What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Beemum]

Yay we have sunshine … roughly what temperature does it need to be to tempt the ladies out for a cleansing flight please? It’s cold today so I doubt I’ll see them, but until I do I’m going to be worrying about whether they’re ok …I tried to listen for them earlier but the beck is too loud !

 

[Lolly Bee]

First visit in weeks - AND THEY ARE ALIVE! I can't begin to describe the relief after losing a colony last year, I was terrified and close to tears at the thought of failing again. Delighted to feed fondant to both hives and leave them in peace.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Rendered down the first lot of last season's capping last night, just to try out my new 14 Litre double boiler a settling tank full of washed cappings produced about four kilos of heather wax, and it was surprising how much slumgum you get even with clean cappings - don't be fooled by the rim of wax on that block - it is 99% slumgum.


This morning as it was nice and dry (albeit a wee bit cold) ventured up to the range to do a quick heft of my largest apiary, all hives still very heavy and all colonies alive and kicking - even the one I had doubts on even making it in to the winter. As there are a lot of 'non treaters' dotted around that part of the dingle as well as some feral mite bombs), and when I haven't done a midwinter blast, there have been catastrophic mite levels early summer I gave them all a New Year's vaping to ensure they are top line going into spring

 

[SWHives]

Vaped all hives yesterday plus fed one with fondant as too light. 2 out of 3 still had highish mitre drop so will vape again in a few days.

 

[Mabee]

Yay we have sunshine … roughly what temperature does it need to be to tempt the ladies out for a cleansing flight please? It’s cold today so I doubt I’ll see them, but until I do I’m going to be worrying about whether they’re ok …I tried to listen for them earlier but the beck is too loud !

Very much depends on your bees, i’ve had bees come out at 6°C, some won’t show till 10°C, just listen to the bees through the side of the hive, press your ear gently against the side or get a cheap stethoscope to help reassure yourself.

 

[Garry R]

Rendered down the first lot of last season's capping last night, just to try out my new 14 Litre double boiler a settling tank full of washed cappings produced about four kilos of heather wax, and it was surprising how much slumgum you get even with clean cappings - don't be fooled by the rim of wax on that block - it is 99% slumgum.

View attachment 34922
This morning as it was nice and dry (albeit a wee bit cold) ventured up to the range to do a quick heft of my largest apiary, all hives still very heavy and all colonies alive and kicking - even the one I had doubts on even making it in to the winter. As there are a lot of 'non treaters' dotted around that part of the dingle as well as some feral mite bombs), and when I haven't done a midwinter blast, there have been catastrophic mite levels early summer I gave them all a New Year's vaping to ensure they are top line going into spring

Put the cake into a cheap veg bag (Lidl) and pop this into the leg of a pair of tights (thick tights work best and my wife doesn't seem to mind having only one leg on the remainder) and melt it again and when all melted lift the it out and let it drain. You will be amazed how much muck is removed . Final filtration through a J cloth. Not perfect but more than good enough for foundation making.

 

[madasafish]

Last week -Monday - I fed all nucs.
Did not bother with the heavy hives: I never touch in winter apart from vaping. Cannot do anything if dead or Q- so pointless

Been dismally gray and wet on and off since then and colder now and still raining lightly so quite happy to do visual inspections - eg are hives standing and safe? No bees flying.

Hunker down time.. too cold to do garage work: too big to heat.. (my excuse)
Time to catch up on some walking and intensive yoga so I will reach Spring in better condition than my entry into winter

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Put the cake into a cheap veg bag (Lidl) and pop this into the leg of a pair of tights (thick tights work best and my wife doesn't seem to mind having only one leg on the remainder) and melt it again and when all melted lift the it out and let it drain. You will be amazed how much muck is removed . Final filtration through a J cloth. Not perfect but more than good enough for foundation making.

what is left is just rubbish, really not worth the wasted energy to recover it, as it will probably amount to less than a few ounces. it will all go into the rubbish melting pot once the majority of the crap has been scraped off at the end and may be re-rendered

 

[Garry R]

what is left is just rubbish, really not worth the wasted energy to recover it, as it will probably amount to less than a few ounces. it will all go into the rubbish melting pot once the majority of the crap has been scraped off at the end and may be re-rendered

What I really meant was to do the filtering right from the start. I actually do what I said in the solar extractor and it comes out really clean. There is always a loss of wax at every filtering point so try and cut down the filtration steps to minimise that.

 

[Somerford]

More fondant feeding although many hives feel like they’re ok a surprising amount aren’t fully clustered and we’ve got cold weather on the way again.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

What I really meant was to do the filtering right from the start. I actually do what I said in the solar extractor and it comes out really clean. There is always a loss of wax at every filtering point so try and cut down the filtration steps to minimise that.

the amount of cappings I process, if I used a solar wax melter, it would either take me a year to just skim the surface, or
I'd need a melter the size of a family house. The cappings get washed, rendered, the majority of the wax gets filtered once and only needs a fine filtering if used for show purpose, the amount of wax left with the slumgum is minimal, if I have the time, it all gets put through a filter water and which leaves me with dirty water and any wax remaining floats to the top. this time, I just dumped the lot in a bucket of water so the wax and slumgum floated to the top, the amount of wax left really isn't worth bothering with

 

[Moobee]

Managed to check all the fondant levels over the weekend in a gap in this horrendous weather & glad I did as one was a bit light. Also minimal mite drop from all, even the one that had loads a few weeks ago so all good.

 

[user 20297]

The thawed snow at the entrance gives me reasonable confidence that the bees are alive enough just now....insulated top, bottom and sides so where else can the warm air exit?

 

[Moobee]

Yay we have sunshine … roughly what temperature does it need to be to tempt the ladies out for a cleansing flight please? It’s cold today so I doubt I’ll see them, but until I do I’m going to be worrying about whether they’re ok …I tried to listen for them earlier but the beck is too loud !

Depends on your bees which is why it’s good to have more than one hive for comparison. Of my three at home, two fly whenever the suns out even if it’s below 9 degrees. Hive three, which has much darker bees and are very frugal with stores, only break cluster fly when it’s at least 10-12 degrees.

 

[Newbeeneil]

I took advantage of the -2 deg temps and moved several hives around my apiaries this morning.
I had to deliver a couple of Paynes nucs of bees to a new local client and they seemed very busy inside. Very noisy and a couple even came out to check me out when I opened them up at the new site.

 

[jeff33]

Made the most of the cold spell and windless day to vape the hives and move hives around in the apiary.

 

[madasafish]

Looked at the snow: (approx 10cms)
And cleared entrances of snow,
Last two pictures are double mini nucs, covered with a 9mm OSB3 cover with 50mm insulation in roof

 

[rolande]

Been borrowing horse jumps.... View attachment 30457
Dadant deep with a nuc in double dadant shallow on top.

Also received the good news that this apiary has had a reprieve from being quarried next spring.

Almost a year later, the field to the left is now a huge hole and I've just spent the morning moving the (eye wateringly heavy dadant) hives so that the apiary can also be dug out. Can't stand in the way of progress...

 

[Curly green finger's]

That’s very sad I am keeping my fingers crossed mine won’t be the same…just need a day dry enough so I can have a proper (quick) look…or even a day sunny enough for the girls to venture out, that’d do …

Any evidence on the inspection boards ?
Either store cappings or brood I’ve been looking today and cleaning boards.

 

[Swarm]

Three degrees when I got to the bees today and up to five degrees when I left, the sun was shining and bees bringing in pollen. Didn't even think of hefting, they are frozen to the stands but I did check beneath a few.