What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Beanwood]

I find the best way is on a ladder
But seriously - unless you act before they've settled you just have to find somewhere three miles away

Oops.

Anybody near Bristol fancy a nuc for a couple of weeks?

 

[stephenpug]

my work mates wife phoned him at work today to tell him there is a load of wasps in a bush in the front garden and that she was going to put ant killer over them,Alarm bells rung in my head so i asked her to text me a photo,,,,,they were a large swarm of bees,,,,,, so i left work early shot home to get my bee suit and croppers to cut the swarm out of the bush,it attracted a large audience.
Anyway i got them all (my first swarm) took them home to put in my nuc box which i had baited with lemon grass oil to try and catch a passing swarm and guess what there was a swarm in there,So panic on i had to rush 25 miles to my mentors house to use one of his spare brood boxes panic over lol.They were he said a very nice swarm (he has got over 1000 hives) of mongrels some were very dark/black and some light colour but all very quite none of them even tried to sting and settled down very quick.so all in all a good day just got to buy another 2 hives to keep them :-D

 

[village girl]

my work mates wife phoned him at work today to tell him there is a load of wasps in a bush in the front garden and that she was going to put ant killer over them,Alarm bells rung in my head so i asked her to text me a photo,,,,,they were a large swarm of bees,,,,,, so i left work early shot home to get my bee suit and croppers to cut the swarm out of the bush,it attracted a large audience.
Anyway i got them all (my first swarm) took them home to put in my nuc box which i had baited with lemon grass oil to try and catch a passing swarm and guess what there was a swarm in there,So panic on i had to rush 25 miles to my mentors house to use one of his spare brood boxes panic over lol.They were he said a very nice swarm (he has got over 1000 hives) of mongrels some were very dark/black and some light colour but all very quite none of them even tried to sting and settled down very quick.so all in all a good day just got to buy another 2 hives to keep them :-D

bissy day. well done on your first swarm and bate box working also happy days

 

[Chris Luck]

Really from another thread that had already drifted but I'll post these here, taken today in one of my fields to show managed native species grassland with Oregano, Creeping thistle, Perennial sweet pea, Hawkweeds, Earth pea, and lots of others.....

Chris

 

[Polyanwood]

Went to Wandsworth to collect a couple of swarms.

 

[dpearce4]

united 2 colonies. both Q- with Q+. moved 1 nuc to a full brood body, not the right one for it though but was getting way to crouded.

found 1 nuc dead, no stores or anything. 3 hives with sealed queen cells, cut out 20 in total, hope i got them all. used 1 for a strong Q- hive hope that will work. most sealed stores 2 weeks ago are gone, gona be a really poor harvest unless it improves massively in the next couple of weeks.

 

[stephenpug]

bissy day. well done on your first swarm and bate box working also happy days

Thanks village girl I went to put some 1/1 feed in the nuc to give them a good start and the queen jumped out onto the grass 1/2 hour looking for her and she was sat happy on my shoulder parrot like so i just let her crawl onto my finger and put her by the entrance hole of the nuc and she just ran in (1st queen i have found by myself) I havnt got any queen excluder to keep her in so hopefully the sugar water should keep her happy but looking at how many bees were in the nuc some one has lost a bloody big load of their stock

 

[Felix83]

hi
destroyed queen cells in 32 swarm maked 6 jully
bye

 

[Sadders]

Inspected my hive. New queen (after lost swarm 6 weeks ago) is do'ing really well. I now have BAAS over 7 frames. 14x12 floor to ceiling. Unfortunately they have only filled 2 frames of the one super I have on.

Checked the bait hive I set up last week as there was a lot of coming and going around the entrance. Unfortunately not a swarm. I had set it up with one frame of old, used frame. There was still some stores in the corners. So the coming and going were robber. I should have recognised them by their black eye masks and bags marked swag.

 

[REDWOOD]

Did Nothing just watched the bringing in loads of white and brown pollen, seems a pity to spoil their foraging on such a nice day, will check them tomorrow though

 

[protheroe]

queen right cell rearing hive swarmed,couldnt find the clipped queen anywhere,after an hour i found her ,she had climbed up the hive stand leg and was clinging on to the underneath of the omf.Put her in a nuc until the cells are ready to be distributed to nucs,then she can go back in the hive

 

[Walrus]

Whilst inspecting my best hive all seemed well until I found queen cups along the bottom of two frames, one of which was "charged". Carried out demaree leaving queen in bottom box & moved brood to the top box, with QEs & supers between. Also reduced entrance size as saw wasps.

Quick check of other colonies showed all to be well

 

[Martin G]

Phantom QC

Checked an out apiary. 3 hives building nicely, only 1 queen seen. A small nuc (actually a box with 3 manky, mismatched frames which I had considered joining with another colony) has a QC and a DC, just one of each but even though there are only a handful of bees I still didn’t see a Queen. There was no sign of any laying 10 days ago.

We shall see!

Martin

 

[jackbee]

Q marking and clipping lesson at assoc apiary. Firsttime picking up bees - dead Q to start, then a drone or two and finally a live Q - surpisingly easier than I expected but then it wasn't my Q

Also amazed at how hard the thorax actually is, firmer than I thought it would be - a really interesting cpl of hours.

And earlier in day made up more super frames and then inspection of my hives - 3rd super on established colony woo-hoo. Saw Q in hived swarm for first time, another woo-hoo, lovely and long and dark she was, what a beauty, have to get a pic next time. And now I've had a go at picking up Q will forego the cage I bought and go for the pick up and mark next time

So a pretty good day so far

 

[youngyoungs]

Inspected both colonies today. Q+ hive has BIAS, but not much in the way of stores. Other, which I think is Q-, has stores but no visible early brood (eggs or small larvae), and there was a single supercedure cell. Neither colony looks very strong and I suspect I may end up uniting the two. Lovely weather though.

 

[Dilligaf]

Collected a swarm from a neighbours garden yesterday so had to check my hives. It hasn't been the weather here to go in when I have been off work, but must have been good while I was at work.
Opened the WBC, no brood at all and plenty of stores, I'm going to have to unite this colony with a nuc I have, see my other thread.
Opened the national and there were 3 queen cells and a lot of room, must have been these that swarmed. Decided on the Q cell I was going to leave & broke one off, dropped it into the tub I carry for wax & propolis that is scraped off, put the frame back & took out the other frame I was going to remove the other queen cell from, removed the cell & dropped it into the tub to see the first cell hatching.
Quickly put it on top of a frame & she was immediately surrounded by bees who helped her out & escorted her down into the hive.
I quickly removed the 3rd cell & closed the hive up.
Classed as a lucky escape?

 

[Gardenbees]

Not as nice a day as the weather forecast suggested. Managed to look at neighbour's bees (he is away & his wife isn't confident with them yet). The emergency fondant I gave them last time is gone, the packet polished so clean it doesn't look like there was ever anything in it. They have however stored quite a bit of it, and also recently collected a bit of nectar, so out of danger for the time being.

Mine were OK, and the big colony had a surprise for me: 5 or 6 full or partially capped frames in each super. Wary of cleaning them out given that more bad weather is forecast, I took just one frame. It was full of beautiful pale, greeny-gold coloured borage honey. I shared it with the neighbours (whose usual honey "reward" hasn't so far happened this year...).

 

[SunnyRaes]

Busy busy weekend! First decent weekend in weeks, so we actually managed to do a decent inspection of all hives, as well as plan and carry out some of the work needed as a result of the inspections!

Checked the united colony we did last week, and all seems very well with the queen seen. Huzazah! One happy Buckfast in a new home!

Our Buckfast nuc ready to be rehomed later in the week was looking a lot better, so not so worried about it now!

We tipped a drone laying hive out yesterday and another out today, and didn't replace them on their stands, so hopefully the other hives will benefit from an influx of new bees....

.... to fill up the 2 half-full supers which were donated from one of the dumped hives and put on top of the 2 remaining superless hives which didn't have much in the way of stores and needed feeding - so they're now sorted for the season I think!

Then there was the final evil hive of horrible pingy bees, however 2 nearly full supers! I think we'll look to requeen this hive at some point, but at least they are prolific!

So this week we've gone from 6 hives and 2 nucs at the bottom of the garden down to a far more managable 4 hives and 1 nuc

and the weather has been fantastic, and I had a flight in a gyrocopter!

So maybe this season won't be as bad as feared!

 

[scuttlefish]

Checked all four for signs of swarming, couple of QCs to break down in two of them but otherwise okay.

I did spot an apparent DWV sufferer in each if two of the hives, but given probable varroa levels at this time of year I suppose that's to be expected. Note to self - watch for any other incidences of deformed wings at next inspection. Scraped off and dumped drone brood in brace comb from the bottoms of the brood frames wherever found.

 

[abi-e]

Made up some frames this morning and hoped the weather would improve. Donned my beesuit to attack the thicket that has sprung up around the hives due to the monsoon, and finally the temperature warmed up and I managed to inspect both hives.
Finally the hive that has been queenless since the start of may, having killed the new queen that I merged back to them from a split in June, and then made a queen cell have finally got eggs, larvae and capped brood!! What a relief.
The nucleus is expanding nicely and will be ready to make the shift into a freshly scorched and prepared brood box in a couple of days time (having moved them about a foot closer today)