What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Wilco]

Made a nuc and gave a recently collected swarm more space. Boiling even in ventilated suit. Gave up shortly after and went to the beach for the evening after the school run. Sea was lovely and had a seaweed fight with my girls but now smell of a particular seaweed which smells like the sea weed so shower time!

Argued with wife regarding use of 'raw' for honey after passing a stall which incensed me. @Moobee lot's of forage down your way! Hope you're having a good season.

 

[Swarm]

Nice to be adding supers in the sun.
I found a three box nuc hanging out the entrance and decided they needed more room so I got them into a double brood. I need to get a super to them,

 

[Beth]

We've turned a corner here, with warm weather and flowers finally arriving! Two months ago it looked like it was all over, queenless, drone layers, etc.
Three hives have supers on and they're working away. Nothing capped yet but heading in the right direction.
The nuc that got the BS BF queen I rescued from the hive next door (they had a sneaky virgin) -wow! I've never seen such beautiful fans of brood on both sides of the frames. They got a brood super as they're growing fast. I took one of the entrance reducers off also because they're needing room for the increased traffic. I'm continuing syrup on them for another few weeks to help them draw comb.
Advice needed on Number 6: Also a nuc, with a carni queen introduced 4 weeks ago. Almost NO laying. The only (now) capped brood they have is from a frame I had put in 2 weeks ago, just in case they had killed her (then I found her). There's only sporadic patches of maybe 6-7 day old larvae. Weirdly they aren't taking much syrup, and haven't touched a fat frame of stores (confirming no robbing). There was an undrawn frame in-between but I wouldn't have thought that would stop them, I moved it now.
Should I unite more bees in? Or frames of brood? It's as if they don't know what they're supposed to be doing. Plenty of drawn brood comb available too! Any suggestions appreciated.

 

[Moobee]

Made a nuc and gave a recently collected swarm more space. Boiling even in ventilated suit. Gave up shortly after and went to the beach for the evening after the school run. Sea was lovely and had a seaweed fight with my girls but now smell of a particular seaweed which smells like the sea weed so shower time!

Argued with wife regarding use of 'raw' for honey after passing a stall which incensed me. @Moobee lot's of forage down your way! Hope you're having a good season.

Hah! Was that on the Birdham Road by any chance near a Nisa store?
Yes forage is great here & bees uber busy. Took off a mini extraction of 95lbs last week and they’re still piling it in. Most hives have at least 4 supers on and they will need to be cleared soon as getting too heavy to lift.
Really feel like it’s gone from bust to boom very quickly.

 

[Moobee]

Ran virgin queens into mating nucs. They were roaring and quickly quietened down to a contented hum.
Lots of activity at the home hives - two hives had QCs recently emerge so possibly excitement over orientation flights.

 

[Wilco]

Hah! Was that on the Birdham Road by any chance near a Nisa store?
Yes forage is great here & bees uber busy. Took off a mini extraction of 95lbs last week and they’re still piling it in. Most hives have at least 4 supers on and they will need to be cleared soon as getting too heavy to lift.
Really feel like it’s gone from bust to boom very quickly.

It was indeed!

Flow sounds better near you than it is here. It is lovely down there though!

 

[Newbeeneil]

It was indeed!

Flow sounds better near you than it is here. It is lovely down there though!

Yes nice area if you don’t want to get north of the A27 in rush hour! My wife loves to pop down for an evening swim occasionally and it’s an areas we vaguely looked at to settle in before our last house purchase.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

exhibits labelled and loaded for staging at the Royal Welsh tomorrow.

 

[pargyle]

Added a couple of frames of brood from two other colonies to one where I clearly missed a queen cell ...there was small patch of capped brood a couple of weeks ago .. found two open queen cells hidden away .. I knew they were dwindling but still bringing in nectar so left them to see whether there was a virgin in there .. but - definitely no queen in there - test frame last week generated queen cells, knocked them down today. Added a good few shakes of bees and a nice new queen from Ceri Morgan.

Opening up the two donor hives (one with 5 and one with 6 supers) was interesting - the muggy humid weather didn't help (it's raining now) and they were not happy ... one got me on the cheek and another on the forehead when I bent down and the veil got close to my face - swelling a bit now but not too bad. All the supers are full of nectar - which is ripe - but apart from the lowest supers most of it is uncapped. I suspect the massive flow of the last two weeks has had them concentrating on collecting it and capping can wait ...it's going to be a good season by my standards if the weather stays fine - although they were still flying in the rain today.

No drawn supers left now - I think I have about 5 supers left in store with frames made up but they need the starter strips waxing ... the way things are going I may still need them - still another good 6 weeks of season down here in the Costa del Fareham.

 

[JamezF]

Had a nice little bit of news this week. As I've posted before I'm looking after a beekeeping project for a local charity and teaching/mentoring a few people in the process. One person in particular is very keep to keep bees himself as a result, so on the off-chance I lent him a bait hive to put in his garden a few weeks back. At that point I have to admit that I wasn't expecting much, but it was worth a go. On Thursday a swarm took up residence much to his excitement and now his teenage daughter is getting quite interested in them as well. A positive result all round, I hope.

James

 

[E&MBees]

Collected and extracted four supers today. A tidy 100lbs, very pleased after the poor spring. Will return them tomorrow and reposition the clearer boards at the same time for the next batch which are ready to extract. Flow is good and the bees are making the most of it. Might even need to order some more honey buckets.

Edit: One colony in one apiary has produced just one super of what looks like osr or similar honey. It’s set in a week, smooth, pale and fairly bland. The rest is the usual for the location, runny and stronger tasting. I assume the best thing to do is to make some set honey with it.

 

[The Poot]

Collected and extracted four supers today. A tidy 100lbs, very pleased after the poor spring. Will return them tomorrow and reposition the clearer boards at the same time for the next batch which are ready to extract. Flow is good and the bees are making the most of it. Might even need to order some more honey buckets.

Well done you (and your bees).
I’ve just done the same - alas, a little less than you from four supers, but only a little less
I ordered extra buckets yesterday, jars today…. There’s a good flow on but the bramble is starting to go over now.

 

[E&MBees]

Well done you (and your bees).
I’ve just done the same - alas, a little less than you from four supers, but only a little less
I ordered extra buckets yesterday, jars today…. There’s a good flow on but the bramble is starting to go over now.

Glad you have had a good start Poot. Bramble seems to be more spread out this year, I wonder if the rain today will help keep it going a bit longer, especially as it’s still warm currently. Where did you get your buckets from?

 

[Erichalfbee]

exhibits labelled and loaded for staging at the Royal Welsh tomorrow.
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Good Luck. Weather is looking OK for the show too

 

[The Poot]

Glad you have had a good start Poot. Bramble seems to be more spread out this year, I wonder if the rain today will help keep it going a bit longer, especially as it’s still warm currently. Where did you get your buckets from?

I bought rectangular ones from Ampulla which will fit snugly in my home made warming cabinet. I find it hard to trust “food grade” and “sturdy” handle claims on a lot of them on Amazon …..but then, I’m just an old grouch
Most of my honey will be stored in jars - the buckets are an insurance policy if the flow keeps on for a while.
Good hunting

 

[E&MBees]

Swapped around supers. Another batch put above clearer boards, nearly dropped one, it was so heavy.
Added more space to a couple of nucs as one had got creative this week. Marked a new queen as well. Excellent brood pattern. Some lovely pollen being collected too. They are storing above the queen excluder in the first super.

 

[Newbeeneil]

I bought rectangular ones from Ampulla which will fit snugly in my home made warming cabinet. I find it hard to trust “food grade” and “sturdy” handle claims on a lot of them on Amazon …..but then, I’m just an old grouch
Most of my honey will be stored in jars - the buckets are an insurance policy if the flow keeps on for a while.
Good hunting

Pargyle and I invested in ampulla’s rectangular buckets a few years ago. They are brilliant as I can get 4 at a time in my warming cabinet BUT be careful of the handles as I had one break as I was carrying it down the garden from the heater to be jarred in the kitchen. One big mess on the patio!!!!!!
I now always seal the buckets with adhesive tape which stops them exploding if you drop one.

 

[The Poot]

Pargyle and I invested in ampulla’s rectangular buckets a few years ago. They are brilliant as I can get 4 at a time in my warming cabinet BUT be careful of the handles as I had one break as I was carrying it down the garden from the heater to be jarred in the kitchen. One big mess on the patio!!!!!!
I now always seal the buckets with adhesive tape which stops them exploding if you drop one.

Thanks, that’s worth knowing. I always carry my big round buckets by the ridge under the lid because I don’t trust the handles.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Pargyle and I invested in ampulla’s rectangular buckets a few years ago. They are brilliant as I can get 4 at a time in my warming cabinet BUT be careful of the handles as I had one break as I was carrying it down the garden from the heater to be jarred in the kitchen. One big mess on the patio!!!!!!
I now always seal the buckets with adhesive tape which stops them exploding if you drop one.

How much did you pay for them?
I got some from TD Online.

 

[StephenT]

Found a new queen that I thought would emerge about 5/7 had laid up 4 frames already. Comes from a swarmy but gentle local mongrel line and will keep her out of sentimentality and as a change from the other Buckfast hives. Another hive had QCs only about 5 weeks after I had nuc’d the queen and put them into an 11 frame brood box a couple of weeks later. Didn’t keep up with their rapid expansion. Main flow is well over here and so booked my BBKA Honey room for 2 weeks time to get about 18 supers done.