What did you do in the Apiary today?

[rbaz]

Checked out a new apiary site as the hive I have is a little close to the house and I wanted more colonies.
It’s in a small fairly open woodland 250m from a main road up a steep rough track. With a little tree/bush cutting and moving some big rocks I should be able to access it with a 4x4 but not by car. There are a few mountain bikers/horses that use the lane but the hives can be set well back out of view. I like the fact a car can’t get up there.
I found an opening SE facing that will give some cover in the afternoons so it’s looking the ideal site but its under 3miles from my house so I will have to find somewhere further away to put them for 3 weeks.

 

[VEG]

Taught the beginners at the association apiary then went through my bees.

 

[dpearce4]

sealed 2 hives to move tomorrow to other apiary. need space to bring home 3 nucs. weather rubbish all weekend so far so not sure what they are like inside but boy they are getting light, did check the tops of a couple of frames they have some stores so will put feeders on tomorrow when they are in new home.

 

[madasafish]

7C at 10am, 9C at 1pm... so topped up feeders. Used smoke instead of spray to keep bees from exiting feeders (frame feeders in TBHs) - I rarely use smoke but on a cold day far more effective than sugar spray.. bees kept heads down - for a change.

Stood under flowering crab apple tree to hear the sound of bees - could not see any on blossom: then realised I was standing under a bee flightpath which I discovered last year when 4 metres in the air painting our bedroom window..

Watched two bumbles on azalea flowers: one very big, one smallish..

Bees out gathering pollen and nectar sporadically when the sun shone: this time last year they were swarming.. no sign of QCs when I last looked and colonies half the size of last years at this time.

Another frost forecast tonight.

If this is Global Warming then bring on an Ice Age

 

[carbon]

Wish I'd waited for today, but the forecast was bad so took my chances yesterday. It went OKish for the first three hives, laying queens but small colonies and precious little stores, but I got totally kamikaze'd on the fourth. Bees down my wellies, in my suit, nightmare. Fortunately only got actually stung a handful of times and was glad to get away with that -- the suit and gloves will be getting a good wash before I go anywhere near the bees again. I guess (and perhaps someone out there can enlighten) that the problem was it was getting a bit cooler and because the bees had zilch stores the smoker did no good at all. It didn't help that this colony is headed up by one mean mutha (she's on borrowed time but the colony was super strong last year).

So today, nothing to do but scythe a few nettles and watch the bees frantically working the willow and cherry. Difficult to believe it actually dipped below zero last night! If only we can get a spell of weather like this...

 

[YorkshireBees]

Took advantage of the weather yesterday to go through most of my colonies. Removed the rapid feeders (bees had ignored most) as stores have increased in all hives (seems OSR is giving some nectar).

Added a third Super to one hive (Poly) as they are filling the other two fast.

One of my wood hives needed a second super but most are still only just starting in their first super.

Pretty happy with what I saw.

 

[Swarm]

Supers? Checked mine with a view to topping up feed, all but one which is on double brood are at best, five or six frames of brood. Queens present and laying, bees happy, combs looking fine, only two had emptied their feed.

 

[nonstandard]

Yesterday it crept up over 10deg so we decided to take our chances and inspect our nicely sheltered apiary. As well as inspections we put a test frame in a colony that tried to supercede about three weeks ago and now appears to be queen-less. We united two hives in preparation for re-queening later this week, made up the Apidea with some young bees; Oh and I had a rather unfortunate sneezing incident while veiled up.

 

[drex]

Took advantage of the one decent day for over a week. Was worried about 2 hives only as the other two had already been split.

One is on double brood and thriving with no queen cells. The other is on brood and a half, and had loads of sealed queen cells, and 3 unsealed, queen not seen but plenty of eggs ( standing up), and plenty of bees, so assume she is still there, and had just not had a weather window in which to swarm. Made up 2 nucs.

Phew! Just in time.

 

[Ely]

Got lucky and inspected today while the sun was shining, all 30 mins of it. Chucking it down now. Learnt my lesson and protected myself better. Still had them buzzing around my face but they are a much bigger colony now so I assume I shouldn't expect a nice mild nuc size hives temperment. Got nervous but kept tell ing myself they couldn't get me so it passed.

They were almost out of food so gave them some of last years ivy honey that had solidified in the comb. The nuc is still struggling and I don't have much confidence in them building up at all to over winter. I desperately need a new queen as soon as one is available from someone.

I'm assuming with a colony barely over 3 frames would struggle to raise another if I popped a cap in her ass. And she could be just as rubbish

 

[witchcraft]

A weather window appeared so I completed a shook swarm on my first hive which was full of black rotten comb. I put a feeder on them too. Moved a test frame of eggs from the shook swarm to the box containing the swarm collected in the pouring rain two weeks ago - they appear queen-less so I guess she was lost in the rain and gale as I swept them in to their new BB...

 

[oliver90owner]

Question: why move only one frame of open brood. The emerging brood could have been incubated by, and reinforced, the other colony to make it strong enough for a shook swarm later?

 

[nikca]

Panic! Oh - no wait - it's ok...

Heard a buzzing noise from the end of the Barn, where the Apiary is. Hmm... think I'd better go look... OH, blinking flip - many bees airborn around the new split part of the AS I did a month ago.

After 2 minutes most of the hive had left - and landed a branch at the top of a bank, overhanging the lake. (Apiary next to lake was my Mentors idea, honest). Run to Barn, rig a rope loop on a long pole, set up the chainsaw lopper (3 meters long), lasso the branch over the top of a branch above (all 20' over the water!), start to cut the branch with the lopper, and notice there seem to be LESS bees now

After another 2 minutes ALL the bees are back on the front of the hive.

Actually VERY glad of this, as I am not REALLY sure what I was going to do with a swarm on a system of levers and pulleys 20' over deep water...

So - it was just a wind up then. Put all equipment away. Call MJBee...

The following inspection (which I wasn't doing at Mikes instruction to ensure I didn't upset any mating flight)... revealled just one small queen, despite going through twice with 2 of us looking. Found her because she was making a really loud piping noise. So - marked her and put her back - lets hope she stays put (like she did when the girls went for a fly!). Couldn't find her rival - let's hope she's died/run away/lost on a mating flight...

Thanks for the lesson girls - can I get back to my days work now?

N

 

[dpearce4]

first observation in 2 weeks due to crap weather. knew i would have to do something with them when i went. ended up doing 2 AS, produced 3 nucs and knocked down QC's in 2 further hives due to not having enough frames of foundation for doing anymore. and yes no stings this time

none needed feeding, 1 now has 3 supers 2 of which are full, 2 have 2 supers and 2 have 1 super. was expecting no stores left not having to add supers. will need to knock up some more super frames in the next couple of weeks i think.

on the internet later tonight to order stuff.

 

[JCD]

It's been raining most of the day today, so decided to make a solar wax melter as per the video on youtube done by the Australian lady, using a polystyrene box from the fishmonger (which didn't smell of fish much to my surprise), silver foil, duct tape, perspex, an old icecream tub, and some muslin.
Success!!!!.....I'm really pleased!! I only needed to buy the perspex, everything else was lying around.
All I need now is a warm day to inspect the bees and maybe get some wax, and some sunshine to melt it!

Fed the bees more syrup.

 

[Shabro]

Carried out an AS on one hive, never thought it would happen so quickly to us!

 

[MuswellMetro]

went to an out apiary to check whether an overwinter nuc put into a hive on April 2nd that i had put near the OSR as to whether it needed the dummy board moving out

and decided it had not moved on in three weeks, in fact had gone a bit backwards as very light ( that's how bad it is in the SE, OSR in full flower for two weeks, no flow just pollen) so fed them a litre of 2:1 syrup as they had no liquid stores

then it rained again, so fed another six hives and nuc that appeared light on hefting..then ran out of syrup

As still relatively cold and rain i took the opportunity this evening of moving two of my friends hives (with her) to another apiary, one was heavy but light on bees ( suspect source of one of the swarm i took last Monday was from that) but again a moderate hive was very light in weight and suggest she fed ( that did not go done to well as she said i know, well she was my mentor when i returned to beekeeping)

 

[TBRNoTB]

went to an out apiary to check whether an overwinter nuc put into a hive on April 2nd that i had put near the OSR as to whether it needed the dummy board moving out

and decided it had not moved on in three weeks, in fact had gone a bit backwards as very light ( that's how bad it is in the SE, OSR in full flower for two weeks, no flow just pollen) so fed them a litre of 2:1 syrup as they had no liquid stores

then it rained again, so fed another six hives and nuc that appeared light on hefting..then ran out of syrup

As still relatively cold and rain i took the opportunity this evening of moving two of my friends hives (with her) to another apiary, one was heavy but light on bees ( suspect source of one of the swarm i took last Monday was from that) but again a moderate hive was very light in weight and suggest she fed ( that did not go done to well as she said i know, well she was my mentor when i returned to beekeeping)

....the times I've had to use a jemmy to get the foot out of my mouth.

 

[Cazza]

Just been in my beeshed making up yet more brood frames. 10c and raining. Surprised to see bees flying at 6.30 a.m. (Shed overlooks apiary.)
Cazza

 

[Greatbigchicken]

Got stung on my ring finger today, good job I took my engagement ring off before, just got to hope the swelling goes down before the wedding next week!