What did you do in the Apiary today?

[madasafish]

Pictures of local BBKA members inspecting my hives:


http://www.meetup.com/apiary/photos/10096762/

 

[Outlander]

Any chance of photos when complete?

Will get some pics for the album. As Tony said looks as though there could be two colonies in there. The Lady of the house said that last year they had honey dripping down the ceiling light pendent and they didn’t even collect it.

I feel I’m very lucky to of been asked to help with this as I'm very knew to beekeeping, so I would like to say a big thank you to tonybloke for asking me along.

 

[Chris Luck]

The Lady of the house said that last year they had honey dripping down the ceiling light pendent

Must be an electrical fault.

Chris

 

[tonybloke]

Pictures of local BBKA members inspecting my hives:


http://www.meetup.com/apiary/photos/10096762/

interesting cross combing on photo number 6, have you checked for ley lines?

 

[meidel]

speaking of honey dripping down the ceiling light reminds me of my brother who is pursued by bees wherever he's moved - the first time they realised a hive of bees was living in their roof was when honey dripped down through the ceiling onto their bed!! And then they moved to a penthouse apartment (over 20 storeys high I think) and bees took up residence on one of their balcony plants - these are tropical asian bees as my bro lives in Malaysia

 

[Chris Luck]

Go on, I'll buy it.

How does honey drip out of an undisturbed colony?

Does it drip out of your hives?

Is this something I'm doing wrong?

Is there really a tap on the side of the hive I didn't know about?

Why have I never seen this?

Chris

 

[madasafish]

interesting cross combing on photo number 6, have you checked for ley lines?

Rofl

Yes : a real pia.. And comb too soft and fragile to do anything yet....

I tried divining and found nothing at all...

 

[tonybloke]

uncapped honey, at the extremities of a horizontal colony,drawing in moisture, getting wetter,and then running out?

 

[Chris Luck]

Comb is always drawn and hung vertically, it's what bees do best and cells always have a slight incline upwards towards the outer edge, cell size and viscosity do the rest, (I'm sure we have someone that knows the physics).

As far as I'm concerned it simple doesn't fall out unless it's damaged in some way, if it did they would have changed the design by now. In all seriousness, have you ever had honey falling out the bottom of an undisturbed hive?

Chris

 

[tonybloke]

no Chris, but I've heard it often enough about honey dripping from chimney breasts and ceilings, probably due to the warmth of either the flue, or the electrical lighting.

 

[Cie]

Pictures of local BBKA members inspecting my hives:


http://www.meetup.com/apiary/photos/10096762/

Nice

 

[Chris Luck]

Well that's the point Tony - if the colony has been built in a chimney that is later used for a fire that would cause "the damage" to the comb, but I would assume that lighting would be used to some extent even in summer and even the old light bulbs don't create that much heat through a ceiling. Certainly not too much for bees to deal with.

I think it can stay on my list of myths and scare stories UNLESS it's somehow damaged.

Chris

 

[psafloyd]

Got a call at about 1845 on the train as I passed the Olympic site last night. A woman has a swarm in her garden. As it is only three miles from where I live, I said I'd pop round after my dinner.
The swarm was not a big one, possibly disturbed from a house a couple of doors down where an empty house has had its roof completely removed.
They were about six/seven feet off the ground in a clematis tree which wold have been a cinch but for the fact it was so overgrown. It only took an hour or so, clipping awy the dead wood, shaking some bees into the skep, then a box to march in once I'd got the girls fanning away.
Lovely woman kept out of my way, made me a lovely cup of tea and wouldn't let me go without accepting some money despite my protests that I'd already got my reward. This was because the last time they'd had a swarm down her road, the council had been called and they'd been exterminated. She said she didn't want that to happen again.
Anyway, I think I'll drop her a jar of honey round at the weekend for being so nice. Couple of short videos below.

http://bit.ly/OVNJp3

http://bit.ly/NkXcGS

 

[victor meldrew]

first vid didn't work . second did That clematis is surely a big specimen
VM

 

[Mike a]

I have a nice sized swarm to collect this afternoon buried in behind a tall bush on the side wall of a garage. Looking forward to collecting this one and will post a few pictures later today.

 

[Chris Luck]

It's very late for swarms, it would be really unusual here to see one after June, I mean it happens but it's rare.

Chris

 

[abi-e]

Managed to inspect both hives in sunshine!! Both have new 2012 queens that have been late to come into lay due to the rubbish weather, but they are expanding nicely - thank goodness. Put on some Apiguard to the hived swarm. Can I feed them at the same time as they don't have many stores?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Inspected all but one of the hives - the new queen I introduced to a nuc six weeks ago has survived her dousing in marking paint and is going great guns - wall to wall brood on six frames and starting on seventh so I may need to super next week, the nuc I got off Gower some three weeks ago is on six frames, Garn cottage hive has filled one super and half way through the second. and the two other hives have slowed a bit but still bringing in the goods (one on fourth super the other on second.)
Just the hive in the association apiary to check now on Sunday - the bait hive in the field which I thought had been occupied remains empty so either they've moved on or the swarm was collected before they moved in.
Unfortunately SWMBO whilst exercising her new dog stumbled upon the two hives in the secret garden mentioned the fact but didn't comment on their presence (I suppose she's preparing her marketing tactics for this years crop.) she seems happy enough with this apparent increase but little does she know..........................

 

[Erichalfbee]

After putting in a test frame into one box last week I went to unite what I thought would be four hives; hoping to reduce the colonies to three ready to move down to Wales next weekend.
The hive with the test frame had no capped brood where the eggs were but plenty elsewhere. Queen emerged 2nd July so will have to wait to see what she's laying.
Small failed AS uniting to a bigger colony after Usain Bolt on tele.

That's FOUR hives to move....sigh.
Will have to clear supers for the move too.....more sighs!
I'm never moving again!!!!

 

[meidel]

Well that's the point Tony - if the colony has been built in a chimney that is later used for a fire that would cause "the damage" to the comb, but I would assume that lighting would be used to some extent even in summer and even the old light bulbs don't create that much heat through a ceiling. Certainly not too much for bees to deal with.

I think it can stay on my list of myths and scare stories UNLESS it's somehow damaged.

Chris

I can think of worse damage - such as a chimney fire if the wax combs catch