What did you do in the Apiary today?

[madasafish]

Today the weather forecasts proved wrong (what a surprise!)
Forecasts clouds and light rain this pm. Actual :sunshine.
So beginner and I inspect 6 full hives plus three nucs in just over an hour - what it is to be younger and stronger than me.
Both bare hands: no stings : all bees behaved. (maybe Avon Skin So Soft Original works!)

She's giving me an inferiority complex (sorry Julie if you read this I am only joking) as she was inspecting frames like she has done it for years.

Two hives with supers (bees in no nectar) , three hives with 6-7 frames - took honey frames out to give more room for Q to lay - and one on six frames bees.
10C but not much wind so in theory not inspection weather.
Lots of drones in one hive. No QCs in any.
About 3 weeks behind last year and a lousy forecast for next week.

Ho hum... this is not idyllic as promised when I took up bees in 2010..

 

[einsteinagogo]

That's incredibly cold❄ particularly considering your longest day is only a little over a month and a half away. What does cold like that do to fruit trees?

Basically the blossom all falls off, this year has been the worst ever in 20 years, the Magnolia didn't stand a chance, all the flowers were frost damaged, I think we almost had a frost every night in the month of April.

 

[einsteinagogo]

I hung a new external thermometer in the Apiary, and it read 8 degrees C !

Bees very quiet, an occasional flyer.

So as rain was forecast, and it didn't arrive, I got out a tin of green cuprinol (water based) then spent the rest of the afternoon painting 6 brood boxes, and 6 supers, roofs and floors.

Do other Beeks paint their hives, or just leave cedar to naturally weather ? I've started it now, they just look terrible when the cuprinol washes off!

and I learnt today that the first swarm was caught in East Riding, wet and cold !

Need to check for swarm preparations!

 

[deemann1]

Bit of a frustrating start to season with these frosty nights and cool breeze the bees aren't working the osr too much there just maintaining themselves, waste of time moving 16 colonies

 

[Swarm]

Today became very irritated by the weather.
I need to look at two colonies re swarm prep checks. This morning was lighting the smoker when very dark clouds came over and large drops of rain descended. Postponed until the afternoon. At half past two, outside temp in the shade was 12.5c and the hives were in the sun. Got kitted up, smoker lit, took roof off the first one and started looking in the super (was half brood) to ensure queen was not still in there. Clouds came over, the temperature dropped significantly and rain started. Quick reassemble and I gave up.

Know the feeling, Poot. I offloaded a load of stuff at the apiary, rearranged storage and got everything ready. Came home soaking after packing it all back up.

 

[Boston Bees]

One of the hives is responding to the cold weather (and perhaps to the fact that I split them on Tuesday due to swarm cells) by meticulously throwing out its drones. Very sad to see.

 

[StephenT]

Checked the parent hive from a Snelgrove AS where we had left the queen in and we actually found her, the first time since end of last summer. Less bees I guess. What a beauty but didn’t get a piccy or manage to mark her. She could have been the new queen from last spring where the paint had come off or an end of summer supersedure. Last years ‘Buckfast’ that swarmed on 13 April and we caught and nuc’d has drawn most of the comb and laying well. Had put two foundationless frames in there and one had a section of drone comb and the other was all worker (pics attached). Three hives requeening so left them alone. Pretty sure we have CBPV to a certain extent in all hives but the AS from the Snelgrove is suffering the most hence didn’t transfer the queen back in there. Nervous times.

 

[Loxley]

they provide nice bland wood for wood turning but there's very little grain pattern so you tend to have to introduce interest into the piece with colour or form.

Bit of an aside,

Personally I quite like sycamore, Whilst it is a quite plain wood I love it for pinning down shapes, as you said you have to nail the form as there's no pretty grain to hide behind.

I'm carver rather than a turner but i'm sure shared principals apply?

 

[Loxley]

Bit cold today but I took advantage and did some digging, living on the side of a hill as we do if you want somewhere flat to stand you've got to make it. I expanded this flat spot to make room for about of planned expansion. The bees paid no attention to me at all.

 

[GuyNir]

Bit cold today but I took advantage and did some digging, living on the side of a hill as we do if you want somewhere flat to stand you've got to make it. I expanded this flat spot to make room for about of planned expansion. The bees paid no attention to me at all.

Good job. Looks nice

 

[Somerford]

A day of mixed weather - checking colonies on Oilseed in hail then the sun came out...

a couple of splits from a strong hive with capped queen cells and another AS in another apiary to keep them there as two cells were charged

it’s clear that nectar that has been collected has been consumed by hungry growing colonies over the past few weeks. I’ve not known a spring like it for some years. Certainly the swarming is far lower so far and the nectar flow while there is much less than other springs.

I hope that the weather warms up as predicted mid May else the June gap will be very noticeable

 

[Goran]

I'm hoping my Robinia and the Evodia Hupehensis come out of the frosts without too much damage.View attachment 25767
View attachment 25766

I don't want to disappoint You, even pics are blur.. Seems this year they will skip flowering.. Hail to the climate changes, heh?

 

[Antipodes]

I hung a new external thermometer in the Apiary, and it read 8 degrees C !

Bees very quiet, an occasional flyer.

So as rain was forecast, and it didn't arrive, I got out a tin of green cuprinol (water based) then spent the rest of the afternoon painting 6 brood boxes, and 6 supers, roofs and floors.

Do other Beeks paint their hives, or just leave cedar to naturally weather ? I've started it now, they just look terrible when the cuprinol washes off!

and I learnt today that the first swarm was caught in East Riding, wet and cold !

Need to check for swarm preparations!

I quite like the silvery look of weathered cedar, but I do understand wanting to make them look nice and wanting to help preserve the wood.....I can't get cedar boxes but definitely do all sorts of things to preserve my pine boxes.

 

[pargyle]

Bit of an aside,

Personally I quite like sycamore, Whilst it is a quite plain wood I love it for pinning down shapes, as you said you have to nail the form as there's no pretty grain to hide behind.

I'm carver rather than a turner but i'm sure shared principals apply?

Nick Agar usually starts his signature Viking Sunset Bowls on a sycamore turning blank ... it's a timber that takes a finish and a colour very well... but it needs to as it is pretty boring unless you do something exciting with it ...

https://nickagarstudios.com/class-details/here-come-the-vikings-3-day-signature-class-/23/0/0

 

[Antipodes]

I knew the young queen was in this hive was yet to mate. A beautiful , unseasonally warm day (23C) I went the the backyard apiary to see if I could see her coming or going on a mating flight and just a few seconds later I saw her, just having returned! I managed to quickly get my phone camera going. At least one endophallus sticking out from her a she hurries back in the hive, probably for the last time.

 

[Nannysbees]

Weather warmed nicely manage to have a look in two hives. The split is doing really well, a lot of bees and a lovely brood pattern.Thr other hive has masses of bees and two frames of capped honey in the super. Some of the drones are huge. Few ants milling around, not sure whether to put something at the base of the hive?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Few ants milling around, not sure whether to put something at the base of the hive?

Nah, they do no harm to the bees so live and let live - I have a few hives dotted around that the ants use the crown boards as a nursery for their eggs, have done for years - never affected the bees.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Busy yesterday, hived up 14 nucs.
Looking at 22 colonys today.

Edit: thanks to cardigan Bay honey for the nucs that are doing really well, three of the nucs were hived up but also had supers added above newspaper and a QX.

 

[Nannysbees]

Busy yesterday, hived up 14 nucs.
Looking at 22 colonys today.

I worry over 3

 

[Curly green finger's]

I worry over 3

I worry over every last bee in each hive.