What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Gilberdyke John]

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.

Not seen you for a while. How are you?

 

[einsteinagogo]

Not seen you for a while. How are you?

A little off topic, but If I'm allowed out to play, may catch up with you in June, at Beverley and York Auctions ! Socially distancing of course!

 

[GuyNir]

Still quite cloudy & chilly. Overnight temps still close to freezing. Looking at the forecast, won’t get above 10c before mid May. A bit rubbish TBH.

 

[einsteinagogo]

Still quite cloudy & chilly. Overnight temps still close to freezing. Looking at the forecast, won’t get above 10c before mid May. A bit rubbish TBH.

same here, -6 degrees C last night hard frost this morning, I'm glad I took the opportunity to super up, on Wed. Day time temp at present 5 degrees C, but hives are in the sun now, so may warm up, purchased a Min/Max Therm. today for the Apiary. 4 Fields of OSR nearby, less than 500m. Although this is getting rarer, because of lack of spraying and flea beetle attacks in my area.

I really need to get on, and paint all the supers, and plan for swarming, and bait hives.

Off to Abelo later this afternoon, to collect some dummy boards, and fondant!

 

[Erichalfbee]

Hail at the moment

 

[gregior]

Had a very quick look at mine today in the cold wind.No bees flying but still ok for stores and rammed with brood. Demareed on that was on 18 frames of brood-They had lots of play cups and just 1 charged cell so hoping dem will work out.

 

[madasafish]

Overnight hail, rain and frost.
8C tops today. Which makes a run of a week under 10C..

I obviously don't have locally adapted bees as none are flying.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Had an early start doing Home Office work, in the 'home office', decided by 1100 I needed a break and as It was too cold to inspect Wednesday and I had to go in to the actual office yesterday I thought I'd do the long overdue inspection of the Garn Cottage bees, there were very few flying but they were amiable enough in the packed brood boxes, this apiary,as usual is a bit slow to take off, but when they do there's no stopping them, with extra supers on a few and plenty of space in the others, they will be fine for a while yet. Queen number 18 is doing fine, it's a tough old line and been through some traumas over the years but still come through in trumps. when I inspected them last I hoped that the old red queen (which I definitely planned to Demarree for nucs) was still there but she had been superseded,so I marked the 'new' unmarked queen blue. Today, she was much more placid on the comb and, as the sun was right overhead, and quite a bit of the blue paint had rubbed off I noticed a few flakes of red paint still showing near her head, so she still lives!! I've rearranged the frames to encourage her to lay more and, with any luck she will be demarree'd next week or the week after.
as I got to the last hive, it suddenly got a lot darker and I felt a few spots of rain, as I knew this hive was the slowest, just a quick crack of the crown board was enough to confirm that they were nowhere near needing a super. By the time I got back to the truck, the hailstones were hammering down.

 

[The Poot]

Too cold to open hives, but some bees out and about.

 

[Newbeeneil]

SWMBO insists I do something other than bees on Fridays so went to Hinton Ampner Gardens near Winchester.
Glorious morning while we walked around too hot for coats in the sun. Bees all over the flowers and then as soon as we sat down for lunch the clouds came over, wind got up and temperatures plummeted!
We shivered over a pasty and a sandwich at the tables in the walled garden then made a dash for the car as it hammered down!!!!
Bloody April showers!!!

 

[GuyNir]

Just been to my home Apiary. 8c and mostly cloudy but the early sycamores are humming with bees... You can hear it from 20m away.
Never stop surprising me...

 

[thorn]

Frames, frames and more bloody frames. They'd better fill them after all this.

 

[Boston Bees]

Thought it was too cold for inspections today, then the sun came out at 5.30pm. Still cold, but had a hive due for a 7 day inspection and busy tomorrow so thought, well .... better get it done.

25-odd queen cells, almost capped. Aaaargh.

Nuc'd the queen. Will deal with the rest on Sunday.

I had given those buggers tons of room as well, and they hadn't even finished drawing out all the frames. Completely unreasonable.

 

[Goran]

April beetles having mating flights at large in the evening.. Night temps are from 7 to 12C, day temps 18-23C. After couple days of heavy rain and cold.. I continued with placing qe.. I was surprised how much stores bees gathered in horrid weather.. Something like Jesus.. from water they make.. honey?
Black locust seems scorched, but most of beeks are optimistic that it even didn't open flowers yet, so it would be record year.. Jesus, I wish I have their optimism.. I wish I am so so wrong.. One fellow beek said it could be something but he can't see buds up in the branches, he will get binocular to see ( I resisted to say - better try with microscope..).. Overall, whatever the outcome will be will be one awkward season. In the end, some honey will be at least to cover expenses of their maintenance.. The more than that I will gladly accept..
Bees as bees.. developing decently. What is worth is on 8-15frames of brood.. The ones below, will see according to black locust, if in some miracle bloom I think will merge.. If not will leave as they are to develop for later weak lime forage.. Still will decide upon conditions which will occur..

 

[Nannysbees]

Unfortunately my neighbour has asked us to cut all the over hanging branches of our lovely 50ft sycamore tree in our garden.Several boxes have blue ties nesting and it's a magnet for other birds and wildlife. They are under the misapprehension by cutting the overhang that there will be more sun in the garden but the height of the tree when it's in full leaf will make make very little difference, not something I'm going to fall out over but it will spoil the shape of the tree for very little gain

 

[Erichalfbee]

Tell them you can’t do anything till nesting season is over at least?
How on earth do they expect you to take half the tree out, anyway?

 

[Nannysbees]

Tell them you can’t do anything till nesting season is over at least?
How on earth do they expect you to take half the tree out, anyway?

I know I hope it doesn't kill the tree, had neighbours from hell previously so can't risk the same happening again, very annoying and I love the tree

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Had a second bite at the apiary this evening - the choice was usual tripe on TV, being talked at by SWMBO or spend a few hours out in the evening chill having a sort out in the 'Super store' as I usually leave my Demarrees go to their full course I end up every year with a load of extracted 'wet' brood frames - a mix of pristine newly drawn comb and brooded comb in various stages of grottiness, I just seal all these up 'wet' in a stack of deeps and leave them over winter then, in the spring the intention is always to sort out 'clean' stuff for Demarrees and nucs and trash the oldest mankiest ones. But as you can guess, being a beekeeper I'm always reluctant to throw anything awayso every year during the triage process I end up at the end of the season with a box of the mankiest kept just in case of emergencies........which then just gets put to one side until next year.......
and so on..
getting drier and drier
So, this year it has to be addressed, the few manky ones has grown into a stack of deeps full of dry, moth succeptible frames and they've finally been 'got at'
basically I had about four boxes almost a solid lump of waxmoth 'cobweb' frames now piled up ready for the next bonfire evening. still got a massive stach of fresh 'wet brood frames for this year's demarrees though - and so the cycle starts again

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I know I hope it doesn't kill the tree,

It won't - mature trees will survive a heck of a hammering

 

[Erichalfbee]

I know I hope it doesn't kill the tree, had neighbours from hell previously so can't risk the same happening again, very annoying and I love the tree

It’s a tough one isn’t it? It’s so tempting to say the tree was there before they were but as you point out good neighbour relations are important.
I don’t know anything about arboriculture but I would seriously consider contacting a tree surgeon with a view to reducing or lifting the crown if at all possible. That way you would preserve the shape of the tree