What did you do in the Apiary today?

[user 819]

Could get rid of her and merge them back with the swarm which is outgrowing a double BB nuc.

If she is of good stock and if you have enough bees think about making up a walk away nuc using viable eggs or very young larvae before she finally becomes a drone layer altogether.

 

[Goodwood]

Called out last night to a tiny swarm.

They must have been desperate to leave in yesterday's weather. View attachment 26175View attachment 26176View attachment 26177

there's a varroa mite hitching a ride on one or two of those in the big pic - maybe give them a blast of oxalic as such a small colony may stay small and possibly worse if you don't.

 

[GuyNir]

Yesterday we’ve been promised sunshine, it was grey and cloudy. Today we were promised rain all day, it’s so far sunny. I find the weather forecasts these days all over the place.

 

[Antipodes]

Called out last night to a tiny swarm.

They must have been desperate to leave in yesterday's weather. View attachment 26175View attachment 26176View attachment 26177

And nice of the queen to make herself available for the photo

 

[Beemanbunty]

The title for this post is 'What did you do in the Apiary today'...well unfortunately nothing since the oast 2 weeks, because of the terrible weather, too windy and rainy I hope my stronger colony does not swarm

 

[Angry_Mob]

Visited the Orchard Apiary, split a hive from hell last week that had swarmed (bad weather); had to wash my suit after as it was covered in stings. This week much better however two of the split nucs have a heavy varroa load, I saw quite a few drones with varroa and an odd worker so need to figure how I'm going to treat; might have to dig out the gas vap. The colony they came from was treated at beginning of December however I'm assuming it may have had brood then as it built up weeks before the other colonies.

Hives doing well down there, starting to cap the first super, almost filled a second in a week so gave them a third.

Home apiary released a few more queens, one had already got out but thankfully they accepted her so closed them up gently. Didn't get the rounds finished and won't today because it's 9 degrees and been raining all morning.

 

[tonyofarr]

I rushed around 3 apiaries yesterday that were overdue checks and had to put feeds on 10 colonies. One of my favourite colonies had cleared 2 capped supers of dandelion honey and every single drop of honey from the bb, it is absolutely jam packed with bees and brood, I am just thankful that I got there yesterday and not after the load of rain that is coming over us today.

The 60mph winds that hit those apiaries have blown loads of the flowers off the sycamore trees and burnt a lot of the remaining leaves a dark brown, the bees usually do really well on those trees, so I am hoping there are some trees I could not see that weathered the storm better.

The last apiary I checked had faired better, but I was knackered and aching and was tempted to come back another day to check H24, but they are swarmy swines so I thought I had better check them. Sure enough flipping q cells everywhere, I had already decided that I was going to re queen them last year so I started cutting out the queen cells and put them on the roof of the hive next door. I was working through the hive and heard a queen piping and thought I had missed a cell, so I went through the frames twice more, couldn't find anything and shut the hive up. I went to put the q cells in my wax bucket and there was a vq wandering around, I reckon the bees must have been gating the cells just waiting for their chance with the weather!

 

[BigAshW]

And nice of the queen to make herself available for the photo

You have better eyes than me!

 

[BigAshW]

there's a varroa mite hitching a ride on one or two of those in the big pic - maybe give them a blast of oxalic as such a small colony may stay small and possibly worse if you don't.

Yeah treatment is on the cards.

 

[Boston Bees]

Found a single capped queen cell in a fairly packed colony. No other cells. Luckily, found queen. Almost certainly supercedure, but not taking the risk. Queen nuc'd off with 5 frames of brood, one frame of stores. Will see what develops.

Another split made recently appears to have a massive varroa problem, depressingly. Apivar for the whole apiary starting now, though I haven't seen issues in other hives .

 

[Repwoc]

All done in 8C - a strong breeze but no rain.

Never seen anything like this -

I would move if I was you Mike. You seem to have shocking weather, even compared with the rest of the UK.

 

[elainemary]

Set up my cell raiser. Large double brood colony in WBC. Had a Cloakboard made to fit. 16 frames brood and 3 supers (put on for space, as she’s going like a train from overwintering on Heather). Despite being at 1000ft amazed the colony had brought in a super in the last week (they were flying in the rain, talk about locally adapted!)
Found the queen and put her in the bottom with the sealed brood and pivoted the entrance round to the back & closed it.
Unsealed brood above Cloakboard (slider out). They moved up really quickly to the new entrance. Put varroa floor in to prevent under flyers. Left supers above for now
Plan to graft later in the week as there’s sunshine on the way hoorah!
Then will compress supers down - will probably leave one. Got some open stores and fresh pollen frames ready.
Loads of trees up here and wildflower meadow just about to come out. They will go bonkers end of next week.
First time I’ve done this & haven’t tried grafting yet but have swotted up and prepared the kit
Excited about trying it. Fingers crossed it goes to plan.
Any thing I’ve missed or should consider do say!

 

[Repwoc]

Beautiful day yesterday. 14.5 C, sunshine and only a little breeze. Inspected all hives at my out apiary. I took syrup + fondant with me expecting to have to feed some of them after my last visit but they are all holding up on their own - presumably the abundant and immediate hawthorn blossom is yielding enough in the spells between rain. In fact I actually gave one hive another super - didn't expect that. If the weather forecast pans out and the hawthorn lasts all should be good from Tuesday for a few days.

 

[Moobee]

Yesterday we’ve been promised sunshine, it was grey and cloudy. Today we were promised rain all day, it’s so far sunny. I find the weather forecasts these days all over the place.

May as well do your own they’re so flipping inaccurate! Get one of those stones on a string....

 

[madasafish]

I would move if I was you Mike. You seem to have shocking weather, even compared with the rest of the UK.

Thanks Paul

I am looking for somewhere dry and warm in the day, light rain at night and dependable weather.

Know anywhere in the UK?

 

[Repwoc]

I am looking for somewhere dry and warm in the day, light rain at night and dependable weather.

Know anywhere in the UK?

Not round here.

 

[holmbee]

Not round here.

Not around here either. Awful day today high winds the torrential rain the afternoon. No beekeeping, no gardening and no fly fishing (river too swollen with rain for last fortnight). Just sustained by a forecast of much better weather from Wednesday next week. Hopeful some forage to be had. My white clover just coming into flower.

 

[Swn58]

A window in the weather this morning! Shot off to my allotment apiary to move one overcrowded nuc into a proper hive, then catch my nominated queen for queen rearing and put her in the Nicot box. I also checked on the possible carnage I may have caused to a queenless hive, by moving a frame of brood and a closed QC from another hive.

Fantastic! There was a huge, beautiful queen in the 'queenless' hive. She was obviously mated, as I saw brood and eggs before I saw her. The hive is weaker than my nuc's, but I'm sure it will grow fast now!
I moved the big nuc into a newly painted Abelo hive. They were a bit grumpy; failing to understand that I was moving them from a grotty apartment into a luxury house!
I managed to find my donor-queen and get her in the Nicot box. Her subjects got a bit stressed, but all was well when I got the hive back together. A very successful day!

My intention this year is to create a queen-less hive from my 'super-hive,' specifically for this job. Last year I never got the system to work. I think it was too late in the season and my two donor hives suddenly produced their own queens. This was despite rigorous checking. I have to be totally certain that there are no Q-cell's, or queens hiding this time!
I will remove the top BB of the super-hive, shake the frames onto the bottom BB, add a queen-excluder, put the top BB back and put the roof on. The original queen will be in the bottom BB. An hour later, I will remove the top BB and roof, then put it on a new base, away from the original hive. Hopefully I will have a frame with primed queen- cups to add as well by then! I will shut the new hive down for a day, so they re-orientate. Then the fun should begin!

 

[Antipodes]

You have better eyes than me!

I'm not sure if you have spotted her or not, but just in case

 

[GuyNir]

Checked a couple of nucs (newly installed AMM Q’s, laying nicely) and a full hive. Full hive running on fumes. Same colony the whole of last year had tons of brood but not a drop in the super. Rapid feeding it now. Can’t believe I’m doing that at the end of May…