What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Antipodes]

Just watched them for a bit at lunchtime and complimented them on being so tolerant of me standing right next to the hives. Plenty of pollen coming in, with a good variety of colours. Noticed what looks like neatly removed brood caps on one of the landing boards and more on the ground on front. Why would they be uncapped in this manner or could they be older stores caps?

I could be convinced they are caps from the top of queen cells

 

[Courty]

Put supers on three hives in an apiary in the sun, all out flying and lovely to see. I still haven’t inspected yet due to the cold weather, I won’t have another chance for the next week so hopefully I can relax and know they have plenty of room to play with for a while.
On one hive they had built a lot of brace comb between the frames and crown board. I slowly and gently twisted the CB back and forth until it came free. Unfortunately this made some of the frames skewiff, the price of mixing Hoffman frames with DN1’s with plastic spacers on and Hofmann spacers, they just don’t quite meet correctly when mixed.
I just hope I didn’t squash anything important.
one day I will have all matching compatible equipment.

Courty

 

[Antipodes]

Just watched them for a bit at lunchtime and complimented them on being so tolerant of me standing right next to the hives. Plenty of pollen coming in, with a good variety of colours. Noticed what looks like neatly removed brood caps on one of the landing boards and more on the ground on front. Why would they be uncapped in this manner or could they be older stores caps?

When did you last have a good look at the brood in that hive Stephen?

 

[StephenT]

When did you last have a good look at the brood in that hive Stephen?

13 days ago, before it started getting cold again. No sign of any QC’s back then. We’ll see what’s going on when I have a look next weekend.

 

[StephenT]

Just watched my ‘Buckfast’ hive swarm. Double brooded them a couple of weeks back. Plenty of room etc. Settling on next doors cherry tree so will have to go and catch them. Don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

 

[Antipodes]

Just watched my ‘Buckfast’ hive swarm. Double brooded them a couple of weeks back. Plenty of room etc. Settling on next doors cherry tree so will have to go and catch them. Don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

They are shocking like that. Good luck with them. You'll get 'em. I'd suggest taking appropriate steps to prevent cast swarms from this hive.
I'd check that other colony before the weekend too. You may know this already, but when you open the lid, any imprisoned queens can escape their cells as the guards get distracted, so it's not unusual to see lots of virgin queens all of a sudden.

 

[Erichalfbee]

You may know this already, but when you open the lid, any imprisoned queens can escape their cells as the guards get distracted, so it's not unusual to see lots of virgin queens all of a sudden.

Like this?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/gtlcs8ay6gs2qpz/Emerging Virgin Queens.MOV?dl=0

 

[E&MBees]

Just watched my ‘Buckfast’ hive swarm. Double brooded them a couple of weeks back. Plenty of room etc. Settling on next doors cherry tree so will have to go and catch them. Don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Bother! I know it’s no consolation, but my ‘Buckfasts’ swarmed last year on the 10th of April. They settled on the neighbours deck chair. I caught them, and they tried twice more to go before finally giving in.

 

[Antipodes]

Like this?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/gtlcs8ay6gs2qpz/Emerging Virgin Queens.MOV?dl=0

Yeah, fun and games!

 

[CaptainCymru]

Set up swarm traps in the garden !

 

[Boston Bees]

During a sunny spell today I checked the entrances of all hives for drones (I have yet to inspect inside hives at all, and am paranoid about swarms).

Just one hive (a 6-over-6 frame double nuc) had drones, and it had quite a lot of them. This scared me into doing a first inspection on that colony.

I took the opportunity to move them into a full sized hive.

No swarm cells, thankfully. Quite a bit of brood. About 10 frames of bees (bees not brood). Not that much honey, so feeding them now.

Slightly more relaxed on the other colonies now that there were no swarm cells (or even cups) in the one colony that was producing drones. This may be foolish. Am I right in thinking that hives that intend to swarm generally produce their own drones first?

 

[CaptainCymru]

During a sunny spell today I checked the entrances of all hives for drones (I have yet to inspect inside hives at all, and am paranoid about swarms).

Just one hive (a 6-over-6 frame double nuc) had drones, and it had quite a lot of them. This scared me into doing a first inspection on that colony.

I took the opportunity to move them into a full sized hive.

No swarm cells, thankfully. Quite a bit of brood. About 10 frames of bees (bees not brood). Not that much honey, so feeding them now.

Slightly more relaxed on the other colonies now that there were no swarm cells (or even cups) in the one colony that was producing drones.

What size frames were in the nuc?

 

[Boston Bees]

What size frames were in the nuc?

National brood

 

[CaptainCymru]

National brood

Ah right !

 

[Bear]

Inspected 2 hives and 1 nuc, marked the queens and clipped 1. Put a super on 1 hive, need to ready a hive for the nuc.

 

[BugsInABox]

Just watched my ‘Buckfast’ hive swarm. Double brooded them a couple of weeks back. Plenty of room etc. Settling on next doors cherry tree so will have to go and catch them. Don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

But kudos to antipodes

I could be convinced they are caps from the top of queen cells

 

[tom8400]

Added another brood box to a 6frame nuc it's now 3xbrood bit worried about moving them to wood while weather still got cold nights ahead. They were filling the roof space of the poly nuc. Next warm day il have to check a couple of the heaviest hives for any swarm plans, as there are lots of drones in nucs and a weaker hive.

 

[Goran]

Yesterday and today some snow has fallen and blowing cold.. Seems as watching snow at some of your areas we are not too far. Here already many proclaim catastrophe for the fruits and for our main bee forage - black locust.. Will have to wait few days when frosts finish.. to see if something survived ( if any).. I am in belief this will additionally increase abandoning villages and agriculture as a whole.. " When is ball, let it be thunder ball" .. unbelievable..

 

[Nannysbees]

Did inspection today the one hive ticking along nicely the other has exploded.masses of drones,crammed with bees couldn't find the Queen but have eggs larvae and brood, lots of cups some with eggs. Should we have done a split at this stage?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Did inspection today the one hive ticking along nicely the other has exploded.masses of drones,crammed with bees couldn't find the Queen but have eggs larvae and brood, lots of cups some with eggs. Should we have done a split at this stage?

Cups with eggs are not queen cells. I would have looked again in three days.