What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Nannysbees]

Inspected all three hives today, advised to go into queenless hive and leave one queen cell unfortunately the first advice was to leave week alone for three weeks looked today about 8 uncapped queen cells one capped. This was the hive that two large swarms came out yesterday,still lots of bees, so closed them up. The chalkbrood hive full of calm bees,stuck a banana in for the hell last week probably a coincidence but very little chalkbrood so another banana went in!!!! Our split hive doing really well advised to put on some sugar as they are just getting started. Phoned a beekeeper to say we have a swarm of he'd like to have it. Thinking about keeping it and buying another hive. Adamant when I started I would only have two, I'm now up to 4

 

[madasafish]

Converted my overwintered Apidea plus super to National format using nylon string and cable ties.

Very good tempered: just kind of sat there and looked at me. Gave them some fondant - lots of comb to redraw where I have inserted Apidea frame into drawn foundation.
Good thing I bought some more Apidea frames over winter. (I will eventually cut out the frame when the combs they are in are broodless.)

 

[The Poot]

Finally managed to give my partners allotment bees a check over yesterday. It's been two weeks since I last looked, due to the weather. One of the colonies had been a bit small, but now has end to end brood. I added a super.

The bees on my allotment apiary are a bit confusing. The other week my 'false swarmed' hive had Q C's, but two looked like they were in the process of being broken down. I think it was due to the weather. There were still two remaining, so I thought I'd let them be. This time I found a third one as well though.
One other hive looked a bit weak, despite having fondant added a while ago. I could not find the queen, then realised that there was sealed brood, but no eggs or unsealed brood. Queen dead? I saw her a few weeks previously! The evidence pointed to her absence though.
I decided to go back to the other hive and lift the frame with the other queen-cell. I was going to use it to make up another nuc. I brushed the bees off and instead added it into the other hive. Here's hoping that I have just saved the queen-less colony. I've never done this before, so hope it works.
My 'Super-hive' was checked for Q C's the other week. They were far too busy expanding into the two chequer-boarded brood-boxes and the super. However, on Sunday there was a ball of bees on the super, below the roof. It looked like a swarm. I knocked them into a nuc with new frames, then turned it upside down on the hive roof. Basically, they were unimpressed and slowly went back to their original position! I left the nuc in position, just in case, but am not entirely sure it is a swarm. I had a good dig around, but saw no queen.
Of the two nucs I made up, the 'swarmed' queen one is doing fine and will be hived again soon. The other one still has its sealed Q C. It should have hatched by now! Again, I can only assume that it's this weather.

My colonies are showing the same thing - loads of sealed brood, but very little unsealed or eggs. I think the queens have throttled back because of the cold.

 

[GuyNir]

Same as yesterday, cloudy morning and nice from ~11:00 (13c). Bees (and beekeeper) happy

 

[The Poot]

Watched this lot going on....so much pollen!

 

[E&MBees]

Watched this lot going on....so much pollen!

They’ve been busy!

 

[Erichalfbee]

Both bait hives busy

 

[Newbeeneil]

Inspected one of my apiaries that is rather exposed and have not been able to get in there because of the dodgy weather.
One of the two hives was extremely full of bees so I decided to try a demaree. The other had obviously tried to swarm with a clipped queen and returned (whilst inspecting I was caught by the neighbour who said "I was trying to get your number as the bees were everywhere last week!")
As I carried on inspecting and found sealed queen cells I heard the the distinctive piping of a virgin so since it was on the frame in my hand I retreated from the buzzing of the hive and located the lady and placed her in a cage.
I carried on and heard the sound again so out with another cage for number two! I went through the box shaking off the bees and removing all the Q cells whilst releasing another 5 virgins which were subsequently incarcerated in more cages.
I put the whole box back together and popped one of the seven virgins back in. As I sit here I just hope I found them all but I have a sneaking suspicion that the neighbour might be using the number I gave him!

Guess what? The neighbour called me at noon today to say that a swarm had landed in the gorse between my hives and his garden.
Then started the fun. I managed to wade through waist high brambles to cut down the gorse below the swarm. I shook the swarm into a box and let the fanning bees soak up the rest.
I loaded the box into the van and drove off to my next apiary. I arrived to find the van full of errant bees! I had forgotten to close the entrance. - doh! The bees were hanging from everywhere, the bulk in a rack of drawn frames I hang from the roof of my van.
I lifted these frames into the box and the fanners started up again so I assumed the queen was in that bunch. The air was full of bees and it was taking an age to get them so I nicked a frame of eggs out of the nearest hive and popped it in the box. Within 10 minutes of frantic fanning the bees were all safely gathered in and the entrance shut tight!
Ahhhh how did I get my excitement before I was a beekeeper???

 

[Nige.Coll]

Where to start.
Got 15 colonies in an apiary I cannot get to atm due to flooding. Been like it for weeks.
Had to bite the bullet and deal with it today. The job had not been made easier by the foot deep tractor ruts in the track full of water.
Got 2 inspections done from one end and a hive at the opposite end swarmed. Had to go and get a nuc from the van and deal with that.
I had to carry everything from the van 400m up a hill after walking through 4 inches of water on top of 3 inches of mud.
Must of been up that track 20+ times fetching supers etc they get heavy after a bit.
Then halfway through inspecting a double brood colony the heavens opened, had to finish the inspection and close them up, walked back to the van now soaked to the skin.
Sat in the van for half an hour until it stopped then back up the hill to carry on.
Got to the penultimate hive and the last hive swarmed. ffs.
Back to the van for another nuc.
Got them in a nuc and said sod it.
Took me most of the day to do what should of taken a few hours.
Fed up doesn't come close.
Bee suit has mud up to the knees and needs washing again. Boots are wet and my back hurts.
Bloody beekeeping. lol.

 

[GuyNir]

Where to start.
Got 15 colonies in an apiary I cannot get to atm due to flooding. Been like it for weeks.
Had to bite the bullet and deal with it today. The job had not been made easier by the foot deep tractor ruts in the track full of water.
Got 2 inspections done from one end and a hive at the opposite end swarmed. Had to go and get a nuc from the van and deal with that.
I had to carry everything from the van 400m up a hill after walking through 4 inches of water on top of 3 inches of mud.
Must of been up that track 20+ times fetching supers etc they get heavy after a bit.
Then halfway through inspecting a double brood colony the heavens opened, had to finish the inspection and close them up, walked back to the van now soaked to the skin.
Sat in the van for half an hour until it stopped then back up the hill to carry on.
Got to the penultimate hive and the last hive swarmed. ffs.
Back to the van for another nuc.
Got them in a nuc and said sod it.
Took me most of the day to do what should of taken a few hours.
Fed up doesn't come close.
Bee suit has mud up to the knees and needs washing again. Boots are wet and my back hurts.
Bloody beekeeping. lol.

Wow. Well done for completing it all

 

[StephenT]

Put a second brood box on a polynuc that we stuck a swarm in (one of ours) 4 weeks ago. Not very exciting for us but I’m sure the bees will appreciate it.

 

[Antipodes]

Where to start.
Got 15 colonies in an apiary I cannot get to atm due to flooding. Been like it for weeks.
Had to bite the bullet and deal with it today. The job had not been made easier by the foot deep tractor ruts in the track full of water.
Got 2 inspections done from one end and a hive at the opposite end swarmed. Had to go and get a nuc from the van and deal with that.
I had to carry everything from the van 400m up a hill after walking through 4 inches of water on top of 3 inches of mud.
Must of been up that track 20+ times fetching supers etc they get heavy after a bit.
Then halfway through inspecting a double brood colony the heavens opened, had to finish the inspection and close them up, walked back to the van now soaked to the skin.
Sat in the van for half an hour until it stopped then back up the hill to carry on.
Got to the penultimate hive and the last hive swarmed. ffs.
Back to the van for another nuc.
Got them in a nuc and said sod it.
Took me most of the day to do what should of taken a few hours.
Fed up doesn't come close.
Bee suit has mud up to the knees and needs washing again. Boots are wet and my back hurts.
Bloody beekeeping. lol.

Saved a few bucks on gym membership/visit anyhow

 

[Erichalfbee]

Where to start.
Got 15 colonies in an apiary I cannot get to atm due to flooding. Been like it for weeks.
Had to bite the bullet and deal with it today. The job had not been made easier by the foot deep tractor ruts in the track full of water.
Got 2 inspections done from one end and a hive at the opposite end swarmed. Had to go and get a nuc from the van and deal with that.
I had to carry everything from the van 400m up a hill after walking through 4 inches of water on top of 3 inches of mud.
Must of been up that track 20+ times fetching supers etc they get heavy after a bit.
Then halfway through inspecting a double brood colony the heavens opened, had to finish the inspection and close them up, walked back to the van now soaked to the skin.
Sat in the van for half an hour until it stopped then back up the hill to carry on.
Got to the penultimate hive and the last hive swarmed. ffs.
Back to the van for another nuc.
Got them in a nuc and said sod it.
Took me most of the day to do what should of taken a few hours.
Fed up doesn't come close.
Bee suit has mud up to the knees and needs washing again. Boots are wet and my back hurts.
Bloody beekeeping. lol.

Crikey. That’s dedication for you.

 

[Loxley]

I've had an exciting week between the rain showers and thunderstorms this week.

I couldn't go in to check the top box of the demaree on Monday as it hammered down All day but I got a brief window of reasonable conditions lunchtime Tuesday so I had a look. Low and behold there was a handful of capped QC's. I closed up and had a brew whilst a rain shower passed through (I've been using the dark Skies weather app - it seems to be very good, does anyone else use it?) Then since I had another hour of sun predicted I got 3 nucs set up (abelo poly) with grass stuffed in their entrances and some make do stands. I took down the demaree and made up the Nucs making sure they all got an even share of the brood, bees and QC's as possible. I gave them each a frame of capped stores that I had removed from the parent colony when I set up the demaree and a shake of bees from another frame.

Yesterday when I went for a look the Nuc colonies had all released themselves and were busy pulling the grass out. There seems to be a bit of a flow on here as the parent colony is busy on. Here's hoping for some warm weather in the next few weeks for mating flights!

 

[Moobee]

Inspected all three hives today, advised to go into queenless hive and leave one queen cell unfortunately the first advice was to leave week alone for three weeks looked today about 8 uncapped queen cells one capped. This was the hive that two large swarms came out yesterday,still lots of bees, so closed them up. The chalkbrood hive full of calm bees,stuck a banana in for the hell last week probably a coincidence but very little chalkbrood so another banana went in!!!! Our split hive doing really well advised to put on some sugar as they are just getting started. Phoned a beekeeper to say we have a swarm of he'd like to have it. Thinking about keeping it and buying another hive. Adamant when I started I would only have two, I'm now up to 4

A banana??

 

[Nannysbees]

A banana??

yes apparently the banana gives off a chemical, some swear by it others think nonsense, thought I'd give it a whirl

 

[jeff33]

Did a couple more demaree, cut-out a couple of Qcs which I got following Enrico's advice of notching and made my first 2 mating nucs of the season. Checked 1 hive which I demaree 14 days ago only to discover that the queen had vanished probably 4 days ago looking at the brood and they were making Qcs. All bees accounted for so this was not a swarm unless it was very, very small.

 

[Moobee]

Wall to wall BIAS yesterday so added a super to go to brood & half. Also added another super above QX as first one is filling nicely - neighbours mini orchard is in full flower, I watched them zipping over the fence and back.
A very grumpy bee was persistently bouncing off my veil and tried to sting my thumb through my rubber glove.
One lone bee with DWV so that needs possible further investigation

 

[pargyle]

A banana??

Yeh ... I declined to comment as it's totally bananas and I could't be bothered to waste words and time on it ... This says it all :

https://www.honeybeesuite.com/have-beekeepers-gone-bananas/

 

[jeff33]

Yeh ... I declined to comment as it's totally bananas and I could't be bothered to waste words and time on it ... This says it all :

When I was young and gullible I was told you could dry banana skin and smoke it to get as high as weed.....well, it never did anything apart from giving me a sore throat....