What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Swarm]

Clearer boards on today to remove some of the supers and start compressing the colonies ready for treatment. Checked a few nucs and spotted another lovely, black queen in one mating nuc I was a bit concerned about. not concerned any more, they are doing fine.
Ticked one queen as a definite for next year's queen rearing, she has been immense two years on the trot.

 

[The Poot]

Few wasps in the apiary today which I caught with a child's fishing net!!!!!
View attachment 27799
Neighbours must think I'm nuts(probably not far from the truth) filled 31 8oz jars of honey, 70 in total, so excited

Well done you (and well done your bees)

 

[Erichalfbee]

Few wasps in the apiary today which I caught with a child's fishing net!!!!!
View attachment 27799
Neighbours must think I'm nuts(probably not far from the truth) filled 31 8oz jars of honey, 70 in total, so excited

What lovely labels. Did you design them yourself?

 

[Nannysbees]

What lovely labels. Did you design them yourself?

My husband, artist has his own website I can just about draw a stick man!!

 

[pargyle]

Lovely warm day down here with wall to wall sunshine - still feeling damp from the rain of the last week but there's a lot of stuff in bloom and enjoying the near perfect growing conditions - I haven't had to water my outdoor tomatoes for 2 weeks now and they are ramping away ... lots of green fruit waiting for today's sunshine - hopefully it will continue into the rest of the month.

Had a look through the supers on my colonies (didn't bother with the brood boxes apart from one) ... added my last super (I think - although i have feeling there's a Paynes bees box somewhere with two more and I can't find it ) to one colony that has filled and mostly capped two supers ... my dwindling colony (I know - I should have shaken it out !) has dwindled to nothing - they resolutely refused to build queen cells from the eggs I gave them - very strange, no laying workers no signs of disease, sugar roll last month threw up no varroa ... they swarmed in June and just never recovered .. I suspect the queen that was left behind never got mated ... but odd that they declined to make another one. Who knows what they were thinking ? I'll tip out the cupful left in there tomorrow and be done with it.

Did me a favour really as they had a super on there that was drawn but empty (not robbed out - just not enough bees to fill it) and I put that on another colony that had filled two supers - theres a frame of capped honey in there that will get donated in due course.

I started a nuc out in June with one of MBC's queens and they were bursting out of the 8 frame Paynes modified nuc they were in ... brillant queen 6 frames of brood .. so I transferred them to a full box - really lovely bees to handle - didn't bat an eyelid at being turfed out of their old hive and put into a new home ... it was nearly 5pm and I was thinking they might react but they were fine. Not a lot of stores in there though I think they were using all the space and food for rearing brood judging by the number of bees in there - I may well give them a couple of litres of invert to help them along and the frame of stores from my dwindling hive. Rest of my colonies ticking along nicely, one has four supers and the top one is about 60% capped so - I have to find another super for them as there is still nectar coming in around here ....

I felt more like a proper beekeeper today - bees were behaving, everything went to plan, no disasters and they were all doing what they were supposed to be doing ~ Sometimes you get lucky ! Have to find that Paynes box tomorrow ... and make up some more frames ...

Perhaps not quite a proper beekeeper as I should have some more frames ready ... and if I wasn't so lazy I'd be spinning out the capped supers and giving them back but ... plenty of time left for them to fill a few more cells.

 

[Moobee]

Lovely day after all the cr@ppy weather we’ve had. I’ve only just taken all the wind protective fleece off the veg.
This morning I moved the lovely nuc i got on Saturday into a hive and saw the beautiful queen (Ingrid). Lots of BIAS and stores and gave them some light syrup as I only had new frames of foundation. Calm as you like.
The frame of eggs from the club apiary that I had added to hive 1, which I thought hadn’t worked has two lovely capped EQCs. They’ve been queenless and broodless for the best part of two months and I had given up hope of saving them. Patience is definitely a virtue in this game!

 

[Moobee]

Oh, nearly forgot…. Hung up a Waspinator to see if it deters them (although I’ve not seen a single one yet)….

 

[elainemary]

Visited problem hive that found dead queen in with frayed wings last week. 4 large emergency cells so no other queen in hive. Unlike all other hives varroa is higher too (30 mites in 4 days).

Have decided overnight to take ECs down, getting late for mating and build up to get through winter. Will give the colony a Queen mandibular pheromone strip (Temp queen strips) which will keep them happy and prevent laying workers developing, whilst remaining brood emerges. Then will sublimate to kill phoretic mites after removing super.

Have a Nuc next door that has just started laying eggs. Didn’t spot Q yesterday. Will add a frame of sealed brood from another hive to boost then unite over newspaper, but put queen in push in cage after found her. Only release after with fondant when I think they’ve accepted her. Remembering to remove pheromone strip first!

This colony has challenged me all season with swarm preps, a failed Q introduction, another dead queen with strange wings, just want to get it sorted

 

[user 819]

Checked all my colonies today, first proper full inspection on most in three weeks. Clearers on to reduce some and one nice new Q seen and marked, was checked as emerged on 18th July and today 8 frames of brood.
Another I found Qc has merged, Qc with hinged lid but no VQ seen, however can confirm it as SS as the marked older clipped Q was present.
Removed 4 BS deeps of stores from my PIR long hive and will remove another 4 next week, which will still leave them some 30lbs of stores.

 

[Michael Palmer]

Finished catching queens yesterday for 2021. I can't tell you how good that feels. It's been a long three months since we setup the first cell builders. Managed to cage almost 1200 queens. Have about 125 queens for over-wintering the mating nucs.

Final report on the new 2-way mating nucs. We caught the group four times. Three full catches, and one partial catch so we can leave mating nucs for wintering. Catch numbers from the 128 mating nucs...105, 109, 105, and 87. The best catches from any group, ever. I'll be changing over from 4-way to 2-way

 

[Newbeeneil]

Dropped a clipped queen when trying to pop her in a cage, I couldn't find her in the grass below the hive so I assume she fell into the hive but not sure. Ill leave the hive for a week and see if they put up cells!

 

[fizzle]

Mucked about with mesh and tubing to stop wasps getting into a nuc. Seen a wasp attacking a drone and have no idea why as they seem to be after sugar at the moment. Drones are way too placid, they need to up their game.

 

[rolande]

...
View attachment VID_20210812_110226.mp4

 

[madasafish]

Morning: started varroa treatment all home hives.
Combined 4 mating nucs - 2 Q-
Marked nuc Queen.

Pm:
allotment .
Checked all 4 hives.

Horrible hive - really aggressive - requeened 3 weeks ago - queen introduced with press in cage - inspected briefly - Like lambs. (Used to dread them)
Rest doing well.

 

[drdrday]

Took off cleared supers today - which means extracting tomorrow
Also made up a nuc with one of the mated queens that I reared. The other queen is supposed to be replacing the queen in my B hive, who was from a swarm and is just not very prolific. Unfortunately what she lacks in fecundity she more than makes up in elusiveness! I'll have to try and hunt her down again next week.

 

[elainemary]

Visited my problem hive again today, that I’d added the queen pheromone ‘stick’ to. Marked change in behaviour. Flying really well and as vigorously as the hive on double brood next door. Bees much calmer on the comb. The pheromone is attached to a cable tie so dangling in the middle of a brood frame. Bees showing an interest in it and had part worn it down overnight. Has bought me a bit of time whilst I move a Nuc to this apiary, boost it up and get it into a brood box ready for uniting, then can sort the queenless problem out.

Put a rhomboid board below to remove the super so can dribble OA tomorrow. Soon have the varroa problem sorted. Only a few cells of sealed brood left in the hive. Pheromone will stop laying workers in the meantime. Can’t be bothered to get the Sublimox, battery and inverter out for one hive.

 

[boywonder]

Picked up a swarm today. No kidding.

... A smallish cast, so I don't have any great hope for it as a standalone unit, but stranger things have happened. Will probably get united with another box in the not too distant future, all other observations permitting.

The second mid-August swarm I've taken in the last couple of years. What's the latest swarm you guys have collected ?

 

[Wilco]

Not made it up there yet but... Today on How Much Can a Jazz Hold we have 50kg of sugar, a pallet, two large chicken feeders, two 9L chicken drinkers, two child seats (minus children but there is space...), a bee suit, an automatic door for a chicken run, a bee smoker, a clearing board, a flamethrower, a vaporiser, some woodworking clamps, buckets and spades, two children's lifejackets, my buoyancy aid, two or three wetsuits, two fishing rods, sea fishing gear (hadn't finished unpacking from recent holiday), some jars of preserves and various other assorted detritus. The tarp under the pallet also masks that the boot is still half empty and I'm pretty sure I can get some large plastic storage boxes in the back in lieu of children.

The Honda Jazz: part car, part TARDIS. Doctor Who, eat your heart out.

 

[GuyNir]

Took the last of the supers off. All colonies are pretty much in winter configuration, Thymovar on. Lots of pollen coming in…

 

[GuyNir]

Started few gallons of mead 3-4 days ago (1st time ever). Seems to be fermenting nicely…