What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Moobee]

I would have put an upturned box on the top of that post and the bees would have climbed into it .

I did think of trying that but the ground was very uneven, the fence post was wobbly, it was lashing with rain (and my smoker kept going out), I kept getting snagged on the barbed wire, I was doing this on my own and it was a huge swarm so went with what I thought might be the most expedient option tbh! The good news is, the beekeeper let me know that the rest of the bees are in the box this morning.

 

[Beth]

Thanks @jenkinsbrynmair , hard to believe with so many bees still there. Also we are only getting warm weather for two weeks now, nothing blooming before that. Would you recommend reducing the open Q cells back to maybe 2 or 3? Or wait until a few are capped?

 

[Antipodes]

Nice easy swarm collection this morning. The call said they were in a small tree but were actually low down in a Leptospermum bush. I managed to shake them into a nuc but the reaminder took a while to all go in and it wasn't until it started pouring that I got most of them in, even though the rest of the gang were Nasonoving like mad at the entrance.

On the way back, I had an SOS from a fellow beekeeper who's bees had swarmed onto a fence post in her garden. She has developed a reaction to stings & is waiting for her new epipen. By this time it's bucketing down so I'm out in the pouring rain, scooping bees off the post into a spare hive and trying to smoke the rest of them up from the floor. They were absolutely sodden and very cross and I'm glad I took my leather gauntlets just in case as they were covered in stings by the time we had (we hoped) most of them and the queen in the box. She just called to say they were still all there, so all good.

Then home for a well deserved cuppa and to dry out! Wet through to my smalls.

I'm dropping the easy swarm off at one of the newish beeks hives this evening as she lost her bees over winter - they were a tiny cast swarm late in the season, so probably didn't build up enough. We're going to OA trickle them to mop up any mites that might have been passengers and i'll leave her 4 pints of 1:1 thymolised syrup to feed them in a few days (only if they need it) as weather looks a bit pants for the next week here.
Hoping these bees will do better.
View attachment 39981

I love the photo of the bees on the post all with their heads up to the rain. Very reminiscent of one I collected here a couple of years back in the rain.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Thanks @jenkinsbrynmair , hard to believe with so many bees still there. Also we are only getting warm weather for two weeks now, nothing blooming before that. Would you recommend reducing the open Q cells back to maybe 2 or 3? Or wait until a few are capped?

reduce to one open QC

 

[Curly green finger's]

Don't get me started on the EA!

It's heartbreaking isn't it, especially the Wye. I was fortunate to do a canoe camp down it perhaps 20 years ago and had never seen so many large fish. Great swimming back then too.

We use to go jumping of the bridge sollars bridge and the Vicky bridge in Hereford the samon par we use to catch we’re In abundance back 30 years ago not now.
Where did you start canoeing on the wye? hay on wye

 

[Wilco]

We use to go jumping of the bridge sollars bridge and the Vicky bridge in Hereford the samon par we use to catch we’re In abundance back 30 years ago not now.
Where did you start canoeing on the wye? hay on wye

I'll have to check, it was a few years!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

went to check the Amanford bees, turned out to be a bleeding disaster, before going I checked some washing that was on the line - it was nearly dry and I thought by the time I get back it will be perfect.
All colonies are fine, the CBPV colony from the year before last which then superseded is going like a boeing, bursting with bees and begging for the third super. Another colony I just took down there last Saturday, which was an overwintered nuc, also doing great, queen laying like a train, two frames of fresh eggs and a further seven of BIAS, saw the queen so went to mark her, took the lid off the toma pen and the whole top unit came off dumping most of the contents on two frames and the queen , she was a bit perturbed but just wandered off in a huff followed by a cleaning party, just hope she'll be OK, next inspection will tell but I now have a totally red queen! I went back twenty minutes later to put another super on and the bees were still calm as ever - even with the fast approaching rain..............................
which brings be back to my washing, by the time I set off home we had torrential drivingrain which lasted over half an hour!!

 

[Beth]

Just back from said 2 hives, rammed with very calm bees. I pulled every frame and doubled checked after scraping QC's. The supers both had QC's along the frame bottoms, I probably cut a dozen from one hive. This hive also has a supercedure cell. The other had maybe 4-5 QC on the frame bottoms. BB had no QC's in either hive, but both are loaded with stores on the outer deep frames. They're both drawing comb on the supers I put on yesterday. Absolutely no eggs.

Will a colony accept a new queen if they have QC's? I'm planning to pull the marked QC frames out, wait half an hour, the try the new queen and see how they react.

I'm assuming when laying starts again, they'll shift stores upwards? Of course the June dearth is coming too so possibly a lot will have been consumed.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Will a colony accept a new queen if they have QC's?

no

QC's. The supers both had QC's along the frame bottoms, I probably cut a dozen from one hive. This hive also has a supercedure cell.

you can't have both. If you have more than one QC in a hive, regardless of position, they are swarm cells.
When you say you QCs in the super - are you running brood and a half?
destroying all QC's when the bees have swarmed could leave you with a colony unable to survive.

 

[Nannysbees]

Blinking disaster of an inspection!!!! Last year's super hive dry and two bees dead with tongues out, took off the super and gave them syrup!!!!!!!!!
Winnie the feisty hive, loads and loads of drones and supercedure cells, but have been concerned about the temperament for ages, so decided to despatch her and we've ordered a new queen
The split we took with the old Queen and a queen cell left in there, couldn't find her, no eggs, bit fanning like mad so not sure what's going on in there but left them alone to see what'll turn up bit will unite at some point.
Other colonies small but building. I'll be amazed if we have any honey this year, it's all gone to pot

 

[Curly green finger's]

Yesterday I got picked up and traveled to north Shropshire to look at a friends new hive in the rain and boy it was hammering it down umbrella out and the bees were lovely marked his newly mated buckfast queen and left him with a new nuc of mine and a mbc queen in a mini nuc. Don’t ask!
Lovely day considering the rain and I can’t wait to see his colony’s grow.

We were going to vape but the rain and electricity don’t really mix

 

[madasafish]

Wednesday night ad a panic phone call from a very part time beekeeper whose results were minimal over past 3 years. Needed to get rid of everything PDQ.. He HAD to get rid. Would I take two colonies - one horrible - and all his equipment. next day. Free.
Slight delay.
So I received two colonies plus spares totalling 5 Abelo hives..
Installed this am.. checked quickly this pm and added supers to both. Horrible did not appear too bad but will re Q tomorrow.
I managed to find space for the equipment after a quick cleaning.#
Never seen such unnecessary complication as an Abelo poly hive.. I had to read the webpage to understand some bits..

And then noticed a 6 frame Lang jumbo nuc had collected a small prime swarm with a laying Q whom I promptly marked. Only 3 frames of bees but appear pleasant. Very dark.. maybe from the local school bees who live in the flat roof, - 100 meters away but last time they swarmed they were horrible.

#surplus goes to beginners - free.

 

[The Poot]

Thursday donated a split colony to a fellow beek, who had suffered losses, as too many bees for the garden.
Today inspected three: split one, so back to square one!
Of the other two I added a third super to one and a fourth super to the other. All bees very nice to work with.

 

[Parsonage Bees]

My 2 hives are 'chalk and cheese'.
One added 28lb in the last 9 days (and half of them were wet). Demareed and added a drawn super so I'm going to need steps.
The other added 1lb. They look healthy, slabs of good looking cappings, glossy, white, segmented larvae, all the right stuff but they've completely missed the spring flow. Sycamore, horse chestnut, hawthorn, OSR?, fruit trees all going over. They must be 'home bodies'. Gave them a drawn super if they decide to collect something.
No sign of QCs.
. . . . Ben

 

[Beth]

no

you can't have both. If you have more than one QC in a hive, regardless of position, they are swarm cells.
When you say you QCs in the super - are you running brood and a half?
destroying all QC's when the bees have swarmed could leave you with a colony unable to survive.

Thanks I didn't know that. Yes all hives are brood and a half. I've left 2 QC's in each for now in case one is damaged etc. They are a long way from capping.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I'd keep one, keeping two is just a surefire way of casting a swarm.

 

[Newbeeneil]

@Newbeeneil - How would you do that?

Just put a cardboard box ( or nuc box) inverted over the post and bees and they just walk upwards into the dark. That’s what I always do when bees are on something that can’t be shaken. I’ve even done it in a tree when it’s not possible to shake them into a skep.
Remember bees like the dark and to walk upwards.

 

[Newbeeneil]

I did think of trying that but the ground was very uneven, the fence post was wobbly, it was lashing with rain (and my smoker kept going out), I kept getting snagged on the barbed wire, I was doing this on my own and it was a huge swarm so went with what I thought might be the most expedient option tbh! The good news is, the beekeeper let me know that the rest of the bees are in the box this morning.

I know what you mean and you never seem to have the right kit with you. A few years ago I had the same sort of scenario. In the end I split an old paper potato bag half way down the sides and put the splits over the fence wire and left them to it while I went for a nuc box.
When I returned it had stopped raining and they were all in the bag which I just poured into the nuc box.
What could have been a real pain turned into one of my easiest catches,

 

[emoclewbee]

Swarming season seems to be kicking off down here.
Demareed most of my last week. My weakest one was across 6 frames of brood, had very little nectar in one super and not touched the other so I said I would leave them a while.
Today they had a super full nearly capped, the second super weighed about 5kg from hefting. Brood across 9 frames with swarm cells on 2 frames.
What a difference a week can make with good weather and forage in bloom.
Queen was nuced and a super added.

My best and favourite Queen who I planned to take a couple of nucs from the top of the Demareed had only one cell in the top box but a couple of open swarm cells in the bottom brood. This queen was also nuced and a second nuc was made with a queen cell.
Another hive is onto its fourth super and another has barely anything in either of its first two.
Good weather set to continue here for the next next hopefully it lasts even longer to get some Queens mated.

 

[madasafish]

Further to my prior post above Inspected the "horrible " colony. Found unmarked Q on first frame so marked her.. Tops of frames covered in black wax/dirt, QE broken, damp, worms and slugs. I would be grumpy if I lived in that.
Stole 4 frames capped brood for a new nuc and replaced with new foundation..new QE, Holes in CB filled with Abelo fillers, added new foundation to super..
No stings ... not that horrible,