What did you do in the Apiary today?

[gregior]

Tried to move a poly nuc to another apiary, nice easy job you would think,but no it had a wasp nest attached under the mesh floor took 8 very painful stings despite having my Sherrif suit on. arrgh

 

[Anduril]

Tried to move a poly nuc to another apiary, nice easy job you would think,but no it had a wasp nest attached under the mesh floor took 8 very painful stings despite having my Sherrif suit on. arrgh

From bees or wasps?

 

[gregior]

From bees or wasps?

Wasp stings forgot how bad they are,much worse than bee stings.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Ours are the same, one or two louder than the others.

Oh they are all loud for a few minutes but this lot left the hive in disgust.

 

[Erichalfbee]

They left the hive? I’ve not experienced that, just a loud very miffed buzz.

Yes hundreds out. Strange.

 

[Sutty]

Wasp stings forgot how bad they are,much worse than bee stings.

Having had a wasp sting recently it does feel like they are worse, but I wonder if that's because I am relatively immune to bee stings through repeated exposure?
I have very little response to bee stings beyond the 10s initial pain & only occasionally swelling (usually if multiple stings on the wrists).

 

[Garry R]

I had a wasp sting me last week - a sharper pain than a bee but a hell of a lot itchier in the following week. Same happened about three years ago.

 

[Newbeeneil]

Having had a wasp sting recently it does feel like they are worse, but I wonder if that's because I am relatively immune to bee stings through repeated exposure?
I have very little response to bee stings beyond the 10s initial pain & only occasionally swelling (usually if multiple stings on the wrists).

I agree, I’ve forgotten a bee sting within minutes but the recent wasp stings have continued to itch for over a week in one case.

 

[North End Bees]

Wasp stings forgot how bad they are,much worse than bee stings.

A few weeks ago a wasp managed to get in through my cuff and stung my forearm three times before I got it out.
I haven't had a wasp sting in about 30 years so had forgotten how bad they are! Swollen for days and itched like crazy for over a week!

 

[Moobee]

Managed to get just over 50lbs of honey from 5 different hives by judicious removal of capped frames from all the different supers. That's only about a third of what I harvested last year..... disappointed after such a good spring but at least I had some.
There is still a lot of uncapped at 19% or more so it's all been left on and I have consolidated down to 1 or 2 supers in most cases. A couple of nucs were light so added some syrup. Treatment and feeding for the next few weeks I reckon.
Still lots of drones around and there was a large swarm picked up just up the road from here two days ago!

 

[Zaclangley]

Intensive arable? Tell me again how vegan diets are good for the planet and reduce animal death and suffering!

Admittedly I prefer muck spreading to synthetic fertiliser which is derived from fossil fuels.

We need to go back to more traditional farming methods which work with the land.

You can’t rely on the land to provide without putting anything back. We need diverse cropping combined with ruminants to regenerate the soil with well managed muck and no synthetics! Our fields are now bursting with flowers planted for winter grazing it’s really quite beautiful and hopefully the bees agree!

 

[gregior]

Brief Inspection of 12 of mine tonight,LOTS of balsam coming in mostly back-filling the brood boxes but the supers are slowly filling too. All colonies queenright and well tempered,laying has slowed right down but still good amounts of sealed brood present. Forked out some drone brood and saw a few but not worrying numbers of varroa. I'll give them 5 more days to work on the supers then take the (average) harvest.

 

[JamezF]

I wasn't actually in the apiary. In fact I was sowing seeds in the greenhouse, but it's right next door to the apiary. A worker flew inside and I noticed that she had the typical HB "tramp stamp". I herded her out a couple of times and she flew straight back in, so I ended up herding her out one more time and shutting the door until she worked out where should have been going. I have a couple of colonies at home that I was considering feeding, but if one has found HB then the chances are that they all have and I'm wondering if it's worth the bother in that case.

James

 

[The Poot]

Feeding and vaping with my two young apprentices.

 

[Nannysbees]

Visited bryngarw park today, wow the himalayan balsam was everywhere, really surprised to see so much of it!!!! But amazing to see the bees up close covered in white

 

[Sutty]

I recently watched the Himalayan balsalm and the wasps were similarly covered, all the bees were too. This makes me wonder what else my bees have found as less than half daubed with pollen?

 

[Swarm]

Visited bryngarw park today, wow the himalayan balsam was everywhere, really surprised to see so much of it!!!! But amazing to see the bees up close covered in white

Lots of it there and the next valleys towards Port Talbot.
Spent the afternoon vaping forty colonies and noticed the Balsam traffic, every hive had a constant flow of ghost bees, my friend has supers being filled.

 

[Nannysbees]

Lots of it there and the next valleys towards Port Talbot.
Spent the afternoon vaping forty colonies and noticed the Balsam traffic, every hive had a constant flow of ghost bees, my friend has supers being filled.

We have nothing where we are and not a single ghost bee. It was lovely to see

 

[Nannysbees]

Did a final inspection yesterday on all hives. They seemed very low on food. They had had roughly two litres each but most of the frames were dry. Have another litre of syrup to keep them going until the ivy. Been a very strange year

 

[Wilco]

Yesterday got round most hives and have begun vaping. Need to sort my nucs out soon, likely to split a nasty colony between several to boost them before winter. Those on syrup have taken it down in a big way. A few with shallows supered have started to consolidate them with a little help using ekes and cover boards. Heather crop likely to be disappointing after all. Ivy not too far off now.