What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Erichalfbee]

Ran out of kit.....entirely ......and Buckets

 

[W0otz]

Inspected the out apiary today and had a slight mishap.

One colony is in the process of re-queening (failed unite, queen was killed, raising from an EQC), still no sign of laying and they were roaring as if queenless. I planned to give them a test frame of BIAS to see if they raise EQCs.

Opened the next colony and started going through, second frame in was BIAS so I transferred to the hive above and closed them up. Then the frame after that... swarm cells, including one capped. Went through the colony finding more swarm cells but also the queen. Came up with the plan to put her in an introduction cage and into the colony above, if they make EQCs on the test frame then I'll tear them down, pull the tab on the queen cage and let them release her.

As I tried to get the queen into the introduction cage she took off, flew round... right into the entrance of the suspected queenless hive next door.
Hopefully they are queenless and as she's a mated laying queen they'll accept her and she'll get right into laying up that colony. Next week she'll be there or she won't

 

[madasafish]

Came back from Apiary training session to find two adjacent bait hives with a swarm in each,, or one HUGE swarm split in two by mistake. Left them to sort themselves out.
Washed am 's beesuit - smells like cat's pee
Exhausted - too hot.

 

[E&MBees]

Inspected both apiaries. Removed some more supers for extraction. Hoping the bees will finish capping the rest as they are getting too heavy for me to lift safely. Two queens from splits are now mated and laying. Waiting on another, polished cells evident, will check again in a week or so. If successful she will take me up to 7 colonies. The fourth has failed, either laying workers or DLQ. Will double check and shake out.
Bees generally a bit tetchy, one site worse than the other. Bramble just starting to flower, so dearth shouldn’t last too long. Extracting and jarring next.

 

[RJC]

Have a bad case of CBPV; colony Qless, so not optimistic. Followed advice here and raised hive and removed floor. Not sure how long to leave it before trying to introduce a queen, or do I just give up on this one? In which case what do I do - just shake it out - but won't that risk transmission to a neighbouring hive?
View attachment CBPV grass.mp4

 

[Nannysbees]

Picked up abait hive from my son's in bridgend, handful of bees in and out over the past few weeks thought robbers. Got them home had a quick peek, about 50 bees and a huge queen!!!!!!! We caught and marked her. Eggs in the comb we put in, added two frames of capped honey, bit of pollen, not sure what else to do to keep them going thought may add a frame of capped brood to boost their numbers from one of our stronger colonies

 

[Erichalfbee]

Cage her. Make a nuc up for her and tip her bees out in front of the nuc

 

[Nannysbees]

Cage her. Make a nuc up for her and tip her bees out in front of the nuc

Thank you I'll do that

 

[pargyle]

[QUOTE="Curly green finger's, post: 871434, member:
Note to self don’t just use gaffa tape to seal up holes on demaree boards.
[/QUOTE]
No ..they can eat their way through gaffer/duct tape in fact some of the duct tape has reinforced mesh in it and the bees eat around it but then get caught up in the remaining mesh ... not good, been there and got the t-shirt !

 

[Curly green finger's]

[QUOTE="Curly green finger's, post: 871434, member:
Note to self don’t just use gaffa tape to seal up holes on demaree boards.

No ..they can eat their way through gaffer/duct tape in fact some of the duct tape has reinforced mesh in it and the bees eat around it but then get caught up in the remaining mesh ... not good, been there and got the t-shirt !
[/QUOTE]
Aye if you put some both sides of the hole it’s not a problem so far .
Project for winter is to use discs made of poly carb so you can open it like a window .
I have some like it already.

 

[pargyle]

No ..they can eat their way through gaffer/duct tape in fact some of the duct tape has reinforced mesh in it and the bees eat around it but then get caught up in the remaining mesh ... not good, been there and got the t-shirt !

Aye if you put some both sides of the hole it’s not a problem so far .
Project for winter is to use discs made of poly carb so you can open it like a window .
I have some like it already.
[/QUOTE]
Yes all mine are clear crown boards and the cut out for the hole with another piece glued to it that overlaps is what i use to cover the feed hole...

 

[Moobee]

Uh oh!
This hive was happily bimbling along last week, 6 frames of BIAS, part filled supers, queen in residence, some drone cells but not excessive.
This week however…..
7 frames of brood but couldn’t see any eggs. No sign of queen (she was there last week & unlikely that she was damaged as I left her happily on the middle of a frame….) and I went through all the frames twice. Hive stuffed with bees, dozens of QCs & 3 supers I can hardly lift. Q is clipped so if they had swarmed, they won’t have got far & no sign of bees clustered round or near the hives.
It’s a mystery & I was unsure what to do, so knocked back all QCs except one which I’ve put in a nuc with brood & stores. Also added a super above brood box. Will check in about 5 days to see what’s what…

 

[enrico]

Uh oh!
This hive was happily bimbling along last week, 6 frames of BIAS, part filled supers, queen in residence, some drone cells but not excessive.
This week however…..
7 frames of brood but couldn’t see any eggs. No sign of queen (she was there last week & unlikely that she was damaged as I left her happily on the middle of a frame….) and I went through all the frames twice. Hive stuffed with bees, dozens of QCs & 3 supers I can hardly lift. Q is clipped so if they had swarmed, they won’t have got far & no sign of bees clustered round or near the hives.
It’s a mystery & I was unsure what to do, so knocked back all QCs except one which I’ve put in a nuc with brood & stores. Also added a super above brood box. Will check in about 5 days to see what’s what…

Sounds like they ran out of super room which would be a trigger for a strong hive to swarm. Am I right in thinking you have left no queen cells in the main hive?

 

[The Poot]

Uh oh!
This hive was happily bimbling along last week, 6 frames of BIAS, part filled supers, queen in residence, some drone cells but not excessive.
This week however…..
7 frames of brood but couldn’t see any eggs. No sign of queen (she was there last week & unlikely that she was damaged as I left her happily on the middle of a frame….) and I went through all the frames twice. Hive stuffed with bees, dozens of QCs & 3 supers I can hardly lift. Q is clipped so if they had swarmed, they won’t have got far & no sign of bees clustered round or near the hives.
It’s a mystery & I was unsure what to do, so knocked back all QCs except one which I’ve put in a nuc with brood & stores. Also added a super above brood box. Will check in about 5 days to see what’s what…

Don’t you just love them?

 

[Etton]

Remember when collecting swarms, if left overnight in a nuc to collect stragglers to always look when collecting under the nuc for clumps of bees… and to avoid getting stung!

 

[The Poot]

Remember when collecting swarms, if left overnight in a nuc to collect stragglers to always look when collecting under the nuc for clumps of bees… and to avoid getting stung!

There speaks the voice of experience? Oops!

 

[Moobee]

Sounds like they ran out of super room which would be a trigger for a strong hive to swarm. Am I right in thinking you have left no queen cells in the main hive?

Yep. I have been wanting to requeen this hive as they were the greediest over winter, super swarmy last year & slow to build in spring. This has kind of forced my hand so once I’m sure they are queenless I have a daughter of one of my best queens in a nuc. She emerged over a week ago so hopefully by the end of next week, she’ll be mated and laying and I can introduce her to this lot!

 

[Curly green finger's]

Demareed 2 colony’s , broke 2 towers down made 4 strong single brood out of them 8 supers to extract from those two ,
Added more supers , two colony’s which I’m running as doubles but with a qx between , one has 7 and the other has 8 supers now most of the other doubles are on 4,5,6 supers each .
Put clearer boards on 12 colony’s 26 supers to remove in the morning

 

[Erichalfbee]

Demareed 2 colony’s , broke 2 towers down made 4 strong single brood out of them 8 supers to extract from those two ,
Added more supers , two colony’s which I’m running as doubles but with a qx between , one has 7 and the other has 8 supers now most of the other doubles are on 4,5,6 supers each .
Put clearer boards on 12 colony’s 26 supers to remove in the morning

It’s a farmers life.
Us hobbyists at least have an easier time.

 

[The Poot]

Demareed 2 colony’s , broke 2 towers down made 4 strong single brood out of them 8 supers to extract from those two ,
Added more supers , two colony’s which I’m running as doubles but with a qx between , one has 7 and the other has 8 supers now most of the other doubles are on 4,5,6 supers each .
Put clearer boards on 12 colony’s 26 supers to remove in the morning

That sounds brilliant Curly! Hard work, yes, but the rewards are there, well done.