What did you do in the Apiary today?

[GuyNir]

Welcomed rain today ️ 🌧 Was getting a bit dry the last few weeks

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Welcomed rain today 🌧 Was getting a bit dry the last few weeks

Its forecast for here but no sign of arrival and the sky doesn't look like any will arrive sometime soon.

 

[Anthony Appleyard]

I never clip Queens. None of them are going to leave at the moment anyway!

An ancient Roman source about bees advised beekeepers to remove the wings from their "kings" to prevent swarming.

 

[Anthony Appleyard]

Welcomed rain today 🌧 Was getting a bit dry the last few weeks

Ditto. Last year's May drought was a disaster, it wiped out my soft fruit crop.

 

[The Poot]

Checked H4 for possible dlq as lower brood box had two frames of solid drone brood last week. Checked top box and found 7 frames solid worker brood and the rest nectar being back filled. Added qx and two drawn supers. This first year queen is well into gear it seems.
No queen cells found, but I’m expecting them any time soon,, but hoping the extra space might deter them.

 

[Erichalfbee]

An ancient Roman source about bees advised beekeepers to remove the wings from their "kings" to prevent swarming.

More drastic than clipping but would work equally well in preventing the first swarm.
The king is, of course, the queen

 

[victor meldrew]

More drastic than clipping but would work equally well in preventing the first swarm.
The king is, of course, the queen

The Turks call her the mother !

 

[Swn58]

An ancient Roman source about bees advised beekeepers to remove the wings from their "kings" to prevent swarming.

Says it all really. They did not understand bees, even getting their sex wrong. I think they actually destroyed their colonies every year to extract honey as well.
'What did the Romans ever do for us?' I hear people say. They taught us that life was even cheaper then than in an ISIS ruled country. Slavery was totally okay. Social injustice for women and children was rife and total dominance of conquered nations was controlled by massacres and genocide.
Never mind aye. At least they knew how to clip their 'kings!'

 

[DaveG23]

That nice high pressure has broken today, back to 11 degrees or so, cloudy and gusty...

Had to rescue a small cluster that had not yet worked out how to use the entrance on their hive after being promoted from a nuc on Sunday. They were a bit chilled but still kicking so in to the top of the hive, hopefully all warmed up now.

 

[Ian123]

A

Says it all really. They did not understand bees, even getting their sex wrong. I think they actually destroyed their colonies every year to extract honey as well.
'What did the Romans ever do for us?' I hear people say. They taught us that life was even cheaper then than in an ISIS ruled country. Slavery was totally okay. Social injustice for women and children was rife and total dominance of conquered nations was controlled by massacres and genocide.
Never mind aye. At least they knew how to clip their 'kings!'

Any thing else you’d like to blame the Romans for. Did they nick your goat or something

 

[Kaz]

2 artificial swarms, one mating nuc created and 2 sealed (supercedure) queen cells harvested and added to the nuc in roller cages. A busy day...

 

[Swn58]

Did they nick your goat or something

Baaaa!

 

[Ian123]

Baaaa!

Your concerns of atrocities against sheep are noted

 

[einsteinagogo]

28th April 2021

Flamed and scorched woodwork.
Weather yesterday was cloudy, 13 degrees C, sun occasionally out, but breezey from NE (cold). I was hesitant about moving colonies onto my woodwork, but yesterday based on forecast better days for next week according to 5 day forecasts.


Moved the new colonies from Hive 13 onto new floor, new bb, new crownboard, added QX, added super and fed with fondant and ultra bee patie. This will be known as Hive 1.

Moved the new colonies from Hive 25 onto new floor, new bb, new crownboard, added QX, added super and fed with fondant and ultra bee patie. This will be known as Hive 2. This colony is much larger than Hive 1.

too cold for full inspections, check within 7 days.

 

[jeff33]

swear at one of my hive that has made preparation to swarm without even filling up a super. Queen put in the nuc, all cells removed apart from one, all drone brood below the brood frames removed so I don't get these to mate with my virgins this year. I had to do another demaree and introduced a selected frame of brood in a queenless hive following a cull 8 days ago.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Checked 2 top Demaree boxes in the cold. No queen cells just wall to wall capped brood.
I hope they aren’t making QCs in the bottom

 

[jeff33]

Checked 2 top Demaree boxes in the cold. No queen cells just wall to wall capped brood.
I hope they aren’t making QCs in the bottom

Only 1 out of 4 have made Qcs in the top box so far.

 

[GuyNir]

Grey and too cold here to do any bee work.

 

[einsteinagogo]

Today, I've been back to the apiary (well it's only 60 seconds away!) to place two "shunts" between hive floor and stand, which have a design fault and bees miss the entrance and go under the floor, and in the past using these hive stands I've ended up with bees under the OMF, building wild comb! So this is sorted, maybe I need to use landing boards !!! I'll have to think on that....

 

[enrico]

Today, I've been back to the apiary (well it's only 60 seconds away!) to place two "shunts" between hive floor and stand, which have a design fault and bees miss the entrance and go under the floor, and in the past using these hive stands I've ended up with bees under the OMF, building wild comb! So this is sorted, maybe I need to use landing boards !!! I'll have to think on that....

Glad you have noticed them there. You can lose alot of bees that way with these cold nights