What did you do in the Apiary today?

[biggles]

Sat a watched

 

[Hombre]

Mixed up a batch of patty material yesterday evening. During the day a bee had landed on me and been inadvertently taken indoors.
Today I noticed her on a net curtain and so had her walk up onto my finger and decided to invite her to partake in a taste-test.

With a blob of pattie on my finger, she quickly got wired into it and began working her excitement muscles. Good stuff then. I walked outside to the hives where there was a bit of activity and waited for her to stop feeding before encouraging her to leave. Last seen buzzing towards the entrance with her companions.

When asked about the pattie quality, Lizzie bee, she says. YES!

 

[oliver90owner]

Rotten s*d! The rest of the day was likely spent with hundreds of her sister bees looking for your finger (well, the grub) at the last place you dropped her off!

RAB

 

[PaleoPerson]

Spring Clean

Checked all colonies today, very busy.
One had decided to do a bit of a Spring Clean.
This picture was taken late in the day just as they had stopped flying.

 

[chipper]

Hefted several hives, no light ones noted....peeped into a few nucs...
2 dead 1 drone layer...not good....!! All colonies bringing in dribs and drabs of pollen....
Planted some trees on the edge of the woods...Lime, Cherry and Goat Willow....

 

[TOBY-3652]

Did the undertaker bees put all the dead bees in a pile like that?????

 

[PaleoPerson]

Did the undertaker bees put all the dead bees in a pile like that?????

Yup! Just heaved them out the door....

 

[adrian wilford]

ive fed sugar syrup may seem early, but we need flying bees in early april, theres a few flowers out andin the apiary the cherry blossom is in bud could be out in 2/3 weeks so we need plenty of bees asap

 

[MJBee]

Cue for a song - What a difference a day makes

Yesterday wall to wall sunshine all colonies harvesting pollen and water. The apiary sounded like it does on a mid summer day. Renewed the fondant on 3 hives, bees totally ignored me.

Today persisting down and a chilly 7C, the apiary looks like a ghost town, not a bee in sight.

 

[Rosti]

Not a good day in the Apairy today. 12'C & sunny when I got there.

Discovered 2 of 4 colonies were dead, both had stores both had found and fed from fondant, both appear to have been isolated. Both were fine end of Jan (last check). The remaining two feeding from fondant and flying.

Guess I've made up twice as much pollen pattie as I need. Guess I've got some fully stocked bait hives, made up and ready to go. Not a good sight.

Finished off by placing the water feeder back in position ..... by then the weather realised it was inappropriately jolly, so it started raining!

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Bad luck Rosti, must be horrible.

 

[OXFORDBEE]

Rosti,

Sorry to hear of your experience. Alas, starvation isolation is something you can't do much about.

Real pain though when you do the best for your bees and they decide to remove themselves from the gene pool....

At least you've got some kit to hive some of this years swams...

 

[madasafish]

Went to local Assoc's apairy this am and with 5-6 others put fondant on all 13 (14?) hives. All survived winter so far...

It even stopped raining as we did it. A bee stung me on my thumb for my pains

 

[freethorpe bees]

Rosti - sorry to hear your news it must be a horrible sight.

Mine are ok so far, put some more fondant on today just before it started raining. They were, well, lively!

FB

 

[tonybloke]

nowt in the apiary, I went to the Norfolk BKA auction instead ( got a few bargains as well)

 

[Summerslease]

Not much doing today in Teesside-too cold. On Friday my bees were out in force and threw out this one which had a white crust on her wings. She couldn't fly. Could it be some of the fondant I'm feeding or a wing virus? There should be a picture with this post.

 

[For want of a better word]

Watched the bees go in and out and prayed my friend would get over brain cancer.

 

[tonybloke]

sorry to hear of your friends brain cancer, my thoughts are with him/her.

collected more wood ready for making up some more floors and some 16 x 10 nuc boxes.

 

[blackbrood]

Watched the bees go in and out and prayed my friend would get over brain cancer.

Fingers crossed for your friend.

 

[freethorpe bees]

Fingers crossed Icanhopit. Sorry to hear that. Times like that when you feel totally useless other than just being there.

Tony - I need another national roof if you've got any wood left over!!