What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Cooperman]

I have been working very hard over several weeks dodging eye surgery appointments and rain showers to dismantle and re-erect a shed. Finally managed to felt the roof on a dry day last week and have creosoted the exterior and interior in the sunshine today. The previous protective coat was in a poor state and the creosote was just absorbed into the old timber. I will have to recoat the outside but at least its waterproof and ready to accomodate the bits and pieces in the old shed and I will be able to give that a refresher coat of creosote.

It looks small. What is the size of the shed?

 

[madasafish]

Sunny and 8C yesterday. Hefted and fed anything with under 10 frames . Hefted and fed a couple with 10 or more frames. Grey and rain today... (as usual this month)

 

[Goran]

All frozen this morning.. Seems not much of fruits will harvest this season.. Also will have reprise this coming night.. In addition seems our main honey harvest is in question also.. Seems this year will have huge financial struggle to survive..

 

[JamezF]

Grim day today weatherwise so nothing doing in the apiary, but I did go to visit someone who had offered a possible apiary site about three miles from home.

Met a nice lady who was doing some interesting permaculture-style stuff on the land, but the site was straight off the page of bad examples in the "How to choose an apiary site" book: a steep and boggy north-facing slope with nowhere level other than the parking area. Bees would have fitted in nicely with what she and her husband are trying to achieve, but I couldn't see a viable way to make it work.

James

 

[Anduril]

Susbees used to have an apiary site like that from the descriptions.

 

[Moobee]

Are you champing at the bit?
I am

YES!

 

[Brian Bush]

It looks small. What is the size of the shed?

It is only 6ft 8ft but the beauty is it is nearly 7 feet tall at the eaves. This means I can stack14x12 brood boxes 6 high with no problems. 1 row at the back with take 4 stacks of brood or super boxes.

 

[Mabee]

Watched the bees piling in masses of orange pollen and spotted a very early, very large drone!
Spring has definitely sprung, spotted queen bumbles today, a queen wasp, lambs now in the field behind us and there were quite a few owls hooting away loudly last night, can only think they are claiming their territory!

 

[gregior]

First inspection on 9 of mine today (7 colonies and 2 overwintered nucs) All queenright and laying very well ranging from 5 to 9 frames of brood. Sealed drone brood in most but none emerged yet. All have plenty of stores and there was a decent amount of nectar about too. Bees were pretty chilled so it looks like most of the grumpy winter bees have died off now. Supers will be going on in the next week or so.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Yesterday spent the day getting wet feeding cleaning 50 odd inspection boards on different sites afternoon made 15 miller frames a few clear crown boards and started to frame and wax the new stack of supers

 

[rolande]

Yesterday spent the day getting wet feeding cleaning 50 odd inspection boards on different sites afternoon made 15 miller frames a few clear crown boards and started to frame and wax the new stack of supers

Miller frame?

 

[Curly green finger's]

Miller frame?

Made frames which will be used for the miller method for queen rearing




For folk that would like to watch how to do it.
I like using the method imo a more natural way of queen rearing .

 

[The Poot]

Rescued a tree creeper that had unfortunately hit our window. After some minutes it revived in the warmth of my hands and flew off.

 

[StephenT]

Stuck a super on the far busiest hive out of the three. Didn’t want to do a full inspection as was rather chilly out of the sun but could see a load of worker and drone brood in the top box. Need to get in this one soonish as they may have early season swarming plans.

 

[MrGoat]

Yesterday afternoon was a lovely sunny day in North Kerry so decided I'd dive in for the first inspection.

NUCs
1 NUC out of 3 didn't make it - only a handful of bees left in it. These were an extremely late swarm and my learnings from this was to leave them off next time - not worth the hassle. The two other NUCs I overwintered in Maisemore NUCs with Supers on and they are both booming which need to be moved into full hives in the next week or two.

Hives
2 very strong hives with bees on all frames and 7 frames of brood with a very nice pattern - pondering when to give these supers.
2 hives which look weak only about 4/5 frames of bees - these got the feeders put on and will get plenty sugar syrup to get stronger.
3 hives which look to be doing ok, queens laying away, plenty stores - will monitor over the next few weeks.

I bought a GoPro late last year to take some photos and videos while at the apiary - couldn't for the life of me turn it on yesterday when fully suited up!!

Overall it's great to be back in 2023! and no doubt the next few months of trying to stop swarms will be hell!

 

[SWEET]

Stuck a super on the far busiest hive out of the three. Didn’t want to do a full inspection as was rather chilly out of the sun but could see a load of worker and drone brood in the top box. Need to get in this one soonish as they may have early season swarming plans.

Bit keen regards the super, -2 in the next few days in the Midlands.

 

[North End Bees]

Bit keen regards the super, -2 in the next few days in the Midlands.

But he's not in the Midlands. Much warmer in the south, particularly in the city.

 

[W0otz]

Debating whether to add a second super already! There's a little more room in the first super, but I want to keep ahead of them to try and delay swarming.

In terms of filling the super, the central 4 frames were perhaps 50% full of nectar so they're definitely bringing something in now. The other 2 colonies in the same apiary are much further behind.

 

[JamezF]

We had a frost this morning and I'd not be surprised if there were a few more this week.

James

 

[SWEET]

But he's not in the Midlands. Much warmer in the south, particularly in the city.

Yep, I know and checked that : )

Drops to 3 or 4 with a nice chilly wind, still early for supers either way (especially in the concrete jungle).