What did you do in the Apiary today?

[gmonag]

RFOL ... I'll add another 'good yorkshire saying' N'er cast a clout till May is out' .... even down here in the Costa del Fareham ...

It's good advice. Some mistakenly think that "May" refers to the month, but in fact it means the Mayflower (Hawthorn).

 

[Murox]

Checked the hives tis afternoon, all looking good with young bees popping up to say hello.

 

[pargyle]

Character.

Characterful it may be but ... it is a BIG crack ... here's the solution ...superglue and epoxy putty ... only fear I have is whether my reactions are quick enough to get out of the way if it decides to part company with the lathe ... Wouldn't be the first time I've had to duck wood shrapnel !

 

[sean-a]

Two nucs and a hive in a cherry orchard are doing well.
The hive I am particularly pleased with as I thought `i had killed them off with feeding syrup.
I had a poly brrodbox on with a feeder ontop of the glass crownboard, but the lid of the feeder had come off and a mass of bees had got into the brood box and perished.
Sealed in up and plonked a lump of fondant on the hive a few weeks ago and repurposed a christmas jumper to keep them a bit warmer.
Lots of bees and activity today with pollen coming in. No fondant eaten though,
If it's warm enough I May rehive one of the Nucs tomorrow into a broodbox so if I do that, I might consider donating a frame of brood to the hive to boost the hive and knock back the nuc

 

[drex]

All hives hefted ok yesterday in the sunshine. By the feel of them I may have to remove some frames of stores later on. Bees frantically busy for about an hour round 1pm, mainly orientation flights, then settled to foraging. Lots collecting water. A bit of pollen going in.

 

[Murox]

Spent some time improving access to new apiary site today, gates will now open; the weather being soft showed that although not as sheltered as it might be, most prevailing wind is filtered by some conifer trees, from heavy wind; the NWesterly breeze of today was barley noticeable and an agreeable 12 degrees in the spot I was clearing today.

 

[holmbee]

All five hives flying well today. Lots of afternoon sunshine and temperature over 15c. Three very good colonies so looking forward to first inspection, meanwhile keeping close eye on fondant levels. Plenty of pollen coming in mainly from lesser celandine (bright yellow) but also more subdued colours - could be more hazel which has been sought after on recent sunny days.
Michael

 

[GuyNir]

All hives flying today. A bit windy, but sunny 12c. First time this year seeing full pollen basket brought in (gorse or willow by the colour, though I can’t see where it’s coming from...)

 

[Newbeeneil]

Checked 3 of my hives in a very large garden for stores and had to add fondant to one as it was light. All three were extremely busy.
Drove next door to an even bigger garden and picked up an order for supply and maintenance of another 2 hives. That's orders for 14 new ones so far this year!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Just watched the bees piling in the pollen during the brief, cold but sunny spell this afternoon

 

[understanding_bees]

Might have bitten off more than I can chew this time it was so out of balance the lathe was walking round the workshop...

If you want to make a bowl from something so irregularly shaped, there are two different things that you could do to make the whole process safer. There are various epoxy resins which have excellent adhesive (and filling) properties. If you use this kind of material, you could establish this block of wood as a "solidified" piece, which is in far less danger of flying apart. The other thing I would suggest is that you could use a "router style" cutting blade in a small angle grinder, to preshape your work piece. Rather than having a rapidly rotating (out of balance) piece of wood moving past a stationary chisel, you could then have a rapidly moving cutting blade held in a fixed position against a slowly rotating irregular piece of wood.

 

[Swn58]

I've just come back from collecting some cuttings from a special 'pom-pom' buddleia a few streets away. Like all of these species, it was attracting a lot of bees last summer.
It was a bit of a 'Ninja raid,' as the area is not good to be seen hanging around in, wielding a pair of secateurs!
I hope to get some of these plants established near my hives. My job now is to pot them up. I will take photos of what I'm doing in case anyone is interested? Better than the one I've just uploaded I hope!

 

[pargyle]

If you want to make a bowl from something so irregularly shaped, there are two different things that you could do to make the whole process safer. There are various epoxy resins which have excellent adhesive (and filling) properties. If you use this kind of material, you could establish this block of wood as a "solidified" piece, which is in far less danger of flying apart. The other thing I would suggest is that you could use a "router style" cutting blade in a small angle grinder, to preshape your work piece. Rather than having a rapidly rotating (out of balance) piece of wood moving past a stationary chisel, you could then have a rapidly moving cutting blade held in a fixed position against a slowly rotating irregular piece of wood.

Thank you ... I got away with it ... fortunately, I have a full air fed mask that also incorporates a bump cap so, for once, I felt reasonably well protected ... the epoxy putty and super glue held it together although even when roughly shaped it was a bit unbalanced. Yew has areas of heartwood and pith that are very different in density and that adds to the imbalance - more so on a bowl this size.

Art or Firewood ? Be honest ...
#Post 45

 

[BugsInABox]

Was excepting to give a zoom leacture but was a week too early. . Anyway slides done now. So unexpected free afternoon. Blue sky, 10deg. Got my new macro binoculars and just watching them. Busy busy - loads of bright yellow nectar and occasional greasy looking cream stuff I suspect is hellebore. Probably 2/3 returning bees have a full looking pollen load.

 

[Newbeeneil]

Spent some time investigating a colony in the cavity of a wall of one of my landlords. As I was watching some bees using the entrance all of a sudden a large bumble bee barged past them into the void! It could be interesting when I come to "milk" the bees off the colony in the next couple of weeks!

 

[Camey]

Best day of the year up in FIFE. Sunny, no clouds, no wind, 14°C. Bees all out busy bringing in Pollen ( Snowdrop)Took opportunity to have a short look under crownboard with the plan to check and remove any remaining fondant dependant on what I saw. Result was to leave the fondant in place as the bees were all over it. Still enough left to not require adding any more. Closed up and will check again in a week. Also planned to reduce over wintered brood and a half back to x1 brood, again not really wishing to disturb them, I decided to place a QE between brood and the super, with the thought that hopefully the "super" brood will emerge and then super will be clear and queen was in bottom brood box, thus allowing me to get them back to x1 brood box. Also spent a good amount of time drinking coffee and watching the bees flying to and fro. Got me thinking regards water carrying. Most of the books ect Ive read kind of suggest that the bees will be dedicated to specific tasks as required, E.G. water carrying bees will collect water to tranfer to bees in hive until the signal that no more water required. What I did notice today was that some bees would fly direct from hive straight to water source, drink the water, then fly directly back to hive. Other bees would be on a return flight from foraging complete with pollen baggage and decide to drop of for a drink prior to returning to hive. Wondered if they were individually autonomous and just decide to stop of for drink as a last second thought or if they are programmed more for the colony dynamics, or a mixture of both, interesting to watch.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I've just come back from collecting some cuttings from a special 'pom-pom' buddleia

That will be Buddleja globosa then probably

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Nothing in the apiary today got a call from the surgery to say, as I'm in group six, I could pop over the hospital and get my first covid jab, it's less than five minutes walk away, so off I went.
Now sat in a darkened room waiting for the microchip to boot itself up and my tail to finish growing.

 

[Boston Bees]

Also planned to reduce over wintered brood and a half back to x1 brood, again not really wishing to disturb them, I decided to place a QE between brood and the super, with the thought that hopefully the "super" brood will emerge and then super will be clear and queen was in bottom brood box, thus allowing me to get them back to x1 brood box.

Good idea, but you have a few nights of sub 5C temps coming .... I would delay that manoeuvre for at least a fortnight, to help them to keep their broodnest warm ....

 

[GuyNir]

All colonies flying as beautiful 14c sunny day. Watched all entrances, all except one nuc bringing in lots of pollen. This one nuc, bees are flying but no pollen coming in - day like today, not a good sign...