What did you do in the Apiary today?

[JimBee463]

Weighed my hive, which came in at a respectable 33kg, so i'm happy that they have plenty of stores for winter. I'll take the Apivar out later in the week and insulate the roof then strap them up.

 

[Do224]

Weighed my hive, which came in at a respectable 33kg, so i'm happy that they have plenty of stores for winter. I'll take the Apivar out later in the week and insulate the roof then strap them up.

I weighed mine today. My hives are wooden nationals consisting of stand, floor, bb, crown board and super (no roof as insulated cover used instead). I think the hive and drawn frames comes to about 20kg. What is the base weight of your hives?

Currently my occupied hives weigh 39kg, 36kg and 32.5kg. I’ve stopped feeding the heavy one but still trying to get more invert into the other two…

 

[JimBee463]

I weighed mine today. My hives are wooden nationals consisting of stand, floor, bb, crown board and super (no roof as insulated cover used instead). I think the hive and drawn frames comes to about 20kg. What is the base weight of your hives?

Currently my occupied hives weigh 39kg, 36kg and 32.5kg. I’ve stopped feeding the heavy one but still trying to get more invert into the other two…

My hive is cedar with a UFH, it comes in at around 12kg (floor, standard BB with 11 frames, crown board and roof). My girls are really busy bringing in stacks of Ivy pollen at the moment too.

 

[Parsonage Bees]

Checked completely broodless colony. Suspect MAQS treatment in early September. Gave them a frame with eggs 4 days ago. No sign of QCs.
Hoping they haven't forgotten how and that they know where their queen is.

 

[Nannysbees]

Checked completely broodless colony. Suspect MAQS treatment in early September. Gave them a frame with eggs 4 days ago. No sign of QCs.
Hoping they haven't forgotten how and that they know where their queen is.

Same as one of our hives, given three frames over the last few months no qc no eggs can't find any sign of a queen, in the lap of the bees!!!!!

 

[Erichalfbee]

Same as one of our hives, given three frames over the last few months no qc no eggs can't find any sign of a queen, in the lap of the bees!!!!!

No QCs no eggs for how many months?

 

[pargyle]

Hefted all my colonies... 6 out of 7 are already nailed to the ground and I haven't started feeding yet ... I'll probably put a feeder on the one that feels a bit lighter tomorrow - Ivy still not in bloom and it's a bit chilly and windy at the moment so I hope the weather bucks up a bit before the ivy comes out. Some intrepid souls were still flying and obviously bringing some stuff in.... i've picked up some 100mm Kingspan that will fit nicely in a super on top of the crownboards so I think they will be nice and toasty this winter.

Derek Mitchell is coming to talk to our association on Friday ... I've heard him talk a few times but it will be good to see him again. Miss his contributions on here ...

 

[ericbeaumont]

Miss his contributions on here ...

Sweet-talk him into returning...

 

[Erichalfbee]

Derek Mitchell is coming to talk to our association on Friday ... I've heard him talk a few times but it will be good to see him again. Miss his contributions on here ...

Sweet-talk him into returning...

Tell him you're in charge

 

[Nannysbees]

No QCs no eggs for how many months?

About 2 months, hadn't drawn any qc so advised must be a queen but I don't think so but I'm willing to be proven wrong

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Sweet-talk him into returning...

To the best of my recollection he was being regularly and unreasonably criticised by certain individuals trying to score points. I think he got fed up of the continuous sniping.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Different moderators now

 

[user 20297]

Different moderators now

You know how I hate to nitpick . But I believe that he must have left around March 2021, there may have been one substitution of moderator since then, but overall, it's the same setup.

He's got strong opinions backed up, as he sees it, by scientific fact; he will always be faced by strong opposing views in beekeeping, where most decisions are affected by subjective judgement, experience and instinct. It's a hard job to moderate when someone's every utterance has the potential to set a thread on fire.

I would definitely prefer him to come back to the forum because his input was always interesting, but maybe it's better for him the way things stand?

 

[JamezF]

It's been a breezy day but otherwise sunny and warm so I took the opportunity to get around all my hives and scrape the Apivar strips, moving in towards the centre of the brood area where required. None of them were actually that bad, though some had been propolised in sufficiently that I had a struggle to remove them. Something like a pair of pliers might be a useful tool to have to hand when I go to remove them in mid-November. I also collected my empty bait hives and brought them home.

A couple of colonies were a teeny bit defensive. That could just be down to not wanting the lid lifting off at this stage of the season, but I'd deal with them in the Spring otherwise. One of them was fine until I put the first Apivar strip back in at which point a dozen or so bees bundled out and tried to attack the loop of wire that I'd put through the strip to make it easier to remove. When they realised the futility of that they came and bounced off my veil for a while.

I also have a small list of jobs to do. Two hives could each do with a new roof, for example. The existing ones don't feel quite as solid as they should. I suspect the weather is to blame. It's an easy fix anyhow. No need to even let the bees know I'm there. One colony has also made itself a new entrance at a joint. That might also be down to the weather because they certainly weren't getting in and out there at the start of the season. As a temporary measure I might just screw a plate over that so it doesn't become too interesting to anything else and take the box away for repair when I replace old comb at the start of next season.

Overall the every one of the colonies looks in reasonable shape. They're clearly still relatively busy, so I'll probably just leave them to it until it's time to remove the Apivar strips.

James

 

[manek]

Took a newly bought colony (BB+super) from another beek in the Division back to the apiary. Nadired the super and whacked a load of 2:1 syrup in a full-frame feeder on top - they had precious little stores in the BB.

Looking forward to seeing how they do in a few days's time - it was nearly dark by the time I'd finished settling them in.

 

[Moobee]

Went to check the out apiary. One hive was already doomed as was being obliterated by wasps on my last visit. The second had been defending itself vigorously last week but today had been overrun. Huge cloud of wasps around the hive and piling into the entrance. Total carnage, I lifted the brood box off the floor which was full of dead and dismembered bees
Managed to find the queen in the melee and put her in a queen cage in my pocket for safe keeping.
I’d taken a nuc with me and pulled out two frames of brood with nurse bees clinging on for dear life and shook the wasps off a couple of frames of stores and popped all that in the nuc.
Bloody wasps were everywhere and in the car as I tried to load up.
Hopefully I can get the nuc through winter back at home as she’s a calm & productive 2020 queen who has laid well and produced some lovely daughters. With any luck I can get some more queens from her in spring, fingers crossed.

 

[W0otz]

Removed my last super of the year - I put on an empty but drawn super on 26th August in the hope of getting some ivy honey, as I'd never tried it.
What I've mostly done is clogged up a load of perfectly good frames...


The 2 frames at either end were a total write off, but the central 6 frames were reasonably liquid still.


~3.5kg extracted out of a very full and heavy super.
I don't have a warming cabinet at all, let alone one large enough to stick a whole super in. I think I'll just store until next year and stick the frames through my solar wax melter - at least I can use the wax. Perhaps I'll try making ivy honey mead with the bakers honey from it.

Looks like I've still got time to feed the colony up now I've nicked their stores:


I don't think I'll be repeating this experiment in future, but I had to give it a go!

Here are a couple of ivy jars next to one from this summer. 'scuse the bubbles, I didn't want to leave it in the settling tank because I'd probably have to chisel it out tomorrow.

 

[Sutty]

Went to check the out apiary. One hive was already doomed as was being obliterated by wasps on my last visit. The second had been defending itself vigorously last week but today had been overrun. Huge cloud of wasps around the hive and piling into the entrance. Total carnage, I lifted the brood box off the floor which was full of dead and dismembered bees
Managed to find the queen in the melee and put her in a queen cage in my pocket for safe keeping.
I’d taken a nuc with me and pulled out two frames of brood with nurse bees clinging on for dear life and shook the wasps off a couple of frames of stores and popped all that in the nuc.
Bloody wasps were everywhere and in the car as I tried to load up.
Hopefully I can get the nuc through winter back at home as she’s a calm & productive 2020 queen who has laid well and produced some lovely daughters. With any luck I can get some more queens from her in spring, fingers crossed.

Hope you get her through winter. Always good to hear more queens from your best!

 

[ericbeaumont]

the hope of getting some ivy honey, as I'd never tried it. What I've mostly done is clogged up a load of perfectly good frames...

Always a struggle to extract ivy before it sets in the comb.

I began using unwired cut-comb foundation a couple of years ago, giving the option to extract, or if it won't, sell the whole frame or cut it into 8oz blocks.

Had a few slices of crystallised ivy tonight and I'm sure it would work with a strong cheese (no runny honey mess either) and may sell well.

 

[drex]

Any frames that still have crystallised honey in, after extracting, get given back to the bees to clean out. ( sometimes i give them a light water spray first) . It does not take them more than a few days, then they can go into storage.