What did you do in the Apiary today?

[JamezF]

Some of my colonies were exceptionally busy today, for the first time in ages. There's a bit of bramble in flower though not a lot, so I'm not sure what they were foraging on.

I went to see a swarm this evening, if you can call barely an ice cream tub worth of bees by such a name. They were just in a "pool" in the middle of a gravel path outside someone's back door. There is a feral colony in the roof at the top of the gable above the door so I'd guess that's where they came from, but it seemed a bit odd to me. I'd assume they're there because the queen nose-dived out of the colony into the ground, but I'd expect the rest of the swarm to abandon her if she couldn't fly with them. I don't rate their chances of survival very highly, but I've put a box containing some old comb over the top of them in the hope that they'll climb inside and decide it's home. At least that way I can remove them tomorrow and they won't be a nuisance to the house owner.



James

 

[Curly green finger's]

A season so far of no swarm preps I have demareed a few and made nucs from donated brood, not much honey but more colony’s for winter I’ve made 12 colony’s almost from three colonies two queens are in mating nucs so not colony’s yet but I’m splitting more, I’m going to demaree this one again the top box has a mated queen so I’ll split that of first and demarre the bottom queen .
I’ll take 30 stocks into winter with some mating nucs hopefully

 

[JamezF]

Went and collected the "basket case" swarm this evening. They'd almost all moved up nicely onto the old brood comb that I gave them to play with so it was just a question of dropping the box onto a closed up floor, strapping them up and carrying them away.

The owners of the property told me they'd been seeing bees flying between the box I left and the colony in the roof above them for most of the day, but I'm really not sure what has actually happened. I'll leave them to get on with things and see what they're up to in a couple of weeks.

James

 

[Sutty]

Went and collected the "basket case" swarm this evening. They'd almost all moved up nicely onto the old brood comb that I gave them to play with so it was just a question of dropping the box onto a closed up floor, strapping them up and carrying them away.

The owners of the property told me they'd been seeing bees flying between the box I left and the colony in the roof above them for most of the day, but I'm really not sure what has actually happened. I'll leave them to get on with things and see what they're up to in a couple of weeks.

James

Scouts for another swarm maybe?
Might be worth a bait hive if you want more bees.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Demareed two colony’s at the farm, most colony’s humming this evening from the blackberries.
Apiary in town lots of lime pollen going into the hives at 8am lots of humming here too as I’m sat next to the hives, one or two bees eyeing me up though like they might fly at me.
Other things finally got the 120 bean Cannes and post/netting up for the 80 metre double row of runner beans, what a mission cutting the hazel out of the wood and carrying it in bundles of 10 up a bank and across two fields.
Oh to be young

 

[JamezF]

Scouts for another swarm maybe?

Can't deny the possibility, though the ones I have are fairly low in number and I'd struggle to see anything smaller really being viable as a new colony, particularly this year.

James

 

[Sutty]

Oh to be young

Nah - you'd be too busy checking your social media to do all that!

 

[pargyle]

Demareed two colony’s at the farm, most colony’s humming this evening from the blackberries.
Apiary in town lots of lime pollen going into the hives at 8am lots of humming here too as I’m sat next to the hives, one or two bees eyeing me up though like they might fly at me.
Other things finally got the 120 bean Cannes and post/netting up for the 80 metre double row of runner beans, what a mission cutting the hazel out of the wood and carrying it in bundles of 10 up a bank and across two fields.
Oh to be young

Crumbs Mark ..you are late with your runners - mine are already at the top of 6 foot supports and are already in flower. These and the Cobra french beans are about the only things that are doing well this year.

 

[Garry R]

Lettuce doing fin, cabbages good, cauliflowers getting along, runners and french beans improving, sweet peas making a move, rhubarb OK, broad beans in flower but slow to fill, beetroot disappointing - just the slow result of the weather we have had. I think it will all catch up. Hope the bees will do the same now the weather has picked up. I tend to regard all these extremes as contributing to what the met office call averages.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Vaped two broodless splits on Sunday. Very little drop surprisingly. Test frames going in there tomorrow. My best result would be queen cells then I can put the original queens back. One colony has bald brood on an outside frame so gave them a blast too.

 

[Antipodes]

Lettuce doing fin, cabbages good, cauliflowers getting along, runners and french beans improving, sweet peas making a move, rhubarb OK, broad beans in flower but slow to fill, beetroot disappointing - just the slow result of the weather we have had. I think it will all catch up. Hope the bees will do the same now the weather has picked up. I tend to regard all these extremes as contributing to what the met office call averages.Meteorological spring (March, April and May) was the warmest on record by mean temperature, in figures that were influenced by high overnight temperatures.

Your (meteorological) spring has been the warmest on record by mean temperature?

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/news-and-media/media-centre/weather-and-climate-news/2024/warm-may-and-spring-for-the-uk#:~:text=April was a wet month,on record by mean temperature.

 

[Swarm]

Your (meteorological) spring has been the warmest on record by mean temperature?

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/news-and-media/media-centre/weather-and-climate-news/2024/warm-may-and-spring-for-the-uk#:~:text=April was a wet month,on record by mean temperature.

Hasn't felt like it in these parts.

 

[Antipodes]

Hasn't felt like it in these parts.

Lack of sun probably.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Your (meteorological) spring has been the warmest on record by mean temperature?

Yes it has. It has hardly been cold at all over winter and spring. BUT it’s been very wet.
We have a barn owl box in the drive. Last year they raised five youngsters. This year I think there are only two. We have just seen the first one make its first foray onto the landing board outside the nest box, a good three weeks later than last year.

 

[madasafish]

Sold my last two saleable nucs today making eleven in total this year .
One colony swarmed yesterday, collected from hawthorn tree and rehoused.
Down to 19 colonies from a peak of 24. Still too many.
Will try extracting next week as forecast says it will be over 18C - currently 14C and cloudy.
QR has been fairly poor due to lack of q laying/bees emptying eggs out of nicot/jenter..
Need to make more hive stands.

 

[MrMouse]

Checked my 3 nucs made up from Demaree queen cells a while ago. One doing brilliantly, one doing ok ish (probably a bit hungry so gave them a frame of uncapped nectar from another colony) and one remains queenless.
Due to go away at the weekend for a week so don’t really have enough time to buy and introduce a mated queen. I’ll see what numbers are like when I get back and consider it then.

Checked a double brood colony. Doing brilliantly. No swarm preps. Lots of brood, filling supers.

Checked my other double brood colony (was an over wintered nuc which built up rapidly to double brood).
Slightly miffed to find a single swarm cell so I’ve moved the queen to a nuc. I’ll go in on Friday and knock any emergency cells back but then won’t be able to get into them for 8-9 days so hopefully it will work out ok. Any thoughts on this?

Finally, saw a couple of mites on workers in this hive. They’re on a DIY under floor entrance OMF so I don’t have the facility to check mite numbers with a board. Hopefully will be ok to get them to August and get the Apivar strips in - would you do anything differently? Has supers on.

Bramble flow now turning on in Dorset.

 

[JamezF]

First opportunity to inspect in well over a week here, so I've been through every single hive, sort of. Dismantled one demaree'd hive and set it back to "normal" as I don't think they're likely to swarm now.

Had a bit of a scare elsewhere in terms of non-beekeeper/bee interactions after I'd closed up a hive that is normally fairly calm but suddenly turned rather "hot" when I started removing frames today. I closed the hive without completing the inspection, left the field and was putting kit back into the boot of my car (on the other side of the road with a hedge between us) when they found me again, then got caught in the hair of a lady who'd arrived to collect her child from the local primary school bus which stopped on the road right the other side of the hedge from the hive. Fortunately the only person to get stung was me, but it could have been far worse. I had no idea the bus stopped there, though it may not have done when I first put hives in that field. I've never seen it before, but the chances are quite slim of being there for exactly the same thirty seconds, I guess. I've already messaged the owner of the field to tell her I need to move them (and left a jar of honey for the lady who got the bees in her hair).

James

 

[Eyeman]

Slightly miffed to find a single swarm cell so I’ve moved the queen to a nuc. I’ll go in on Friday and knock any emergency cells back but then won’t be able to get into them for 8-9 days so hopefully it will work out ok. Any thoughts on this?

One of the benefits of clipped queens. Bees can fit your schedule! Single swarm cell? Did you shake bees off other frames? I presume you expect the swarm cell to emerge before your return? If I had lots of colonies I would go with your plan. Otherwise, remove swarm cell & use emergency QC’s to requeen. Or you could put the frame with swarm cell plus some stores in a nuc, shake some nurse bees in and put nuc 1m or more away from the main colony. This will bleed off flyers and when Q emerges unlikely to swarm. Can unite when you get back.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

if it was a single 'swarm' cell it could also possibly have been supersedure

 

[MrMouse]

if it was a single 'swarm' cell it could also possibly have been supersedure

I wasn’t quite accurate, sorry, there was another charged cell on the same frame (double brood so at the bottom of a top box frame). I was keen not to lose a swarm from a hive with a good foraging force so thought the safest option was to nuc the queen.

It’s a 2023 queen (nuc bought from a reputable supplier this year) that’s been laying absolutely brilliantly so I suppose it’s possible that it’s a supercedure but I’d hope not.

As for what to do about cells, I’ll go back in on Friday and knock anything back that’s new.
If I do that there will still be the possibility of cells being drawn out beyond Friday. If I then can’t go back in for 10-12 days, do I need to worry about this or not? They’ll be sealed within the time I’m away, will this lead to swarming? (I assume not because I’ve already removed the queen). Sorry if silly questions.
Thanks