What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Erichalfbee]

in future years I’m going to use the teleporter

Now that's great thinking. We should all have one of those.
How's the heather crop this year?

 

[North End Bees]

In future years I’m going to use the teleporter and trailer to move them to the stances.

I was just imagining you beaming your bees down to the home apiary captain Kirk style!

 

[Curly green finger's]

I was just imagining you beaming your bees down to the home apiary captain Kirk style!

 

[North London Bee Man]

Only went and won a prize in my local honey show! Admittedly it was the novice class with not many entries, but now my "Award winning" honey will definitely be worth the £90 a jar I need to break even on this year

 

[Erichalfbee]

I was just imagining you beaming your bees down to the home apiary captain Kirk style!

If curly had one of those he could forget being a bee farmer and retire to Monte Carlo

 

[Moobee]

Spend a few more pounds and invest in a few of these trays ... far more efficient at containing honey drips than cardboard or newspaper ! My local nursery had them on promotion with a pack of three for £15 earlier in the year so shop around - plenty of time before you will need them - they also make great temporary roofs !

https://www.longacres.co.uk/gardeni...tewart-garden-gravel-tray-54cm-black-2309005/

Stops wax & honey ending up on the floor of the car boot too!

 

[Moobee]

Second lot of Apiguard on all hives except one.
This one was a swarm from feral bees that have been living in a shed for over 6 years so I’m going to see if I can not treat & see how they do. I’ll monitor varroa regularly & only intervene if the colony is in danger.
Found & marked a very stripy queen in one of the nucs.
Another nuc went apparently queen-less at the beginning of the month (VQ) so had added a frame of eggs to check. Sealed EQCs yesterday so knocked back to best two. Still drones around so will check in about three weeks. If no luck, I’ll combine with the weakest hive.
Have one hive in the out apiary that I want to requeen & probably should have done it earlier. It was a bought in queen & has been very disappointing. Introduced into a nuc in early May and hived at the end of the month as nuc was full. They started grumpy, improved in June but then started following & bopping me as I got out the car. They’ve also produced no honey, having eaten everything produced in June which was not extractable as over 20%. It wasn’t a forage issue as I had honey off the other hives. I’m going to have to feed them regardless.
Requeen now or wait until spring??

 

[Erichalfbee]

Requeen now or wait until spring??

Now
Re your nuc. No point in uniting to a weak hive if they fail to requeen. Give the bees to a strong hive.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

had a lie in this morning, got up at 0815, saw the forecast for this afternoon and quickly zipped up to the range to give another OA dose. Even in the grim, humid thundery atmosphere, a lot of bees were out foraging - plenty of ghost bees still returning.
Was just snapping the lock back on the gate on my way home when the heavens opened!

 

[JamezF]

had a lie in this morning, got up at 0815, saw the forecast for this afternoon and quickly zipped up to the range to give another OA dose. Even in the grim, humid thundery atmosphere, a lot of bees were out foraging - plenty of ghost bees still returning.
Was just snapping the lock back on the gate on my way home when the heavens opened!

Forecast last night was for thunderstorms here from mid-afternoon, so I had a morning of beekeeping planned. I was woken up by a loud peal of thunder after which I could hear torrential rain. It's really dark, too. Looks like today is a write-off from the point of doing anything that's not under cover

James

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Forecast last night was for thunderstorms here from mid-afternoon

it was for here too last night, but they changed their mind this morning and said it would start raining from 1100 to midday!

 

[Moobee]

Now
Re your nuc. No point in uniting to a weak hive if they fail to requeen. Give the bees to a strong hive.

Thanks Dani - re hive strengths... they are all fairly strong so I planned to combine the nuc with the weakest, but there is not a lot of difference TBH apart from the one mega hive I have on double brood which shows no signs of slowing!

 

[Erichalfbee]

At least they will have a home if they don’t raise a queen.

 

[Newbeeneil]

Only went and won a prize in my local honey show! Admittedly it was the novice class with not many entries, but now my "Award winning" honey will definitely be worth the £90 a jar I need to break even on this year

I also won a 1st at the local Hort Soc show recently, there were only 4 entries and the only one that didn’t get a prize was an entry from a client of mine that had crystalised (I jarred it for them)

 

[madasafish]

Checked my home made wasp traps this am. Caught European Hornet overnight. Released and left on hive roof. Flew away some 2 hours later in straight line down to the nearest water source. My third sighting in 5 years.

 

[E&MBees]

Completed the next round of vaping. Got soaked to the skin in the process. Despite the atrocious weather, all colonies had bees flying. There is a patch of ivy opposite the hives that has started flowering. They seemed to be doing short flights back and forth. Weights are increasing nicely.

 

[Wilco]

Yesterday went round most hives, some vaped and apivar into nucs which all had a feed. Feeding honey back to some colonies to clear out part filled shallows, heather much less successful than I'd hoped but clearers on so might have a box or two overall. Might split a couple of the less friendly colonies between the nucs to boost number's before winter. Trialling one colony on double brood this winter, will be interested to see how they get on.

 

[pargyle]

Checked my home made wasp traps this am. Caught European Hornet overnight. Released and left on hive roof. Flew away some 2 hours later in straight line down to the nearest water source. My third sighting in 5 years.

Bautiful creatures ... I've had 'one' in the garden this year - saw it (or them) a few times... they never hang around long enough to get a decent photo. I've only seen a few over the years so special nature treat as far as I'm concerned.

 

[JamezF]

Bautiful creatures ... I've had 'one' in the garden this year - saw it (or them) a few times... they never hang around long enough to get a decent photo. I've only seen a few over the years so special nature treat as far as I'm concerned.

You should come and sit in my garden next to the house. We have loads Also found a few dead ones over the last few days, but I guess that's par for the course at this time of year.

James

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I think there must be a nest in the woods behind me, hornets have been regular visitors to the garden for a few years, but this year there's been loads - mooching around the stored wet supers or the stack of nucs I have left with frames of stores in