What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Boston Bees]

Cool weather here at the moment. Daytime temperatures have been between 8-11c for the last week and it’s set to continue for a while yet. Not a lot of foraging going on so I fed 5 colonies light syrup yesterday to keep them going. Most of the local beekeepers have been informed to keep an eye on stores at the moment. Our association secretary told me she was still feeding syrup and pollen patties well into May last year. Even in the late Spring and Summer our temperatures here are usually 7-9c colder than most of central and southern Britain.
On a different note I have been given permission to use this excellent photo showing one of our Braula enjoying some fresh air on a bee visiting willow.View attachment 31569o
Taken on 29/3/22 in Orphir Orkney by Derek Mayes

It has a passenger .....

 

[JamezF]

It has a passenger .....

I believe that's the Braula to which the poster was referring.

James

 

[Boston Bees]

I believe that's the Braula to which the poster was referring.

James

Gotcha - sleepy moment, I forgot what a Braula was!

 

[lindsay s]

Excellent picture. Thanks for posting. It’s a thing we don’t see usually.

Thanks. The image was originally posted on a local site and I thought it was only right to ask for permission to use it here. Please don’t repost it without asking first. I have never paid enough attention to observe braula in the field but they are easy to spot in the hives. Sometimes the queens thorax will be covered in them. We would rather live with Braula than have Varroa!!! I know it’s probably been covered before but here’s a link to an Australian site that explains their life cycle. Braula fly « Bee Aware

 

[Moobee]

Inspection this lunchtime. Last week one hive had a lot of wax moth larvae in with the brood and was only on 5 & half frames of BIAS so gave them a pollen substitute to help them build up a bit.
This week they're on 9 frames of BIAS and two charged QCs!
Luckily this is the hive I wanted to split at some point as the queen is from 2020, very calm and produces nice natured frugal bees.
Looks like they've made up my mind to do it sooner rather than later - so have made up a nuc with the queen, two frames of brood, two frames of food and an empty drawn comb.

 

[drex]

How lucky you have two frames of food to spare. Mine are teetering on the edge of needing feeding . I am not up North but am near the coast in the driest part of the country. Cold easterly winds for last 10 days have stopped much foraging.

 

[Moobee]

How lucky you have two frames of food to spare. Mine are teetering on the edge of needing feeding . I am not up North but am near the coast in the driest part of the country. Cold easterly winds for last 10 days have stopped much foraging.

We've had horrible cold easterly winds throughout most of April. It's still not super warm here - maximum temperature last few days has been barely mid teens but the bees are out and foraging. Had a shocking year here last year with the weather so happy it's better. Sorry that it's not so good where you are. We could definitely do with some rain too, earth is parched already.

 

[StephenT]

Checked whether introduced queen was ok and she still hadn’t made it out the cage after we removed the plastic tabs last Saturday. Took one side off the cage and out she trotted down into the hive. They seem to be excited and pleased to see her . First queen from Black Mountain Honey. Hope it’s just the light making her look a bit skinny.
View attachment trim.5985F5BF-77EB-40B3-8A78-F9833583D6A1.MOV

 

[Erichalfbee]

Checked whether introduced queen was ok and she still hadn’t made it out the cage after we removed the plastic tabs last Saturday. Took one side off the cage and out she trotted down into the hive. They seem to be excited and pleased to see her . First queen from Black Mountain Honey. Hope it’s just the light making her look a bit skinny.
View attachment 31584

Don’t worry. She’s not been laying so will look skinny

 

[manek]

Checked the split colony - Q + 2 frames of bees/brood - for food. Plenty still in the feeder. Fresh eggs in the comb, all looks OK.

Source colony obviously still queenless but loads of bees and honey - had to add a second super afterwards too - so I shook a couple of cups of bees into a mini nuc, and tomorrow or the day after, I shall harvest a queen cell from the Q- colony and add it to the nuc.

The source colony is getting a Paynes Buckfast queen this week - they've been Q- for seven days so I'm expecting them to accept her readily.

 

[Swarm]

Found the start of swarm preparations in one colony and finished today's inspections with a nice, charged supersedure cell. BIAS, queen present and re marked.

 

[BugsInABox]

Eventful 10 days.
15th went, all ready, to pinch the 'nasty coloney' queen but going thorugh the nuc I'd planned to unite them with I dropped their (the nuc's) queen on the floor - quick scrabble thorugh the ivy on the floor and no sign. I stood around for a few minutes as I've heard they can use you as a landmark to return but nothing obvious. So, in a grump, I closed them up and and then endured an inspection of the nasty hive with their smug looking queen.
Been back today: expecting to see a sealed queen cell but BIAS and, on my third pass through the combs, eventally spotted HM - marked her and then went to the grumpy hive. Queen pinched and newspaper unite completed - fingers crossed now.
What will happen to the residual bees in the old hive - will they beg their way in somewhere?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Eventful 10 days.
15th went, all ready, to pinch the nasty coloney queen but going thorugh the nuc I'd planned to unite them with I dropped their (the nuc's) queen on the floor - quick scrabble thorugh the ivy on the floor and no sign. I stood around for a few minutes as I've heard they can use you as a landmark to return but nothing obvious. So in a grump I closed them up and and endured an inspection of the nasty hive with their smug looking queen.
Been back today, expecting to see a sealed queen cell but BIAS and, on my third pass through the combs, eventally spotted HM - marked her and then went to the grumpy hive. Queen pinched and newspaper unite completed - fingers crossed now.
What will happen to the residual bees in the old hive - will they beg their way in somewhere?

Yes.
But
I like to unite in the evening so that there aren’t any flying bees

 

[BugsInABox]

Yes.
But
I like to unite in the evening so that there aren’t any flying bees

It was about 4.00 and no big flow flyign goign on. But there were a few comb fallers on the hive walls which I couldn't devise a method to get at- it's them more than the flyers I'm thinking of.
Should I close the old hive up (to stop the flyers moved to their new home returnign to their old one once they chew through the newspaper?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Take it away completely

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Nothing much - the mercury didn't creep up much above six degrees until late afternoon/early evening, so another stint in the workshop filling up my new frame racks

 

[nettle]

Put out one of my spare hives in position ready to do an artificial swarm whenever needed. Today was the first reasonable temp day in ages, but was starting to get a bit chilly by the time I made it to the apiary, so I'll be back tomorrow to inspect the queen-right colony. They're really, really busy, I'm terrified they'll swarm. Please let tomorrow be warm enough!

 

[Erichalfbee]

Checked over a colony going to a fellow beekeeper on Sunday.
Just about hanging on for a super till then.
All the other colonies busy on dandelion cherry apple and the beginnings of the sycamore
Happy days.

 

[masterBK]

Inspected a strong ( 15 frames of brood) double BC colony in my garden a week ago and found three queen cells (two recently sealed and the other one more or less ready to be sealed) . Most likely supersedure but taking no chances I artificialy swarmed it and also formed a fairly strong nucleus with one of the cells in a maisie polynuc. Since then we have had some really cold nights and today noticed the bees in the nucleus throwing out drone pupae (presumably the cluster has shrunk away from the drone cells on the periphery of the combs).

 

[Murox]

Popped to the farm apiary this morning to check on progress during this for us prolonged dry warmer spell. Was rewarded by seeing the first drone brood of the year and very active humming in one hive - a Getty queen, year 3. Another hive whilst good is further behind - local 'all sorts' queen also year 3.