What did you do in the Apiary today?

[E&MBees]

Made up a new nuc for my other purchased queen. Hopefully she will settle in and be accepted as successfully as Hilda was a couple of weeks ago. All colonies very busy which is excellent.

 

[Boston Bees]

As I have said I do not want 5 hives, what age my options? Can I reunite at a later date or?

Your association will usually be willing to email out a "nuc for sale" offer to all members.

 

[Wilco]

Checked most hives, running low on kit and time. Lime starting to get going but sadly no hives near it. Rest tomorrow. Bees generally settled down but need to do some uniting next week and get a few ready for the heather.

Delivered live inspection via video call followed by Q+A session for a client, over a hundred dialled in. Was then asked to possibly do another with what may be a significantly larger audience so seems to have gone ok.

 

[Swarm]

Checked on a unite, the paper was gone and a lot of bees in there now, still a bit ratty. Mixed bag with two earlier splits, new queen seen and laying with the Amm colony, I put a test frame in the other one. Found two workers entombed in the cell I was waiting on so can only assume it must have emerged but no brood and nectar spread throughout the nest looks like she failed to mate so I'll reunite the original queen.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Checked most hives, running low on kit and time. Lime starting to get going but sadly no hives near it. Rest tomorrow. Bees generally settled down but need to do some uniting next week and get a few ready for the heather.

Delivered live inspection via video call followed by Q+A session for a client, over a hundred dialled in. Was then asked to possibly do another with what may be a significantly larger audience so seems to have gone ok.

Good stuff.
You could run one for the forum.

 

[Wilco]

Good stuff.
You could run one for the forum.

Tell everyone the stuff they already know from being on here?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Tell everyone the stuff they already know from being on here?

But the beginners don’t.

 

[nettle]

Went to look at some 'honey' bees that have moved into the fridge vent on someone's campervan... they were bumbles. Well travelled bumbles too, they're just back from a tour of the north coast!

 

[Wilco]

But the beginners don’t.

Maybe. I'd have a degree of imposter syndrome given the wealth of knowledge and experience many on here have.

 

[BeeKeyPlayer]

Picked up a swarm this morning from a tree in a street. Lots of passers-by so I stayed with it for a while till the bees were almost all in the nuc. I wrapped a sheet round it to contain the bees under the mesh and around the entrance and drove home. I put the box in the shade for an hour or so before I drove to the apiary. When I got there the bees were all dead or dying, covered in honey. My mistake? I put a couple of combs in the nuc, and on a whim, added a frame with some honey. I've not done that before, and I know you don't feed a swarm, not for a few days at least. In a thoughtless moment, I guess I wanted to encourage the bees to stay in the nuc. And with the sheet wrapped round the box, the bees weren't able to ventilate the interior, and couldn't control the flow of honey. Horrible. A memory that will haunt me.

 

[nettle]

Horrible. A memory that will haunt me.

Oh no, horrible thing to happen

A couple of weeks ago I made a stupid horrible mistake too. I was feeding the colony because they were light on stores, and when I was inspecting them I stupidly without thinking put the feeder (full of bees) down on the upturned roof. Normally I put them on the grass so they can get out. It was a hot day, and they must have suffocated or overheated. Lesson learned. I felt awful.

 

[BeeKeyPlayer]

Was then asked to possibly do another with what may be a significantly larger audience so seems to have gone ok.

I don't suppose interested people here could be part of that audience?

 

[BeeKeyPlayer]

Another trip down there at dusk now to (hopefully) close them up and bring home

Would you use the 'workers only' entrance on the nuc to ensure that the queen isn't able to leave the nuc before you get back?

 

[Antipodes]

Picked up a swarm this morning from a tree in a street. Lots of passers-by so I stayed with it for a while till the bees were almost all in the nuc. I wrapped a sheet round it to contain the bees under the mesh and around the entrance and drove home. I put the box in the shade for an hour or so before I drove to the apiary. When I got there the bees were all dead or dying, covered in honey. My mistake? I put a couple of combs in the nuc, and on a whim, added a frame with some honey. I've not done that before, and I know you don't feed a swarm, not for a few days at least. In a thoughtless moment, I guess I wanted to encourage the bees to stay in the nuc. And with the sheet wrapped round the box, the bees weren't able to ventilate the interior, and couldn't control the flow of honey. Horrible. A memory that will haunt me.

Swarms are at more of a risk of overheating without comb, so I think a full box of comb in the nuc with or without some stores would be fine. Bees can generate a lot of heat (relatively). My understanding is that when bees really overheat they vomit (possibly in this case mainly the honey they carried with them rather than the stuff in the comb?) and that vomit covers other bees and then things get really messy. It sounds like that is what happened in your case. I think the mistake was perhaps the wrapping of the nuc with a sheet rather than the adding a drawn frame with some honey in it. A ventilation screen is good for travel. I think you are saying you did two trips with them .....did you put them inside a car and if so, was the car a bit warm perhaps?

 

[Wilco]

I don't suppose interested people here could be part of that audience?

Probably not that one as it's for a client but if people are keen I'm sure I can do something for here when things calm down a bit.

 

[JamezF]

A memory that will haunt me.

I've got this wrong once too. It's not something I'm happy about even now, but there's little choice but to try to learn from the mistake and avoid making it again. Adding to Antipodes comments above, metabolic processes (not just in bees) can perhaps generate far more heat than you'd expect. I've no way to be sure it's true, but I've read that internal cell temperatures in humans can reach 50°C during hard exercise for example, and to survive we need to be able to shed that heat somehow. Restricting airflow to the skin makes it much more difficult to do. Quite possibly wrapping a swarm up in a sheet has the possibility of causing similar difficulties for bees in maintaining acceptable temperatures. It's surprising how small the margin is between being able to cope or otherwise.

Fortunately since it happened to me I've only had to deal with catching swarms in relatively cooler weather, but my intention is that if I have to take a swarm in hot weather then I need a proper ventilated box to contain them and they can't be left anywhere that they don't have the opportunity to circulate cooler air.

James

 

[Wilco]

I've got this wrong once too. It's not something I'm happy about even now, but there's little choice but to try to learn from the mistake and avoid making it again. Adding to Antipodes comments above, metabolic processes (not just in bees) can perhaps generate far more heat than you'd expect. I've no way to be sure it's true, but I've read that internal cell temperatures in humans can reach 50°C during hard exercise for example, and to survive we need to be able to shed that heat somehow. Restricting airflow to the skin makes it much more difficult to do. Quite possibly wrapping a swarm up in a sheet has the possibility of causing similar difficulties for bees in maintaining acceptable temperatures. It's surprising how small the margin is between being able to cope or otherwise.

Fortunately since it happened to me I've only had to deal with catching swarms in relatively cooler weather, but my intention is that if I have to take a swarm in hot weather then I need a proper ventilated box to contain them and they can't be left anywhere that they don't have the opportunity to circulate cooler air.

James

Likewise, been there with a colony I was given in a poly box. It's an awful feeling but does teach you to respect how much heat they can generate.

 

[BeeKeyPlayer]

vomit covers other bees and then things get really messy. It sounds like that is what happened in your case.

That's interesting and entirely plausible in this case. The car journeys were short and cool. I blame the sheet being on too long.

metabolic processes (not just in bees) can perhaps generate far more heat than you'd expect.

Yup, I just wasn't mentally prepared for this - despite knowing it from courses and books. Experience is the final teacher!

It's surprising how small the margin is between being able to cope or otherwise.

I guess we see an example of that where bees can kill a hornet with by heat-balling (not sure which hornets I heard this about), where they generate temperatures that are just a little below the maximum they themselves can tolerate.

 

[Moobee]

Multiple swarm calls this week. One had already absconded by the time I got there. One had disappeared into some nice cladding which the home owner didn’t want removing, one left as I got my kit out of the car and snagged the 4th which was a lovely calm large swarm in a bush at a care home.
The best thing was actually standing in the middle of the swarm that left as they whizzed around me and disappeared over some houses.

 

[Boston Bees]

Multiple swarm calls this week. One had already absconded by the time I got there. One had disappeared into some nice cladding which the home owner didn’t want removing, one left as I got my kit out of the car and snagged the 4th which was a lovely calm large swarm in a bush at a care home.
The best thing was actually standing in the middle of the swarm that left as they whizzed around me and disappeared over some houses.
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View attachment 32458

I am praying for no calls today - not in this heat, please