What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Antipodes]

Checked on the leatherwood flow and added boxes.

It was a tough day in the heat, but I got a chance to taste the fresh leatherwood. Wow!!

 

[masterBK]

Snowed today so made a snowBoris (hence the "hair") with help from grandchild (childminding in our daughters bubble)

 

[Swarm]

Can't be Doris it's leaning to the left.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Not in the apiary but in the garden
I sent Stan up the ladder to check on the bees in the tree box
Tree Bees Video

 

[Moobee]

Whipped the lid off to add some fondant and happy to see the girls clustered across five frames and took out varroa board which had two neat lines of wax capings.

 

[Apple]

A man from South Uist was asked for the Gaelic equivalent of mañana. He replied, I don't think we have anything to convey that degree of urgency.

We have Drectly!
New 1800W FULL SINE WAVE 4 stroke generator and the superfast delivery new Sublimox from Abello worked a treat.... only two out of 30 colonies sublimated today needed a top of of fondant... most of the little sweetie Cornish Amms were out flying... and down in the Looe apiary were bringing in pollen..... did not see a soul and only passed a couple of horse riders and a couple of doggie walkers... roads very quiet for a Friday afternoon!!

 

[Hachi]

Not in the apiary but in the garden
I sent Stan up the ladder to check on the bees in the tree box
Tree Bees Video

What's the Flir thingy Stan is using Dani please?

 

[Erichalfbee]

What's the Flir thingy Stan is using Dani please?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thermal-Im...ra&qid=1610735536&sprefix=FLIR,aps,223&sr=8-5
They are brill. I can get a thermal image up through an OMF too

 

[beeno]

Not in the apiary but in the garden
I sent Stan up the ladder to check on the bees in the tree box
Tree Bees Video

Good old Stan. Nice to see.

 

[Newbeeneil]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thermal-Im...ra&qid=1610735536&sprefix=FLIR,aps,223&sr=8-5
They are brill. I can get a thermal image up through an OMF too

I got one recently Dani, I bought it to detect a colony in a wall but keep using it for all sorts of things.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I got one recently Dani, I bought it to detect a colony in a wall but keep using it for all sorts of things.

Yes I took a snap of the front of our stone cottage..... gulp!

 

[PhilN]

View attachment trim.61210B74-D8D5-4E36-8BF0-381589CA66B6.MOV
Just stood and watched them enjoying the sun! At least I hope that’s what they’re doing and not about to head for the hills... first winter of beekeeping for me, so even though it looks like this is good to me, it might be impending disaster!

 

[Erichalfbee]

Isn't that a lovely sight. Roll on spring

 

[StephenT]

Looks good to me. Hopefully mine will be doing that later if the sunshine spreads east of you.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Me and Alfie weighed a few colonys cleaned inspection boards and I took a picture of this colonys inspection board it's a 14x12 single brood.
It looks like ivy pollen and honey stores to me.
On the 15 th of December there was brood cappings on the inspection board this queen hasn't stopped laying, she did have a brood break in August last year.


Thoughts.
Temp here is 9c and a calm day no snow on the ground.
Poly nucs have more activity than wooden nucs.

 

[E&MBees]

Went to look at a possible out apiary site. Good forage, sheltered from cold winds, sun most of the day. However, the landowners psycho goats means that the site is off the cards. Didn’t expect to have to wrestle with the goats to get safely back to the car!

 

[Curly green finger's]

Went to look at a possible out apiary site. Good forage, sheltered from cold winds, sun most of the day. However, the landowners psycho goats means that the site is off the cards. Didn’t expect to have to wrestle with the goats to get safely back to the car!

Sounds like you had an eventful day.

 

[E&MBees]

Sounds like you had an eventful day.

They had big billy goat gruff horns and were not afraid to use them! Was very glad that my husband came with me.

 

[Curly green finger's]

They had big billy goat gruff horns and were not afraid to use them! Was very glad that my husband came with me.

it at least hubby could take the bunts for you.

 

[pargyle]

Hefted, looked through the crownboards, lots of bees flying as it was a balmy 10 degrees and sunny down here on the Costa del Fareham.

Cracked the crownboard on the one colony I was worried about .. no heat coming up and no activity that I could see. It was a dead out .. small pile of bees on the floor, two full frames of stores at the back of the hive but not much at the front but no signs of bees with their heads in cells. No sign of the marked queen among the bodies and no sign of disease .. they tested low for varroa in September and they were fed athough they took less invert down than the other colonies. No sign of any brood although there was a frame of mostly pollen in there. No signs of Nosema but I've kept a sample of the dead bees and I will test tomorrow. Sad ... perhaps I should have looked in earlier moved the stores towards the front or added fondant. Having said that I suspect it's a case of a failing queen ... she was a Buckfast going into her third season so may have just run out of steam when there was a need for her to lay up winter bees. It looked fine going into Autumn but not as strong as my other colonies. No waxmoth in there. Who knows ? Cleaned the floor, removed the bodies and sealed it up. I'll give the frames a blast of Dipel tomorrow if there's no nosema in there and look to replace in spring.

Cracked the crown board of an 8 frame poly nuc I'm overwintering and pulled an empty frame out and replaced it with a full frame of stores, took seconds and I just slid the crown board across to access the end frame .. they came up to see me but soon went back down, no smoke needed (not that I had the smoker going anyway !) .. plenty of bees in there and quite active. Enough stores now for a couple of weeks but I might put a container of fondant on them.

Rest of the hives all heavy and I could see good numbers of bees through the clear crownboards. Left them all to it.

NIce to be playing with them again even if only for precautionary reasons ... roll on spring.