What did you do in the Apiary today?

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Cleaned up all my queen excluders, I have a mixture of framed, galvanised steel and plastic. The framed ones are a real pain to clean,

Wait until the cold weather so the wax is brittle, run a flat scraper over the lot to get the bulk off (don't scrape too much as you'll take the galv. coating off) then very quickly run a flamer over the lot (a proper flamer not these ditsy little blowlamps ) and goodbye wax

 

[The Poot in Somerset]

Watched a few bees flying this evening ... struggling a bit in the strong breeze - at least it has stopped raining. Ivy in the garden not quite there yet .. days away but looking back it's usually first or second week in October that it blooms. Fished all the feeders out of storage and gave them a wash ... won't put them on yet, hives quite heavy even after taking the supers off ... haven't really looked inside properly but I can see some fat brood frames of stores either side of the brood nest through the clear crown boards. Put the inspection boards in to see what's dropping out, sugar roll on Sunday if there is any real sign on the boards. No sign of mass drone eviction at present - still some coming and going.

Your drones are leading a charmed life

 

[The Poot in Somerset]

Additional vape (5th) on three colonies and topped up syrup and fondant as needed.

 

[pargyle]

Your drones are leading a charmed life

Theres a nip in the air but they are still bringing stuff in ,... hives quite heavy and I suspect that as soon as the forage ceases the little boys will get their marching orders. I often see a few drones in the hives over winter though - not excessive numbers .. I can only assume that the girls keep them for entertainment of they have a feminine side ?

 

[The Poot in Somerset]

Theres a nip in the air but they are still bringing stuff in ,... hives quite heavy and I suspect that as soon as the forage ceases the little boys will get their marching orders. I often see a few drones in the hives over winter though - not excessive numbers .. I can only assume that the girls keep them for entertainment of they have a feminine side ?

Barbershop quartet or a full blown male voice choir perhaps?

 

[Courty]

Nothing done in the apiary today, I went fishing on a reservoir in a rowing boat and enjoyed one of my many former pleasures that have started to fall by the wayside since I started beekeeping.
I still ended up rescuing a couple of bees that were stuck on the water, sharing a bit of my Mars bar with them, they tucked in for five minutes then flew off with new vigour.
I sometimes don’t know what I did with my time before I became a beekeeper.

 

[Swarm]

Watched a poor drone struggling to get back inside as he was being dragged out and they ended up on the grass. Another drone walked out into the foyer and Mr Evicted flew back up to join him.
An odd day besides, rain in the air and very still. Loads of bees floating back to the hives, extremely busy but in a leisurely fashion. Everywhere I looked I could see little black bees. the roofs, the stands, even the Buddleias in front of the hives. Had a look at the central stands and the same thing, bees everywhere, out in force.
Had another search down the banking for my hive tool, no chance but what a pleasure to be eye level with the entrances. Snapped some of the Buddleia back from the hives as they were almost touching them now, the bees seemed to like the new flight path.
Scorched some brood boxes to a nice toasty hue. Had to go home then

 

[Newbeeneil]

Checked on a clients hive I've been trying to requeen for about 6 weeks now. This is the third queen I've introduced and the first that's started laying all the others were killed off! I haven't a clue why they didn't accept the others.

 

[Swarm]

Did you see the new queen as well as her eggs? I just wondered

 

[Newbeeneil]

Yes

 

[madasafish]

Weighed all hives.
Removed old Apiguard trays.
Fed a few nucs/hives.

By next week I will have stopped feeding as weights OKish and we had our first almost frost last night...

 

[Antipodes]

Theres a nip in the air but they are still bringing stuff in ,... hives quite heavy and I suspect that as soon as the forage ceases the little boys will get their marching orders. I often see a few drones in the hives over winter though - not excessive numbers .. I can only assume that the girls keep them for entertainment of they have a feminine side ?

Perhaps you'll not need to feed them to get through winter? Sounds promising.

 

[Angry_Mob]

One last queen introduction of the season; arrived in the post this morning so nipped home, removed the virgin queen and added new queen in over some emerging brood.

Never attempted one this late but fortunately the weather is nice today, will try and remove the cage on Sunday.

 

[Moobee]

So it was my first inspection since I heard tooting heard from hive about three weeks ago. No sign of queens in any form or hatched queen cells but brood in all stages albeit reduced down to 4-5 frames. I'm starting to think I imagined it!
Nadired a full super of stores, added a mouseguard, removed super of dry comb from extraction and added wet capping wax to crown board for the girls to clean up.
Bees still very busy foraging as it was warm and dry with a light breeze - they are all over the eleagnus which has started to flower and bringing in lots of very orange pollen (asters I assume).
Cut a piece of celotex to size to fit into the roof when the weather gets colder.

 

[simonforeman]

Arranged to see 2 new apiary sites at the weekend on 2 different local farms.

Fingers crossed.

 

[beeno]

So it was my first inspection since I heard tooting heard from hive about three weeks ago. No sign of queens in any form or hatched queen cells but brood in all stages albeit reduced down to 4-5 frames. I'm starting to think I imagined it!
Nadired a full super of stores, added a mouseguard, removed super of dry comb from extraction and added wet capping wax to crown board for the girls to clean up.
Bees still very busy foraging as it was warm and dry with a light breeze - they are all over the eleagnus which has started to flower and bringing in lots of very orange pollen (asters I assume).
Cut a piece of celotex to size to fit into the roof when the weather gets colder.

They are making your winter bees - home and dry I would say! All you need to do is hefting from time to time to ensure they are of the right weight!

 

[StephenT]

2 chilled and 1 ultra-chilled hive today which was lovely. About 4 good frames of brood in each of them. All filling up with winter stores nicely and added hopefully enough fondant to finish the winter feeding. Lovely strong honey smell which I assume is the Ivy. With the relatively warm day today, they were all very busy piling it in. In a couple of weeks, take off the Apivar and hopefully tuck them up for winter.

 

[Newbeeneil]

Checked most of my hives over the last couple of days. Several are bursting at the seams with bees but very little brood mostly some sealed brood and a few eggs. I assume the queen has been off lay during Apigard treatment and has only just come back into lay.

 

[Newbeeneil]

Spent the afternoon with the SBI inspecting 5 of my hives on a site that's in an EFB warning area. All clear so I can now move a couple of them to one of my more local apiaries.

 

[drex]

Yesterday I went through all my hives, probably for the last time this season. Took off Apiguard trays.. All were full of stores. I run double brood, year round and do not take honey out of BB at harvest time. In some I had to take full frames out and put in empty to give queen space to lay. Loads of bees, but little brood,. There was very little stored pollen or pollen being brought in, so they got an Ultrabee patty. All hives queen right. The Apiguard and weather have probably put her off lay, along with the lack of pollen. Glad I do not have to feed