What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Erichalfbee]

Put some fondant on one hive which is a bit light.
Got stung on a finger and now whole arm is itchy and swollen up to my elbow!
Couldn't understand why, as I don't react much usually, till I remembered I had been taking Ibuprofen till 2 days ago. Must still be in the blood stream .....

 

[johnandyrob]

I got very annoyed at my mb langstroth hive feeders. When I fed my bees their winter feed I took of the plastic crown board and put it on top of the feeder. There is a little lip on the top of the feeder for some reason it is only on three sides. This left a gap big enough for bees to get it so I ended up with drowned bees and robbing. Today I tried a feeder upside down on a (empty) hive to see if I could use it that way to feed fondant. Guess what the same lip or lack of it on one side creates a gap between feeder and brood box. Some thing the original feeder may have not been designed for but you would have thought they would make them as flexible as possible.

 

[Nic Rhodes]

Cumbrian convention today and we had two good speakers, including ITLD. I enjoyed the talks

 

[starflex]

Hampshire convention today - missed all of it because of Module exams - my head hurts!

 

[Heather]

Checked all hives for wasp hibernations in roof space- now all clear- but 2 hives finished a block of fondant each.
Will leave a few days for them to sort themselves out and maybe allow queen space to still lay-(I can hope). Weather cool so not flying today- but lots out in last 2 days- still bits of pollen coming in. Still too light for my liking but loads of fondant in reserve.

No sign of woodpecker damage and all m. guards intact.
Relax!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Just watched the bees busy in the bright morning sun plenty of pollen (Ivy and I think some HB which is still flowering here) Harfly anything moving this afternoon though

 

[REDWOOD]

Started making a few hives ready for next year, daunting thought for every hive you make needs 3 supers (at least) for each one

 

[Into the lions den]

Bit bored here this afternoon so took a short run out in the car to have a peek at the very last group of hives brought home from the moors, which was 18th October. Their autumn feed was only done after that date. The group consisted of 40 Poly hives, 3 of which have splits still on top due to a young queen being in both halves, and if the top halves come through OK, and the bottom half is fine, its part of the winter losses already taken care of.

Assessment thus..............

36 have completely finished their 14Kg of syrup, all stored and clusters across 7 to 10 frames (Langs).

3 smallish, not taken all the syrup yet, but look fine.

3 not taken all the suyrup but 2 look strong enough. This is a very bad sign as it means there is a problem with the colony, in all likelihood a serious queen issue. 1 is small and just looks wrong.

1 colony dead. Been a drone layer, and has drone brood visible across 6 bars, so was a strong colony. Marked as a good queen laying well on 15th July.

This was the last group home, and should be among the poorest of the poly ones as a result.

Quite content with what I have seen, even delighted at the bee power in the larger ones.

No bee flight up here today. Way too cold.

 

[REDWOOD]

Bit bored here this afternoon so took a short run out in the car to have a peek at the very last group of hives brought home from the moors, which was 18th October. Their autumn feed was only done after that date. The group consisted of 40 Poly hives, 3 of which have splits still on top due to a young queen being in both halves, and if the top halves come through OK, and the bottom half is fine, its part of the winter losses already taken care of.

Assessment thus..............

36 have completely finished their 14Kg of syrup, all stored and clusters across 7 to 10 frames (Langs).

3 smallish, not taken all the syrup yet, but look fine.

3 not taken all the suyrup but 2 look strong enough. This is a very bad sign as it means there is a problem with the colony, in all likelihood a serious queen issue. 1 is small and just looks wrong.

1 colony dead. Been a drone layer, and has drone brood visible across 6 bars, so was a strong colony. Marked as a good queen laying well on 15th July.

This was the last group home, and should be among the poorest of the poly ones as a result.

Quite content with what I have seen, even delighted at the bee power in the larger ones.

No bee flight up here today. Way too cold.

That's a good percentage of hive doing well going into winter. Just curious whats your work load like in the winter as a commercial beekeepers, I bet there is lots of construction and painting going on

 

[Jimmy]

Dried out some wax in the greenhouse that had come through the steam extractor.
Pondered without much direction or conclusion on both how to and where to move some double brood hives to a new apiary before Xmas.

 

[iand]

Yep Redwood loads to do. Once all the bees are settled for winter & any spare gear is home/cleaned. The major job is a holiday, non stop since April apart from a quick break in August. Then its back to prep the gear for next season, rewiring/waxing frames. Renewals will probably mean making a hundred or so of any particular item, but anything new could well be a batch of a 500 or more. Just think of the jobs you do with your bees & multiply it up.
Ian

 

[user 6228]

The bees were flying strongly at 6c

but at 4 pm the girls were adding complications to puttting the solar heating tubes on the roof. They insisted on having a look as they collected water from the moss on the roof (must be warmer!). It difficult handling fragile glass tubes on sloping roof while trying not to stand or put a hand on inqusitive bees!!!

 

[lebouche]

Mine were still forraging as well at 7C. Bringing in pollen.
I painted an eke for the nuc and added five kilos of fondant to the nucleus.
Lifted it up before doing so and they were very very light but I supposed that is not suprising as there are only about three frames of 14x12 of bees.
I just hope they manage the next few months!

 

[margob99]

On Friday, mine were still flying, and small amounts of pollen coming in. Lots of dead bees been removed to under the hive.

Hefted with a scale (first time I've done this). 51 lb. I will supplement with fondant.

 

[busybee53]

I got dead bees under the hive too. Did they get chucked out? Not sure if they are drones or workers because I was too far away to see properly.

(There is also wax under there from stores they have been uncapping).

Anyone else got dead bees outside the hive?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Anyone else got dead bees outside the hive?

A few.
It's normal
Spotted a dead drone on one landing board. A robin made off with it.

 

[beeno]

I got dead bees under the hive too. Did they get chucked out? Not sure if they are drones or workers because I was too far away to see properly.

(There is also wax under there from stores they have been uncapping).

Anyone else got dead bees outside the hive?

Hi there busybee53,
Yes, I have got a small pile under my largest hive. They are very busy bringing out the dead workers, but have been doing so over a number of weeks. I am putting some fondant on them tomorrow if it is going to be as nice as they say. The flyers seem happy enough.

 

[busybee53]

Thanks EricA and Beeno for the reassurance. Had a look today and the dead bees were workers but no worries. A drone was flying around the back of a hive. Guess they wouldn't let him in at the front. LOADS of new winter bees orienting themselves. All good. Nice to see. Well pleased.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Damp, dull and miserable today - went to check all hives strapped down and was surprised to see good numbers of bees still bringing in pollen.

 

[stephenpug]

just had a quick look loads of bees orienting and still bringing in a lot of yellow pollen but i noticed the bees are a lot bigger and fatter than the summer bees is this normal or have i got an obesity problem on my hands lol