What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Wilco]

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...
View attachment 34061

The 2 frames at either end were a total write off, but the central 6 frames were reasonably liquid still.
View attachment 34065View attachment 34062

~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:
View attachment 34063

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.
View attachment 34064

Have you checked water content? If it's still runny and partially uncapped it could be because it's not fully dehydrated.

 

[JimBee463]

As it was pretty mild with only a light breeze yesterday early evening I took the Apivar out (not too bad to release), put insulation under the roof and strapped up. The girls were very chilled indeed and it was a pleasure to have a last look at them (didn't take frames out, just looked in on them) until I put in the OA later in the winter.

This is my first over-wintering so hopefully they'll make it through OK, although they are looking strong and have plenty of stores, at the moment.

 

[W0otz]

Have you checked water content? If it's still runny and partially uncapped it could be because it's not fully dehydrated.

The honey I extracted is showing 17%. The frames were all capped except the outer face of the outer frames, which were fully crystallised.

 

[Wilco]

The honey I extracted is showing 17%. The frames were all capped except the outer face of the outer frames, which were fully crystallised.

If it's ivy it's likely to set quickly in jars too. Lovely aroma IMO. Glad it's low %

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Started feeding the home apiary bees (now waiting apprehensively for a posse of BBKA 'master' beekeepers to turn up, drag me out into the street and flog me with a limp lettuce)
went up to the castle apiary to top up the feeders - looks like they had a close shave in last weekend's high winds, a large bough snapped off one of the dead Ash trees and missed one pair of hives by a few inches - debris all over the place and the limb was so heavy it was a struggle to shift it out of the way for me to get to the furthest hives. OK for smoker fuel for a while though

 

[Swarm]

Did a last round of vaping, very few mites after five days with boards in. Hives are all nicely heavy and very busy bees but still no scent of Ivy.
Had a load of pears and apples off my landowner, fantastic harvest again this year.

 

[JamezF]

Thanks to the day being warm and dry with no wind I have stuck the new EPDM roof covering down on my bee shed and found a temporary sheet of perspex for the window to replace the one that was broken. It's so old it's opaque, but it means the shed is now pretty much water-tight and I can move stuff in. I still need to fix down the front and back edges of the EPDM and trim it to size, but that shouldn't take long. Then it will probably be sprayed with creosote.

This started life about ten years ago as a cheap and (what turned out to be exceptionally) nasty prefab 8'x6' shed which was damaged quite badly in the storms at the start of this year. I've built a new, stronger, floor with a larger footprint than the original shed, allowing me to extend it slightly and to create a covered storage area about three feet wide by eight long.

Assuming the weather holds up tomorrow (which doesn't look certain at the moment) I'll try to get the edges of the roof finished and make up some racking to go inside.

James

 

[Goran]

Checking last queens, some are nicely laying and some - not. Have spare ones in mnucs. These days will go toward finishing all, cause will have more time due to finished hazelnut harvest.. ufff...
Pears for cooking are on the menu, eating each evening when enter the house. Tasty..

 

[Curly green finger's]

Fed more organic fondant on Friday also did my second round of vaping , I have an interesting colony that have superseded and have both queens present .
all colony’s condensed except a few which I will do next week , I still have heather supers to extract and I have had ago at making soft set heather honey it has sort of set its more creamy soft set honey.

 

[Ian123]

Fed more organic fondant on Friday also did my second round of vaping , I have an interesting colony that have superseded and have both queens present .
all colony’s condensed except a few which I will do next week , I still have heather supers to extract and I have had ago at making soft set heather honey it has sort of set its more creamy soft set honey.View attachment 34080

What’s organic fondant?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

What’s organic fondant?

a myth?

 

[Erichalfbee]

What’s organic fondant?

I have a more burning question.

 

[Ian123]

a myth?

No…….Patrick must sell it!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

did the rounds topping up feeders, bees are hoovering down the syrup, and with this mild spell we're having, the ivy has bloomed and the bees are bringing it in flat out, wixed with the syrup it will be ideal for winter stores.

 

[Redcap]

Fed more invert which they were hoovering up...and spent some time just watching foragers returning with huge amounts of ivy pollen in their baskets...all in lovely sunshine too .

 

[JamezF]

Didn't manage to complete the roof of my bee shed because my daughter wanted to melt down and filter a few kilos of wax to use as part of some work she's doing for her Art A Level. There's wax all over the kitchen now, but for a change it's not me that has to clean it up And after it's done I shall get the wax back, too.

I did however get some racking built to go in the bee shed. It effectively gives me a set of "pigeon holes" three high and five wide along one long side of the shed, each about 20" square. I've already started moving stuff into them. In fact I think the only beekeeping kit that's still in the house is my extractor, the honey warming cabinet, my toolbox and a couple of plastic boxes of brood frames full of stores. Not sure I can put the latter in the bee shed as it's not bee tight at the moment, though I was eyeing an old four-drawer filing cabinet the other day, wondering if it might work for "secure" frame storage. Unfortunately it's a bit awkward to get to at the moment so I can't measure it up just yet.

I'm also wondering if I can somehow create some more frame storage space on the underside of the roof where they won't be in the way of me walking up and down (which means it will need to follow the slope of the roof rather than running horizontally).

James

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I'm also wondering if I can somehow create some more frame storage space on the underside of the roof where they won't be in the way of me walking up and down (which means it will need to follow the slope of the roof rather than running horizontally).

I've done just that in my new shed - I can store a good few hundred frames in the 'dead' space above the stored honey and glass jars.
I have 4x2" roof joist in my shed which made it easier, all you need is two runners made of 2x1" laths spaced 15" apart

 

[JamezF]

I've done just that in my new shed - I can store a good few hundred frames in the 'dead' space above the stored honey and glass jars.
I have 4x2" roof joist in my shed which made it easier, all you need is two runners made of 2x1" laths spaced 15" apart

It looks as though I might be able to make something like that work. I might even be able to get away with two rows with brood frames on the one closest to the wall where I can't walk anyhow and super frames more towards the middle. I shall have a tinker tomorrow.

James

 

[Curly green finger's]

This

 

[Curly green finger's]

This

I’m feeding this