood hives are back down to single, last of the supers are coming off this week and plenty of feeding to do as all hives are really light. It was nice to be able to take a bit more time with the bees which were really chilled. I think bees and keeper are ready for a well deserved rest.

 

[Hachi]

All supers off and feeding continues.

 

[Fritillary]

The hives are in an orchard. Numerous different fruit trees (Apple, pear, plum, ‘juvenile’ walnut).
Anyway the point of this post is that 3 Bramley Apple trees with giant apples and one of them has 3 or 4 clusters of full on blossom! Just what is going on?
No wonder the bees sometimes appear a bit confused.

The other day I photographed a very healthy looking leafy elder, with ripened berries - and lots of new fresh blossom. It's the first time I've seen that.

 

[Swarm]

Three hives left with just one super, the others are ready for treating/feeding. They will all have a couple of pints of thymol invert on the weekend and some more in a few weeks if not topped up with ivy.
I've dummied a deep box down to seven frames with a mixture of comb and foundation, ready to use for clearing one colony of Amm who don't have room to clear into. They can go into Winter on double brood.
Checked my ex 'iffy' nuc, I'd seen eggs and larvae and today I found sealed worker brood. Great news.
Just for good measure, the queen made an appearance and beautiful she is
Activity levels extremely high today, like mid Summer with all the drones around.

 

[The Poot in Somerset]

Carried out second vape and checked state of feeding. Topped up as required.