What did you do in the Apiary today?

[The Poot]

Second time today they did this!! They have a feeder on but obviously something is wrong!!

How much feed did you give them?

 

[Nannysbees]

How much feed did you give them?

They haven't taken any of it!!

 

[The Poot]

They haven't taken any of it!!

It’s not that then! I wondered if it was bees getting out of the way of the honey storers - happened to me last year after I’d given a colony an English feeder two thirds full of syrup.

 

[Swarm]

Extracting today and allowed myself to get distracted as the Peregrines were back

 

[judith.ribenfors]

I sell in 12oz jars and charged £6.00 last year. I am considering raising the price to £6.50 because of the price of jars. Most of the regulars return their jars for re-use so I may opt for a 2 tier system.

I sell at £5 for 8oz, £7 for 12oz and £9 for lb. Mainly £5 sell better...in an honesty box outside the garden on a track which is popular for walkers and cycling.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Health check of the bees at the home apiary - many are still on 9/10 frames of brood, a slight hint of heather in the hives, but nothing to get excited about.
sorted a stack of brood boxes and frames gathered from shakeouts etc at the out apiaries, one of them, only brought back a week ago and jam packed with greater waxmoth frazz and newly hatched larvae, had great fun dumping the lot on a stone slab and squishing them all as they tried to find a hiding place, also went through a stack of drawn frames deciding what may last another season and what needs burning together with still broodrd frames and reject from the supers - planning on a wee bonefire tomorrow night to celebrate the new month.
Sadly had to give the last rites to 'the Duchess' the last survivor of the rescue hens we took in between the two Covid lockdowns, she must have been two when we got her as everything was held back due to the first lockdown so she did have a long and happy retirement with every rescue hen since then treating her as the den mother - they were more than a bit perturbed when she went - even though they've been ignoring her all day when she was unwell.

 

[Erichalfbee]

had great fun dumping the lot on a stone slab and squishing them all as they tried to find a hiding place,

A better hiding place would have been in a chicken’s tummy.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

A better hiding place would have been in a chicken’s tummy.

they had their share - but there was quite a few of them!

 

[Erichalfbee]

Took nadired supers off. Test frame in one hive and put another two together.
I had a queen from @Ian123 two years ago and today marked one of her daughters. Beautiful queen just like her mum.
Gorgeous sunset over the apiary

 

[Moobee]

Taking the last of the supers off tomorrow morning and then starting extraction as OH is out all day. Borrowed a 9 frame electric extractor so hoping I can zip through the process as was slightly dreading tackling 20 supers with a 4 frame manual. Hoping to get an electric one in the sales later this year….

 

[Penninetrader]

Shocking weather here in the roaring 40's at the moment, with the persistent wind and horizontal rain. Not too warm either, so it will be a quick check of all apiaries when it eventually clears. It had been a good August too. Winds are coming up from the Antarctic and the isobars are squashed over us with the hot weather in the north. Last day of winter in Brisbane today with 35c.
18m wave!
https://tasmaniantimes.com/2024/08/18m-monster-wave-slams-cap

It seems the weather down here won't come right until Thursday when I'll be back to the bees, but it will turn colder tomorrow they say. Just a touch of snow on the mountains at the moment.
For those interested in ships, the orangey one is our Antarctic Icebreaker, the RSV Nuyina.

That scenery is stunning

 

[Etton]

Took nadired supers off. Test frame in one hive and put another two together.
I had a queen from @Ian123 two years ago and today marked one of her daughters. Beautiful queen just like her mum.
Gorgeous sunset over the apiary

View attachment 41179

How long do you find it takes the bees to clear a nadired super? I’ve tended to leave mine on over the winter, saves storage.

 

[Erichalfbee]

How long do you find it takes the bees to clear a nadired super? I’ve tended to leave mine on over the winter, saves storage.

A week is enough...they won't uncap though and I won't score capped frames at this time of year. I don't like leaving mine over winter because running 14x12 The brood nest is far from the outermost shallow frames and I lose them to mould; sometimes the whole box.
This year most of the colonies are pretty big and it's been a faff. Lot of bees trying their luck under the OMF when I finished. I think it may be back to trying to get the frames robbed out up top.

 

[Moobee]

Yes they are over four sides of the framed, put a dummy board in and they have a frame of pollen and a feeder on, back out again today, queen looks small!!

I've had a few new queens that started life small but quickly filled out about a week after mating.

 

[ericbeaumont]

Nylon scourer

Not on the paintwork!

 

[JamezF]

The weather isn't great -- some showers, heavily overcast and humid, but I took supers off in my home apiary. One of the colonies wasn't very active -- no sign of robbing or anything like that, though there were a couple of hornets buzzing around (they'll have no success getting in through the UFE). I'll leave opening the hive up to have a better look until Tuesday given that tomorrow is supposed to be more of the same depressing weather as today.

I have four more hives to collect supers from and then I'm done.

James

 

[E&MBees]

Collected the last of the full size supers this morning. Just a poly nuc one to go now. Added a clearer board to them now I have spare kit. Bees not overly happy, we have a cracking thunderstorm now, so they could probably sense it coming.

 

[JamezF]

Bees not overly happy, we have a cracking thunderstorm now, so they could probably sense it coming.

I've been thinking about this idea that bees get feisty when there may be thunderstorms. It doesn't seem beyond the bounds of possibility that in such weather conditions bees are less inclined to fly, perhaps because they struggle to navigate under heavily overcast skies, but I wonder if the "feistiness" is actually just a consequence of far more foragers being "at home" than might normally be the case?

James

 

[pargyle]

Clearer boards on two stacks a la Swarm and clearers on two hives in the usual manner. I shall be interested to see how the two methods compare. Got it all done by about 2.00pm ..bees very well behaved and they were finding their way out of the clearers on the top of two stacks within minutes which is promising. I'm going to have to put a roof over the two stacks as it's clouded over and thunderstorms are predicted - hopefully by tomorrow evening they will all be clear and I can get them in an ready to extract.

 

[The Poot]

Collected the last of the full size supers this morning. Just a poly nuc one to go now. Added a clearer board to them now I have spare kit. Bees not overly happy, we have a cracking thunderstorm now, so they could probably sense it coming.

Thunder and pouring rain here too.