What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Arfermo]

I always make sure that my plums are tucked away snug and warm

OK if you have the balls!!

 

[Nannysbees]

Light snow up on the tops yesterday and overnight. Sun coming out now. What a difference to last week!

Looks beautiful though

 

[Nannysbees]

Sun out, blue sky but an icy wind, surprised to see so many bees out collecting water

 

[Wilco]

I leave mine on a tray on the balcony - ripens them beautifully, the young mothers on their way back to the estate from the school run are always making complementary comments

Sounds like they're just waiting to be plucked.

@Erichalfbee pull and twist?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Sounds like they're just waiting to be plucked.

@Erichalfbee pull and twist?

They will get fed up. They always do

 

[Moobee]

Got a friend looking after seedlings in the greenhouse while we hack round a couple of golf courses in Spain…View attachment 31204

 

[E&MBees]

Rescued a queen bumble, who had become chilled. Gave her a drop of invert and a warm spot in the sun. Restored, off she flew.

 

[jeff33]

It's just going to be a stores for honey, wax and equipment, racking arrives today, this evening I'll be moving stuff out of the workshop into it so I'll then have room to get cracking on new floors etc.
View attachment 31118View attachment 31119View attachment 31120

Looks good. I made the mistake of not covering the air vents last year on my new shed and it was taken over by wasps having to dodge the buggers everytime I went in. I have put mesh on 1 side now and will do the other as soon as I can access it.

 

[jeff33]

I have started taking spare equipment to the apiaries and gone through 30 brood frames which needed cleaning and new wax. I think this has be the worst job, I hate it, especially trying to remove the piece of wood which holds the foundation!!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Looks good. I made the mistake of not covering the air vents last year on my new shed and it was taken over by wasps having to dodge the buggers everytime I went in. I have put mesh on 1 side now and will do the other as soon as I can access it.

 

[W0otz]

6 charged cells found. I tore down 5 and marked the frame with the chosen cell.
Queen, 2 frames of capped brood (1 emerging), 1 frame of stores into a poly nuc. 2 further frames of bees shaken in (not from the qcell frame) because the flyers will mostly return home.

Plenty of drones in the parent hive now, and back to nice weather from next week so fingers crossed all goes well. Hopefully that's me up to 2 colonies...

 

[Newbeeneil]

Set up a few swarm traps. One in a spinny about 50m from a colony in a tree. It was the busiest colony I've seen this year!

 

[Wilco]

So this is the hive which I thought was Q- and had sealed QCs a few weeks ago. A week or two ago there were eggs but some cells had more than one so I thought laying workers and was going to shake out once confirmed as drones (when they were capped).

It's a bad brood pattern by my book, evidence of recapping some cells making me suspect varroa is possible and if it's not improved by next week I'm probably going to ask the SBI to take a look in case there's 'something nasty' here but to my mind I think I've got a newly mated queen. Not entirely sure how. However, it is nice to be reminded that nature can surprise us.

 

[Newbeeneil]

My long hive was a mass of bees at the entrance today so I thought I'd have a peek in when the temp got to 15.5 deg C. There was brood on 11 frames and 16 frames of bees. Plenty of drone brood on the edges just about every brood frame and quite a few drones! I even found a few play cups. Hopefully I can keep them from swarming by placing foundation on the edge of the brood as I want to use the bees in nucs again this year.

 

[StephenT]

Inspected local mongrel hive 3 on double brood and have 11 frames with brood on them now. Since the last inspection 11 days ago they've gone from 1 frame of brood in the bottom box to 4 and have consumed about 2 frames of stores leaving just over one frame left. Weather not that great until middle of next week and so gave them a frame of stores that I took out of a much smaller hive a couple of weeks ago. Just peaked through the crown boards of the other 2 hives and only about 4 frames of bees in each. There’s brood emerging on 3 frames judging by the inspection boards but looking poor in comparison to hive 3.

 

[Nannysbees]

Weather still cold and grey here don't think we'll be inspecting this week!!!

 

[JamezF]

Weather still cold and grey here don't think we'll be inspecting this week!!!

Not that cold, but grey and wet here. It's forecast to improve after the weekend by the looks of it.

James

 

[CaptainCymru]

Did first inspection :

found queen
2 solid frames of drone
6 solid frames of worker with small patches of drone
Couple of queen cells which I knocked down and then added another brood box above !
bringing in a lot of nectar and busy comb building new frames !

 

[Boston Bees]

Couple of queen cells which I knocked down

Suggests they aren't happy with the queen and want to supersede?

 

[victor meldrew]

Weather abysmal here . No apiary work today .