What did you do in the Apiary today?

[REDWOOD]

see - you should have put your sales order in when I went up to Maisies!!

Not in the apiary today - had a club juniors and seniors fishing trip organised at Llysyfran reservoir. Walked through this wooded glade at one side of the reservoir and there must have been a colony of bees there somewhere because at one point the smell of honey was overpowering.
Have to break into one of my bulk pack of Mm seconds frames tomorrow as I can feel a supering frenzy coming on: bees are working hard more than 12 hours a day and the hives are now exeptionally heavy

I know, thought i had enough the old saying you can never have enough lol

 

[Erichalfbee]

Put some more food in two of mine.
Honey? Got 12 jars in April.
The task this summer???? will be to get them strong enough to get through winter.
Rubbish weather still and more to come............sigh

 

[george]

I have to admit to being sad and have read every post ! Must get a grip ....
G

 

[cjhart2]

Just saw a wasp take a return bee . Fasinating to watch , tried several times to take one , eventually got lucky . Just surprised how tolerent the bees were with this thing flying outside the hive .

 

[george]

Wasp or Hornet ? Never seen a wasp take a bee but Hornets cetainly will .

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Put an extra super on the three established hives (four on hive #1 now!, two on the others) that should give them enough space for a while (back to work tomorrow; sigh)
*NOTE TO SELF*
next time, mow lawn before inspecting hives - popped in for five minutes respite before completing the lawn (this time with beekeeping smock on!!) luckily only damage a glancing sting on the ear . neighbours did laugh at the traditional Welsh beekeeper's headslapping dance!

 

[Cazza]

Afternoon off.Spent a lovely hour checking some hives. All calm and in good order. Made me feel relaxed and cheery. Now for some horrible, sweaty hedgetrimming.
Cazza

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Had to get the jeep from the garage so on the way back went to check my two 'away' bait hives. Looks like I have settlers in one nice dark bees by the look of it, they'll have to wait until I'm back before being transferred to a hive - no time at the moment - there's three wired frames in the bait hive but i'm sure they'll make up their own minds and I'll have great fun sorting it out

 

[Queens59]

Listening to the contented hum from all the hives - and decided to combine a v. small nuc with a struggling Q- colony. Only way to get them into winter safely I fear - Also very hot 27 deg. I need air...

 

[TOBY-3652]

Killed a drone laying queen[ finally] had to put a queen excluder on fresh box then put a eke on top and threw all bees in top. Smoked them down and bingo there she was so will unite with another tonight. Will be a full box of bees. Mignt get a bit of honey off this one

 

[cjhart2]

Wasp or Hornet ? Never seen a wasp take a bee but Hornets cetainly will .

Did not seem to be a French hornet or an Asian Hornet . We get plenty of them , of both types . I put it down as a wasp as there as several different varieties some of which are pretty big here . I know this might sound odd but it was not making the sound a hornet makes and also it was very agile . It took the bee to a local tree to re- adjust it's hold as the bee was nearly the same size as the 'wasp '

 

[Chris Luck]

Could have been a regular common wasp queen, there are some around that haven't really managed to get started this year with the bad weather. I'm still seeing queen hornets floating around as well.

Chris

 

[tonybloke]

watched a swarm arrive into one of my bait hives!
http://youtu.be/LONCO35zaoA

 

[jackbee]

just back in from sitting in dark listening to bees - marvellous!!

and i have a question - I assume noise is 2-fold - keeping hive cool now all bees are home and evaporating nectar - will they be doing that all night or just as long as temp is necessary/high enough for both functions???

(i might well have answered my own question - that is a bad habit)

 

[susbees]

Another three combines to get up to full Commercial brood boxes: the only way to make any headway on the delayed summer flow. House bees struggling to keep up. Good

 

[garlicpickle]

I took off the QE which I had put under the super of foundation I put on a few days ago, there were hardly any bees in the super and no attempt had been made to draw comb in there. I only read on here yesterday that they won't always go through a QE if there is only foundation in the super. Also added an 11th frame of super foundation after hastily ordering more, having realised I only had 10 :\

Plenty of capped stores on the outer frames of the BB though.

 

[george]

Yesterday , as I am still waiting a visit from the rbi due to being in the middle of an efb outbreak , I decided to have a good look at all 4 hives in the apiary affected .
All , as far as I can see , were clean apart from the odd cell with sacbrood . I will still have to wait for him to look himself but am quite happy .
The bees themselves were a joy to work , for a change . Mind you it was 30 deg so they were enjoying the weather too .
A little nectar going in but nowhere near enough to make up for the lack of honey so far .
G

 

[m100]

Noticed a balsam stripe on the back of a worker for very first time this year. Moving colonies together and stacking them to prepare for merging and some requeening in two or three weeks time.

One swarm that came into a nuc bait hive a week ago would have been rehived if Sainsburys had got their ass in gear and delivered me my sugar that has been on order for two weeks - I had a voucher for 10 quids worth of Nectar points on my first 'online' order over 50 quid, works out at about 68p per kg when buying 5kg bags.

Maybe i'll fit some foundation to a few frames later

 

[witchcraft]

Covered one of my nice big fat new queens in white "Posca" pen - poor thing

 

[Cazza]

Received my just desserts after; 1. deciding to use just water spray and not lighting the smoker. 2. Deciding not to put a long sleeved top on under my bee suit.
Two things I never normally fail to do.
Dropped a super on top of a hive, annoyed some bees and deservedly received my first sting of the season where glove meet beesuit. Doh!

Cazza