What did you do in the Apiary today?

[WelshPaul]

View attachment 7069
Well after two days of having an empty spare hive in the garden, I had a call from the other half to say there was a lot of activity.

This is what I found, my question is, how long do I leave it till I have a peek inside?

 

[alanf]

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!

The same for any sports event or outside festival. There are enough cells for the number of people who are usually there, a dozen, a hundred, whatever. Fify thousand arrive, they all have mobile phones on and wonder why the signal is poor. They're sharing the bandwidth sized for 1% of that number is why. If the network struggles, data is dropped first, prioritising voice and text. Basically, you would need the sort of mobile saturation capacity you might aim for at a major airport. They don't think it worth putting that in for a few days every four years or a couple of hours once a month. If any of the mobile networks made the effort to actually cater for the big crowds (they sponsor some of the events FFS!) there would be a serious reason to switch. Their marketing dept doesn't think like that, they'd rather devise ever more complex price plans. </rant>

 

[MJBee]

Welshpaul - What have you in the hive framewise? It looks as if a swarm has moved in, if you have a full compliment of frames then you could leave it for a week or so to settle BUT if there are only 1 or 2 frames they will be building wild comb from day one and you need to get them onto frames asap before they waste their energy.

 

[WelshPaul]

MJ, it's full of frames, three frames of stores that I kept wrapped up in the freezer, fully defrosted before putting them in the hive. Only did it because we seemed to have lots buzzing around my budlia. Hopefully there is a mated queen in there too. Spoken to beeks I know and I'm a long way from the nearest hive as far as I can tell.

 

[Chris Luck]

So it could be bees taking the stores, yes?

Chris

 

[meidel]

bird of prey

sorry about the sideways look - have had just about enough of the magpies coming in and feasting on our bees so this morning I put this up with the help of my OH

 

[Outlander]

inspection

Was going to inspect both my apiary and also my friends but she was taken into hospital last night so lost my egg spotter. Anyway decided to get on with her two which I did. Both her colonies where small casts both with virgin queens that have both gone on to lay. Her hive is doing well plenty of brood in all stages didn’t see eggs due to having the wrong specs with me. I am a little worried though about her small nuc colony. I did manage to see some eggs not any but again that might be my eyes. Not much larvae but plenty of sealed brood. Just have to wait and see with them. While inspecting her two it was warm and very sunny but this all changed buy the time I had finished. Now we have rain so mine will have to wait until another day.

 

[busybee53]

J19 Welcome to the forum. See you have 16 colonies. Where have you been all this time?

What did I do? Took antihistamine. What amount of swelling is regarded as a normal reaction.? Think I better start a new thread.

 

[madasafish]

J19
What did I do? Took antihistamine. What amount of swelling is regarded as a normal reaction.? Think I better start a new thread.

If on face, enough to temporarily blind you if near the eyes.
Soft tissue : up to 2cms in height.

 

[Elaine]

We did our bit for education The neighbour who's garden our bees ended up in earlier this year said her grandchildren would be visiting, and would be interested in her pictures of the swarm. I offered to show them the bee hives - not necessarily expecting her to take me up on the offer. Anyway - they came round yesterday evening. I waited to see how old the kids were - and how well behaved, before offereing to loan a rather too large veil - and opening up one of the hives. They and Grandma went home very happy with a jar of honey, and bits of wild comb - and hopefully an interesting experience to pass on when they go back to school!

 

[Luminos]

Was going to inspect both my apiary and also my friends but she was taken into hospital last night so lost my egg spotter. Anyway decided to get on with her two which I did. Both her colonies where small casts both with virgin queens that have both gone on to lay. Her hive is doing well plenty of brood in all stages didn’t see eggs due to having the wrong specs with me. I am a little worried though about her small nuc colony. I did manage to see some eggs not any but again that might be my eyes. Not much larvae but plenty of sealed brood. Just have to wait and see with them. While inspecting her two it was warm and very sunny but this all changed buy the time I had finished. Now we have rain so mine will have to wait until another day.

Not Village Girl we hope

 

[Travelator]

Saw two queens in one colony - one marked and the other unmarked. That's a first for me, yay!

I'm pleased because I saw two queen cells last week and decided to leave them well alone, and on this occasion I seem to have got it right.

The new queen looked to me as if she was backing into a cell ready to lay an egg, but she can only have emerged in the last week, so she might not be mated. Left her unmarked to be on the safe side.

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

Took my varroa board out after 4 days.

Don't know if I'm doing something wrong or my colony is very healthy,
but I've not seen a single mite in 3 inspections.

Methinks I'll have to take the board to my next BKA meeting and get someone who knows a thing or two, to take a look.

Or I could just remain complacent.


Dusty

 

[protheroe]

nothing done,its rained all day

 

[madasafish]

Watched bees busily bringing in loads of yellow pollen - when it was dry.

Queenless hive - now Q+ - has loads of pollen coming in.

Cleaned all bottom boards: not much sign of varroa.. but then I saw a dying drone with a mite on it outside one hive.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

The same for any sports event or outside festival. There are enough cells for the number of people who are usually there, a dozen, a hundred, whatever. Fify thousand arrive, they all have mobile phones on and wonder why the signal is poor. They're sharing the bandwidth sized for 1% of that number is why. If the network struggles, data is dropped first, prioritising voice and text. Basically, you would need the sort of mobile saturation capacity you might aim for at a major airport. They don't think it worth putting that in for a few days every four years or a couple of hours once a month. If any of the mobile networks made the effort to actually cater for the big crowds (they sponsor some of the events FFS!) there would be a serious reason to switch. Their marketing dept doesn't think like that, they'd rather devise ever more complex price plans. </rant>

Hmm - it's always been crap here that's the rub - as you say with the added interest and an event like this they would boost coverage for the length of the olympics at least

 

[WelshPaul]

Chris, possibly but have to wait and see.

 

[Flyboy]

Took some time off work to look through all my colonies and was happy to see some honey in the supers added just before the hot spell. Will probably used to give to them back in spring to build up. Got my first drone laying nuc so they will be shaken tomorrow, not stirred.

 

[Outlander]

Not Village Girl we hope

Yes it is but she's doing well. I can't see eggs without her.

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

Not Village Girl we hope

Yes it is but she's doing well. I can't see eggs without her.

I'd like to pass on my best wishes at a difficult time.

It must be terrible not to be able to see the eggs.

Dusty