What did you do in the Apiary today?

[cjhart2]

Hi cjhart2,
Cannot find your original post, but the same happened to one of my hives. Chopped off wings. Asked the bee inspector and came to the conclusion that it was robbers being evicted and incapacitated as these bees looked quite different from the reisident stock!

That’s the conclusion I have come to . Opened up the hive and found to my amazement , half a kilo left of the 2.5 kg fondant I put on in October still being eaten by the bees , a lot of the frames now empty , but queen on first frame . Put on a super full of ivy honey which i took off last year before i left just to make sure .
Had a nice half hour just watching them , lots of activity , mainly of a protective nature around the hive , what I euphemistically call “ Winnie the Pooh time ” , no foraging and no evictions so i suspect as food is available in my hive I have extra “visitors” , especially as spring seems late here as well , with a distinct lack of fruit blossom on the pépinière fields next to me .

 

[scuttlefish]

Went out to give 'em back some of their own honey (unextracted supers from last season - thick heather stuff I couldn't spin out) - three of the four hives doing great, one dead & robbed out. Thankfully the only signs of disease were chalkbrood mummies.

Still too cold to open for inspections though so fingers crossed the other three are doing as well as they seem.

 

[psafloyd]

Discovered one nuc had starved (possibly my fault had I checked before the weekend) and another weak colony had starved despite nearly a kilo of fondant being in place. Three strongish looking colonies confirmed all with food (2 fondant, 1 wet bag of sugar as all I had) and one left to check.

Closed them up, but no signs of disease from cursory look.

 

[richardbees]

6 c and the sun 'glimmered' here mid-afternoon so I sat and watched the entrances for ten minutes....not a bee came out. at least I know the one with a glazed crownboard is ok (but I'll still leave the matchsticks on while it stays sub zero at night)

 

[Philip]

As the bees were on the wing today I finaly got to open the nuc to add fondant only to find empty fondant bag, they were becoming quite active before this cold snap. must have been hungary as they were on it in seconds
lid on and done. The other two had stores and were about half way on bags so let them be for now, wish the weather would settle!

 

[Erichalfbee]

Both Polys flying in small numbers yesterday. It was sunny but cold. My digital greenhouse thermometer read 9˚ and had -7 as a minimum the night before. I wonder how accurate these things are?
I wanted some kit from the Welsh show and couldn't make it in the end so thought I'd get it from the Convention, decided it would cost much more in petrol than I would save so ordered it online. Fool! spent too much !!!! How to hide it from husband?

 

[madasafish]

Both Polys flying in small numbers yesterday. It was sunny but cold. My digital greenhouse thermometer read 9˚ and had -7 as a minimum the night before. I wonder how accurate these things are?
I wanted some kit from the Welsh show and couldn't make it in the end so thought I'd get it from the Convention, decided it would cost much more in petrol than I would save so ordered it online. Fool! spent too much !!!! How to hide it from husband?

I have three digital thermometers in greenhouse. The expensive one - Biogreen TER2/GB Thermo 2 Digital Thermstat -acts as a guide - supposed to be +/-1C. The other include an Aldi cheapie - £under £4.

If all the sensors are in the same place, the results are within 2C. So margin of error stuff.

Don't ask about the cheap analogue ones


Tell husband you needed to spend the money or prior investment would be wasted - and it was a once off bargain with inflation....

 

[Bob Bee]

Fondant tpped up on two hive and pollen patty rtop up on 6. Bees flying in good numbers form all hives on my allotment site at 11 am.

 

[Cazza]

Painted a new polyhive and dreamt of Summer.
Cazza

 

[fatshark]

I have three digital thermometers in greenhouse. The expensive one - Biogreen TER2/GB Thermo 2 Digital Thermstat -acts as a guide - supposed to be +/-1C. The other include an Aldi cheapie - £under £4

You don't happen to have the model sold by Amaz0n for about £19 ... Timeguard
Et05? I'm interested in how well it works as I'm keeping my mini-nucs in a just above freezing outbuilding and would like to replace a time clock controlled heater with a temperature controlled one.

With thanks

 

[Bitbybit]

Watching the weather hoping for a bit of sun. Dry but cold, if the sun would break through I might have a quick look to see how fondant is doing.

 

[beekim]

went to put on some more fondant they had not taken much of the block i put on weeks ago a few bees flying outside so fingers crossed,roll on hosepipe ban.

 

[itma]

+3.5C weak sun.
Opened up the weakest colony and gave them a shallow frame of pretty thoroughly granulated honey, as well as a fresh tub of fondant after I discovered how dry their fondant had gone.
Wet the new fondant while packing it into the tub to give them the easiest start into it.
Fingers crossed.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Tell husband you needed to spend the money or prior investment would be wasted - and it was a once off bargain with inflation....

I think he's given up!


At least it's a harmless hobby.....

 

[Little John]

Nature has been playing dirty tricks this morning.

My girls are desperate to get out - as these biting easterly winds have been with us for maybe 3 weeks now (?) - I'd put the snow boards up again to deflect the gale-force easterlies of the last week, but hadn't expected the sun to come out in such strength ...

This morning the icy-cold winds have been complemented by glorious sun - and yes, many girls from one hive were tempted out, only to be hit by the bitter cold and couldn't get back. Have just swept up a couple of hundred bodies.

That was the 26th - by yesterday (29th) that hive was completely dead - starved - and all because at 2 degrees I wouldn't take the risk of killing 'em by chilling.

A judgement call - and I got it wrong, albeit by only a few days. But that was enough.

Well - I've had enough of this "being unable to open the hive to feed 'em" nonsense, and I fitted my other Carnie hive with a 4-jar feeder, despite it only being 4 degrees yesterday. I took this photo between snow flurries - when even the sun came out ! :

Pollen 'pattie', damp sugar, or syrup - it's a bee buffet - I'll let them decide what they want. Better than starving, poor sods.

As at this morning, seems they're sticking with the sugar - I guess it's because that's what they've been living on for the last few weeks, and have got used to it.

LJ

 

[Cazza]

That was the 26th - by yesterday (29th) that hive was completely dead - starved - and all because at 2 degrees I wouldn't take the risk of killing 'em by chilling.

A judgement call - and I got it wrong, albeit by only a few days. But that was enough.
Well - I've had enough of this "being unable to open the hive to feed 'em" nonsense, and I fitted my other Carnie hive with a 4-jar feeder, despite it only being 4 degrees yesterday.
[/IMG]

LJ

Have I missed something? I don't recall anyone saying, "don't open up to feed, it's too cold." Of course you must feed if required.

Cazza

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Fool! spent too much !!!! How to hide it from husband?

Tut - for shame for even thinking such a thing

 

[Glenviewbee]

The sun was out and wind not as strong - bees from both hives out and about collecting yellow and orange pollen. Took the opportunity to quickly look inside the hives for the first time since October - one have had 3 seams of bees and the other had 4.
Both colonies were nucs last year, one was a 5 frame nuc at end of June and the other about 4 frames in mid Sept.

Really looking forward to the weather warming up so these colonies can build up for the summer

 

[grahambee]

Today

Today a bit off sun

 

[Erichalfbee]

Tut - for shame for even thinking such a thing

Well, we have a large shed in the garden where I keep the hen stuff and I have tidied it up and very neatly stacked last years supers and a couple of new poly 14 x 12s in it.
Two cedar boxes have gone in the garden store at the apiary ( husband never looks in there)
Bee shed now has an amazing amount of floor space (husband doesn't look in there very often) so if I'm quick with the kit the only thing he might notice is that it's tidy

That's not the end of it though.........sigh
The greenhouse is full of germinating bee friendly plants for the meadow and so is the local DHL van.