What did you do in the Apiary today?

[PaleoPerson]

Checked on the colony that was hived from a nuc with 3.5 frames of brood on the 22nd of March. They now have 7 frames of brood, have drawn out to 10 frames (14 x 12) and found two play cups? today. Added super to give more room.

Talk about rapid expansion.

 

[Moggs]

Text book swarm capture. A biggy, 15 feet up a conifer. Near top of ladder. Trimmed twigs around base of swarm. Nuc box under. Short, sharp, shake and a huge dollop of bees were mine! 8 a.m. and as docile as they come. Hived onto a mix of drawn comb and foundation by 9 a.m. Sugar syrup on tonight after we watched the orientation flights at 7 p.m. OSR turning to vivid yellow all around. A good day.

 

[ianf]

queenless carnolians

First time it has been warm enough here in scotland for a hive inspection. two of my colonies, which are the native black bees are good, with brood, eggs, and larva. only three frames of brood, but the queen is possibly a wee bit slow. bees ok showing their usual bad temper. the carnolian hive has laying workers. this hive was at the heather last year and was knocked over by two bulls, resulting in the queen doing a disappering act. as there was queen cells on one frame, i was hoping she would mate, and the colony would be ok, but not so. the result is i have a load of old bees and a lot of miget drones. i cannot bring my self to kill them of, so they will all die of old age. ianf. Isle of Islay.

 

[Finno]

ianf.....

Your post was a great comfort to me here in north west of Ireland!. Had a peep under the crown boards today and most had similar amount of brood. Swarming etc. is a whole two months away!.

 

[tonybloke]

Talk about rapid expansion.

is that an invite?

 

[Andre cardona]

i put a supers on today and let the bees have brood and a - lots of play cup. a good day for me

 

[Summerslease]

My home hive sent out scouts yesterday. They found the bottle of lemongrass oil in the house that I'd used to make some swarm lures. Today I made my first inspection. 9 frames of brood, 2 of stores, 2 queen cups and loads of drone brood in brace comb at the bottom of the frames. Put a 14x12 brood box on with feed, in a Bailey change, hoping they will move up into larger accomodation. Fingers crossed that this will stop them swarming. Lovely weather in the North East today.

 

[Biddly]

I put a super with fresh foundation on my ' Italian ' colony 10 days ago, by yesterday they had drawn it all out, filled and capped it...so extracted my first honey of 2011.

 

[MuswellMetro]

went up yo the apiary about 10:00 just to check that the supers i had put on last week where being drawn

yep first hive, llifted the crown, yep 50% drawn and some honey, rearranged the undrawn to the middle, was it worth inspecting the brood, well might as well even though they are last years nuc with late supersedure queen, they dont swarm with a supercedure queen do they ,they are from good non swarming yellow Italian stock

Panic,:

Queen cells everywhere ( bottom, top,side and holes in middle all good size) culled at least twenty leaving one QC, open brood, eggs but no queen so as i could not find HM did a shook into new box

bees into new brood box plus one frame of 2 to 3 day larva, QX on ,two super on ( one new) QX on ,then old brood on top after i checked all the old brood again for queen and QC, well missed several, culled agian leaving one large QC 9 (then found ihad squash the QC on the QE floor)

will go back in two days and split onto a new floor or split board

Drone: not many about, just a few, so how ready the are to mate i suspect not very mature, so i didnt want to requeen with this, just an insurance queen, may add a frame of eggs if all has not gone well


well better check the others, result play cells but nothing else, so now making 14x12 foundation frames like mad while trying to eat my late lunch

 

[greatbritishhoney]

Set up 3 more bait hives round and about. Found an old bord bath in the shed so set it up in the apairy as an alternative water source.
Went for a day out at a nearby national trust property where I also have an apiary - loads of flowers in bloom - resolved to move more hives there asap!

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Inspection on Saturday. Starting to build the comb on on the 14x12 extension I left last week. Both queens seen. Tried out inspection cloth and it worked a treat, forgot to use it on second hive and they came out in force. Both colonines generally very bad tempered, following me back home afterwards, and as they are close to a path I'm going to requeen as soon as possible.

 

[grizzly]

Supered some, painted one.

 

[keithgrimes]

Transferred a nice five frame Buckfast(ish) nuc in to a hive and plonked a contact feeder on 1:1. 19 degrees and no wind. 50% humidity. Nice for here. Now off to help two brand new beekeepers do the same thing with their first bees.

 

[Headnavigator]

Sat and watched what I hope were scout bees investigating my two bait hives in the garden. However they seemed to have difficulty finding the entrance - they were bombing the back of the hive opposite the entrance and then searching the cone ventilator and also the OMF. I took the roof off and they were straight in via the hole in the crown board. Wonder if this is because for strategic reasons I have the hives facing North. Is this likely to be a problem?

 

[simonf]

Made an open mesh floor with removable board underneath, got my first sting of the year watching the girls coming and going one caught me by supprise under my radar landed just beneath my eye, tried brushing it of but it got me, supprised to have no swelling used a bit white vinegar on it straight away, don't know if that helped.

 

[TOBY-3652]

Watched my mate inspect his bees 3 hives queenless now united all others ok what he did do was icing sugar whole apiery so came home and did my 3. Did them at 2 oclock had a quick look at 6 and 21 mites on 1 board a few less on no 2. Not one under my hive i overwintered going 2 icing sugar againe tues and againe thurs or fri

 

[Andy Coleman]

hi grizzly, I'm intrigued by the layout of your beebox - what have you got there in the picture?

 

[louiseww]

Now I don't mean to bragg (even though you live in a beautiful part of the north of this wonderful island) but it has been in the low 20s C for a couple of days here. The bees have been busy from early morn til the sun has gone done.
Checked both hives today because I have heard of swarms already - brood boxes bursting at the seams - so put another brood box under the original one (I will be doing an artificial swarm at some point) and as they had started to draw out the couple of frames in the super I have filled it up with frames. Quite sure the bees all breathed a sigh of relief that they have more space and they settled very quickly.

 

[Andy Coleman]

I'm interested by your mention of an apiary on NT property. I'm in Dorking where there are lots of prime apiarty sites, but which are on NT land. How did you negotiate your sites? regards Andy

 

[grizzly]

hi grizzly, I'm intrigued by the layout of your beebox - what have you got there in the picture?

Hi Andy

There are no Bees in this one yet, i had just put it together, and completed my only pet hate with Poly Hives, having to paint the arsing things.