What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Moobee]

Checked the out apiary yesterday and now have all hives with mated queens and they're all laying well. Interesting to compare two hives with BMH queens I bought late spring - one was a Ligustica and the other a Buckfast.
The Ligustica hive has been a real pain - very swarmy, a bit temperamental and not great honey producers. The Buckfast was slow to get going but is lovely and calm and is outdoing all the other hives and has 4 heavy supers to come off on Friday. No signs of wanting to swarm either.
New queens all marked.

Home mini nuc that had to put a roof over on Saturday had run out of space - it was absolutely rammed - so took out the feeder and gave them two extra frames to draw out while we wait for the sealed QC to emerge.

 

[Erichalfbee]

The Buckfast was slow to get going but is lovely and calm and is outdoing all the other hives

Exactly the same with mine from Laurence.

 

[SWHives]

Not all together.
No real option. Nothing much was capped two weeks ago. I’ll take three maybe next week. I have six other colonies with supers on. One with six the others with four and five. If I clear three from each it will take me a while to extract then I can go back for the others.
I’m going to try to clear the really heavy supers off the hive, putting those on a clearer board on the hive stand.

When you put the supers on clearer board away from the hives, does this method work with supers mixed from different colonies? Would the bees from different colonies fight? Thank you.

 

[Penninetrader]

Put clearer boards under one super on each of three hives.
H3 - two supers with some capped honey in each, but in patches. I combined the best into one super and left it on for the bees, putting the clearer under a mainly empty super. There’s not much honey in the brood, so when the final super comes off, I’ll need to feed straight away.
H1 - two supers, one almost fully capped, one full but not capped.
H2 - one super, less than a quarter filled, part capped. This colony had a bought in queen introduced in early July as the colony was feisty. There’s very little brood and I suspect she’s a poorly mated £50 queen. I found a single queen cell at the base of a frame, two thirds drawn out and charged with gloop, but no sign of a larva or egg. The queen was found happily pootling about on a frame of honey, not laying any eggs.
The colony has seven frames of capped honey in the brood box and next to nothing in the super. I had taken a totally empty super off a few days ago too. Altogether odd. Bees were still feisty.

So glad you wrote about the £50 queen pootling about on the frames. I have 2 of them purchased approx 5 weeks ago, my last inspection this Saturday saw them very agile, healthy and happy..........but not a single egg to be seen. Supposedly good supplier but duffers none the less. They are coming out this week and I have a Scottish black on the way to see if I can recover the situation. This will not happen again, I will pay much more attention to raising my own Queens from now on.

 

[Swarm]

When you put the supers on clearer board away from the hives, does this method work with supers mixed from different colonies? Would the bees from different colonies fight? Thank you.

Yes it does, no they don't.

 

[Penninetrader]

Checked the out apiary yesterday and now have all hives with mated queens and they're all laying well. Interesting to compare two hives with BMH queens I bought late spring - one was a Ligustica and the other a Buckfast.
The Ligustica hive has been a real pain - very swarmy, a bit temperamental and not great honey producers. The Buckfast was slow to get going but is lovely and calm and is outdoing all the other hives and has 4 heavy supers to come off on Friday. No signs of wanting to swarm either.
New queens all marked.

Home mini nuc that had to put a roof over on Saturday had run out of space - it was absolutely rammed - so took out the feeder and gave them two extra frames to draw out while we wait for the sealed QC to emerge.View attachment 41117

Just a question regarding the sealed queen cell, what are your expectations in regard successful hatching and mating at this point in the year ?

 

[Moobee]

Just a question regarding the sealed queen cell, what are your expectations in regard successful hatching and mating at this point in the year ?

I’ve had queens successfully mate in the past from QCs in late August. Several of my hives still have plenty of drones and drone brood in them plus the weather looks favourable here for several weeks so I’m very hopeful.

 

[Erichalfbee]

When you put the supers on clearer board away from the hives, does this method work with supers mixed from different colonies? Would the bees from different colonies fight? Thank you.

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[Moobee]

Currently cutting bees out of a shed….

 

[drex]

Put first round of Apiguard on all my hives. Colonies in one apiary had plenty of stores, at the other they were horrendously light, so got some fondant. I hope the ivy crops well.

 

[The Poot]

Put first round of Apiguard on all my hives. Colonies in one apiary had plenty of stores, at the other they were horrendously light, so got some fondant. I hope the ivy crops well.

That’s the picture in my one apiary, great variation between colonies.

 

[Brian Bush]

I have spent the whole afternoon collecting the supers from 3 apairies with a younger friend. From 4 colonies I have 14 absolutly full supers. I was so pleased to have the help as I do not think I would have been able to carry some of the supers over rough ground from one hive. Tomorrow is a day of extraction. I am already concerned that I will not have enough honey buckets or jars for this crop.
I am estimating about 120lb of recoverable honey per hive. SWMBO is already having kittens that we may not be able to sell it all. As we have had to ration the number of jars our regulrs have been allowed for several years I am confident we will sell out in a few weeks.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

I have spent the whole afternoon collecting the supers from 3 apairies with a younger friend. From 4 colonies I have 14 absolutly full supers. I was so pleased to have the help as I do not think I would have been able to carry some of the supers over rough ground from one hive. Tomorrow is a day of extraction. I am already concerned that I will not have enough honey buckets or jars for this crop.
I am estimating about 120lb of recoverable honey per hive. SWMBO is already having kittens that we may not be able to sell it all. As we have had to ration the number of jars our regulrs have been allowed for several years I am confident we will sell out in a few weeks.

I bought a small 4 wheel gardeners trolley cart a few years ago. Which has a flat floor suitably sized to hold two national supers (fore and aft) and with 4 fold down sides so it's good to safely transport 6 supers at a time. The original wheels were pneumatic and I could guarantee 2 punctures per season so over the years I've progressively replaced them with solid tyres. Depending how rough your "rough" ground is it might be useful for your application. They come up on local selling sites from time to time for around 30.00 pounds

 

[pargyle]

Currently cutting bees out of a shed….View attachment 41124

There's not a lot of brood or stores in that colony is there ? I'd give them a really good dose or three of OA when you get them in a hive ... and a good feed as well.

 

[pargyle]

I have spent the whole afternoon collecting the supers from 3 apairies with a younger friend. From 4 colonies I have 14 absolutly full supers. I was so pleased to have the help as I do not think I would have been able to carry some of the supers over rough ground from one hive. Tomorrow is a day of extraction. I am already concerned that I will not have enough honey buckets or jars for this crop.
I am estimating about 120lb of recoverable honey per hive. SWMBO is already having kittens that we may not be able to sell it all. As we have had to ration the number of jars our regulrs have been allowed for several years I am confident we will sell out in a few weeks.

Better to try and eke it out over the full year ... note your best and most regular customes and ration the rest or put your price up to them. The customers you want are those that come back time and again, if they appreciate your honey they will also willingly pay a bit more - you only have to tell them the increase in prices of jars to justify an increase.

There is nothing worse than running out of product when it's your most loyal customers .. just selling out may be great (early or not) but it's not good business if lt leaves them looking for product elsewhere.

 

[Penninetrader]

I’ve had queens successfully mate in the past from QCs in late August. Several of my hives still have plenty of drones and drone brood in them plus the weather looks favourable here for several weeks so I’m very hopeful.

Always worth a chance, wish I had done the same. Best of luck

 

[Penninetrader]

I have spent the whole afternoon collecting the supers from 3 apairies with a younger friend. From 4 colonies I have 14 absolutly full supers. I was so pleased to have the help as I do not think I would have been able to carry some of the supers over rough ground from one hive. Tomorrow is a day of extraction. I am already concerned that I will not have enough honey buckets or jars for this crop.
I am estimating about 120lb of recoverable honey per hive. SWMBO is already having kittens that we may not be able to sell it all. As we have had to ration the number of jars our regulrs have been allowed for several years I am confident we will sell out in a few weeks.

It does keep

 

[Penninetrader]

Better to try and eke it out over the full year ... note your best and most regular customes and ration the rest or put your price up to them. The customers you want are those that come back time and again, if they appreciate your honey they will also willingly pay a bit more - you only have to tell them the increase in prices of jars to justify an increase.

There is nothing worse than running out of product when it's your most loyal customers .. just selling out may be great (early or not) but it's not good business if lt leaves them looking for product elsewhere.

If it is not impolite to ask, in what quantities do you sell your honey and at what prices. Would be interesting to know how keepers are doing in this regard

 

[Aneebe]

Sun came out after a stormy morning so I headed up to my mountain spot and split my "bees from hell" then went to the nearby allotments to check on another queenless nuc - I've queens arriving shortly so fingers crossed. Sold the last of my 280 honey jars (from 3 colonies) - I increased my half pound jars to £6 and it still flew away in just 4 days with many regulars back for multiples eg 10, 14. I'd increased the price from £5.50. Lousy summer so I'm glad to get this. I'd had a frozen shoulder so sold off bees earlier in the year. Punters did have to make a drive to come and see me so I'd be loathe to push pricing higher although I'm seeing hobbyists selling for up to £8 locally. Interestingly a big proportion seem to be seeking out hayfever relief and are adamant that it works. I had 3 GPS all looking for multiple jars.

 

[SWHives]

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