What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Nannysbees]

Scary day went ahead and did our first ever split. Found the queen so put her in a different hive with eggs brood larvae pollen and nectar.Hive was really calm and bursting with bees, hopefully they'll make a new queen and the newly housed queen will be OK.After the split we were...... should we have done this, should we have done that. So difficult as we are still in our first year of beekeeping having them June last year. Fingers crossed anyway the deed is done

 

[Erichalfbee]

One of the questions I was asked was do bees forage at night or do they come home to bed? This led to asking if they could "see" in the dark as natural hives would be pitch black inside. It got me thinking about reasons not to forage at night. Amongst other factors I could come up with off the top of my head were lower temperatures, plants not producing nectar at night but I'm sure there must be other factors to give a fuller explanation. What else should I have included?

No sun to navigate by?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Scary day went ahead and did our first ever split. Found the queen so put her in a different hive with eggs brood larvae pollen and nectar.Hive was really calm and bursting with bees, hopefully they'll make a new queen and the newly housed queen will be OK.After the split we were...... should we have done this, should we have done that. So difficult as we are still in our first year of beekeeping having them June last year. Fingers crossed anyway the deed is done

Are you going to reduce the emergency cells or leave them to it?

 

[drdrday]

After the split we were...... should we have done this, should we have done that. So difficult as we are still in our first year of beekeeping having them June last year.

I have some laminated crib sheets in my bee bag. Basically they're step by step instructions for different swarm control methods etc. Being a new beek myself I also have those moments of doubt and second guessing myself and sometimes it's not easy to think clearly when you're in the thick of it! Planning and thinking it all through before you open up the hives is one thing but we all know bees rarely follow the plan . Having the crib sheets to hand gives me reassurance and if I do need to do some kind of manipulation I can double check I didn't miss out any vital steps and save disturbing them again!

 

[madasafish]

Hived 5 frame nuc in puchaser's full hive.
Checked poorly nuc which has been vaped. Queen busy laying . Result.

Checked requeened DLQ nuc - Q released.

 

[Nannysbees]

Are you going to reduce the emergency cells or leave them to it?

We have left them to raise their own queen hopefully. Contacted it mentor doesn't have a queen available til June

 

[Nannysbees]

I have some laminated crib sheets in my bee bag. Basically they're step by step instructions for different swarm control methods etc. Being a new beek myself I also have those moments of doubt and second guessing myself and sometimes it's not easy to think clearly when you're in the thick of it! Planning and thinking it all through before you open up the hives is one thing but we all know bees rarely follow the plan . Having the crib sheets to hand gives me reassurance and if I do need to do some kind of manipulation I can double check I didn't miss out any vital steps and save disturbing them again!

That's a good idea, should have had those sheets, the hive was at bursting point so hopefully we have done what we should have!!!

 

[Erichalfbee]

We have left them to raise their own queen hopefully. Contacted it mentor doesn't have a queen available til June

Yes I understand that. They will make emergency cells; lots. Are you going to leave just one?

 

[GuyNir]

Lovely day, 13c sunny. All colonies flying and bringing in pollen by the bucket load. Nice fragrant scent in the air, not sure what it is... looking at the trees, seems all are ~2-3 weeks behind his year.

 

[Newbeeneil]

Set up a new apiary for a new client. All that's left to do is the invoice!

 

[Nannysbees]

Yes I understand that. They will make emergency cells; lots. Are you going to leave just one?

God im not sure, what's the advice? Should I give the new hive with the old queen sugar feed to give them a boost?

 

[user 819]

Transferred a nuc to a poly brood box and gave then 2 frames of extra stores, removed the fondant which had hardly been touched, some good forage at the mo with good fresh nectar. Q is of an unknown age but is likely a 2018 caught as a swarm in early April 2019. Extremely gentle to handle and quiet on the comb, two more Q's raised last year also have the same traits

Carried out a sugar roll on a colony with 17F of brood over 3 boxes (going QXless this year), sample showed zero mites after dissolving the icing sugar. One other lucky colony will also have sugar roll test tomorrow and others on the next inspection probably a fortnight as thus far I see no need yet to go in weekly.

3 weeks since the first quick look at brood and stores and quite happy with there progress.
2 more to look at tomorrow.

 

[Erichalfbee]

God im not sure, what's the advice? Should I give the new hive with the old queen sugar feed to give them a boost?

Presuming you moved them away your nuc will have no foraging bees so needs at least a frames worth of stores to tide them over till foragers are recruited. It’s always a good idea to shake in extra bees when you make a split. I usually shake in an extra two brood frames of bees or the bees from a super.
Going back to the requeening box the bees will make lots of emergency cells. I generally look in again in 5 days to remove all the capped cells and to choose one open one. Then leave alone for three weeks.
People will tell you that bees don’t swarm on emergency cells. Mine did.
You could risk it. I wouldn’t.

 

[Nannysbees]

Presuming you moved them away your nuc will have no foraging bees so needs at least a frames worth of stores to tide them over till foragers are recruited. It’s always a good idea to shake in extra bees when you make a split. I usually shake in an extra two brood frames of bees or the bees from a super.
Going back to the requeening box the bees will make lots of emergency cells. I generally look in again in 5 days to remove all the capped cells and to choose one open one. Then leave alone for three weeks.
People will tell you that bees don’t swarm on emergency cells. Mine did.
You could risk it. I wouldn’t.

Thank you, we did put in a frame of pollen and a frame of honey, but didn't shake any extra bees than what was on the frame, we did have a panic attack after thinking we should have shaken more bees in. Could we do that tomorrow or do we need the queenless hive to be left unopened? Could we feed the old queen in the new hive with sugar water?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Thank you, we did put in a frame of pollen and a frame of honey, but didn't shake any extra bees than what was on the frame, we did have a panic attack after thinking we should have shaken more bees in. Could we do that tomorrow or do we need the queenless hive to be left unopened? Could we feed the old queen in the new hive with sugar water?

If they have a frame of honey then leave alone for a few days then check stores before you feed. You can go back tomorrow to shake in more bees.

 

[Nannysbees]

If they have a frame of honey then leave alone for a few days then check stores before you feed. You can go back tomorrow to shake in more bees.

Brilliant thank you

 

[Ian123]

Made up some Nucs this afternoon in anticipation of some queens arriving tomorrow. Plenty of nectar falling out the frames, the bees had been on the laurels all day

 

[Repwoc]

plants not producing nectar at night

Don't moths collect nectar at night?

 

[pargyle]

Please don’t ask. Started the shenanigans at 10am and finished at 7.30pm.

p.s. Must increase my hive numbers to 5 although did have 6 for a short period of time today.

p.p.s. Does anyone else ever go to sleep with the sound of buzzing in their ears?

We've all been there at some point ... not much imagination needed .... there are those days when things just don't go according to plan.

Not on your scale but peeking in through the clear crownboard to the colony that I transferred a Nuc into yesterday I realised that in my excitement of playing with my bees for the first time in months I had forgotten to install the frame runners ... doh ... Not thinking of the logistics I went and got suited up .. retrieved a set of runners from the chamber of secrets - of course, this was just going to be a five minute job I didn't need my smoker ..

It didn't dawn on me until I had cracked the crownboard that you can't install the runners in the slots in a paynes poly hive with all the frames in the hive, although I did try - and failed ! By this time my little darlings were less than impressed with me interfering with their new home less than 24 hours since they took up residence ... but I don't know when to give up so ... I went and got another hive ... which unfortunately was full of drawn frames ... so I stacked them in the upturned roof - there must have been a few frames with some capped stores in them as the pile was immediately attacked by bees from the rest of the apiary ...

Then I moved the frames of bees out of the box into the spare one,... inserted the runners in the new hive and attempted to put it all back together ... realising by now that a lit smoker might have been a good idea ... and the little darlings that yesterday were a delight to handle had turned into evil haridens intent it seemed on killing me ....

I do sometimes wonder why it is, when I tell people to plan ahead, never do things in the heat of the moment and in haste, to have everything you need to hand and prepared BEFORE starting out and always to have a smoker lit and ready even when you think you don't need it ... that somehow or other all that great advice somehow slips my mind ....

And to cap it all one of the little devils chased my long suffering, bee hating, wife into the kitchen - or so she claims ....

So yes ... I will probably be going to sleep with the sound of buzzing in my ears !

 

[user 819]

I did notice in one colony some pale green /pastel shade pollen baskets all I can find that match's is Meadowsweet.