What did you do in the Apiary today?

[pargyle]

Today I did my first inspection and transfer of Nuc to hive after a nearly 4 year break from beekeeping. It’s good to be back!

Welcome back ....exciting times !

 

[Brian Bush]

Assisted my BeeBuddy Debbie in adding a second 14x12 brood box to an extremely large colony in a WBC. Colony was already on 14x12 brood and one super.
Came home to check the 'Cottage Hive' . This has 3 boxes of 8 national frames and has been lively for weeks. 16 frames of brood and 8 of liquid stores.
Must return to the workshop today and build anothe box.

 

[Martimart]

Reduced the Hives in my garden from 5 and a Nuc back down to the 2 I'm "allowed" No doubt with one thing and another I'll end up with 5 again this time next year. All strong and have x1 super on each. Not seen Queens but that really doesn't bother me, some years I don't see them at all. No sign of any Varroa in the comb they laid for checking. My goal this year is to up my swarm management game. Last year my swarm management was knocking them out of the tree's after the event. See how it goes.

 

[JamezF]

I was going to put supers on and demaree three hives today, but the weather is less than pleasant, frankly. Even the hills a mile and a half away are disappearing into the haze and there's a chilly north-easterly wind with showers forecast later.

I might take the supers down and put those on, then worry about taking the hives apart for the demaree tomorrow when it's supposed to be a bit more pleasant.

James

 

[user 20297]

Reduced the Hives in my garden from 5 and a Nuc back down to the 2 I'm "allowed" No doubt with one thing and another I'll end up with 5 again this time next year. All strong and have x1 super on each. Not seen Queens but that really doesn't bother me, some years I don't see them at all. No sign of any Varroa in the comb they laid for checking. My goal this year is to up my swarm management game. Last year my swarm management was knocking them out of the tree's after the event. See how it goes.

Sounds familiar.

 

[user 20297]

I wedged a square of PIR under my Abelo floors last autumn. The bees have done well with this insulation. I have one busy hive that's already drying nectar each evening. To help them, I've removed the false floor. I remember @Erichalfbee having a passing interest in the outcome as the bees obviously couldn't clean the floor. There is a lot of debris shown here, but looking up through the mesh afterwards, all I could see was bees walking around. They had kept clean what they could get at, just as good bees normally do.....but what a pile of c**p!

 

[Parsonage Bees]

Quick check. Nobody is going to be building queen cells this early, are they.
Queen on the crownboard.

 

[Garry R]

Quick check. Nobody is going to be building queen cells this early, are they.
Queen on the crownboard.

View attachment 35869

I have a strong 22 frame 14x12" long hive which yesterday had early queen cells with eggs in them. Message is don't be fooled and keep your eye on the ball. Blink and they'll be off.

 

[gwt_uk]

Checked 3 colonies this evening. Weather for the weekend and next week looks very bad....possible snow so thought I better get into them.

2 colonies I made double brood 10 days ago. Both queens laying well. Managed to Mark one that had eluded me for a while. Quite a few drones. One colony very strong and filling a super nicely.

Small colony in Poly Nuc slowly expanding but don’t think the queen is as prolific. Will keep an eye on it.

 

[gregior]

Checked 11 of mine today,most very strong on 10 to 16 frames BIAS with a few pounds of nectar in most supers.Strongest one had 18 frames brood and Q cells with young larvae so did a Padgeon on them,they are my most feisty colony so i'll requeen it next week.
Was pleasantly surprised to see all the frames of foundation i've added recently have been really well drawn out despite the lacklustre weather,was expecting them to be chewed up,so there is a decent flow on when they can get out.

Weather for next week looks pretty dire to say the least so I doubt much will be happening.

 

[JamezF]

Went ahead with supering up the three colonies that needed it. Nothing exciting there other than negotiating the rams. To get close to the hives I have to drive through a paddock that is currently home to four rams. They appear very docile, but they're apparently also rather keen to be somewhere other than the paddock. Perhaps understandable given that there are several fields within earshot full of ewes with lambs. Getting the gate open, driving the car through and closing the gate again without them making a break for it is tricky, especially when you're on your own

Also started organising bait hives to go out over the next week or so and put another brood box of frames on top of the colony that have filled two brood boxes with wild comb to see if they'll move up.

James

 

[Macbear]

An easterly wind was a concern as my hives are sheltered from SW round to NE [clockwise], but we were lucky. Lovely sunshine. Both hives in good order, added a second BB with 5 frames to the stronger hive as the Q is doing well. [Sacking as insulation in the space either side of those frames as insulation with cold weather still possible]. Plenty of pollen and nectar coming in. All the super frames that had overwinter stores are now dealing in this year's crop. Additional joy was being assisted by my wife.

 

[Parsonage Bees]

More queen wasps coming in the house than I've seen before. That must be the 6th one I've smashed.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

More queen wasps coming in the house than I've seen before. That must be the 6th one I've smashed.

oh dear - why?

 

[Parsonage Bees]

oh dear - why?

why? Why smash them? Well they're in the house. Not against the right of wasps to exist. Useful insects.
I'm being a pessimist, suggesting it might be a bad year for wasps. Had a look back at my pictures, the last time I put out wasp traps when the hives were being hassled was 2018 and we had snow that winter. Gone to under floor entrances since. We shall see.
. . . . Ben

 

[Angularity]

More queen wasps coming in the house than I've seen before. That must be the 6th one I've smashed.

Same here, they seem to have survived the winter well. Have to make sure the hives are protected later on in the season.

 

[Swarm]

Made the most of the sunshine despite the bitter wind. Got the last single box onto double brood, she is laying well I found drone eggs on the outer faces of the end frames so just in time with some extra laying space.
Said hello to one of the three year old queens as she appeared on the frame, she has a big nest and the colony is very busy, nectar being dumped just about anywhere today. The majority are on thirteen or more brood combs.
The Oak tree colony got a new floor and another brood box, I found three dead bumbles on their old floor. Never seen so much pollen coming in, such a shame the forecast is miserable for the next week or longer.
The bees were beautiful today.

 

[JamezF]

Did a demaree on three double-brood colonies. My first ever. What chaos that was! I think (hope) I've caught them just in time. The brood boxes were fit to bust and I basically had to shake the bees off all the frames into the bottom box one at a time before putting the ones containing brood into a new box which went back on top of one of my new demaree boards above the supers. Actually finding the queen wasn't even remotely an option. Also took the opportunity to replace the existing mesh floors with mesh UFE floors, which I failed to get around to doing at the end of last season.

Took a hit to the chin for my pains, too. A few bees were demonstrating their dissatisfaction with the entire process through the medium of dance on the front of my veil when I negligently leant forward to get a better view of a frame and touched my chin against it. Feels rather a lot like when the anaesthetic hasn't quite worn off after a visit to the dentist at the moment

Pleased I got it done today because the forecast for the next few days is somewhat cooler. Still have to go back and check for queen cells obviously. I might do that initially on Sunday just so I have a bit more of a clue how they've reacted.

James

 

[Jon.21]

Did a demaree on three double-brood colonies. My first ever. What chaos that was! I think (hope) I've caught them just in time. The brood boxes were fit to bust and I basically had to shake the bees off all the frames into the bottom box one at a time before putting the ones containing brood into a new box which went back on top of one of my new demaree boards above the supers. Actually finding the queen wasn't even remotely an option. Also took the opportunity to replace the existing mesh floors with mesh UFE floors, which I failed to get around to doing at the end of last season.

Took a hit to the chin for my pains, too. A few bees were demonstrating their dissatisfaction with the entire process through the medium of dance on the front of my veil when I negligently leant forward to get a better view of a frame and touched my chin against it. Feels rather a lot like when the anaesthetic hasn't quite worn off after a visit to the dentist at the moment

Pleased I got it done today because the forecast for the next few days is somewhat cooler. Still have to go back and check for queen cells obviously. I might do that initially on Sunday just so I have a bit more of a clue how they've reacted.

James

Hi. I’m about to do a demaree for the first time. I assume the reason you shook them all out into the bottom box was because you couldn’t find the queen ? If so is it guaranteed that the nurse bees will find their way back up to the top box to look after the brood ?
BTW I took a hit to the chin last week as well in the same situation as you .

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I assume the reason you shook them all out into the bottom box was because you couldn’t find the queen ? If so is it guaranteed that the nurse bees will find their way back up to the top box to look after the brood ?

yes they will