What did you do in the Apiary today?

[The Poot]

Started collecting some of the capped supers. Waiting on four virgin queens to mate and start laying. Will see how they perform before combining some. Had some help today from my husband and youngest son.

Looks lovely
Frustratingly, my lot don’t seem to want to cap the honey. One colony has four full supers and one half full, with nothing capped!
I think, the colony having swarmed, might be short of young bees that predominantly make the wax?
I cleared one of the supers and plonked it onto an adjacent hive with strict instructions to cap it!

 

[madasafish]

Looks lovely
Frustratingly, my lot don’t seem to want to cap the honey. One colony has four full supers and one half full, with nothing capped!
I think, the colony having swarmed, might be short of young bees that predominantly make the wax?
I cleared one of the supers and plonked it onto an adjacent hive with strict instructions to cap it!

Capped honey not essential. As long as it does not fall out the frame when shaken, it is extractable. I check water content with refractometer after extraction and no issues..

( or maybe I have super bees?

 

[The Poot]

Capped honey not essential. As long as it does not fall out the frame when shaken, it is extractable. I check water content with refractometer after extraction and no issues..

( or maybe I have super bees?

Thanks for that. I half expect the honey to be extractable, given the daytime heat we’ve had for a fortnight now. But I would hate to extract and find it too “wet” so will hedge my bets for a few more days and try to summon up the courage to test with a refractometer at the hive…

 

[Wilco]

Checked the swarm from my old primary school with my nephew's dad who's never done anything with bees before. They behaved brilliantly and he did really well with them too, successfully seeing eggs and spotting the queen. Currently around 5 frames of brood with a nice pattern and they've foraged well!

 

[Curly green finger's]

Checked the swarm from my old primary school with my nephew's dad who's never done anything with bees before. They behaved brilliantly and he did really well with them too, successfully seeing eggs and spotting the queen. Currently around 5 frames of brood with a nice pattern and they've foraged well!

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Evening mate on the second frame I can see a shinny worker in the middle did you notice any cbpv?

 

[Wilco]

Evening mate on the second frame I can see a shinny worker in the middle did you notice any cbpv?

Great shout, thanks. Didn't spot any and they appeared to be well otherwise. However, I see what you mean so I'll keep a close eye on them and be extra careful with hygiene. Really appreciate that.

 

[JamezF]

First inspection of the three swarms in the apiary I'm working on for a local charity. Only fairly cursory as it was the first time everyone else present had actually got close to a colony and I really just wanted them to get a feel for having bees around them.

First colony, in a six-frame Paynes poly nuc, they're trying to build comb in the feeder. I'll post about that separately.

Second, which was a bait hive seems to be going ok, building out the frames nicely. Unfortunately because the first job of the day was doing a bit more fencing, I'd left my glasses behind and couldn't see for certain if there were eggs in some of the cells. There were a couple of possible queen cells being built already, so I need to go back and check that out. They might just have been play cups.

The third was the colony that I'd (literally) scooped off the front of the second when both appeared to have selected the bait have as their new home. They are going great guns. Queen already laying, BIAS and drawing comb like crazy. We saw the (unmarked) queen, too. I didn't mark her this time around because I didn't want to complicate things. I'll try to get it done next week.

And both the latter two colonies were so incredibly calm. I don't think any bees actually left the frames at all when I lifted them out. They just got on with what they were doing. If they stay that way I might have to think about grafting from them.

James

 

[Curly green finger's]

yesterday I started to unite nuced queens back to there colony’s .
Today me and the children are starting to extract honey .
Monday morning marking and checking on mini mating and mating nucs …. That’s as far as I’ve got with my schedule.
I need to inspect all stock next week .

 

[Erichalfbee]

I’m going away for three days and forgetting about bees

 

[gregior]

Well the June gap (which lasted all of 3 days) is well and truly over here,good flow on from the bramble which is well in flower and the clover that's just coming out. All my virgins are well mated and the bees are incredibly calm-happy days!

 

[Garry R]

I'm going fishing for 3 days fishing in Orkney- again a beeless spell especially with a swarm yesterday. But will be thinking about them although I went through them yesterday and no QC so hoping it stays that way until I get back. The flow we experienced here seems to have stopped now.

 

[Curly green finger's]

I’m going away for three days and forgetting about bees

Lovely I hope you enjoy your self not.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Well the June gap (which lasted all of 3 days) is well and truly over here,good flow on from the bramble which is well in flower and the clover that's just coming out. All my virgins are well mated and the bees are incredibly calm-happy days!

The clover is starting to flower well ,
The Hawthorne on high ground is relentless this year it’s still in full flow now

 

[The Poot]

The clover is starting to flower well ,
The Hawthorne on high ground is relentless this year it’s still in full flow now

The hawthorn in my garden is going over now, but I’ve not seen a single bee on it!

 

[alancooper]

The hawthorn in my garden is going over now, but I’ve not seen a single bee on it!
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And I thought I was the only one. There was a tremendous Hawthorn flowering here (just finished) yet despite my determined efforts to see honey bees on it - none. Better foraging elsewhere.

 

[Curly green finger's]

The hawthorn in my garden is going over now, but I’ve not seen a single bee on it!
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Forage elsewhere for them ?there’s only Hawthorne trees up on the hills.
Two poly nucs on quad brood we extracted the top boxes x2 three days ago and put them back on they are filling them up again.

 

[Ian123]

More cells from those terrible exotic bees ready to go out

 

[StephenT]

Clearing a super off each hive, extracting tomorrow and then sticking straight back on in the hope that the bees go for the lime this year. We look after another hive for an elderly gentleman about a mile away. They’ve drawn 3 supers of which we’ve extracted one and will extract a second next week. Put on another super with foundation yesterday. Fantastic bees!!

 

[Anduril]

Well, what a day today, while at one apiary at noon I heard a big roar looked across the apiary to see bees swarming out of one hive. Such a lovely sight to see bees swirling in the air. I thought I'd try a bit of tanging, hive tool against the guard of my dadant smoker and they dropped to the ground which made it easy for me to collect. Old brood frames over the cow pat cluster and up and onto the frames they went. Travelled to my other apiary and what do I find. I'd left a space in the apiary where I shook out drone laying workers last week to put in place one of my other hives this week. Only someone else's bait hive in that spot, it consisted of a roof and empty nuc box and inside was a swarm of bees. Phoned the farmer who saw a blue BMW shoot off from the entrance last Friday, luckily he has the number plate, I took a photo of a Ford Focus today that parked outside the entrance after I had turned up. For all i know they may be totally unrelated and innocent. Their nuc box has now been removed and they will have to contact me if they want their decrepit nuc box back. There is only one beekeeper who has bees close by and he is an ex-policeman.

 

[Erichalfbee]

More cells from those terrible exotic bees ready to go out

I think I might put an order in for late august.