What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Swarm]

Only feed if necessary.
If they have stores, it's not necessary.

 

[Erichalfbee]

sorry to sound thick but do i need to put on syrup even though all three hives seem to have plenty of stores ??

Absolutely not.
If all available space is filled with food they will swarm as soon as the weather is good.

Last spring I had to take two frames of food out of one box as the queen had no space to lay

 

[stephenpug]

Only feed if necessary.
If they have stores, it's not necessary.

 

[stephenpug]

Absolutely not.
If all available space is filled with food they will swarm as soon as the weather is good.

Last spring I had to take two frames of food out of one box as the queen had no space to lay

thanks

 

[itma]

sorry to sound thick but do i need to put on syrup even though all three hives seem to have plenty of stores ??

They might be helped by your ensuring that they have a convenient water supply.
Some beeks give their bees very thin syrup (like 2 pints water to 1lb sugar, or even thinner) as a 'drink' rather than a 'feed'..
The bees probably won't take pure water from a feeder.

 

[iand]

Been a nice day, bees very busy going about their chores.

To-day must go down as a milestone, we came home with clean bee suits. They did pong a bit last week. Must have been warm enough at the weekend for them all to get out and about & do what bees do on mothers best washing.

 

[nonstandard]

First inspection today, 16 degC and a little time to spare so we had a quick look in some of the colonies, 2 nucs both overwintered and are queen-right 1 doing better than the other though. We looked in 2 of our 9 hives and both were queen-right too; didn't have time to do the rest but they were all busy, here's hoping the weather is good tomorrow.

 

[Cazza]

Combined an ex DLQ hive with a small but laying hive early this morning. Accompanied by a drumming woodpecker. All very rural.
Cazza

 

[witchcraft]

Move my nadirs back to being supers, cleaned out the floors and watched (proudly) as all of my hives worked like mad bringing in orange pollen and served the eggs and brood - we all made it through the winter...

 

[Mike a]

Finally got time to spare and the weather to open up some of my hives.
Up until now I've only managed to visit to heft them to roughly gauge how they were doing, thankfully none of them were light on stores.

Panoramic view of one of my apiaries (skyline cropped for obvious reasons) will be putting in some proper hive stands this year at long last.

Highlights of my visit

Starting with a nuc I knew wouldn't make it as the queen failed to mate after collecting them as a swarm in September. I opened it up to see two mice hot footing it out of the entrance.

After removing the frames I was left with this. They chewed through two frames of foundation.

More wildlife

Poly hive
Took this hive to the heather last year, still has 4 frames full of heather honey. Didn't look as if there was a lots of bees in there until I took off the poly sheet and started lifting out and inspecting some of the frames.

Nuc
Very surprised to see this colony looking so good as it didn't look to good going into the Autumn. Now there is 5 frames with brood not wall to wall but a good amount on each frame and plenty of stores remaining considering the weather has been poor.
This is the before shot

And the after shot

Lost a few good colonies including my only Buckfast colony which is a shame as I was hoping to raise a few queens from them this year but of course all my lets call them my defensive colonies came through strong and they made sure I knew it the whole time I was in the apiary.... requeening them all this year.

 

[madasafish]

Lovely pics.

 

[itma]

...
Nuc
Very surprised to see this colony looking so good as it didn't look to good going into the Autumn. Now there is 5 frames with brood not wall to wall but a good amount on each frame and plenty of stores remaining considering the weather has been poor.
This is the before shot

And the after shot

Mike, how did you go about evicting the bees from the feeder area of the nuc?


That 'before' photo is a clear explanation of one reason that I block the thing off...
Did you employ a QX barrier to keep Q & brood out of the feeder?

 

[Mike a]

Mike, how did you go about evicting the bees from the feeder area of the nuc?

That 'before' photo is a clear explanation of one reason that I block the thing off...
Did you employ a QX barrier to keep Q & brood out of the feeder?

Nothing fancy, found the frame with the queen on and transferred her into the new hive so I knew she was safe followed by the rest of the frames. Then just turned the nuc over and gave it a few good thumps. Luckily they had only gone down 3"-4" with the combs in the feeder slot so it wasn't a problem as they contained honey and not brood so there wasn't many bees. I've tried using a piece of plastic QX over the slot but didn't like it so removed it.

My simple logic
If the bees start to build comb in the feeder slot then imho its time to give them an upgrade to a bigger hive.

 

[EssexLad]

Just ordered 50 super frames and foundation, just hope that I need them later this year.

Did first inspection, quickly, on Sunday. Bees were all really active in the sun about 17 C.

One hive doing really well, stores on almost every frame but only a little capped brood (didnt see the queen though), still early i suppose. Moved super back on top with QE. Removed fondant. Removed quilting from the roof.

Second hive not as good, floor covered in dead bees (1" thick). However still quite a few bees on the frames and the queen was visible / active with plenty of stores, I think they starved in the really cold spell last month. Cleand out the mess and removed fondant added QE. Removed quilting from the roof.

Our fist winter and both seem to have survived in spite of our best efforts !

 

[WelshPaul]

Had a quick look in the super on top of my BB, that I was using as a brood and a half, four frames full of a nice rugby ball shape of larvae, possibly eggs but crap at spotting them. Three frames solid with stores, and the rest a miss match. Didn't get chance to look in brood box because I ran short on time. Will have to have another look soon.

And they are bringing in plenty of pollen.
View attachment 8300

 

[nikca]

Magnolia looking pretty...

Spring in the dordogne properly underway now - It was finally dry enough to cut the foot deep apiary grass!

 

[herefordshirehoney]

Added 500grams of canidline gold to my hives both hives were flying at 530pm.

 

[Swarm]

I could only just call in quickly on the way home or the GPS spy would grass me up. One of those days when there were far better things to do than work. Wagon wheels of Willow coming in so I'll just have to wait and hope the weekend is as nice.

 

[dpearce4]

Added 500grams of canidline gold to my hives both hives were flying at 530pm.

Whats this?

 

[VEG]

think its this
CANDIPOLLINE GOLD
try the bay there is some on there