What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Michael ECB's]

Second wave of swarms as we hit mid summer here...
Caught two today less than 1km apart....
Hot as hell here - 38deg C & NO wind......

Amazes me every time,,,,, just to watch them ball the box and then kind of pour in almost in a liquid fashion....
If you've seen it before you'll understand what I'm talking about...
Truly fascinating - Sometimes its just the little things that blow my mind...

Wishing you all a wickedly awesome weekend further...

 

[GuyNir]

Second wave of swarms as we hit mid summer here...
Caught two today less than 1km apart....
Hot as hell here - 38deg C & NO wind......

Amazes me every time,,,,, just to watch them ball the box and then kind of pour in almost in a liquid fashion....
If you've seen it before you'll understand what I'm talking about...
Truly fascinating - Sometimes its just the little things that blow my mind...

Wishing you all a wickedly awesome weekend further...

Similar to leaving the parent hive, pouring out almost like liquid...

 

[beeno]

This surprised me yesterday....the colour

Time to do some detective work. Did some myself today found out that my bees are bringing in holly pollen through microscopy analysis. So I have holly berries and holly flower at the same time just like you. Haven't seen the flowers though. Must be some little pocket of warmth somewhere.

 

[victor meldrew]

I hear you, in a perfect world, this would not happen,,,, But we are far from perfect.

But their is always more to the story that just Bees and other pollinators.
Firstly, this is in a farming district with fairly large properties. Being agricultural and worked lands we have/had very few wild bee colonies due to limited suitable structures.... The farm in question has 4 wild colonies that I know of. (The rest are removed from structures if causing safety concerns with staff or interfering with farming activities... )
The 12 colonies within flying distance on this farm have been saved and given more suitable accommodations in a more suitable area.
(For both safety for themselves from predators, thief's / honey robbers as well as foraging)
No other bee keepers anywhere near this property, so "product contamination" is of no concern. (Only 2 x bee keepers in the district)
Waste if of food grade and clean of any/all contaminants.
Waste is fed in as fast as possible to an AD plant suppling us with not only a reliable power source but sustainable and green energy.
Water exiting the digester is free of any pathogens and converted in available nutrients, this is pumped directly onto pastures preventing and ground or river water contamination.
Even though efforts are made to process this waste as fast as possible, truth be told,,,, the bees are just waiting for it... as soon as bags are opened- they're on it.
This cannot be done during the night time, it must happen during the day...

Lastly, honey harvested is mostly given back to relocated colonies. (Removed from walls or structures where we cannot remove there own comb.
The rest is given to staff, family, friends and/or used by my own houshold... We have never sold honey nor have I used it as any form of payment so a slightly tainted honey has never resulted in complaints... Actually, some of the best tasting honey I have ever had came from a colony very close to this plant...

We are very proud of all our efforts here......
Bees are important, especially to us farmers who rely on them, not for making honey but to do as nature intended, to pollinate plants...
Thats why We take special care of them,,, even though this feeding process may be slightly flawed and we are responsible for several bee deaths...
The bigger picture shows we are responsible for hundreds of thousands of busy bees on our farms....
If the Nature gods ever had a judgement day, I will be standing proud and be assured that we will be in credit...

Excuse the long winded reply.... We all love bees, but the coin always has two sides... that needs to be taken into consideration....

Thank you for that . what prompted my response was an incident years ago were a soft drinks bottling plant close to me and 2 other bee keepers , had huge syrup silos . Leaky valves attracted wasps . They employed a nation wide known pest control company who used large wasp traps .the beekeeper nearest to the plant spotted these through the fencing . They were each full of what appeared to be drowned honey bees . He asked me to contact the bee inspector.
the works manager was helpful and the inspector duly inspected the traps . The contents did look like honey bees but when drained they were all wasps , he couldn’t find one honey bee .
apparently wasps when water logged and in bulk , do resemble honey bees .

 

[Curly green finger's]

Me and the lad went to check on our out apiarys today after all the bad windy weather, and now more snow.
We got to the novers and one of the single brood entrance blocks has been pushed right in, both screws behind the block are all bent.
the floor was a bit out of line.
We couldn't see any scratch marks or any damage around the entrance.
I wasn't able to look through the clear crown board or do anything with the entrance block because it's all frozen up.
The colony were OK a week ago plenty of stores and covering 8 seams.
They are still alive.
None of the other 4 hives in the apiary have been tutched.

There is 6 inches of snow on the ground and it's going to be - 9 tonight
And freezing weather for the next few days maybe longer up here.
Your thoughts of what animal could of done this please.

 

[Antipodes]

A large animal such as a horse, cow or sheep could do that I suppose.
Sounds extremely cold there. We had 37 today which was very unpleasant in the bee suit.

 

[Antipodes]

I checked some hives in an apiary today and 2 were queenless, one hopelessly so, and one had emergency cells going. Another colony had a queen being superceded. There is a shocking dearth here now. Very bad season for queens.

 

[Curly green finger's]

A large animal such as a horse, cow or sheep could do that I suppose.
Sounds extremely cold there. We had 37 today which was very unpleasant in the bee suit.

Could be sheep there's plenty of them around but to push the entrance block in like that? - 8 last night.

37c that does sound um pleasant.

 

[Curly green finger's]

This was yesterday morning when we were travelling to the out apiarys.. Its snowed more since then.

 

[Antipodes]

Could be sheep there's plenty of them around but to push the entrance block in like that? - 8 last night.

37c that does sound um pleasant.

It is a strange one. Do the sheep try to nose around for food? Do they nose around pushing the snow aside I wonder?

 

[Curly green finger's]

It is a strange one. Do the sheep try to nose around for food? Do they nose around pushing the snow aside I wonder?

Last weekend there wasn't snow on the ground, the sheep aren't always in this field as they are free to Rome around the hill and common land.
I've had hives in this apiary for two winters.
Ive spoken to my mate /farmer and I will put a fence up I think, as there will be 12 colonys here in the spring.
Still can't see why a sheep would of pushed the entrance block in like that so far?

Here's a screenshot. Can see the entrance block has been pushed right in.

 

[The Poot]

View attachment 24117View attachment 24118
This was yesterday morning when we were travelling to the out apiarys.. Its snowed more since then.

At least it’s keeping the grockles away

 

[Antipodes]

Last weekend there wasn't snow on the ground, the sheep aren't always in this field as they are free to Rome around the hill and common land.
I've had hives in this apiary for two winters.
Ive spoken to my mate /farmer and I will put a fence up I think, as there will be 12 colonys here in the spring.
Still can't see why a sheep would of pushed the entrance block in like that so far?

Here's a screenshot. Can see the entrance block has been pushed right in.

Is the entrance block inside the hive, out of view?
Any footprints? I see some on the road...

 

[Curly green finger's]

At least it’s keeping the grockles away

We didn't see hardly anyone around only other 4x4s nice for a change.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Is the entrance block inside the hive, out of view?
Any footprints? I see some on the road...

The entrance block has been pushed right in the hive both screw eyes are bent... How would a sheep do that the entrance is to small??

 

[user 819]

Out side my door is a crisp frosty bright sunny morning with clear Blue sky, no snow in sight.

 

[victor meldrew]

Snap ! Evidence of birds feet on three of the landing boards but not attempts at access !

 

[Amari]

Walked about a mile along footpaths to check two hives in an out-apiary. Wonderful 1" deep crunchy snow all the way = much reduced chance of slipping compared with icy surface yesterday. Saw bees munching fondant through the polycarbonate crown boards.
Here at home (medium sized village garden) we have an invasion of fieldfares - hitherto very occasional visitors. We have a large ornamental crab apple tree with (literally) thousands of bright red fruits which are rapidly disappearing.

 

[Apple]

The entrance block has been pushed right in the hive both screw eyes are bent... How would a sheep do that the entrance is to small??

Snow leopard?

 

[Curly green finger's]

Snow leopard?

apple