What did you do in the Apiary today?

[richardbees]

Hived a small caste swarm in a nuc about three / four? weeks ago, only had 4 spare frames/foundation which seemed more than enough.

Checked again last thursday and had trouble prising the crown board off - which was because that empty 5th frame gap was packed with wild comb/honey. Scooped it all out and put it in an ashforth feeder on another hive (inc the scores of crushed/drowned bees) and inserted the 5th frame.

Waited 'til today to open up the nuc (with fingers crossed) to see if the Q had been among the corpses - no emergency Q cells so she must be ok.

Have finally decided to keep a strict record listing everything I do with the bees....

 

[cjhart2]

Put on a bit more broad space for the girls who did not appricate what i was doing for them . They were really grumpy . Chased me back to the house which is a 150 m from the hive , one got under the veil ,no sting though .

 

[Juststarting]

Checked three hives for laying queens and yippee all 3 finally have laying queens - taken since 10th June from QC's to eggs. Now just an anxious wait to check cappings - hohum!

 

[MJBee]

Almost the same as Juststarting 1 hive Q+ with eggs, 1 Nucleus the same and another hive where the queen was seen but no eggs - or brood of any description for that matter. The weather is perfect for mating flights, wall to wall sunshine and +25C with no wind so fingers crossed for eggs/larvae in all 3 next week.

 

[WelshPaul]

Set up my spare hive today as there have been reports of swarms near the back of my house.

 

[victor meldrew]

Didn't even look! Went for a long walk in Orrell water park instead
Low temperatures rain , so much for the return of a belated Summer
VM

 

[Poly Hive]

I am moving a colony which came from a swarm from a bee tree on the farm I am on, and it is going to the main apiary some 8oo yds away.

I will report on how it goes with regards to forcing them to reorientate.

I am leaving an empty nuc on location to pick up and shelter any vagrants, so it will be interesting to break the classic rule of three miles and see how it works out.

PH

 

[jp19sqn]

This was yesterday but too ill to post last night.

Asked a friend to come and assess my apiary with a fresh set of eyes. 7 colonies and some Nucs (5). As we walked into the apiary the sky went black with bees and we assumed a swarm was coming out to do its thing. We checked each hive and none were swarming. we did the assessment, made decisions on the colonies and nucs and then, as we were leaving, saw 2 swarms hung up in the tree next to the apiary. I have 2 apideas that had finished raising queens and so we hived a cast in each. We caught one of the queens and put her in a cage in the feeder compartment with grass as a block. Tomorrow will go and see that she is safe and emerged and ready for the nice weather on Thursday to get mated. Both were small casts, so expecting them to be virgins. My bait hives are in other apiaries and so will put one or 2 out this week in this location.

Proves that swarms are attracted to other bees.

 

[Phayze]

Raining here only lightly but the girls are flying on a mission about 30 at the entrance and 1s & 2s leaving every second or two same returning straight in no messing around, great to watch they must have their wellies and umberellas with them, rescued three from a puddle that Is forming on the ground and put a bit of ply in it so hopefully no more swimmers, lots coming in with White skull shapes on their backs they have either joined a bikers gang or they are going deep for the nectar, would this be balsam ?

 

[VEG]

yep classic balsom sign

 

[richardbees]

Spent the whole day trying to buy a ticket for the 'beach volley ball' which is the pinnacle of athletic prowess.

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

Spent the whole day trying to buy a ticket for the 'beach volley ball' which is the pinnacle of athletic prowess.

You keep your pinnacles to yourself.

D

 

[Polyanwood]

Removed a queen to a mini nuc ready to use the colony for rearing the queen cells.

Made up a litre of Hivemaker's Autumn thymol treatment so now I'm ready for when the supers come off.

 

[Luminos]

At sunset, watched a huge male wild boar rootling around in the field, later joined by a female.
Hope my hives are still where I left them, tomorrow...

 

[tonybloke]

started another 5 gals of mead

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/attachment.php?attachmentid=7068&stc=1&d=1343771672

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Stuck in Portland at the moment thinking of the apiary!
It's unbelievable really, slap bang in the middle of the Olympics, only a stone's throw from the Olympic village but the internet connection is cr%p struggling to connect to anything and down/uploading reminds me of the old alalogue connection on a bad d ay!! (now waiting fir this post to upload!!) it's unbelievable, the less favoured connections work sort of but every time 3G clicks in it gets slower!

 

[blackcavebees]

Wonderful what even a couple of hours each day without rain will do. Checked main hive and nuc just before rain started again.

Nuc has supercedure QC and mixed up brood pattern, I assume queen didn't get mated right so closed them up and will leave them to sort themselves out.

Main hive has single brood box national and 3 supers. I had added third a week ago but had mixed foundation in with drawn in first two - all drawn now except half one side of one frame. Lot of uncapped honey and some pollen being stored. One super is quite heavy (maybe getting excited!) rain came on again! before I got to brood box so had to quickly close them up. Hoping that having loads of space and room in supers will keep them there for a few days till I get another chance to inspect and weather is better.

What a change in their behaviour too after just a few sunny days! End June they were stinging and chasing me down garden and seemed impervious to smoke. Today just used a little sugar water spray and no smoke and they were fine. Seems the wet weather depresses everyone, Inc the bees.

 

[Chris Luck]

started another 5 gals of mead

This is something I've never made, but looking at that lovely photo Tony I think I'm going to have try it out.

Chris

 

[rolande]

Stuck in Portland at the moment thinking of the apiary!
It's unbelievable really, slap bang in the middle of the Olympics, only a stone's throw from the Olympic village but the internet connection is cr%p struggling to connect to anything and down/uploading reminds me of the old alalogue connection on a bad d ay!! (now waiting fir this post to upload!!) it's unbelievable, the less favoured connections work sort of but every time 3G clicks in it gets slower!

I'm pretty busy at the moment but... if you've a spare couple of hours available at some point, pm me if you fancy meeting up and talking bees (or what ever).

 

[garlicpickle]

Added a sheet of polystyrene to the inside of the roof after reading the "do you insulate your hives" thread. Swapped the tatty bits of hardboard covering the holes in the crownboard for tiles and stuck them down with duck tape so they dont move during transit. Had a quick peek into the super I put on last week to see how they were getting on. It was full of bees and several of the frames are drawn out and partly filled.

I tried to reinsert the entrance block prior to moving the hive at the weekend, but failed. I will need to recruit my husband to tilt the BB back slightly so I can get the block in. Discovered that judicious use of a water spray on the bees hanging round the entrance makes most of them go inside (handy tip in case they aren't all in bed when I close up the entrance the night before moving)

It's rather a cloudy muggy day here and the bees didn't seem in a very good mood so I decided that was enough fiddling about for one day. One followed me back into the shed and got caught by a spider.