What did you do in the Apiary today?

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Garry R said:
Terramycin not allowed in the UK
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and certainly a bad idea just to give it to the bees as a prophylactic 'just in case.
Bset thing they did was put a stop to its use, although it's handy sometimes to deal with a bad infection.
 
Inspected my home hives - added a fourth super to my monster hive. 2 supers feeling rather heavy and in the process of being capped, the third has nectar in the central few frames - all packed with bees and I should probably have given the fourth super last week. The queen's still an absolute laying machine, just 1 end frame with no brood. Play cups but nothing more (that I saw...)

Split one colony as there were 6-7 charged cells. Tore them down except 1 then put queen and a couple of frames of BIAS into a nuc box and took them to my out apiary.

I'll inspect the out apiary colonies tomorrow. I suspect one of them will need splitting as they had eggs in cups (though no larvae/jelly) last week.
 
I think that the argument in the UK regarding antibiotics is the worry that organisms become resistant to them and often it removes a potential weapon in your armoury at a time when you need it most. We have resistant varroa as we know but when it comes to bacteria affecting human health this is a much more scenario for us. We already have MRSA and are running out of effective antibiotic treatments hence the limit on use and the medics holding back on prescribing willy nilly for coughs and colds like they used to.
 
Garry R said:
I think that the argument in the UK regarding antibiotics is the worry that organisms become resistant to them and often it removes a potential weapon in your armoury at a time when you need it most. We have resistant varroa as we know but when it comes to bacteria affecting human health this is a much more scenario for us. We already have MRSA and are running out of effective antibiotic treatments hence the limit on use and the medics holding back on prescribing willy nilly for coughs and colds like they used to.
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The antibiotics used suppress the clinical signs but do not necessarily eradicate the disease and there's a risk of spread while they're being treated. Destruction doesn't have those isssues.
 
joebeewhisperer said:
Yesterday I prepared 20 EZ Nuc boxes with frames and foundations, grafted 25-30, fed, assessed some mating nucs, went through a populous hive and made a cell starter from it.

In total I spent 8.5 hours in bees. I’ve decided to keep some actual time totals. Tried to treat it like a job yesterday.

While you can make fairly decent income from a backyard operation, I jokingly say I work for 3-4USD an hour in bees. Trying to put a real figure on it to decide whether the work is worth doing next year. This backyard operation has overtaken all other pastimes. It is great exercise, but whether I want to continue to sell is in question.
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My brother kept time logs.l just let the time go by,l just take the pleasure,bee farmers have to get there skates on but I think that’s a different outlook.l take the honey sales and divide by the number of days,usually a day a week in the season,l used to deal with 40 hives in a day but now that is too much,in a reasonable year the days and the honey crop was a satisfactory ratio.The UK weather is very variable but some beekeepers sell honey honey for $9.37 per pound and that makes it worthwhile.
 
Inspected 12 of mine today all working very hard and a strong flow on. Was expecting to come across plenty of cells today so was prepared for splits but only 2 had cells in them and they were just eggs and very young larvae so I'll leave them till next week before splitting. Mostly well behaved but a couple a bit too feisty for my liking so will keep a close eye on them. Best colonies now have around 15lbs in the supers.
 
W0otz said:
Inspected my home hives - added a fourth super to my monster hive. 2 supers feeling rather heavy and in the process of being capped, the third has nectar in the central few frames - all packed with bees and I should probably have given the fourth super last week. The queen's still an absolute laying machine, just 1 end frame with no brood. Play cups but nothing more (that I saw...)

Split one colony as there were 6-7 charged cells. Tore them down except 1 then put queen and a couple of frames of BIAS into a nuc box and took them to my out apiary.

I'll inspect the out apiary colonies tomorrow. I suspect one of them will need splitting as they had eggs in cups (though no larvae/jelly) last week.
Click to expand...

Inspected the out apiary today - the one I thought I was going to have to split had gone already. Noticeably fewer bees, couldn't see the queen and many charged cells, at least 2 of which were sealed. Doh!
I reckon they went yesterday as Thursday was still chilly and I was up there around 10am today. As it was a grumpy colony I don't want her progeny so I tore down all cells and swapped in a frame of BIAS from a nice colony. Will return in a week and tear down all cells except on that introduced frame - if there aren't any on that frame I could swap in another frame and try again but will probably get impatient and order a queen.

Split I took up there yesterday had plenty of entrance activity but I didn't open them up.
 
Added extra supers to those that needed it. Nectar was dripping out of the frames today. All well behaved bar one, which was nasty. They have been pushing their luck for a while and will now be re queened using eggs from a very gentle queen in the same apiary.
 
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I had a loom through mine... strongest colony appear to be superseding.. some areas if capped brood... but low in larvae and eggs ... some but not enough. One queen cell capped so I think the committee has made a decision that she's past her sell by date. Had a good look for any other queen cells and found nothing. Bees calm and gentle and pollen and nectar coming in. Added a super to one hive, but in general they are all a bit behind last year. The horse chestnuts are not out yet or the sycamores. The cherry tree in my garden has nearly gone over now.. the wind and rain didn't give the girls much chance..dandelions are out or at least they were until the council mowed the verges ! I don't think this is going to be as good a season for me as last year. Another week or two and I think I'll but in a couple of queens and split a couple of hives to replace the two I've lost.
 
Nearly finished at one apiary when I spotted a swarm 1 metre away from one hive. Stopped what I was doing and collected the swarm which was 1 metre above the ground luckily. I then checked the hive I suspected they came from which was one a metre away from the swarm and found around 16 sealed queen cells. Split the hive into 5 nucs it was on double brood. The original swarm came from Talbot Green, which was a cast. I believe that one originated from Llantrisant Church Hall which has had a feral colony there for many years because the original vicar refused to have them removed from the building. There is a new vicar there now and I don't know what his thoughts are about them. Anyway this year's task is to change the genetics of this swarm hive.
 
After a morning waiting for the boiler engineer to sort our boiler out (decided to throw its hand in Thursday as a farewell to winter) managed to get to the Garn Cottage apiary for a few hours, bees piling it in with most hives needing a second super.
Shook out one colony - came through the winter fine, queen laying well and then she turned her toes, no brood for weeks, colony still bringing in both nectar and plenty of pollen but this week the first sign of laying workers. Hate shaking out such a strong colony, it took ages for the apiary to settle down afterwards
 
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