What did you do in the Apiary today?

[sarahcorlett2566]

My first honey harvest! Well chuffed with my girls. I’ve kept just under half to feed back as I feel I’ve cheated them by putting on a super each when they were still building up the brood (it was too cold to fully inspect in April so I erred on the side of caution and gave them space so they went upward not outward and actually had a lot of space in the brood box).

I’ve also had a go at a solar wax melter - not going to post pics of that unless it works

I also had a visit from the new (Isle of Man) Government bee inspector last week and it was great having someone else look at my hives and conclude all was well.

Happy days.

 

[drex]

Brilliant. Well done. Now all that remains is to ensure you have strong healthy colonies going into winter with enough stores. For me, the most important time of the year

 

[sarahcorlett2566]

Brilliant. Well done. Now all that remains is to ensure you have strong healthy colonies going into winter with enough stores. For me, the most important time of the year

Thank you! I made insulated ekes to go on the crown boards last year with a fondant feeder compartment and both colonies which were quite small, made it through the winter OK. Fingers crossed for this winter too

 

[Parsonage Bees]

Home apiary, stores and queen-right check. They were all over me. All of them bad tempered.
Out apiary, as above + add feed. No trouble.
No clue why one apiary so defensive and the other so easy going. Similar genetics. Couple of hours in between. ?

 

[Anduril]

Home apiary, stores and queen-right check. They were all over me. All of them bad tempered.
Out apiary, as above + add feed. No trouble.
No clue why one apiary so defensive and the other so easy going. Similar genetics. Couple of hours in between. ?

Ley lines.
This time of year some are more defensive than others.

 

[Parsonage Bees]

Ley lines.
This time of year some are more defensive than others.

And after a super blue left-handed moon as well.

 

[steveselvage]

Went through my nucs this morning and found the one I united last week has accepted the queen but she was still in the top box, I found multiple eggs in cells in the bottom box so there's laying workers in there.
Left them to sort themselves out.
The next half a dozen are ticking along nicely.
The last one, which is the biggest,on 12 frames,6 over 6 has no queen and six queen cells, gutted about that one as the queen was a laying machine and out performed all the rest.
I haven't seen many drones for a few weeks and think it's too late for them to produce a mated queen.
Don't think they have swarmed as plenty of bees.
Not sure whether to let them try or to buy a mated queen while they are still available.
Also wondering if I do buy mated queens if I could split some double brood colonies or is it too late?

 

[Goran]

Still lot of brood, even drone brood.. Checked some colonies for queen acceptance, reshuffled some into winter configuration. The ones which I still have to re queen left as they are.. since I place one qc up and 2nd down below qe.. Higher chance one will succeed, not rarely I have 2 queens in one colony. So 1 surplus queen I take for other colonies where needed.
I don't bother anymore with requeening " process". I just remove undesired queen, smoke it a lot and place queen in a cage, or qcell..

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Rounds of the largest apiaries this morning - getting them ready for treatment - earliest I've started treating since I can remember, good thing really as so far, all the colonies I've opened are having a brood break so the first and second vapes next week should hit the mites really hard.
No sign of any heather coming in at all, even in the apiaries right up in the Black Mountain.

 

[drdrday]

Had planned to put escape boards on the hives today so I could take the supers off tomorrow afternoon, but the lack of fully capped supers changed my plans. Going to leave them one more week, with the uncapped frames in the hopes that some of them will be capped in this week's forecast hot weather.
Not a good harvest this year. Barely a third of last year's even though the colonies are all big and healthy. Some have only just managed one full super, and haven't increased the stocks at all in the last 6 weeks.
Good job I've still got some of last year's honey left!!

 

[Curly green finger's]

On Saturday I went and took two nucs to the association apiary which they are using in observation hives at Ludlow food festival .
Also our honey and works honey delivered to be sold at the above .
I don’t think I’m going as I’m moving colony’s and clearing summer supers .

 

[gregior]

Went down to the out apiary to try and grab some honey off but somehow managed to forget my beesuit! It didn't really matter too much as none was ready yet, there's lots of balsam nectar that needs drying out. Pretty pleased I could lift the crownboards and have a peep at all 12 hives without picking up a sting.

 

[JamezF]

Went down to the out apiary to try and grab some honey off but somehow managed to forget my beesuit!

Now that's bad Sometimes I forget my glasses (so I can't see eggs in the comb very easily) and maybe once a season I might forget my smoker if I've been distracted and forgotten to put it back after cleaning it. Forgetting a beesuit though, that's quite a challenge

James

 

[gregior]

Now that's bad Sometimes I forget my glasses (so I can't see eggs in the comb very easily) and maybe once a season I might forget my smoker if I've been distracted and forgotten to put it back after cleaning it. Forgetting a beesuit though, that's quite a challenge

James

Lol yeah pretty lame,in my defense though I had just washed it so it wasn't in it's usual spot.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

SWMBO suggested an early night - so I told her to fill her boots, I popped up to the range to bring back the last nuc I made so I could overwinter them at home. Hopefully she'll be asleep by the time I get back.
Both the range and the home hives are roaring as the bees ripen todays nectar, none of it seems to be heather, just HB and maybe the start of the ivy

 

[elainemary]

Strong whiff of heather coming into home apiary. Bees bearding and flying hard at 8pm. Loads of heather pollen too. Latest flow I’ve known. Caught a few returners and carefully removed a few pollen loads, tetrads of ling pollen under the microscope. After a v poor summer, at last some joy! Down in the valley, in my out apiary, a different story. First ever year of no heather in the supers, all balsam. A different sort of joy- so easy to extract!

 

[JamezF]

SWMBO suggested an early night

I thought that was married peoples' code for, y'know... being allowed to watch a mindless action film on the big television with the full surround-sound audio turned up to 11.

James

 

[Redcap]

Spent a good 10 minutes watching an ejected drone try and make his way back into the hive on the alighting board...he was getting plenty of attention from his former hive mates, several of whom appeared to be feeding him, but at the same time kept him away from the entrance. At one point, close to the entrance he jumped onto the back of a returning forager, piggyback style, and almost made it into the hive...but no, he was not getting through that doorway, his day had come...poor chap !

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

This was the sight that met me when I opened the castle hives yesterday

 

[Nannysbees]

This was the sight that met me when I opened the castle hives yesterdayView attachment 37538View attachment 37539View attachment 37540View attachment 37541View attachment 37542

Wow!!!! Have you ever seen anything like that before?