What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Moobee]

First time making up a nuc today as have purchased a locally bred queen (arriving tomorrow).
Couldn’t work out why my usually calm bees were a bit tetchy whilst sorting out a nice frame of capped brood and stores..... then I remembered I got up at the crack of dawn to do their last vape. Doh.
Having done that (as I’ve been waiting weeks for a swarm...), I get a call that a small swarm (possibly a cast) is available. Can’t look a gift horse in the mouth so that’s arriving in about an hour!

 

[Swarm]

Highs and lows. Added a test frame to one colony that appears to be queenless and hived up two nucs that were very cramped, added supers. Checked the first batch of 2021 queens for brood, good worker patterns in all. I'll be checking the second batch next week and adding cells to more mating nucs.

 

[GuyNir]

Removed sealed QC’s and installed 2 x (Murray McGregor) F1 Buckfast Q’s (both colonies are now hopelessly Q-).
Will remove the tabs in a day or two.
Overcast and windy today, but wanted those in as soon as. Bees weren’t impressed, but should be much happier now…
quite excited to see how those perform.

 

[madasafish]

The Q raised by my Kieler mini nuc that was due to lay 18th May (roughly ) and started 10 days later has capped worker brood. So she was mated in the really cold spell we had late April/early May.

Transferred my QR frames from a full size Lang jumbo (Ben Hardman method) dummied down to 5 frames to a 6 frame nuc on its own - MUCH easier to handle - no lifting for inspections .

 

[TomH]

View attachment WhatsApp Video 2021-06-08 at 17.01.59.mp4

















































Watched one of my own hives swarm this afternoon

They too were a swarm collected end of April. Thought I was on top of it, but clearly not.

Settled in the neighbours garden, so had to go over cap in hand asking for my bees back

 

[Erichalfbee]

View attachment 26586


Did you notice the need waggle dancing on the surface? These are the bees pointing to potential new homes














































Watched one of my own hives swarm this afternoon

They too were a swarm collected end of April. Thought I was on top of it, but clearly not.

Settled in the neighbours garden, so had to go over cap in hand asking for my bees back

 

[TomH]

Indeed, cool to see. There is what looks like a fairly abandoned apiary about 500m in the direction some of them were indicating (bees dancing for the 11 o'clock position), so maybe they had already sussed out a nice old box!

Nuc is still in the neighbours garden... will leave it a little longer until all the stragglers are in and move them away to somewhere more suitable.

 

[Boston Bees]

Invited a friend round to have a look at my bees. She's got a small garden and has responded to someone on Facebook who wants somewhere to put a beehive. She doesn't know him and I think just wants more bees in her garden. I'm going to show her the size of a nuc and then the thousands of defensive bees I have in a hive with 4 supers to try and dissuade her.

We asked around on local social media for somewhere to have an out apiary. Several people with large gardens kindly stepped forward. We politely declined.

People who haven't had bees have a very rose tinted view of what it's like.

 

[Moobee]

Hived the swarm last night - looks like it might be a cast as not huge and they’re already making comb this morning so hoping they’re not too flighty and stick around. They were busy foraging today so looks promising. Will give them a bit of fondant tomorrow night.
New local queen arrived in the post today so popped her in the nuc for the girls to get to know her before I break off the plastic tab tomorrow.

 

[Newbeeneil]

We asked around on local social media for somewhere to have an out apiary. Several people with large gardens kindly stepped forward. We politely declined.

People who haven't had bees have a very rose tinted view of what it's like.

I have some in people's gardens. Mind you you could probably get lost in them!

 

[Newbeeneil]

Did my first extraction of the year! The locals were getting desperate for honey so extracted supers which were only about 50% sealed. MC still <17.5 though.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Last thing this evening I moved a nuc with a newly emerged queen from the Gelli apiary to home as there's a better chance of her mating here.
Slack day today - meetings all morning so did Llety'r Deryn, the smallest apiary this afternoon. the hives are in an unused part at the far end of their 'Orchard garden' half an acre or so of newly reclaimed piece of wet land which they bought to match the front gardens. Noticed some orchids growing there now and fair play he's given them a chance by mowing around them all.

 

[pargyle]

Quick look through all the colonies ... third super on two colonies ... going like a train in this weather and there appears to be lots of forage around. One colony where there were no eggs or larvae now has eggs and larvae ... No idea what's going on with it. Queen cups on one hive ... need to watch them. Not bad all round though ... for a not a proper beekeeper ....

 

[madasafish]

First Qs emerged from incubator.
Time for more grafts today.

Gardening is interfering with beekeeping

 

[pargyle]

First Qs emerged from incubator.
Time for more grafts today.

Gardening is interfering with beekeeping

welll .... when you cut your immaculate lawn with nail clippers I'm not surprised ! I've had lawn envy since you posted photos of your garden years ago ... I'm embracing the current trend for a meadow in place of a lawn .... at least that's my story !

 

[madasafish]

welll .... when you cut your immaculate lawn with nail clippers I'm not surprised ! I've had lawn envy since you posted photos of your garden years ago ... I'm embracing the current trend for a meadow in place of a lawn .... at least that's my story !

Don't you disparage the use of nail clippers for cutting the grass. Since I have used them, my lawn has no rough edges and no split ends so it works.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

My Uncle Dan who lived in a static caravan on the Blackpill in the Mumbles (now one of the most sought after residential areas in Swansea) won a prize for the best kept garden and lawn in the area many years ago, the Mayor whilst presenting the prize asked him what is secret was he said 'simple - I have a watering can for a p!ss pot'

 

[simonforeman]

Checked all home hives this morning.... there going great guns 3rd super added to all.
Hive that swarmed now has a laying queen and my 20 out or 20 grafts are now all capped, I have a question on them so posted in queen rearing.

 

[thorn]

At the beginning of May we found queen cells in all three hives at our rural apiary, so we did a nuc AS in each. The queens we took away are doing beautifully in other apiaries.
We returned to the rural apiary this morning to do a full inspection. No eggs or brood in any of the hives, nor any sign of a queen,though the one cup we'd left in each hive showed that a queen had emerged. We used to have occasional problems there with queens being taken by house martins on their mating flights, but the martins stopped nesting nearby a couple of years ago. I'll give each hive a frame of brood and eggs and mutter about the lousy weather we had in May.