What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Chris Luck]

Yesterday, another sloppy job.

Chris

 

[Outlander]

I did hive inspections of to swarms both of which I picked up two weeks ago. First was a small cast swarm that Tonybloke gave to me. The queen of this small colony is now mated and laying. Eggs and small larvae were found. Now not so worried about them making it through winter. The second was a very large prime swarm caught in the middle of a housing estate in Norwich. Whilst checking this colony a very good looking big dark queen walked across the frame in front of me bearing a bright yellow mark upon her back. I did feel some what for who ever lost this fine colony as it was this year’s queen. So all in all a very good day.

Also big thank you again for Tony who put me onto the prime swarm

 

[DarynWebb]

Fed the bees, roll on the good weather

 

[hallshoney]

hived two nucs did a split on a double brood went through 3 nucs found all now have laying queens found a nine week old queen with plenty of room full of queen cells

 

[Mike a]

Collected a good sized swarm from a tree yesterday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Th5AwvXfN58

 

[george]

Helped someone go through the archetypal ' hive from hell' which has caused her problems for some time . Having been stung on the top of her head a dozen times last weekend she bit the bullet and decided to requeen .( i have suggested a hat).
I got lucky and found her on the 2nd frame inspected . Duly squished and will now leave for a week before introducing a new queen .
I had a look at a few of mine and came away a bit deflated . A couple were q+ but not laying at all . I have had this a couple of times this yr and it must be weather related . Will have another look next weekend .
All the others ok but have eaten the bottom super on each hive . At least I am not feeding like some so I should count myself lucky I suppose .
G

 

[johnandyrob]

Moved 8 hives from my out apiary last night. The farmer also runs kennels and the bees have been in and drinking the dog wee. I new this could be a problem when I moved my hives there. I still have one hive to move it wouldn't fit in the car with three supers on.

 

[Chris Luck]

What's wrong with dog urine?

Bees take urine, mine and the dogs, all the time given the opportunity and it doesn't do my bees any harm, indeed it may be beneficial

Chris

 

[johnandyrob]

nothing as far as im concerned but the lass who looks after the kennels is trifled and the owner is worried about dogs been stung and having bad reactions. After having a talk with the owner I decided that it was better to move the hives as she and her husband know allot of the farming community and have offered to help find another apiary.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Helped someone go through the archetypal ' hive from hell' which has caused her problems for some time . Having been stung on the top of her head a dozen times last weekend she bit the bullet and decided to requeen .( i have suggested a hat).
I got lucky and found her on the 2nd frame inspected . Duly squished and will now leave for a week before introducing a new queen .
I had a look at a few of mine and came away a bit deflated . A couple were q+ but not laying at all . I have had this a couple of times this yr and it must be weather related . Will have another look next weekend .
All the others ok but have eaten the bottom super on each hive . At least I am not feeding like some so I should count myself lucky I suppose .
G

Don't wait a week -you should have introduced her asap, now they'll start building emergency QC's and will be expecting a virgin queen not a mated one

 

[george]

JBM . I dont see the problem with waiting a week . We will go back in, knock off any cells , split it down the middle and introduce a queen to each .
Hopelessly qless nucs will take whatever they are given . And bl**dy well like it !

G

 

[Outlander]

You mean what am i going to do in my Apiary today, well I'm going to put my very first super on ever. Yay

 

[stephenpug]

Just went to check all was ok before I go on my holiday and a bee flew out of the nuk box that I caught a swarm in and stung me right on the end of my nose so I went in the house and put some vinegar on it but I was surprised how little it hurts.I just hope I don't end up with a big red hooter around France :-D

 

[garlicpickle]

Today I went with a guy from my local association to his apiary to inspect his hives and install a swarm which he collected the other night. He also showed me how to put frames together.

Hopefully I can go with him if he gets any more calls to collect swarms this year.

 

[madasafish]

Added more feed to swarm I housed Wed at 10pm. Too wet to do anything yesterday. Feeder was empty.

Requeend two Q- hives.

One Q- nuc which I requeened with a virgin last week appears to be Q+ (a test frame 3 days ago) even although no sign of eggs .

Then it rained. Again.

(Rasps are nice: those I picked before it rained).

 

[Luminos]

Just went to check all was ok before I go on my holiday and a bee flew out of the nuk box that I caught a swarm in and stung me right on the end of my nose so I went in the house and put some vinegar on it but I was surprised how little it hurts.I just hope I don't end up with a big red hooter around France :-D

You'll get mistaken for one of the locals...

 

[stephenpug]

You'll get mistaken for one of the locals...

just about to start out going down the west coast into atlantic coast so should find the sun by fort boyard trouble is i can only go for 3 weeks we would love to live there

 

[Chris Luck]

Nice all around there and just when it's about to warm up as well, watch out for the sun, (burn).

Chris

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

JBM . I dont see the problem with waiting a week . We will go back in, knock off any cells , split it down the middle and introduce a queen to each .
Hopelessly qless nucs will take whatever they are given . And bl**dy well like it !

G

Not a great problem but what i'm trying to say is, the easier you can make a queen introduction the better - in a week's time they will have QC's on the point of capping - the bees will then be geared to expect a VQ in the hive , you will introduce a mated queen (which they don't expect at this time) so making it harder for them to accept. - this was an argument put to me a while ago when i planned to make up a nuc as you have (leave them q- for a week before requeening)

 

[Chris58]

Just amalgatmated two bood boxes between newspaper in the hope we can get our old queen back into her orignal hive after our artificial swarm remained queenless. We'd split them earlier in the year after they'd starting building queen cells like crazy, however no signs over the months for a queen, but the old queen is still laying all over the place so fingers crossed once they've chewed through the paper, we've either now got a stong colony or just killed off our queen!