What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Worldsend]

Very chilly and high winds then at 1600 one of my hives decided to swarm- didn't look ready last weekend

Surprised as weather wasn't warm

Circled hives ignored a number of bait boxes and cleared off

 

[holmbee]

Carried out my first demaree today on three rapidly expanding colonies - all stuffed with brood. Used the boards suggested by JBM in February that I recently made up. Took the opportunity to remark the queens as they had become rather faint. All going well with these although two colonies are rather assertive - will requeen later. Several drones now appearing on the frames but not startng to fly. Should be putting second supers on in a day or two.
Michael

 

[Robert Denny]

Hi Rob . They are black plastic. I googled 40lt storage box and they came up on Argos web site ...pack of 2 for £20.
No this will be my first year trying out swarm traps..
I have screwed in some batten to support the frames I also added some ventilation
(HOLE COVERD WITH 1mm MESH and stuck with white no nails) befor I read that ventilation wasn't recommended. I can fit 6 national deep frames in without modification 10 if i shortend the lugs on 4 of them.

Mark,
That’s really helpful. Thank you very much.

 

[user 819]

Very chilly and high winds then at 1600 one of my hives decided to swarm- didn't look ready last weekend

Surprised as weather wasn't warm

Circled hives ignored a number of bait boxes and cleared off

The buggers can be very handy at hiding a QC.

 

[StephenT]

The buggers can be very handy at hiding a QC.

Yep. My wife and I were doing this the other day. Shake the bees off the comb, I check it for QCs and then hand it to my wife to spot any I missed (and there was a couple of 'hidden ones' she spotted).

 

[Swarm]

Not the best day, sun tried but failed and a nasty cold wind persisted all day, my back is in half after crouching over the hives trying to keep the wind off the poor things. I couldn't be more proud of the bees, all were acceptable temperament wise and some were exceptional, like little statues motionless on the comb, I can't wait to see these again on a nice day.
Ten queens marked and supers added where needed, some are just ticking along and others are going to town, Lifted up a big, shiny bumble bee with one frame, poor thing.
Three hives in and my day was made as Lagertha made an appearance, such a beautiful queen.
I found a hive with a single, charged cell on Monday, quite advanced and being elongated. Saw BIAS but didn't spot the queen so investigated today. They are on double brood, there were no signs of cups on any frame, queen seen and cell had been torn down.
Left rehousing the two colonies due to go until tomorrow and kinder weather.

 

[Goran]

Last 2 days we had decent temps so bees could get out after some cold period.. Saw some wild cherries survived frosts ( late bloomers or so), wild apples start to bloom.. Ubelievable. Yesterday opened one hive aaand of course in time of waiting to can go out in boredom they start qcells.. At the other side is full of pollen and fresh nectar.. How the hell they manage it in few days so much to bring.. When shake a frame, nectar splash down.. Anyway I wasn't right for split, just torn down qcells to get couple days and will do light split.. It is on 7 brood frames and it stopped, it shouldn't act this way and the queen has no bright future at my apiary..

 

[Erichalfbee]

Not the best day, sun tried but failed and a nasty cold wind persisted all day, my back is in half after crouching over the hives trying to keep the wind off the poor things. I couldn't be more proud of the bees, all were acceptable temperament wise and some were exceptional, like little statues motionless on the comb, I can't wait to see these again on a nice day.
Ten queens marked and supers added where needed, some are just ticking along and others are going to town, Lifted up a big, shiny bumble bee with one frame, poor thing.
Three hives in and my day was made as Lagertha made an appearance, such a beautiful queen.
I found a hive with a single, charged cell on Monday, quite advanced and being elongated. Saw BIAS but didn't spot the queen so investigated today. They are on double brood, there were no signs of cups on any frame, queen seen and cell had been torn down.
Left rehousing the two colonies due to go until tomorrow and kinder weather.

Lagertha lives........brilliant

 

[Newbeeneil]

7.30am this morning and the second apiary set up this week! This one for an existing customer who wanted to double their hives. They have already placed an order for another 5 hives next spring.

 

[jeff33]

2nd demaree of the season and started my first round of selected culling which should take me to mid-May by the time the new queens are ready to emerge. The spring flow has started here, dandelion mostly with hawthorn and blossom on the way.

 

[jeff33]

7.30am this morning and the second apiary set up this week! This one for an existing customer who wanted to double their hives. They have already placed an order for another 5 hives next spring.View attachment 25600

Do you sell them the job lot, hive+bees+stand?

 

[Newbeeneil]

Do you sell them the job lot, hive+bees+stand?

Yes,

 

[Erichalfbee]

Second supers on three hives
Two supersedure cells in one colony. Couldn’t see queen but eggs present.
Patchy drones in this one so bees are replacing her
Left them to it.

 

[madasafish]

14C sunny and windless.

Converted an overwintered Keiler three box nuc - bursting at the seams - to a 5 frame national.
Moved 8 frames sealed brood into national brood frames with/without comb using cable ties. The remaining 6 Keiler frames of brood/partially sealed BIAS and eggs were left in one Keiler super placed on top of the National nuc over a QE. When they emerge ,it will be removed.

Found the Q who had been marked blue - now worn off - or supersceded? - on the daffodils where I dropped a frame (oops- senior moment)

Took about 3 hours thinking and preparation and 30 minutes doing the transfer itself.

 

[Swarm]

Plans changed a little after finding the hives that the customer dropped off were WBC. We'd better see if these overwintered 'nucs' were going to fit. No, they wouldn't. Salvaged some old nationals which would do for transport and had to jam all twelve frames into them, they had eggs on frame eleven and twelve was full and heavy with nectar. Beautiful colonies, really thriving and in desperate need of more space.

 

[Nannysbees]

Inspected Daisy's hive yesterday, just over a week since we last went in and the increase in numbers of bees was incredible, unlike the other hive we had to split, a few small cups with nothing in, just a few drones and plenty of stores. Ticking along nicely. Would love to see what's going on in our queenless hive but have to be patient and hope they are doing what they should be

 

[The Poot]

Plans changed a little after finding the hives that the customer dropped off were WBC. We'd better see if these overwintered 'nucs' were going to fit. No, they wouldn't. Salvaged some old nationals which would do for transport and had to jam all twelve frames into them, they had eggs on frame eleven and twelve was full and heavy with nectar. Beautiful colonies, really thriving and in desperate need of more space.

Oops - minor oversight
Moderator now? Nice one.

 

[Loxley]

Got a bait hive out on the roof today (easily accessed off the balcony) i've done a better job of the setup this year so fingers crossed!

 

[Sayle]

Opened up the hive and found that while they aren't queenless they might as well be - Her Majesty isn't laying at all. Her attendants clearly want her to, but she isn't having any of it. What's worse is that the colony clearly realised that she wasn't up to standard too late, because they had no eggs to put in the supercedure queen cup they made. It's a sad sight to see whole frames of bees just...sitting there and doing nothing. I'm having to transfer a frame of brood and curlies in to kickstart the process again, that or if a swarm just wanders along I'll combine.

Either way, the workforce is still collecting lots of nectar and pollen, so this is a setback rather than a death sentence. I'm guessing they were a cast swarm and something went wrong with her mating flight. But then I'd expect lots of drones, not nothing at all...who knows.

 

[Swarm]

Last round of queen marking today at my friend's very picturesque apiary. I did a nice 5 min video of an Amm colony
Never mind the money calm bull.
My mate was unimpressed to find charged cells in the first hive but there were no signs with the rest, thankfully.