What did you do in the Apiary today?

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Had a quick look at my "home" hives despite weather not being quite what had been forecast at the weekend when i worked out my schedule for the week.

All 7 alive and well. Didn't manage to get a proper look in most yet as the blocks of fondant stuck on top of the frames meant too much manipulation given the temperature.

However strongest hive had finished it's 4kg block of fondant (and spat the clingfilm out under the mouseguard!) so could get a better look - still plenty of stores and storing nectar in decent amounts already. 2nd frame of brood i got to was almost all capped and at least 70% of the frame. gave them a little more fondant just as a reserve and moved an empty frame next to the brood frames.

best news was that the tiny october prime swarm in the well dummied down, top insulated MB nat was still alive and had even managed to produce a single 5cm rosette of brood! fondant topped up (using plastic container - sorry PH but the colony is only occupying a narrow "slot" in the middle of the box so no room for much more at once!).

Now to spend the evening making up some frames and 14x12 boxes ready for the season proper.
 
Just called at my home apiary to collect my MB order and had a quick look (from a distance) at the one colony there. There was a cloud of bees in front of the hive (orientation flights) and the hive entrance looked very busy.

Also yesterday I realised that most of the crocus flowers are almost past it but followed the line of flying bees leaving / returning to the hive and spotted a blackthorn/hawthorn (?) bush/tree in the neighbors garden in full bloom!
 
17.5C and time for a check on 2 hives.

No sign of disease :)

Stronger of the hives had bees across 11 frames, brood across 6 frames, loads of stores in 4 frames.

Loads of Daffodils and Ornamental Cherries in bloom here, Flower buds on Fruiting Cherry and Plum trees getting ready to open...
I might be needing my supers in a week or 2.. :eek:
 
Had a quick look in my two hives. Plenty of brood, lots of eggs and tons of orange and yellow pollen coming in, the bees were covered in it.

I swapped the supers from under to over and saw and squashed a queen wasp who was inside setting up shop on one of the floors - which surprised me, the bees seemed not at all bothered by her?!
 
Last week I had 4 hives, all busy.

Today, one has no sign of life. (One on either side is coming and going in the sunshine)
 
Did my first inspection to day and was delighted to see that there was so many bees and loads of brood. Still loads of supplies and all looks well fingers crossed for a good start to the season.bee-smillie
 
After a foggy start the weather at 1:00 was warm 18c shirt sleeve weather and Sunny

so clean suit,washed wellies ,primed and de-coked smoker ( never needed it), two types of hive tool to prise the frames apart, i visited two apiaries,

then I inspected my hives for the first time this year, not into the brood yet but just to the brood in order to see where the worker brood started and what stores they had

most had adequate stores and one 5 14x12 frames ,one was on 3 14x12, until i got to the last one

10 14x12 frames of eggs larva and capped worker brood and only half a frame of fresh stores,....added some fondant and started a bailey change ( a bit early but it is in a walled garden temp was 22c), / I will add some liquid feed tonight...really grown this one, it drank lots of syrup last autumn...july Buckfast queen replacing an AS old queen as the other half of the AS did not mate well.,,,,,just wonder if it was a bit of carnie in the buckfast queen
 
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Removed wire for woodpeckers and the mouseguards and put in varroa trays and entrance blocks.

Sunny 16 degrees and no wind so looked in 2 out of the 4 hives ( fixed for time). Both brood and half with the super under. One had 5 frames of ( mainly capped)brood, and the other 4 - it has been cold here for the last week. Stores still adequate, with space to lay. Both supers only had a couple of frames of stores, so I bruised these and left them where they were. Hopefully in another week or two, I can swap them to on top of BB. Saw the marked queen ( from early last year) in the stronger hive. The other queen was from later last year and was un marked - did not bother to look for her as saw plenty of uncapped brood.

Plenty of OSR round me, so on target for good colonies by flowering time.
 
Did nothing.. All this sun these people are getting i havent seen it since sunday brrrrrrr
 
Built a load more frames + put together my 2 new poly hives.

Still too variable weather to inspect, 0.2C overnight then a high of 17.4C today!
 
Eventually the sun got rid of the fog here yesterday and warmed to 16 so I nipped off work and had a quick sortie through all hives. Quick check for Queen right, stores and space revealed 1 of my 14 x 12's is drone laying (didnt see the queen) and a couple of Nationals are a bit tucked up for space. Will unite the Drone laying hive to one of my Nationals initially and then swap the boxes back so I can get them into the 14 x 12.
Shuffled a few frames of stores on about half the hives and removed the fondant on these from the frames to above the feed hole and reduced the amount of fondant. Will disolve the surplus fondant and feed it weak as its fairly hard now. This will be fed to my Nationals that I want to move to 14 x 12 (and any others that need a spurt).
2 of my hives (one of each) are noticably alot fuller with more brood than the others. Average brood was hand sized patch on 4 frame sides, these bigger 2 had 8 frame sides (4 frames of brood). Also noticeable was the different levels of stores in the hives. In general all fairly good but one 14 x 12 was down to dregs (more fondant added and frame from neighbouring hive) and one 14 x 12 had 4 full frames and 2 more sides untouched plus stores acoss the arch in all others.
In to the garage afterwards to prep my boxes and frames for the coming month.:drool5:
In 2 weeks I celebrate my 1st year anniversary of getting bees. :party:
 
4 out of 5 hives have an abundance of yellow pollen on the alighting boards , some in pellet form but a large triangle trodden in (bees foot traffic).
The remaining hive has very little pollen on the board even though it is fitted with a conventional mouse guard . The four hives don't have mouse guards but are on Dartington type floors, leaving me to think perhaps having to negotiate a vertical 10 mil slot is causing the bees to loose their pollen loads ?
VM
 
Hosed down the path. Didnt really need doing, but I can, so I did!
 
victor meldrew said:
The four hives don't have mouse guards but are on Dartington type floors, leaving me to think perhaps having to negotiate a vertical 10 mil slot is causing the bees to loose their pollen loads ?
VM
Click to expand...

Haven't noticed it at all with mine VM
 
Mmmmmm
I have two made(to your excellent design JBM) but not yet deployed. I was going to change one when the weather got better.
 
Gave them some more fondant today Cos it was all gone:eek: , I fed them last week to ? They must be very hungry this time of year .
 
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