What did you do in the Apiary today?

[JamezF]

I did nothing in the apiary today on account of the typical British Summer weather, that being the near opposite of what Goran is experiencing.

I have however asked around about alternative sites for another apiary thanks to getting blown out on my previous choice, and had three offers within four miles or so of home which gives me something to think about. I shall be arranging visits later in the week.

James

 

[masterBK]

Been away in Portugal so bees last inspected on 18th June. When I checked all 28 colonies yesterday I expected one or two problems but not one has swarmed while I was away and there is no evidence indicating any trying to swarm in the near future as I didn't find a single swarm cell. Perhaps the swarming season is over here or maybe Demaree has been very successful this year. Only two colonies tried to swarm earlier in the season but with clipped 3 yr old queens the bees came back (but queens lost) and I reduced the cells to one to control things . Did find a couple of Q cells in colony of another three yr old queen (clipped) so assume they are considering supersedure but I destroyed them anyway as I intend to replace her soon with one of several current years queens reared from better stocks that I have in nuclei (although two of them turned out to be were drone layers : with a period of several weeks of good weather how is it that they didn't get mated. Perhaps the drones didn't fancy dying for them !) I dispatched the queens and I shook out the bees. Alot of heavy lifting (at 75 yrs I am finding it a bit of a chore so must soon consider keeping far less colonies) to check brood chambers as most colonies had 3 really full supers (some 4). All but two of my 90 supers are in full use so will need to extract some soon to provide the empty supers I need to get through the next month for the colonies capable of filling yet another one. Hope I have enough buckets to store this years bumper harvest

 

[Spinney]

Don't know where to put this post.
Thank you for your advice a few weeks ago. New queen doing well.
This week another question. How to find a drone laying queen. My other hive swarmed 2 weeks into a Bailey comb change. Queen laying in top box, queen excluder over bottom box. So much for their beautiful new drawn comb - abandoned with a half built charged queen cell. I thought this queen was a good successor but then disappeared. Today the latest edition has only drone brood and I cannot find her.


saw this and thought of you Dani

 

[JamezF]

Today the latest edition has only drone brood and I cannot find her.

Are you sure she's still there? Could be laying workers?

James

 

[Erichalfbee]

Yesterday. United two colonies
Checked one that had requeened itself after the queen was killed/damaged by the beekeeper!
Small queen marked. She seems to be laying worker brood OK so will just keep an eye on her for now

 

[Erichalfbee]

Don't know where to put this post.
Thank you for your advice a few weeks ago. New queen doing well.
This week another question. How to find a drone laying queen. My other hive swarmed 2 weeks into a Bailey comb change. Queen laying in top box, queen excluder over bottom box. So much for their beautiful new drawn comb - abandoned with a half built charged queen cell. I thought this queen was a good successor but then disappeared. Today the latest edition has only drone brood and I cannot find her.

View attachment 32635
saw this and thought of you Dani

Mwnt Beach. Lovely. Nearer @mbc than me.

So pleased your new queen is doing well

 

[Curly green finger's]

Demarred 8 colony’s already, hiving up 15 double nucs , introducing 4 virgins and two mated queens to 3 frame nucs .
Feeding 5 mating 6 frame nucs 2 of which have laying queens after 7 days.
Moving 40 pallets to one of the heather apiary’s ready.
Adding 16 supers to production colony’s.

 

[gregior]

Inspected 12 of mine today This apiary started off the year as 6 overwintered colonies that have now each been split.All the new queens are mated very well and laying at an epic rate the old queens are all still going pretty well too. No signs of any swarming so I think we should be good for the rest of the year now.
As for honey-wow- all have a minimum of 40lbs in the supers with the best around 70lbs and the main flow is only just getting going here. I have ran out of supers so added brood boxes of foundation to some 2 weeks ago ,these are now fully drawn out and almost full with honey,the newly drawn frames look superb with beautiful white cappings.
Bees quite well behaved but not perfect i'll let them off though as the weather has been a bit unsettled and thundery the last few days.(lots of rain last night which has stopped me worrying about the ground being too dry)

I am a bit concerned with one colony that has a LOT of very shiney bees,there were no dead outside the entrance and no evidence of any bees shaking or behaving unusually and they all responded to smoke in the usual way but i'll have to keep an eye on that one.

 

[F.F.Stung]

I must say: Yes.
If You are interested, the quote came from: Alan Ford (comics) - Wikipedia

Thanks for the source. Read all the quotes

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Thanks for the source. Read all the quotes

Wasn't Bricktop played by Alan Ford?

 

[Goran]

Wasn't Bricktop played by Alan Ford?

Hah, not that Ford.

 

[Goran]

Today I managed to do nice workload. But was on the edge, prolonging bit by bit till midday. Then I run off.. Half hour more I would be cooked.. Tomorrow morning continuing, I must keep remembering this when buyers at large say the price for honey I ask is a way too high. Now I am in the mood to show them middle finger.. One buyer at large made me once disgracefully low price offer. I told him for that money I don't have any honey..
Couple times they thought I will be forced to give them honey for nickel, but luckily for me I proved them wrong and sold to fair buyer for fair price ( fair to my standard). In my family is said: each man carry their own cross. So this is mine to work hard to earn anything, if I didn't work hard I hadn't nothing.. When I pray, I only pray for health, nothing else..

 

[madasafish]

At the beginning of the season I planned to attract swarms and set up three bait hives.
Today the last one to be filled attracted a swarm at c 4pm..

I love it when a plan works.

 

[Wilco]

At the beginning of the season I planned to attract swarms and set up three bait hives.
Today the last one to be filled attracted a swarm at c 4pm..

I love it when a plan works comes together.

See correction.

 

[Michael Palmer]

Set up the second breeding program apiary. Each has 50 nucleus colonies with 5 daughters of each of the ten breeders. Breeders were chosen by previous years' performance. Frozen brood assay, nosema load, varroa population gain, production, wintering success. The top 5 in total scores became five of the 10 breeders. The remaining fives controls, were chosen by my usual methods.
The 100 nuclei will go through the selection process again in August. The new UBO assay will be added to the tests. The top scoring daughter of each breeder will be used the following year.
Exciting stuff to think about.

 

[Wilco]

Checked most hives. Wanted to move some of them but car was in for service and didn't dare risk putting hives/propolis inside the courtesy car they gave me, which started with 11 miles on the clock and was VERY swish.

I also had a revelation as to why so many people in shiny new big cars can't drive considerately especially on country lanes - proximity sensors beep at you even when there's bags of space.

Will be interested to see how well self driving cars work when meeting head to head on a narrow country lane (when they become a thing). Also disillusioned by the hybrid eco thing, felt a bit of a con really when driving.

Need to find time to assemble more boxes and frames but looks unlikely for a while. Also forgot to order some bits in the sale. Fail.

 

[JamezF]

I also had a revelation as to why so many people in shiny new big cars can't drive considerately especially on country lanes - proximity sensors beep at you even when there's bags of space.

I can imagine that being very irritating around here. Some places it would never stop beeping. I use the wing mirrors as proximity detectors. If they're touching the hedge, I'm close enough...

James

 

[Wilco]

I can imagine that being very irritating around here. Some places it would never stop beeping. I use the wing mirrors as proximity detectors. If they're touching the hedge, I'm close enough...

James

I've been driving around with a grass stalk hanging off the wing mirror for the last week.

 

[Newbeeneil]

Also disillusioned by the hybrid eco thing, felt a bit of a con really when driving.

Whys that?

 

[Wilco]

Whys that?

It was a self charging hybrid (which to me makes sense in terms of conserving power and efficiency) but basically was only electric if coasting and the battery depleted very rapidly so felt like a box ticking thing to look green and reduce tax liability than actually being properly green. I have quite an efficient driving style based on the fuel economy in my Jazz but still had to work to get it going electric. Plus thinking about the carbon impact of all the cool tech and plastic in there- I don't need to create a need for that. Just made me feel very conflicted.