What did you do in the Apiary today?

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I've mentioned before that my bee buddy has set up some hive scales under one of the hives in his garden, with an email connection to his phone.
He's on his way to France for the weekend, and has just received an email from the scales to say that the hive weight has increased by 7.26kg today. I can only think that a neighbourhood cat is sitting on it.
 
Got impatient, pulled and extracted a super. 11.4kg, 18% moisture content, sitting in the settling tank to be jarred either tomorrow evening or over the weekend.
Blew out 1 frame that wasn't flush against the extractor cage. That's now sat in the solar wax melter.

Plenty more to come too, it's all rather exciting...
 
Shook out the remaining bees from a DLQ and then went through all the supers. Bit of a big flow going on, nectar running everywhere, top two supers capped on most colonies and very, very heavy.
Two colonies that drew single queen cells, one has a new queen seen today. The other one swarmed today, four cells found, one popped out and I cut out the rest. They settled about six inches off the ground on a Willow sapling, must have been all of ten yards from the hive, I put a sheet under them, got a spare nuc and scooped them up. A few big handfuls later and they were fanning away at the entrance.
A week of sunny weather forecast, with high temps :)
 
Late night hive movements... Head torch died so used the side lights. Two polynucs with extensions and another nuc all moved across. Empty bits left for the handful of stragglers. Ruddy ankle biters but understandable. If I get my act together (and time!) I'll move more across.

20220707_230721.jpg
 
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As W0otz - removed a fully capped super and extracted. I‘m inclined not to fit it back as there are two other supers under way and the colony is double brood. They have made no swarm preps at all, so to keep the hive a little less tall I’ll only refit the super if the flow demands it.
 
W0otz said:
Got impatient, pulled and extracted a super. 11.4kg, 18% moisture content, sitting in the settling tank to be jarred either tomorrow evening or over the weekend.
Blew out 1 frame that wasn't flush against the extractor cage. That's now sat in the solar wax melter.

Plenty more to come too, it's all rather exciting...
Click to expand...
And jarred. It's lovely and clear.
IMG_20220708_172357.jpg
 
Super flow on here in co wicklow i think i will skip inspections this weekend and leave them at it i gave them lots of space on inspection last week
 
JamezF said:
That's amazingly clear. Do you know what the source is? (Apologies if you already posted and I missed it.)

James
Click to expand...
Bramble, clover and lime have all been out in force, though coming to an end now. I would guess a blend of all 3 but who knows. Add in gardens and allotments... I'm going with generic multifloral honey!
 
Feeling chuffed. Finally have 6 queen right colonies, all doing the right thing. Lovely temperament, good laying pattern, healthy brood. The new queens are building up nicely. Should even get a honey harvest. Apart from the heat, a really good afternoon.
 
Nuc’ing the queen and returning her after two rounds of queen cells didn’t work for me. I tried it on two colonies and they both went. That will serve me right for fiddling instead of sticking to my tried and tested methods which I know work. On a brighter note the swarm in the potting shed is in its fourth super.
 
Erichalfbee said:
Nuc’ing the queen and returning her after two rounds of queen cells didn’t work for me. I tried it on two colonies and they both went. That will serve me right for fiddling instead of sticking to my tried and tested methods which I know work. On a brighter note the swarm in the potting shed is in its fourth super.
Click to expand...
It seemed to work for us, sort of. Merged the nuc back in at the correct time and then they made a couple of queen cells. Knocked them down and then they made a couple more which we left and the bees subsequently tore them down. The hive has definitely taken a significant dip in foraging activity since but last weekend noticed fully laid up frames so she seems back on form.
 
thorn said:
I've mentioned before that my bee buddy has set up some hive scales under one of the hives in his garden, with an email connection to his phone.
He's on his way to France for the weekend, and has just received an email from the scales to say that the hive weight has increased by 7.26kg today. I can only think that a neighbourhood cat is sitting on it.
Click to expand...
Big cat
 
thorn said:
I've mentioned before that my bee buddy has set up some hive scales under one of the hives in his garden, with an email connection to his phone.
He's on his way to France for the weekend, and has just received an email from the scales to say that the hive weight has increased by 7.26kg today. I can only think that a neighbourhood cat is sitting on it.
Click to expand...
Possible... 7.26kg nectar at 80% water reduced down to 20% as honey would be around 1.8kg final product, so a couple of frames once capped. If there's a flow on and the colony is big enough I can believe it. Obviously pollen has weight too.
 
Jarred up the honey extracted on Friday. 24lbs from one super.
Honey is sweeter than the smelly socks dandelion honey and it was really easy to extract. Refracometer read 16.5% even though some frames were not fully capped. 1F18F262-DC82-4997-8F88-959E481652AC.jpeg
 
Inspected all four hives and the split which im hoping to reunite at some point. The hive that we removed the queen from has produced a little beauty,mated and laying, so there lies the dilemma!!!!
One of the hives seems very flighty with a little chalkbrood so could replace her with the nuc'd queen, decisions decisions
🐝🐝🐝🐝
 
Sweated like Rolf Harris at a St Trinian's convention

Early start to the range to avoid the worse of the sun, fat chance, that hill is a right sunspot catching th sun almost from dawn until dusk.
Supered/double supered over a dozen colonies including one which was only transferred from a nuc a few weeks ago. Some colonies initially Demarreed are back up to nine frames of brood.
strimmed around the hives now that the orchids have now gone over then both me and the strimmer collapsed and called it a day
 
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