What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Tranquilwaters]

Moved two hives on Friday to a friends farm

 

[fiftyjon]

I employed 4 children to watch my Victoria plum tree this afternoon which is in full flower and almost overhangs my hives. It was sunny, 12c, the bees were flying and they didn't see a single honeybee visit in about 30 minutes.....a few flies, one bumblebee (and a dragon but that child is on "special measures")

Too much uninformed verbiage is being spouted about how "life as we know it" depends on honeybees.

You'll be sending them up chimneys, next

To collect the errant swarm!!

 

[Tranquilwaters]

Went through all the hives on Friday and all doing well and came through the winter.

 

[WelshPaul]

Brood In All Stages

Thank, feel silly now lol

 

[dpearce4]

went thro all hives today, all as expected, one very small (it would fit in an apadia), one 2 frames no brood (one of the ones that was vandalised) the rest 6frames plus. took frames of brood out of 2 for nucs that were set up with new queens added (hope they are ok).

Had some spare kit stolen from a site (4 supers, 1 brood, roof and floor,) they left the plastic queen excluders. I think that proves its a beekeeper as its only beekeepers that know they are really crap.

 

[itma]

Strong hot sun, but cool air, not much wind.
Bees active, seen collecting nectar (well they weren't visibly packing pollen) on a local Cherry tree again this morning.

Needing to paint the poly a better colour before its colony got too advanced, I set about transferring the frames to a temporary equivalent (two poly supers as a brood body) on the original stand.
Discovered rather a lot of bees in there, and some brood on at least 9 frames (14x12's at that). Nice honey arcs. A fair bit of empty comb for more laying. Some neat patches of sealed drone brood. No QCs seen, and only one frame (right at the back, that I'd been meaning to swap out - doh!) heavy with nectar.
So I gave them a super as well. And put the old brood box above the (open hole) crownboard for the crowd of residual bees to rejoin their pals in their own time. Cleaning and repainting will wait until tomorrow.

Doing rather better than I thought. Very glad I looked under the see-through coverboard!

During the week I had supered another colony that had begun filling (with nectar) a couple of old frames I'd given them to clean out.

The season has definitely started.

 

[Goran]

I am running short of foundations, they are building like mad. More like overbuilding than build up. If the weather for acacia or flowering fail ( around 10th May), I could have a lot of decorations on surrounding trees

We jumped from winter directly to summer ( sun, sun and more sun), so that lost period we are literary running to manage all operations with short delays.. If I don't write all the operations done or observations due to colony status I would be lost...

Forgot to mention, bees are capping honey ( mostly wild cherry and other forrest fruits).. So will be some honey for me before acacia..

 

[richardbees]

To collect the errant swarm!!

You may mock - but they preferred it to their usual task of slug control, it's biting off the heads they don't like....

 

[fiftyjon]

You may mock - but they preferred it to their usual task of slug control, it's biting off the heads they don't like....

 

[BeeJayBee]

Had some spare kit stolen from a site (4 supers, 1 brood, roof and floor,) they left the plastic queen excluders. I think that proves its a beekeeper as its only beekeepers that know they are really crap.

Will you try to find another apiary now?

Have you reported it?

 

[Polyanwood]

First 2 of the association swarms went to their new home. I felt a bit happy about it, but mostly sad. I felt a bit attached to them.

Did my first artificial swarm of the year. Only 2 charged queencells but at the bottom hidden by the bottom bars. They were big enough to swarm, but I was feeding them pollen substitute and fondant until 2 weeks ago.

The hive had the typical look of lots of slabs wall to wall sealed worker brood and drone brood about 10% at the top and in the bottom corners, but also quite a few of the odd empty cells they leave had been filled with drone brood. (It was not a pepperpot brood look)
I wondered whether these raised drone brood cells on the worker brood might be a sign that she was poorly mated and that she was running out of sperm. The appearance wasn't exactly typical and it felt like a cross between swarm queencells and supersedure queencells - if such a thing is possible!

What do you think?

 

[itma]

One of the things that I take to be an indication of incipient swarming is when the brood becomes "fragmented" (in the hard disk sense) and bits of different ages are put into scattered bits of comb, rather than maintaining a classic "brood pattern".
Once it gets that full, its likely that there are QCs to be found ...

 

[YorkshireBees]

Yesterdays inspection of my 2nd out apiary gave a real 50:50 result. 4 colonies, 2 doing really well (the best of which is in a poly!) and the other 2 pretty weak.
Good news was that all 4 had brood, but all 4 also seemed to have a large amount of old dead bees on the floors. Cleaned the floors and put the hives back together as efficiently as possible as it wasn't the best weather for inspections.

 

[Heather]

What did I do.... ran for cover- nearly.

Checked 6 colonies- all had stores, all had brood at all stages, all were cowbags from hell- pouring out, all over me, very protective... I put it down to worried bees re recent conditions and give them 2 weeks to behave better.

One small colony (I reduced to a Nuc) that had been extra foul- I dumped the queen, left 24 hrs, introduced an Italian mated (£40) --- now can I find her??? if they have seen her off the petrol comes out!

 

[La Folie]

Got our first nuc the weekend before last and moved them into their new home. However, because of the weather we havn't been able to check them since. Starting to get very frustrated/worried!!

 

[domino]

I bought a Black and Decker workmate today, hopefully it'll prevent me bashing to garden tables to pieces.

 

[Rob den Dekker]

First inspection of the season! Swapped out the floor and crown board, inserted QE. Removed brace comb and remaining fondant. All looking well with brood and plenty of stores. Saw HM as well.

 

[theeggman]

Moved a colony from a white poly to a cedar, (the poly shouldn't have been white), for a clean and repaint to 'old english green'.
I put a sheet of white A4 paper on the front to give the bees a clue but they didn't need it, they just piled in following HM's smell. Aren't these insects b****y wonderful.

Tim

 

[whoosling]

Went to check bees had some syrup left and found masses of black ants everywhere on top on crown board and outside of the hive - help! - is this bad? will they go away?

 

[nosmoking]

Installed a nuc today. Nice to have bees at the bottom of my garden again Thanks Mike