What did you do in the Apiary today?

[JamezF]

"Dont look Ethel!!!"

Damn! I've not even thought of that for more years than I can imagine

James

 

[Newbeeneil]

Strimmed under the hives of my main apiary for about 20mins today, the bees didn’t give me much attention but they obviously gave the strimmer spark plug cap some grief!

 

[emoclewbee]

Supers added to all hives.
2 to all the 2023 Queens.
Plenty of drone brood, only saw one single drone in one hive. A High pressure weather system meant to come in from mid week, so will be thinking about Demaree in the next couple weeks

 

[Moobee]

Checked all the hives in my main apiary.
I thought I had only lost 8 hives out of 97 this winter but when I opened up a nuc that was ready to be promoted to a BB I saw they had starved!
They had 4 frames of brood and not an ounce of food.
I carefully went through all the other hives and found several more running on fumes. Added fondant to them.
In fact the nucs I’m putting into the auction are all strong but very little stores. Added fondant to enable them to have at least one frame of food in a fortnights time.

Ooh, hope to see you there and maybe snag one of your nucs…,,

 

[madasafish]

After last week's highs of 15C (!). 11C today , cloudy, watery looking sun. No wind.
Ideal for trying to find Qs in my five nucs - I could not find any last week when I added foundation and doubled brood boxes.
Found 2 Qs marked Red from last year, could not find 2 but queen laying and found and marked 1. All were marked last year so I assume surpercedure late autumn. (I stop inspections July).
I am feeding 1:1 sugar syrup - weather - and half new foundation drawn in 4 days. Will start splitting next week.

One nuc did not like me and forced me to wear vinyls.
Forecast more of the same but colder.
I just love global warming.

 

[Swarm]

After last week's highs of 15C (!). 11C today , cloudy, watery looking sun. No wind.
Ideal for trying to find Qs in my five nucs - I could not find any last week when I added foundation and doubled brood boxes.
Found 2 Qs marked Red from last year, could not find 2 but queen laying and found and marked 1. All were marked last year so I assume surpercedure late autumn. (I stop inspections July).
I am feeding 1:1 sugar syrup - weather - and half new foundation drawn in 4 days. Will start splitting next week.

One nuc did not like me and forced me to wear vinyls.
Forecast more of the same but colder.
I just love global warming.

Haven't you noticed they don't call it that any more, it's climate change these days
It was 11 degrees when I went to the apiary and my car told me it was 14 degrees when I left, I didn't notice any difference in the cold wind, it felt chilly the whole time I was there.
Added supers and flipped a couple of double broods, moved an Amm colony from their stacked nuc into a double brood. Two more left to hive up but they can wait until mid week, it was feeling colder and I was hungry.

 

[madasafish]

Haven't you noticed they don't call it that any more, it's climate change these days
It was 11 degrees when I went to the apiary and my car told me it was 14 degrees when I left, I didn't notice any difference in the cold wind, it felt chilly the whole time I was there.
Added supers and flipped a couple of double broods, moved an Amm colony from their stacked nuc into a double brood. Two more left to hive up but they can wait until mid week, it was feeling colder and I was hungry.

Climate Change is for the waverers . Global Warming is full fat full on...

 

[Erichalfbee]

Forecast more of the same but colder.
I just love global warming.

Global warming just means more rain

 

[Sutty]

Strimmed under the hives of my main apiary for about 20mins today, the bees didn’t give me much attention but they obviously gave the strimmer spark plug cap some grief!

View attachment 39538

That's interesting! I wonder whether it was the pulsing high tension electric field that they objected to?

 

[Newbeeneil]

That's interesting! I wonder whether it was the pulsing high tension electric field that they objected to?

That’s what I wondered.

 

[Newbeeneil]

Mike Palmers brood factories in kit form on my hive barrow.

Set up ready for their colonies!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

That's interesting! I wonder whether it was the pulsing high tension electric field that they objected to?

Used to get the same with the old cassette TV cameras, did quite a few days filming at various apiaries over the years and the bees used to go berserk at the cameras - let everyone else alone

 

[Sutty]

I believe they use an electric field to induce bees to sting a membrane to collect venom.
Makes you wonder if some natural predator of bees generates a strong electric field.

 

[StephenT]

Inspected the 3 hives at the allotment site over the weekend. 2 are really slow to build up so plan to unite them next weekend and then possibly buy in a new queen afterwards. The third is doing ok but was recently upgraded from a nuc to full hive. Replaced a couple of frames of foundation with drawn comb to get them building quicker. Garden double brood looking pretty rammed and some nectar going into the super. The double brood tetchy hive we look after for an elderly gentleman we Demareed last week and so this week I had the bright idea? of consolidating the backfilled frames from one of the two brood boxes at the top into one of the brood boxes and sticking it at the very bottom of the pile. Now got double brood with tons of space for the queen to lay (assuming they move the nectar up) with the remaining brood at the top. Probably too much jiggerypokery and thinking of what do do in a couple of weeks when all the brood has emerged at the top.

 

[JamezF]

Mowed in my home apiary so I can at least walk to the hives in my garden clogs without getting stung (by nettles).

Yesterday I opened up a colony that I really wasn't sure would make it through the winter. Arrived to see bees flying, so good news there, and whilst I did have to evict quite a few slugs from between the frame lugs, the colony appeared to be building nicely: nectar and pollen coming in, BIAS, and even saw the queen (thanks to marking her last year).

James

 

[Redcap]

Probably but it's not the end of the world. Just keep an eye on it now if they've taken down all the feed and if it's in a shallow then you could always separate it from the brood area with an eke and crown board to encourage them to move it into the brood area and use it. Nadiring might help. Obviously don't poke around too much if weather isn't great.

For reference, JBM usually advises no need for adding shallows until they have 8 frames of brood.

Checked on them over the weekend...I think they've used most of the feed or stored in the brood box, and the supers were all empty (thank goodness!) with minimal worker activity; brood box looking good with bees on about 8/9 frames.

 

[The Poot]

Climate Change is for the waverers . Global Warming is full fat full on...

 

[Fellstoflats]

View attachment 39539
Mike Palmers brood factories in kit form on my hive barrow.
View attachment 39540
Set up ready for their colonies!

What's going on here, may I ask? Very intrigued!

 

[Erichalfbee]

thinking of what do do in a couple of weeks when all the brood has emerged at the top.

Swap them for frames full of brood from the bottom

 

[Erichalfbee]

What's going on here, may I ask? Very intrigued!

https://beekeepingforum.co.uk/threads/nucs….53412/#post-834375