What did you do in the Apiary today?

[steve1958]

With temperatures here safely past 15°C. I inspected all my colonies for the first time this year.
They all survived the winter with plenty of stores left over.
All on 6 frames of brood or more. All Queen right.
Cleaned the frames up a little, and tidied up around the hives.
So a good start to the new season

 

[northyorkshire]

Second inspection of the year, but after a 17-day gap with the cold, wet and windy weather since the first. On the first inspection I changed out some old brood comb: this frame was one of the 'new' ones I put in. It was a ready-made up frame as part of a batch of stuff I got last autumn from somebody who'd given up the hobby. The frame is a touch warped but fits fine with the other 10 so I was surprised to see the ladies building natural comb on top. My guess is to replace again as they won't use the other side of the foundation? Is this common?

 

[plain_hunt]

JamezF said:
It could be that she's stopped laying because of the cold I guess.

In Somerset?

I'm sceptical, sorry to say.

I’m also in Somerset and I inspected in February, (and before there’s any comments, on a lovely warm day in shirt sleeves), all 11 hives, and found they were building nicely. I went in yesterday and found they’ve not moved on a lot since then, so, yes, I think the cold weather has hampered the building up. Mine do at least all have brood, although I didn’t see all the Queens yesterday.
This time last year I had 2 full supers on each hive, and then in May it started to rain.....
A very different story this year.

 

[Boston Bees]

Second inspection of the year, but after a 17-day gap with the cold, wet and windy weather since the first. On the first inspection I changed out some old brood comb: this frame was one of the 'new' ones I put in. It was a ready-made up frame as part of a batch of stuff I got last autumn from somebody who'd given up the hobby. The frame is a touch warped but fits fine with the other 10 so I was surprised to see the ladies building natural comb on top. My guess is to replace again as they won't use the other side of the foundation? Is this common?View attachment 31426

Interesting.

That's drone comb.

Am I right in guessing that this was next to another frame of undrawn foundation?

What is happening is, I think, that you have given them no room to build drone comb (i.e. no foundationless frames, and no drone foundation). They are clearly desperate to build some, at this time of year. In response to this, they have picked the empty space between two frames of foundation and started to build some drone comb there instead.

Bees don't like old, stale foundation anyway, and if they can avoid building on it, they will.

To avoid this, either:

a) give them a foundationless (starter strip) frame to build some drone comb in, or
b) only put foundation between two drawn combs, so there is no room for them to go rogue

Also, make sure your frames are pushed well together.

 

[Murox]

Second inspection of the year, but after a 17-day gap with the cold, wet and windy weather since the first. On the first inspection I changed out some old brood comb: this frame was one of the 'new' ones I put in. It was a ready-made up frame as part of a batch of stuff I got last autumn from somebody who'd given up the hobby. The frame is a touch warped but fits fine with the other 10 so I was surprised to see the ladies building natural comb on top. My guess is to replace again as they won't use the other side of the foundation? Is this common?View attachment 31426

To me it appears that the foundation is bowed and not set squarely in the frame -- is it ??

 

[drex]

Inspected all colonies. All still slow to get going, but are picking up. Saw, and took opportunity to mark , all but two queens. Lovely looking queen in the long hive, but no brood or eggs. As all the others are laying I decided to squash her ( plenty of bees and stores though) and have put a queen from a nuc in a cage in the long hive. The bees from the nuc were used to boost one of the Nationals.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Started a Bailey on the colony that had CBPV after requeening. My one colony in a solid floor is streets ahead of the others. Added another super to that.

 

[philipm]

First inspection of my three hives all got through winter ok.Stroppy hive from last year had become stores bound and decided they wanted to swarm because they had run out of space ,gave them more room hopefully they change their minds for now . They were pretty nasty last year but today no problem considering the work on the hive.

 

[pete darbyshire]

Good job ... I reckon the bees are going to love those ....

Update from last year.post 32,127....they do love them, three hives each with bees on 25 frames and brood on 18-20 frames.
Waiting for queen cells then I can do some splits. They have breeder queens so not wanting a honey crop from them.

 

[Wilco]

At the in-laws, checked the colony I gave them last year. Mongrels but still the most docile compared to my colonies- could have got away with no suit! 9 frames of brood, added a super. Doing incredibly well.

If only I'd kept better records and could remember which line I bred her from...

 

[JamezF]

Visited an out apiary at a local farm today. It's not an ideal site because working space is quite cramped, but on the positive side it is south-facing and quite sheltered. Should be four colonies there but currently only three, all double brood. In all cases the top brood box was stuffed full of stores with some brood and eggs in the three or four frames closest to the entrance. There were a small number of sealed drones. Not much going on in the lower boxes, which is probably good as I'd like to replace the comb because it's old and they've done all sorts of weird stuff with it. I need to replace some now anyhow, as several lugs started to fail whilst I was lifting the frames out. Also had a crown board fail when I took it off, but I'm going to be replacing those with polycarbonate anyhow.

I saw one worker come into the hive carrying more pollen than I've ever seen before. She had a disc of pollen on each leg that must have been about 5mm diameter and close to 2mm thick. I'm surprised she could fly

I'm tempted to make up enough frames to replace one box in each colony and remove several frames of stores from each, replacing those with new frames as well. Hopefully they can draw out the new frames from the OSR that's currently flowering. My current plan is to Demarree and hopefully make up nucs from any queen cells later in the year, so the stores might come in handy then.

James

 

[pete darbyshire]

SUCCESS
SWMBO gets me to paint this every year, but won't allow bees to be put in it.
I've persuaded her to let me put lemon grass in it because "it will keep the wasps away"
I may of course regret this later

 

[Boston Bees]

View attachment 31433
SUCCESS
SWMBO gets me to paint this every year, but won't allow bees to be put in it.
I've persuaded her to let me put lemon grass in it because "it will keep the wasps away"
I may of course regret this later

Nice hive. But even as a keen beekeeper I wouldn't actually want bees there ....

You can relocate any caught swarms I guess!

 

[Swn58]

I wonder if the weather changing from very warm to the cold spell has just caused the queens to stop laying.

My thoughts too, coupled with a possibility that the sudden cold killed some queens. I thought that the 'winter-formation' had spread across the frames too much due to the previous warm weather. It may have made them think it was Spring and some queens were 'compromised? Last year we had frost in May that did for some newly formed nucs I had set up. Isn't beekeeping fun? This year I have decided to leave all manipulations till later in May.....or maybe even November
Before anyone points out the obvious.....I AM JOKING about Nov

 

[jeff33]

Checked all of mine today, leaving the demon hive for last. God they were awful, really nasty, far worse than last year. Brood and a half rammed with bad tempered bees. Super added a couple of weeks ago for space already filling up, have given them another to reduce congestion. Queen has got to go. Not sure if I can wait to requeen from one of my other hives, maybe this time I just buy one in.

It's always a gamble requeening a strong nasty hive, more often than not they will kill your new queen unless you take a few steps to reduce the risk and give your new queen better chances. Other issues is all mated queens atm are imported and likely to be buckies or carnies. Good luck with it, let us know how you get on.

 

[pargyle]

Update from last year.post 32,127....they do love them, three hives each with bees on 25 frames and brood on 18-20 frames.
Waiting for queen cells then I can do some splits. They have breeder queens so not wanting a honey crop from them.

Yes ,,, bees just love a Long deep hive with loads of insulation ... I'd put money on very low varroa levels as well.

 

[E&MBees]

Only managed to check one colony. It was bursting at the seams, 11 frames of bias. Despite adding a second brood box last week, they hadn’t utilised it. Found a charged qc, probably day 2-3 egg lying on a healthy bed of royal jelly. I couldn’t find the queen today so will return tomorrow, split the frames into pairs and nuc her. It will be interesting to see what my other colonies are doing.
Well at least I spotted what they’re up to in time. Two years ago, in lockdown, my first colony having overwintered successfully, swarmed on Good Friday to next doors deckchair.

 

[northyorkshire]

To me it appears that the foundation is bowed and not set squarely in the frame -- is it ??

The whole frame is a little warped. It is the last frame at the door end of the brood box. It does however fit snugly against the next frame in.

 

[northyorkshire]

Interesting.

That's drone comb.

Am I right in guessing that this was next to another frame of undrawn foundation?

Yes, this is the last frame before the door in the brood box, but the inside face is where they've started building.

What is happening is, I think, that you have given them no room to build drone comb (i.e. no foundationless frames, and no drone foundation). They are clearly desperate to build some, at this time of year. In response to this, they have picked the empty space between two frames of foundation and started to build some drone comb there instead.

Bees don't like old, stale foundation anyway, and if they can avoid building on it, they will.

To avoid this, either:

a) give them a foundationless (starter strip) frame to build some drone comb in, or

i.e. just a complete frame with no foundation?

b) only put foundation between two drawn combs, so there is no room for them to go rogue

Also, make sure your frames are pushed well together.

Despite the frame being a little warped, it fits snugly against both the front wall of the brood box and the adjacent frame.

Would you be inclined to let them get on with the work they've already started? There is plenty of room elsewhere in the BB for the queen to lay.

Thanks for your reply

 

[Boston Bees]

No, you need to take that wild comb off, otherwise the frame will become unusable.

You don't have to give them a foundationless frame. But if you want to, here's a good blog Foundationless frames update - The Apiarist

(If you do, make sure you put it in between two frames of drawn comb or foundation i.e. don't put 2 undrawn foundationless frames next to each other or you will get crazy comb)

I am currently using foundationless frames made with fishing line, using the "2 nail" method used in this video, and find it very easy to do, and the results are excellent.



Just make sure your hive stands are completely level in all directions so the comb is drawn down vertically.

But you don't have to do any of this. You can stick with worker foundation - many do - the bees will just shove drone brood in where they can.