What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Murox]

And jarred. It's lovely and clear.
View attachment 32820

That looks really lovely, love the plainess of the label by the way.

 

[W0otz]

Avery L7173 labels (or knockoffs...) fit perfectly on 3 sides of an 8oz hex jar. Avery label designer on their website, colour laser printer. Job done

 

[The Poot]

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

Five colonies beckons

 

[madasafish]

Yesterday: drove 5 miles to hep beginner with a swarm. 2 meters high in thick undergrowth,10 minute job.Easy.
Today : one larger hive swarmed , considered settling in 30 meter high oak tree in field, then settled on 20 meter high birch in our garden. After lunch and suitably fortified by half a liter of lager and half a bottle of Prosecco, I climbed up tree, partially cut through branch so it slowly sagged down so I could lassoo with a rope and reach swarm. After that it was all easy but had to house in National bait hive and make up more foundation for it.
In between my wallpaper stripper based wax melter melted c 3 KG of wax ,I made lunch and united an couple on National nucs,

It was 24C and rather pleasantly warm

 

[Nannysbees]

Five colonies beckons

Nooooòoooooooooooooooooooooooo

 

[JamezF]

Sweated like Rolf Harris at a St Trinian's convention

This. 29°C here today, and I felt horrible. Even in a t-shirt and shorts, inside the house where it was cool, I was still sweating. I was supposed to do some inspections today, but I just couldn't face it. I hid in the workshop for a while, but that has a wrinkly tin roof so even it didn't stay cool for long.

James

 

[JamezF]

I was supposed to do some inspections today, but I just couldn't face it.

I should add that I feel quite guilty about this. I was really not enjoying the heat though.

For various reasons the operators of the pool I usually swim at have dropped the water temperature to about 28.5°C recently. That's actually great if you're swimming hard, but when you first get in, well, let's say it can make your budgie smugglers suddenly look a touch baggy. Today when I got in it was absolutely blissful.

James

 

[Murox]

.......................the pool I usually swim at have dropped the water temperature to about 28.5°C recently. That's actually great if you're swimming hard, but when you first get in, well, let's say it can make your budgie smugglers suddenly look a touch baggy. Today when I got in it was absolutely blissful.

Today water temperature in the patch of ocean I would use is 12.5°C. Doesn't get much better than that

 

[Swarm]

Too hot for lifting supers so clearing can wait until tomorrow, found some shade and made frames instead.

 

[nettle]

My little swarm's looking lovely, laying away happily and bringing in nectar and blue willowherb pollen. I've never seen any of the others bring it in before, but this seems to be all these guys are going for!

The split I did four weeks ago is still queenless. I'll leave them another week, but I'm that paranoid now about laying workers. Still, they're finally bringing some stores in.

The big colony is busy busy, but they're very light indeed, so I've fed them.

 

[madasafish]

Too hot for lifting supers so clearing can wait until tomorrow, found some shade and made frames instead.

Only 27C here so added supers to 4 hives due to massive flow.
Now I recall 2018 - a very hot summer - doing inspections at 30C plus.

( was going to start this post with "wimp" but decided discretion etc )

 

[drex]

@ nettle. If the big colony can spare it, you can always donate a frame of brood to the split. The brood pheromone will discourage laying workers, can act as a test frame, and in my experience can get a queen reluctant to lay to start laying. Wins all round

 

[Swarm]

Only 27C here so added supers to 4 hives due to massive flow.
Now I recall 2018 - a very hot summer - doing inspections at 30C plus.

( was going to start this post with "wimp" but decided discretion etc )

Only 27 C yesterday when I made sure all the capped supers were on top. The hives have spare supers added as space, ready to clear and extract the capped ones. Even hotter today, it was 32 C in the garden. Some extra frames for a few deeps to go on tomorrow seemed a good idea to me I could have left it but now they can go on tomorrow when the clearer boards go on ..... If I can reach

 

[Murox]

Well after a full month of wind rain and cold it finally cheered up enough for me to get into a hive headed by my 2018 queen - she has gone. Opened up to inspect the brood nest and found seven capped queen cells one of which promptly popped open! Managed to cage her while I sorted things out, there were no eggs or open brood. Must have just missed it all by a few days. Ho-hum.

 

[Moobee]

So hot here today. Popped out to close the greenhouse doors to less than one cat space and the hives are humming like generators.

 

[elainemary]

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.

Was that the Hivemaker method Dani? I’ve done 2 as well this year, but rather than returning the queen with her Nuc. I put her into a cage and returned her only, no bees. One colony is now on 12 frames brood and the other 8! No more swarm preps.

I did wonder as I tried this earlier in the season, previously had been in July, whether uniting the full Nuc back would work. I re-read Peter’s method and he just put the queen back not the full Nuc.So she has to start a new broodnest from scratch and you give them no reason initially, to make a queen

I then used both Nucs to make a queen with the final round of emergency cells as they were both nice productive colonies. Both queens have now mated and each of those on 6 frames brood.

Just sharing this, as I think it can work well and wondering if timing and how the queen goes back, is a key factor for success…..?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Was that the Hivemaker method Dani? I’ve done 2 as well this year, but rather than returning the queen with her Nuc. I put her into a cage and returned her only, no bees. One colony is now on 12 frames brood and the other 8! No more swarm preps.

I did wonder as I tried this earlier in the season, previously had been in July, whether uniting the full Nuc back would work. I re-read Peter’s method and he just put the queen back not the full Nuc.So she has to start a new broodnest from scratch and you give them no reason initially, to make a queen

I then used both Nucs to make a queen with the final round of emergency cells as they were both nice productive colonies. Both queens have now mated and each of those on 6 frames brood.

Just sharing this, as I think it can work well and wondering if timing and how the queen goes back, is a key factor for success…..?

Yes my fault. I just united the colonies. Sheer laziness on my part. Demarees need a bit of work which I was trying to avoid. Still hadn’t got fiddling with systems out of my head; too much spare time. Learned my lesson.
At least with Demaree I don’t have to cope with colony increase, just varroa. But I have a plan there

 

[nettle]

@ nettle. If the big colony can spare it, you can always donate a frame of brood to the split. The brood pheromone will discourage laying workers, can act as a test frame, and in my experience can get a queen reluctant to lay to start laying. Wins all round

Thanks, that's a good point. I was thinking of doing a test frame before making the decision to unite them back to the original colony.

 

[Boston Bees]

Got rid of my last colony of bees over the weekend. 18 to zero in 6 weeks. Taking at least a year off the hassles of beekeeping, and maybe a lifetime. Bye y'all, have fun!

 

[Erichalfbee]

Boston. You kept that quiet! Enjoy your new found freedom. Xx