What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Dusty Rhodes]

The exciting thing: Marked my first queen!
Quite an easy process, having seen it done only a week ago.
Only thing is I also now have a worker with a yellow wing.

The puzzling thing: what the heck was an unmarked queen doing in my hive?

Though she looked very much like the original queen (perhaps a bit thinner), I couldn't see any sign of the original marking - though it wasn't good to begin with.

Had they swarmed without me seeing? Possible; I'd thought there was a discernible drop in numbers flying 2-3 weeks ago - but I put it down to time of the year.

Ok, so I'd not seen the queen for perhaps 3 weekly inspections - and so I'd been hesitant to shake the bees off the frames in case I damaged/lost her. And id not been certain of seeing eggs But I'd seen no evidence whatsoever of queen cells (one play cell in 3 weeks).

But I do know I have a laying queen - and I know I can mark!

Oh the joys of being a newbee!

Dusty

 

[garlicpickle]

Did an inspection with my mentor's help. My original marked queen has either swarmed or died at some point in the last couple of weeks. Given all the moving around they have had to endure due to my problems with neighbours and horse owners, I would not be surprised if the queen had been injured/killed at some point. There was plenty of capped worker brood but no eggs and 2 vacated Q cells on the bottom of one frame - one open at the top and one on the side. We found an unmarked queen in there so closed back up to give her a chance to get mated (if she hasn't already) and hopefully start to lay. I'll leave them alone and check again in a couple of weeks to see if she is laying.

On the plus side, there's plenty of bees working away in there and their super is about half full

 

[Luminos]

The exciting thing: Marked my first queen!
Quite an easy process, having seen it done only a week ago.
Only thing is I also now have a worker with a yellow wing.

The puzzling thing: what the heck was an unmarked queen doing in my hive?

Though she looked very much like the original queen (perhaps a bit thinner), I couldn't see any sign of the original marking - though it wasn't good to begin with.

Had they swarmed without me seeing? Possible; I'd thought there was a discernible drop in numbers flying 2-3 weeks ago - but I put it down to time of the year.



Ok, so I'd not seen the queen for perhaps 3 weekly inspections - and so I'd been hesitant to shake the bees off the frames in case I damaged/lost her. And id not been certain of seeing eggs But I'd seen no evidence whatsoever of queen cells (one play cell in 3 weeks).

But I do know I have a laying queen - and I know I can mark!

Oh the joys of being a newbee!

Dusty

Maybe the marking had worn off, Dusty?

 

[cjhart2]

Just went down to look at them , out of curiosity . Nearly 40 degrees here at the moment just wanted to see how they would react to this sort of heat . Busy as anything .
Could not get too close , this visit was just to observe the situation and make up my mind if i want to look inside , so no suit , but saw something thin and dark on the outside of the ledge . Before anybody asks no idea what it was , too far away for accurate ident , but possible horse fly or similar size . Saw it crawl up on to the ledge then the bees ( no other words to describe this ) pounced on it . Within seconds the rest of the hive was out all over the front of the hive . Time to beat a retreat .
Surprisingly , I am not going to look inside . I will wait till it cools down a bit - the bees and the weather .

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Maybe the marking had worn off, Dusty?

Marked a queen last year - a week or so later later had the SBI around - unmarked queen in hive - had to convince him that no way was it a supersedure
This year did a very poor job of marking a queen (posca pen malfunction and fidgety queen resulted in her being painted thorax, wing and feet) a few weeks later everything tickety boo - clean wings and feet and an almost perfect dot of yellow in the middle of the thorax

 

[Greatbigchicken]

Found eggs in the hive I thought was Q- Yeay

Managed to lose my queen marking cage

Put clearer boards on 2 hives, will take 2 supers off tomorrow

 

[dpearce4]

Gave up after 10 hives, bee suit drenched through, feeling very faint due to overheating. looked at the temp guage in my car after it was registering 50c in the sun at 12.00.

will go back and finish the other hives tomorrow morning a bit earlier, hope this weather lasts a while they were pulling in masses of nectar. cut a little bit of brace comb out and the honey is so light it looks like thick water, tasted wonderful though when i got home, so sweet, and very mild.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Yesterday - Picked up some bits of timber to make some more roofs (thanks redwood!) so now have to formulate a way of sneaking another few colonies past SWMBO next year to fill them!
Bought some (75Kg) sugar ready for autumn feeding.
Pottered around the garden today - very close and loads of bees about, decided to leave inspections until Monday (probably live to regret it!!) and started making up some PH rhombus escapes ready for clearing honey supers

 

[herefordshirehoney]

Checked my hives both doing well, spotted queen in both hives and bias. Hive 2 seemed to have a lot more bees. Both covering 7 frames of brood, with good stores on both.

I put hivemakers thymol treatment on Tuesday evening so was the first time to check on the bees and the drop. The tray on hive 1 seemed quite empty probably 15-20 varroa. Hive 2 was higher probably 50 in total (probably less). I didnt do an exact count as I would have been their all day.

Hive 2 does worry me whether I needed a super but as the treatment is on i've left it alone, they still have 2 frames that are half drawn out and plenty of place to put nectar. I could hear hive 2 roaring when I got their, also every time I moved the tissue paper on with the thymol you suddenly could hear the roar. Amazing sound hearing the roar.

Was interesting I could see bee's in both hive's doing the waggle dance and today i've seen bees everywhere i've been.

 

[Shabro]

Inspected 2 hives and surprised to see previously full of foundation supers drawn out and starting to be filled

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Chris Luck]

today i've seen bees everywhere i've been.

Wait till you see them when you shut your eyes.

Chris

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

decided to leave inspections until Monday (probably live to regret it!!)

As the afternoon got on it got finer and finer so i decided to check three of the hives - glad I did the new dark Welsh queen I introduced at the beginning of July was on 10 frames, running out of space and still going like a train, so a super put on - the bees I had from Gower are not so far behind so will have a super Monday (no time to get it all sorted at the moment) No1 hive going strong with super number 4 being drawn and filled

 

[Chris Luck]

Merde alors.

Just had a quick scoot round some hives and one with a solid floor has had a comb collapse due to the extreme heat, melted wax and honey running out and bees all over the outside of the hive. Far too hot to even get a suit on at present. Clearly a failure to regulate the hive temperature and something to deal with later when at least the sun is going down or perhaps coming up.

French word of the day - canicule - extreme heat or dog days.

Chris

 

[peterbees]

Not quite in the apiary, but I went to a Skep Making Workshop in Capel Curig, north Wales, and very good it was.

 

[Erichalfbee]

After taking off their supers packed up four hives in the pouring rain yesterday and early this morning moved them here to Wales.
Positioned four boxes of really pissed off bees then let them out half hour later.
Supers back on and some already coming home with white spots

 

[Andy Duff]

Last inspection 5 days ago. Today-
Hive 1 confirmed as DLQ, sorted out.
hive 2 virgin Q confirmed as Q-, sorted by merging late swarm nuc.
hive 3 left due to chaos from above and lack of time to do correctly.
nuc, see hive 2.

Well that was fun!
and that's why you need at least 2 hives.

 

[Poly Hive]

Found very recently mated queens laying. Emerged 7th July.

One in particular I so wish I had taken a camera, cells with 4 or 3 or 2 and the odd one with one egg in it. Tragic eh? LOL I bet she turns into a cracking queen.

PH

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

Maybe the marking had worn off, Dusty?

Marked a queen last year - a week or so later later had the SBI around - unmarked queen in hive - had to convince him that no way was it a supersedure
This year did a very poor job of marking a queen (posca pen malfunction and fidgety queen resulted in her being painted thorax, wing and feet) a few weeks later everything tickety boo - clean wings and feet and an almost perfect dot of yellow in the middle of the thorax

I'm happy to accept your wisdom.

I need to go round the block a few more times before I can understand what's what.

(But I still feel good about finding an unmarked queen in a busy hive, and doing a marking. Small things, maybe, but steps on a journey.)

Love light & peace,

Dusty.

 

[Tom Bick]

Not quite in the apiary, but I went to a Skep Making Workshop in Capel Curig, north Wales, and very good it was.

Also not exactly work in the apiary but I did have it in my thoughts as I picked 4lbs of blackberries for a gallon of wine.

Will be picking more and elderberries over the next few weeks

 

[Walrus]

Combined Q- nuc with a hive, sprayed them with h*ve alive sugar solution. I have now got 3 strong colonies with good queens ready for winter.

Tomorrow morning I fly off to Cyrus for a week in the sun , and will decide whether to take honey or leave it for the bees when I get back.

See y'all in a week