What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Goran]

2 events, first one in Paris a beggar came to each outdoor table of a restaurant asking for money. In my limited Welsh (my wife is 50% English, 50% Welsh) I spoke to him and he just walked away with a puzzled look on his face. Second time in Estoril in Portugal a deaf mute handed me a piece of paper (usual grunt to mimic the mute) in many languages asking for charity money for the deaf and dumb. I just said in English I'm a tourist and only donate in my country. It must have been a miracle he spoke back to me in English.

Messiah!!!

 

[Erichalfbee]

My favourite film

 

[BeeKeyPlayer]

I seem to remember you started something the last time you said that, Dani

 

[E&MBees]

"I started out with nothin and I still got most of it left" is the title of one of Seasick Steve's albums

I'm facing going back to somewhere near #1 (do not pass "GO", do not collect £200) at the moment as it happens. Need to find a job after slobbing about for a year or three, but I'm not sure I can face going back to doing IT stuff unless it is a job that really interests me or is something that genuinely directly benefits "real people" (which ultimately ticks box one). Or I find something else entirely to do, which could well be interesting, but computers is all I've done for decades and I'm a bit short of ideas.

We are at least ticking off some of the last of the major "parental responsibilities" with our youngest now done with school and passing her driving test (today!).

James

With your gardening experience and diy skills how about a change of direction?

 

[Antipodes]

It became super dry here in November and December and the nectar stopped abruptly The fields are very brown now as the dearth sets in.
Wedge- tailed eagle ...zoom in to see why it is so named!

 

[JamezF]

With your gardening experience and diy skills how about a change of direction?

I'm not averse to the idea at all, but I'm not sure what

James

 

[BeeKeyPlayer]

Today the ground was hard for the first time in the orchard where I have bees, despite the cold weather of the last few days. I checked and cleaned the boards. All colonies at this site seem to be rearing brood and not varroa.

I can't resist taking pictures of hazel every year. Lots of other things too at this low-colour time of year. The clematis caught my attention. A case of the photo revealing more than seen by the naked eye.

 

[Michael Palmer]

Tuesday night we had a bad storm. Started as a bit of snow, and changed into heavy rain,
and gale force winds. 60-70 mph gusts in western facing hills. I finished righting hives this afternoon.
Turns out it wasn't too bad. Temperatures were in the 40sF after the winds died down.
Thankfully very few bees died as they were able to fly home when they became separated.
I visited all 20 apiaries. Only 5 hives were tipped over...all in the valley, open to the western winds.
What a strange El Niño winter it's been so far.

 

[Aneebe]

I remember chatting to my grandmother one day (been gone 20 years now) and she was telling me of when they first got married (1938), they lived in a little cottage up on the mountain that could only be reached by foot or horseback - no electricity just a coal fire and an oil lamp. Every Thursday, when my grandfather came home with his pay, they would sit at the table and count it out, putting money aside for rent, oil and coal, food for the animals and then work out what food they could afford to buy that week. then said "in over sixty years of marriage, those were the happiest days I can remember"

It's so true that there's a big difference between "want" and "need". My mum loved her childhoood in a thatched farm cottage with a well, an open fire and crane to cook largely homegrown food and the work dog lying at the hearth on the hard clay floor. (I think she glossed over the ice inside the windows bit at times lol). Oprah once did a feature called "Money Rich Time Poor". It changed me! Less is more. In my "poor" retirement I'm living my best life (and playing with bees)!

 

[Curly green finger's]

Nothing today, in the kitchen cooking this with some honey and mustard glaze

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I thought you'd posted a photo of a prolapse for a minute

 

[The Poot]

I'm not averse to the idea at all, but I'm not sure what

James

Decided against the bee farming option you posted about?

 

[The Poot]

Today the ground was hard for the first time in the orchard where I have bees, despite the cold weather of the last few days. I checked and cleaned the boards. All colonies at this site seem to be rearing brood and not varroa.

I can't resist taking pictures of hazel every year. Lots of other things too at this low-colour time of year. The clematis caught my attention. A case of the photo revealing more than seen by the naked eye.

Excellent photos - the clematis is remarkable

 

[Curly green finger's]

I thought you'd posted a photo of a prolapse for a minute

It might very well be that

 

[JamezF]

Decided against the bee farming option you posted about?

The person who owns the hives eventually decided to get a mate to look after them through the Autumn and Winter and comes back every few months to check on them himself, so unless he changes his mind I don't think that is going to go anywhere

James

 

[MeAndMyBees]

Today :
Saw first activity of Bees coming and going for : January 2024 !!! Bees coming and going from my
x2 Poly Nucs ! A National and a Langstroth: Single Boxes with Feeder Ecks on both. (Both with dry Sugar Feed in Situ.)
Bees Flying around about x2 Hour before Sunset ! Wow. . .
Sunny but not that warm. Bees must be hard as Nails !!! Have mainly Black Bee AMM Hives.
And others elsewhere with more Mongrel Traits. . .
Have pre-Ordered x2 Black Bee Breeder Queens to hopefully increase my AMM genes up even more !
Am based in the Scottish Borders. Black Bees do well here. . .
Only about x20 Miles from Chain Bridge Honey Farm and Apiary. (Renowned Black Bee Breeder. based just South of the Border.)
Today Temps : High 5 / Low 2.
My x2 Stacked Warre Hives have internal 'activity noise' within them. They always do well thorough Winter. . . Nice !
So do my other Hives : A National on Brood + Half. A x2 Brood Box Langstroth. And a x12 Jumbo Deep Langstroth "Horizontal Hive." That is well Insulated : with plenty of Sheep's Wool within its Cavity Walls. With very thick Cover Boards (with Viewing Ports in them) and Hessian Sacking placed above. All under a Thick Sloping Roof on Hindges. (Loclly Built by a now Retired Beekeeper.)
Only x1 Hive lost back in November (a Purchase of x2 Nationals Hives.) Fully Stacked Box option x5.)
One had a Colony in x3 boxes. (Queen age unknown ?)
Sad it demised, but have the Resources to reset it up as a Working Hive again.
By either doing a Walk Away Split. Or Splitting / and adding one of those Breeder Queens. Have plenty of Bee Season to come before needing to make a decision. . .
Hope everybody's elses Bees are doing fine too. . .

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Have pre-Ordered x2 Black Bee Breeder Queens

You going to graft from them? or use a nicot system or what?

 

[MeAndMyBees]

You going to graft from them? or use a nicot system or what?

Hi there.
Haven't decided yet. . .
These Queens will be Shipped in early June.(We can have Fab / or Awful May Weather.) . . .So playing it safe !
The Black Bees AMM I have are about 60% true (as a Guess? of %.)
I have had Buckfast years and years ago: but they didn't do well in my locality. You learn the hard way. Local "Hive Sale" purchases were found to have / be more Black Bee Traits x some Mongrel (%'s) too.
In time I have tried to up the AMM percentage, from what I had available here in my location. Re Grafting and local DCA's. (Bees ?)
Hopefully my Buying in these Black Bee Queens : I hope to improve my AMM %'s even more. Or that's what I hope to achieve. . . Just a bit to far away from Chain Bridge, as the Bee flies. But I could take some Hives nearer to one of their 'DCA's via a host 'Garden' nearer that way.
Any views welcome.

 

[Redcap]

Ahead of the colder weather forecast this week, popped over to my apiary and did a quick check this afternoon on three colonies. Greeted by a couple of bees departing and returning from 2 of the hives, (The sun was shining and temp around 5*C). Vaped all three - all was well.

 

[madasafish]

-7C overnight in greenhouse.
Nice and sunny now.

My soft bees are not doing anything and I am not going anywhere near them. As I am soft as well

But the birds are emptying the feeders with monotonous regularity.