What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Erichalfbee]

Hi all
Sorry that I haven’t posted for a few months but I was very busy at work through the winter. We had a short spell of good weather in mid March and the bees were quite active but that was followed by three weeks of cold and damp weather so I haven’t been able to get a proper look at the bees until now. The temperature has been as high as 12c a couple of times this week and because the bees were flying well I managed to carry out quick inspections on all of the hives (13 colonies in total). I have plenty to talk about but this post is about the condition of my hives.
As usual I expected to see slugs, slaters and mouldy combs and I was right. About half of the hives had the odd slug, all of my cedar hives had slaters and all of my hives had mouldy combs on the edges of the brood boxes with exception of my poly nucs. A few of my cedar hives had damp corners as well. I was most disappointed to find mouldy combs in my new poly hives. I bought them because I’ve never had bother with mouldy combs in my poly nucs and I thought they might be the same. I have removed about 20 mouldy frames and they will probably be dumped if I don’t have the time to clean and sterilise them, here’s photos of the worst ones.
View attachment 31461View attachment 31462

I don’t think mouldy combs are the fault of the boxes rather the bees covering them. I do occasionally get a mouldy comb at the end if the colony is small.

 

[Moobee]

Sounds they’re doing really well and good job spotting that queen cell! When you added the 2nd box did you move some brood up into it? I find this helps move the bees and nurses up into the second box and the queen soon moves onto adjacent combs.
Hope you find her ok for your split

I added a second brood box on my strong colony with drawn foundation interspersed with new foundation and she’s already up and laying in it after a week.

 

[lindsay s]

I don’t think mouldy combs are the fault of the boxes rather the bees covering them. I do occasionally get a mouldy comb at the end if the colony is small.

You are right, apart from my poly nucs none of my hives had many bees on the end frames. Also we have long damp winters here (with high windchill ) and I think that makes maintaining temperatures a little bit harder for our bees

 

[StephenT]

Checked the 3 hives yesterday. Shook out a nuc with a Drone laying queen last Wednesday and all the bees seemed to go into the closest hive (a weaker one) after a couple of hours. No fighting and all looked good on inspection. Planning to requeen it this Wednesday. Took out a couple of frames of excess stores from one hive and stuck a super on. Greater London Mongrel Hive 3 looking the best on double brood and 2 supers. Plenty of drones being produced there now so will have to keep an extra close eye on them.

 

[holmbee]

I have just inspected my two Cornish queens acquired last year. One fine but no sign of queen in the other, all brood there is drone and a couple of single eggs. So assumed drone laying queen now gone. Shook out the frames and put in freezer. The remaining workers all went to the other Cornish hive. Bit of a traffic jam as they all went in but very peaceful operation. Good increase in workers for the remaining one.

 

[Nannysbees]

Just standing by my hives watching and this little girl stopped by to say hello on my sleeve loved it

 

[pargyle]

Well ... had a look at all mine. for the first time this year.. stuffed with bees, 6 or 7 frames full of capped brood in all of them - no queen cells, very little drone comb at present so I'm fairly relaxed. Put a drawn super on all of them - all of them were building brace comb anywhere they could and storing nectar - couple of frames of capped stores at least in each hive with some arcs of stores above the brood. Depending on what the weather does in the coming week I might remove one of the frames of stores and give them a new frame to play with.

I know the flow around me is massive once the horse chestnuts really get going and they are already showing some flowers .. plenty of moisture in the soil and very humid today so that will help- plus might be some showers tomorrow.

 

[Nannysbees]

Well ... had a look at all mine. for the first time this year.. stuffed with bees, 6 or 7 frames full of capped brood in all of them - no queen cells, very little drone comb at present so I'm fairly relaxed. Put a drawn super on all of them - all of them were building brace comb anywhere they could and storing nectar - couple of frames of capped stores at least in each hive with some arcs of stores above the brood. Depending on what the weather does in the coming week I might remove one of the frames of stores and give them a new frame to play with.

I know the flow around me is massive once the horse chestnuts really get going and they are already showing some flowers .. plenty of moisture in the soil and very humid today so that will help- plus might be some showers tomorrow.

How would you store that frame you plan to remove if it's full of stores?

 

[Erichalfbee]

How would you store that frame you plan to remove if it's full of stores?

I store mine in the freezer. I have a dedicated one but it's OK somewhere cool in a sealed box. Shed will do

 

[pargyle]

How would you store that frame you plan to remove if it's full of stores?

I have a heavy duty plastic box with a lid that seals .. I usually store fully capped and sealed brood frames full of honey in that in the garage. I have a second freezer in the garage and any super frames that are going to be extracted at any point for human consumption go in there.

 

[madasafish]

I store my honey frames in a brood box - outside with sealed entrance. KISS

 

[W0otz]

Looks like when I knocked them down to 1 remaining queen cell the sneaky buggers snuck another past me. Hopefully that's it and they've not left the hive hopelessly queenless!

Out of curiosity I went for a quick peek to see how many bees were left in the hive (lots!), just lifted the supers and didn't disturb brood box or lift the QE so hopefully no flighty virgins lost. Spotted a foundationless super frame that was being built out off-centre. Sacrificed it before it got any worse, crushed and strained, got my first (very full) jar of honey.

All in the space of an hour. Perhaps I should have waited for the bubbles to settle out of the honey...

Doh! Miles up a Leylandii well out of reach.
The offending frame with the edges taken off already
High tech extraction process!
Quick check as only 1 side of the comb was capped - looks good.
My first jar of honey.

 

[Boston Bees]

Looks like when I knocked them down to 1 remaining queen cell the sneaky buggers snuck another past me. Hopefully that's it and they've not left the hive hopelessly queenless!

Out of curiosity I went for a quick peek to see how many bees were left in the hive (lots!), just lifted the supers and didn't disturb brood box or lift the QE so hopefully no flighty virgins lost. Spotted a foundationless super frame that was being built out off-centre. Sacrificed it before it got any worse, crushed and strained, got my first (very full) jar of honey.

All in the space of an hour. Perhaps I should have waited for the bubbles to settle out of the honey...

View attachment 31476 Doh! Miles up a Leylandii well out of reach.
View attachment 31477 The offending frame with the edges taken off already
View attachment 31478 High tech extraction process!
View attachment 31479 Quick check as only 1 side of the comb was capped - looks good.
View attachment 31480 My first jar of honey.

Ahh, go on, get your triple ladder out - Leylandii are great to get swarms out of ....

 

[JamezF]

Bee vacuum with a very long hose?

James

 

[Erichalfbee]

You need one of these on a pole. A pillow slip will do with some sort of frame.

 

[W0otz]

Bucket taped to a Lidl extendable lopper, on top of a borrowed triple ladder did the trick. Branch was just about thin enough to lop and drop straight into the bucket with most of the bees. It felt very precarious and if the neighbours were looking out the windows they must think I'm nuts, but the swarm's now in a poly nuc. They've mostly settled down, lots of fanning at the entrance and just a few milling about the tree still.

 

[Swarm]

Marked some queens, rotated double broods and added supers. Over wintered nucs are full colonies now and will need supering pretty soon.

 

[pargyle]

Looks like when I knocked them down to 1 remaining queen cell the sneaky buggers snuck another past me. Hopefully that's it and they've not left the hive hopelessly queenless!

Out of curiosity I went for a quick peek to see how many bees were left in the hive (lots!), just lifted the supers and didn't disturb brood box or lift the QE so hopefully no flighty virgins lost. Spotted a foundationless super frame that was being built out off-centre. Sacrificed it before it got any worse, crushed and strained, got my first (very full) jar of honey.

All in the space of an hour. Perhaps I should have waited for the bubbles to settle out of the honey...

View attachment 31480 My first jar of honey.

Doesn't that first jar of your own honey taste the best honey ever ? Pretty low tech extraction but it's done the job - lovely colour in the jar and early spring honey really is special.

In my foundationless super frames I just have a triangular strip of timber underneath the top bar with the point facing downwards., I don't bother with any vertical support - it's not necessary and I suspect that skewer, vertically placed, is the reason that your comb was a bit off centre and they have gone a bit off piste.

You may find that foundationless super frames are a bit fatter than comb built on foundation but it's not a bad thing - just means that there is more honey in the frame. I'd lose the vertical support and I'd also check your spacing in the supers - are you using castellations and if so how many frames are they holding ?

You will find, once you have enough drawn frames, you can intersperse drawn frames with fresh frames and that gives them a good guide to work from and they tend to be straighter.

 

[W0otz]

In my foundationless super frames I just have a triangular strip of timber underneath the top bar with the point facing downwards., I don't bother with any vertical support - it's not necessary and I suspect the reason that your comb was a bit off centre is the reason they have gone a bit off piste. You may find that foundationless super frames are a bit fatter than comb built on foundation but it's not a bad thing - just means that there is more honey in the frame. I'd lose the vertical support and I'd also check your spacing in the supers - are you using castellations and if so how many frames are there holding ?

You will find, once you have enough drawn frames, you can intersperse drawn frames with fresh frames and that gives them a good guide to work from and they tend to be straighter.

I've got lolly sticks under the top bar as a comb guide and, so far at least, the other foundationless frames are ok. Not perfect, but not bad enough that I've had to pull them. Already decided against the vertical supports in super frames, though I've got a fair few already built with them; I'll keep the vertical supports in 14x12 brood frames though. Current super spacing is 12 frames on rails, alternating foundation and foundationless to stop them going too wild, my plan being to maximise drawn super frames as I have no stock of drawn comb. I've got 10-slot castellations to go in the boxes but I wasn't sure if they'd make a mess with that much spacing and no drawn comb. Once I've got enough drawn comb I can hopefully go fully foundationless, alternating new frames and combs rather than new frames and foundation.

 

[pargyle]

I've got lolly sticks under the top bar as a comb guide and, so far at least, the other foundationless frames are ok. Not perfect, but not bad enough that I've had to pull them. Already decided against the vertical supports in super frames, though I've got a fair few already built with them; I'll keep the vertical supports in 14x12 brood frames though. Current super spacing is 12 frames on rails, alternating foundation and foundationless to stop them going too wild, my plan being to maximise drawn super frames as I have no stock of drawn comb. I've got 10-slot castellations to go in the boxes but I wasn't sure if they'd make a mess with that much spacing and no drawn comb. Once I've got enough drawn comb I can hopefully go fully foundationless, alternating new frames and combs rather than new frames and foundation.

Yes that will work ..

I wire my foundationless brood frames horizontally with stainless wire and the same triangular strips under the top bar. I've always done this and it works for me but if you find something that works then stick with it.

You can see here how they draw the combs out and the line of cells where the horizontal wires are incorporated into the comb but the cells are not used for brood. (These were home made frames when I had more time and less money !)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/99514363@N06/albums/72157636258571594