What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Just Steve]

Have the hives filled supers but then eaten it, or never even expanded beyond the brood box?

I have a couple that haven’t made it beyond the brood box yet…

They have eaten it. Didn't have a huge amount but they have demolished it in no time. There's a small amount of pollen coming in but obviously little if any nectar.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Interesting morning, I’ve harvested 8 queen cells from various demaree set ups which are now in the incubator, I split one top box demaree into two nucs both with virgin queens and added a couple of supers to single brood colony’s.
Fed whatever needed feeding with fondant.

 

[Do224]

Only one of my four colonies has stored any honey so far this year. The rest are only just getting out of the bb into their first super.

So, my one producing colony had two part filled supers on, amounting to about one full super in total. It was only about 35% capped but I was concerned there was OSR in it so I extracted it this morning. About 4 frames failed the shake test so I left them for another day. I extracted and jarred the rest and it’s averaging 17-18% so very happy. It also spun out fine so the OSR hadn’t caused any problems. Very happy with the 30 (12oz) jars it produced. Fingers crossed for another crop later in the year too.

(You’ll see one jar has some wax in…I don’t know if this is the done thing but I thought I’d try it. One of my frames blew out in the extractor so I just shoved some of the comb into this jar. Is that what they call ‘chunk honey’? I have no idea. The rest are filtered)

I guess I better keep an eye on them in case they need feeding now, judging by what I’m reading in other comments.

 

[beeker]

Last year I left the spring honey on too long, fair bit of OSR around, and it was a devil to get out leading to me warming it in the kitchen and getting it 'oh so wrong' and having best part of 4 supers running lava like under the furniture. Not wishing to incur such wrath again
I've extracted leaving as long as I dare, bramble really close to flowing and there looks to be lots of that.
Having been at the 'nothing' stage a couple of weeks ago, they got out just in time to catch the end of the OSR flow and did surprisingly well all things considered. Been selective and taken only full frames, and those significantly capped, leaving them lightly and partially filled ones just in case, a couple just haven't got off at all, and have marked them for a review with view to requeening in a few weeks, but benefit of doubt for now.
Just checking back at a little under 50% of last year's spring, not brilliant but it's not over yet, and far far better than I was expecting a few weeks back, especially after a couple of losses, and unites.
Wet supers put straight back on so they'll get some benefit from them too, while it's still miserable weather for a day or two more.
Was three years yesterday I first caught a swarm in the garden, still making a barrel load of mistakes , but now not instantly panicking, and able to stop and have a think when I'm not sure, and if I'm still not sure, come here and search.
Extracting was far easier second time around too, far more relaxing with a motor

 

[Moobee]

In the apiary?

Bashed it against a stone in the river?

 

[gregior]

Managed to get out to inspect 8 of mine tonight,with one thing and another i've not been able to do any inspections for 14 days so had no idea what to expect. Mixed is the best way to put it , half of them were running on fumes and queens going off lay, the other half were absolutely fine with about 60lbs of honey in the supers, juggled a few frames around so all shold be ok now. One thing they all had in common was no desire whatsoever to swarm which suits me fine. It's been a pretty brutal June gap round here with really bad weather to boot, the the bramble is coming into flower now and looks really good but I think it will be another week or so before it starts yielding in earnest.

 

[user 11159]

had my 1st ever nit pic about the free jar of oil seed rape i gave them .it dont taste the same as last years summer honey you gave us .free.
well give me £5 .and i will give you another in the summer ..funny all who paid for it have not complained..

 

[Swarm]

Managed to get out to inspect 8 of mine tonight,with one thing and another i've not been able to do any inspections for 14 days so had no idea what to expect. Mixed is the best way to put it , half of them were running on fumes and queens going off lay, the other half were absolutely fine with about 60lbs of honey in the supers, juggled a few frames around so all shold be ok now. One thing they all had in common was no desire whatsoever to swarm which suits me fine. It's been a pretty brutal June gap round here with really bad weather to boot, the the bramble is coming into flower now and looks really good but I think it will be another week or so before it starts yielding in earnest.

It's not June until Saturday.

 

[Nannysbees]

Have the hives filled supers but then eaten it, or never even expanded beyond the brood box?

I have a couple that haven’t made it beyond the brood box yet…

Same here!!

 

[gregior]

It's not June until Saturday.

Yeah but i'd say eveything is 2 weeks earlier these days compared to a few decades ago unfortunately.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Bashed it against a stone in the river?

You mean you stoned your suite that’s sacralidge I can’t think to spell the word

I think if I bashed mine against a stone it would brake the stone.

 

[Newbeeneil]

Fed fondant to an entire apiary yesterday. 20 colonies and most were running on fumes. Some apiaries doing ok but all in the village extremely light. Just off to cut up another box of fondant for todays inspections.

 

[Niv]

During last weeks inspection I found one colony really low on stores but I was short on time and it was my out apiary so I juggled a few super frames around with the neighbouring hive to give them some stores. Out to check again today/tomorrow.

 

[Do224]

Fed fondant to an entire apiary yesterday. 20 colonies and most were running on fumes. Some apiaries doing ok but all in the village extremely light. Just off to cut up another box of fondant for todays inspections.

Is there a reason to feed fondant rather than syrup or is it just more convenient for you?

 

[Cuckmere couple]

moved swarm (reluctant collector) into hive today and was v pleased to find a fantastic looking q and v v calm bees...so, glad i collected in the end

 

[Nannysbees]

Idiot moment this morning thought I'd do a bit of maintenance as I swapped two roofs got stung on the ankle, foot up like a balloon!!!!
Inspection today be queen survived the psycho hive, miracle.
The hive which we thought had a Virgin queen has no eggs and no sign of a queen should be up and running I'd have thought, put a test frame in.
United hive, successful removed what is left of the newspaper and the queen excluder back between the super and brood. Took some food to give to another as supplies were low. Nothing in any of the supers!!

 

[madasafish]

Inspected v quickly all my nucs. Almost all queens had stopped laying about 8 to 9 days ago based on larvae ages. Yes I was feeding daily.
My queen rearing on Nicot failed to have one queen take. Checked yesterday's attempt : all cells wiped clean.
Have to wait for prolonged dry weather and some warmth.

 

[The Poot]

Idiot moment this morning thought I'd do a bit of maintenance as I swapped two roofs got stung on the ankle, foot up like a balloon!!!!
Inspection today be queen survived the psycho hive, miracle.
The hive which we thought had a Virgin queen has no eggs and no sign of a queen should be up and running I'd have thought, put a test frame in.
United hive, successful removed what is left of the newspaper and the queen excluder back between the super and brood. Took some food to give to another as supplies were low. Nothing in any of the supers!!

It’s being a very strange year so far….

 

[The Poot]

All was fairly quiet in the apiary today, with cloudy conditions with a cool breeze. At 4:45 all four colonies appeared to have given up for the day, but then at 5:15 there was mayhem at hive 2. This is a colony with what I think is a drone laying queen and tomorrow’s inspection would decide things. But there was a very large cloud of bees flying around erratically and entering the hive. At first I thought it was robbing, so donned my jacket to investigate. There were very few bees leaving the hive whilst hundreds were entering, with no fighting. Possibly a usurping swarm of markedly yellow/orange bees.

 

[Newbeeneil]

Is there a reason to feed fondant rather than syrup or is it just more convenient for you?

More convenient, as I generally feed fondant I’ve always got some in the garage.