What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Antipodes]

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.

Does she look mated?

 

[BigAshW]

Seven days from the last inspection.

The demaree from last week has produced a bunch of queen cells. Picked the one that was just being capped and took a nuc from them.
The bottom box was drawing out comb from the starter strips and queen has started laying up new cells.

The next two strongest hives all with 8 frames of brood each were demareed this time around.

Next hive not as strong and I had suspicions that this particular line is a bit swarmy. Found eggs in cups. Put a super on them and will check later on to see if they're serious.

The overwintered nuc is progressing well in their new box.

At home the tiny colony we rescued from a. Fallen tree is flying well but I've not looked in. They had a tiny handful of bees and a queen when we got to them so popped them in a polynuc with drawn frames and stores and gave them a pollen patty and have left them to get on with it.

 

[Erichalfbee]

2 Demarees done in the sunshine.

 

[victor meldrew]

Gave a Queenless colony a frame of brood all stages yesterday .
The bees were hopelessly queenless !
They had given up !
Today , this colony is supercharged!!
They’ve gone from sitting there in a hive full of stores to over drive.
I hope they are big enough to raise a Queen and young enough to to raise any resultant brood.
Some of the brood given were emerging hopefully to augment the colony !

 

[Ian123]

Sycamore is flowering here along with Laurel and dandelion, quite a good flow on.

 

[Swn58]

Went back to see my allotment apiary. Last Sunday I false-swarmed one hive, putting the queen in a nuc. The queen-less hive has a few drawn queen cells. One lovely one has already been moved to another nuc with frames of brood and food. It seemed like a good opportunity! The original queen in the nuc seems fine and they have settled down well.
The 'superhive?' I've created a monster! They have already drawn most of the ten extra foundation frames and there is a lot of pollen being placed in them. I had added a super on top of the two brood boxes. Even that was full of bees, loading the frames with nectar. I think that I will have to keep a close eye on this lot. They are housed in a Paradise hive. Some of my hives at the allotment are still wooden. I have found that the Paradise boxes 'expand' at a great rate, with end to end frame usage by their occupants, unlike their wooden counterparts. I don't fancy them swarming!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Saturday - so lazy day today, did the apiaries a stone's throw from Brynmair, all ticking along nicely, all piling in pollen and nectar as this year it seems there's been a dandelion explosion. One hive which I was a bit concerned with last year is now bouncing along - packed with brood and desparate for a fourth super, unheard of around here where we are still waiting patiently for the hawthorn to start! - it's the same story over at the castle, giving some hives two supers - even the old red queen which I had a mind to replace last spring!

 

[BigAshW]

Saturday - so lazy day today, did the apiaries a stone's throw from Brynmair, all ticking along nicely, all piling in pollen and nectar as this year it seems there's been a dandelion explosion. One hive which I was a bit concerned with last year is now bouncing along - packed with brood and desparate for a fourth super, unheard of around here where we are still waiting patiently for the hawthorn to start! - it's the same story over at the castle, giving some hives two supers - even the old red queen which I had a mind to replace last spring!
View attachment 25662

Wow that's impressive. I put supers on for space on my strongest hives but they haven't really touched them here in Essex. I shall have to have words with them and point out that they're obviously behind schedule.

 

[gmonag]

Wow that's impressive. I put supers on for space on my strongest hives but they haven't really touched them here in Essex. I shall have to have words with them and point out that they're obviously behind schedule.

Not really, here in Suffolk things are still very slow too.

 

[Antipodes]

Not really, here in Suffolk things are still very slow too.

Been dry?

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Went to see a fellow beek to loan her one of my spare Abelo 14x12 poly hives. She invited me to have a look through a colony in a different brand 14x12 poly she had overwintered. The hive was in a cool spot under the shade of some trees and even at 10.30 the bees were still sitting at home waiting for the temperature to rise. Being used to Abelo polyhives I found the frame runners in this particular polyhive inconvenient to lift frames out of because even the slightest build up of propolis or wax on the sides of the frames dragged on the plastic moulding of the support rails. Certainly not the smooth operation I'm used to. I wasn't familiar with model of hive. I suppose the groove in the moulding provides an easy route for a J hive tool but in my estimation the dragging requires more lifting effort on an already heavy frame full of brood and outweighs any benefits. On chatting with her she had noted the same effort difficulty. I could see an intention for the shape of the runner as it held the frame central in the box to maintain beespace between box wall and side of frame just a pity it simply created a secondary problem.

 

[BigAshW]

Been dry?

Yes it has here. Haven't had any proper rainfall for a while in Essex.

 

[gmonag]

Been dry?

Yes. No rain here for ~6 weeks

 

[Moobee]

Hive check yesterday, amazing how you can easily spot the queen now she is marked!
I’m running out of space though. I’m on brood & a half and moved the half from under the brood box to on top early April but think I’ve created a block as it was still pretty full of stores after the winter and the bees are not storing at all in the recently added super. There were only a few bees wandering around up there. I’ve taken a frame of stores from the brood box and added fresh foundation but I’m already on 7 frames of brood (majority capped) and she’s laying well. Read somewhere (Wally Shaw?) that if you nadir a super of stores and scratch the cappings, it will make the bees redistribute the stores upwards and free up the brood area space. Does that sound like a plan?

 

[Boston Bees]

Hive check yesterday, amazing how you can easily spot the queen now she is marked!
I’m running out of space though. I’m on brood & a half and moved the half from under the brood box to on top early April but think I’ve created a block as it was still pretty full of stores after the winter and the bees are not storing at all in the recently added super. There were only a few bees wandering around up there. I’ve taken a frame of stores from the brood box and added fresh foundation but I’m already on 7 frames of brood (majority capped) and she’s laying well. Read somewhere (Wally Shaw?) that if you nadir a super of stores and scratch the cappings, it will make the bees redistribute the stores upwards and free up the brood area space. Does that sound like a plan?

Could you not put the new super under the overwintered super?

 

[elainemary]

Went back to see my allotment apiary. Last Sunday I false-swarmed one hive, putting the queen in a nuc. The queen-less hive has a few drawn queen cells. One lovely one has already been moved to another nuc with frames of brood and food. It seemed like a good opportunity! The original queen in the nuc seems fine and they have settled down well.
The 'superhive?' I've created a monster! They have already drawn most of the ten extra foundation frames and there is a lot of pollen being placed in them. I had added a super on top of the two brood boxes. Even that was full of bees, loading the frames with nectar. I think that I will have to keep a close eye on this lot. They are housed in a Paradise hive. Some of my hives at the allotment are still wooden. I have found that the Paradise boxes 'expand' at a great rate, with end to end frame usage by their occupants, unlike their wooden counterparts. I don't fancy them swarming!

Maybe clip the queen so if they get ahead of you, you won’t lose the bees? Know not everyone wants to do this, have found with out apiaries it works well esp after a period of bad weather followed by sunshine and you can’t get round them all at the same time! Have just done all of mine

 

[Moobee]

Could you not put the new super under the overwintered super?

Hmmmm, but then I would be back to a single brood box as I don’t want my previously nadired super above the QX as it was used for brood last year.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Hive check yesterday, amazing how you can easily spot the queen now she is marked!
I’m running out of space though. I’m on brood & a half and moved the half from under the brood box to on top early April but think I’ve created a block as it was still pretty full of stores after the winter and the bees are not storing at all in the recently added super. There were only a few bees wandering around up there. I’ve taken a frame of stores from the brood box and added fresh foundation but I’m already on 7 frames of brood (majority capped) and she’s laying well. Read somewhere (Wally Shaw?) that if you nadir a super of stores and scratch the cappings, it will make the bees redistribute the stores upwards and free up the brood area space. Does that sound like a plan?

Take the half brood away. They are not going to move capped stores with a flow on. Give them a new half brood.

 

[Moobee]

Take the half brood away. They are not going to move capped stores with a flow on. Give them a new half brood.

Ah thanks. On top or underneath?

 

[Sayle]

Does she look mated?

She laid happily enough through all of last year and the early weeks of spring, so it's a bit baffling why she decided to stop now. My guess is either she didn't mate properly and ran out of sperm (but then why no drones?) or is just too old. It's possible her rather uninspiring laying last year (which I put down to the small swarm struggling to get going - it really was miniscule, and spent a night outside in the rain on a lawn of all things before coming to me) was a harbinger of things to come, but you make do with what you have.