What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Murox]

Popped to the farm to check hives after all the wind and rain, Hives all fine but the track is pretty much gone, washed out, just deep ruts and mud now.

 

[hemo]

Did a bit more work on another store shed.

 

[gregior]

Quickly removed Amitraz strips from farm apiary, bees well clustered ranging from 4 to 7 seams all look ok for stores.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Plans for tomorrow to remove apivar and OA strips from 37 colonys.
Also weighing all colonys and topping up fondant.
On some of the colonys that where fed syrup first I've used a QX above frames then fondant parchment paper under and above the fondant and a reversible CB insulation etc.

Removed strips and fed more fondant,
Nucs to do next .
Colonys that went to the Heather are looking really strong .

 

[Crazyhorse]

Great day, two calm hives and a fresh frost. Crown board off and removed API strips, no droppage visible.
Hive 1. Missing api strip can’t find it so need to revisit. 9 frames of bee’s standard brood and really heavy. For First year. Still taking down syrup and fondant

Hive 2. Dummy down both sides with 50mm celotex 6 frames of bee’s on 14x12 . For First year. Hoping I didn’t catch the queen with the celotex. still taking down syrup and now on 2 kilo of fondant.

oh the bonus NO STINGS! New bee suit !

 

[Jon.21]

First frost here Thursday night. Apivar strips removed. Empty rapid feeders removed. Crown boards removed. Fondant cosy”s fitted. With both hives now at around 20 kilos of stores my plan was to maybe add fondant in a month or 2 (fondant cosy can hold 2.5kg block of fondant) just to be on the safe side along with hefting every couple of weeks.

 

[Nannysbees]

Hefted all four hives yesterday, all slightly heavier, bar one which had dropped by 0.25

 

[Moobee]

Traps all checked and replenished with very sugary beer. Fingers crossed no AHs made it across from Portsmouth

 

[Erichalfbee]

Spent the morning cleaning queen excluders. What a thankless task! Only had 20 to do. What do folk with hundreds do?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Spent the morning cleaning queen excluders. What a thankless task! Only had 20 to do. What do folk with hundreds do?

wait until the winter so the wax and propolis goes brittle, quick pass of a scraper gets most of the wax off then a bit more scraping for the frames, I then give a quick pass with my flamer (not one of these puny blowtorches), the flame is big enough to burn the wax off without heating the wires excessively (before someone whitters on about the wires distorting)

 

[Wilco]

wait until the winter so the wax and propolis goes brittle, quick pass of a scraper gets most of the wax off then a bit more scraping for the frames, I then give a quick pass with my flamer (not one of these puny blowtorches), the flame is big enough to burn the wax off without heating the wires excessively (before someone whitters on about the wires distorting)

I'm not on your scale but I see it as one of the few tasks I can legitimately procrastinate over doing until later in the year!

 

[Erichalfbee]

Well it was bloomin cold out there. All done. Every year I play with the idea of not using them at all.

 

[madasafish]

12C today after 5C yesterday. No rain.
So fed min nucs fondant,

 

[Murox]

I did, nothing today, after walking the dogs in the gales, - too wet - too windy - too lazy.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

tidied all the empty nucs and stacked them up in a new spot, began clearing the vacated area ready for the new bee kit shed - in the damp dreary weather

 

[pargyle]

Well it was bloomin cold out there. All done. Every year I play with the idea of not using them at all.

Go for it ... I've always run without queen excluders ... no problem.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Go for it ... I've always run without queen excluders ... no problem.

Hmmmmmmm

 

[SWHives]

View attachment 29068Traps all checked and replenished with very sugary beer. Fingers crossed no AHs made it across from Portsmouth

Do you keep that netting around the hives all year round? Is it working? I am thinking of a similar solution in my backyard. Thanks.

 

[Hedgerow Honey]

Generally we don't clean our excluders, they are left pinned to the underside of the roofs, we use mostly the white plastic Swienty version, I purchased around five hundred for pennies a few years ago.

 

[BigAshW]

Collected the off cuts of insulation kindly provided by the rugby club we're helping out with a new apiary. All hives wrapped and top insulated now.