What did you do in the Apiary today?

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Five Supers Collected... most frames now uncapped or empty - we probably extracted 12 frames from this boxes.... very disappointing.
going to add supers back to hive above crown board with hole to get bees to empty any left overs.
 
Checked all my hives yesterday surprising how much of the stores they have consumed since I went on holiday just over a week ago.Noticed there are very few drones left in the hives and no drone brood. Dont think there will be any more full inspections this year just keeping an eye on stores and quick checks for any other problems.
 
Yesterday checked varroa " fall". After 24 hours of treatment from 118 to 361 on control boards.. No rest, till the sweep..
Of all treatments I apply now, and after it 2nd ( usually with 2nd kind of) and oxalic in December. Till the next July/August nothing, no need..
Now watching new shitty storm is coming to us ( in Slovenia is already chaos), yet we didn't recover and repair things from previous.. Well, seems my ( shitty) luck never ends...
 
Long overdue visits to the castle apiary and the Gelli thanks to a combination of bad weather and honey shows.
The last month or so of poor weather has played havoc with nuced queens waiting to mate - each and every one that emerged in the last month and a half has mated successfully and laying like trains although that has meant the nucs at the castle (which depends on the heather at this time of year) were perilously low on stores. All moved to their permanent homes now and frames of stores given where needed.
 
Went through all the supers. Leaving one ( the odd hive has two) with uncapped stores on for now as there are lots of bees. All colonies bar one have nothing in the broods. Put pollen frames in a couple. Spinning three 14x12 broods of stores out tomorrow. Some of it looks really old so can’t guarantee that there’s not a little invert in there from winter so will give it back to the bees.
What a summer!
 
Took off another full super today. Bees still working hard and an acre of sunflowers are just opening half a mile away.hope that might give some nectar. No signs of slowing down yet. Still have two boxes in most of the hives.
 
Just guard bees, like Dani had. Nothing to be concerned about🤪
 
Took off another full super today. Bees still working hard and an acre of sunflowers are just opening half a mile away.hope that might give some nectar. No signs of slowing down yet. Still have two boxes in most of the hives.
I'm just a little envious. Took away three empty supers that had been set up with thin wireless foundation in anticipation of some heather from nearby. :hairpull:Heather is rubbish locally this year as has been the "summer" crop generally. All left with a super on but I don't hold out much hope for a full box later.
 
I'm planning on using my new beevac for the first time from the Telford Show.
It will probably do more harm than good. I would just gently remove the comb and if there is brood on it tie it in to a frame. The bees will climb back into the entrance if you just gently brush them onto a board. The beevacs are, imho just a little fierce for easy jobs. Really useful for big cut outs.
 
It will probably do more harm than good. I would just gently remove the comb and if there is brood on it tie it in to a frame. The bees will climb back into the entrance if you just gently brush them onto a board. The beevacs are, imho just a little fierce for easy jobs. Really useful for big cut outs.
This will be the first time I've used a beevac. But while doing conventional cutouts, small as well as large, there has been the odd occasion where I've killed the queen and this is something I want to avoid. If the comb collapses on the queen and killed her, which it did on one occasion, it wasn't good for the homeowner. After I left, the bees were flying around the garden like a swarm looking for the queen, they were hitting the house wall and compost bin. But eventually went into the nuc I had left there. I don't want to repeat that again.
 
Had a look in the supers of 10 of mine today, they're really hammering the balsam now and there is some fresh nectar going into the supers but it's a slow process, I can only presume it's all going into the brood boxes so hopefully when they're full better progress will be made on the supers. Will give them another 2 weeks then do the (pretty modest) harvest.
 
Closed 4 nucs up yesterday eve I have two local beekeepers coming to bring me boxes this eve for transfer , saying good bye to 4 more black girls and there crew.
Extracting honey and me and the 16 year old have got to go through the majority of all the stock over the next week .
Oh had bees at tenbury show in an observation hive .
IMG_0920.jpeg
Doing a talk and demonstration at bishops castle environmental fair on the 23rd of sept - talking about native bees and the project at work I’m trying to achieve, might even through in a bit about local forage .
 
I got notice from one of my landowners to move my hives today, hubbie has become very allergic to bee stings to the point he ended up in a and e. Not anaphylaxis thankfully. So I took this afternoon off and prepared them all for removal, I still have 5 deeps of honey over clearer boards to remove then they can be gone.
They have very kindly found me another site just down the road which subject to the usual checks the bees will be moving to, 10 colonies in pairs.
This just shows how important it is to cultivate good relationships as what could have turned nasty has been a fruitful experience (apart from poor hubbie!). I always explain to my landowners that any problems at all and the bees will be gone, and I will always be good to my word.
Not bad as this is the first one in 15 years, might be time to have written terms though, just in case!
 
Clearer boards on, thirty supers to come off tomorrow. No signs the bees have been munching their stores, very heavy, full supers. Left the hives with a super or two to accommodate the bees and will try to get these off by next week. Noticed there was fresh nectar coming in, it was almost like Summer ;)
 
After friends reported stores being eaten I checked mine today expecting the same. Surprised to find a lot of nectar coming in to the supers, but only the double brood boxes have any stores, the single brood are dry as a bone, even though they are storing it above. All colonies still very strong - I'd hoped to get everything down to one brood and a super, but they need more space.
 

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