What did you do in the Apiary today?

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Nothing yet...

Despite the forecast sunshine and 15C, it has rained heavily and been misty all weekend. The bees are working hard at the moment and I'm tempted to leave them to it. I may lift the roofs later to have a peek once they've settled down for the evening. Depends on the weather really.
 
Spent the day at a 'Bee Health Day' with the National Bee Unit and went through everything nasty from A to Z.

Really useful info, got to see and test some AFB and EFB infected brood.

And did a microscope session on a sample of my Bees to check for Nosema. (No reason just for education)

Really good day!
 
First artificial swarm

Did my first artificial swarm this afternoon. All went well. 2 supers (one nearly full and the other foundation) left on the AS. Fed the colony in the old brood box. Fingers crossed all keeps going to plan.
 
put foundation into cleaned up frames ready for potential A/S if needed later.

Think the mice that had eaten through the frames cost me nearly 30 quid and a season getting them drawn out.

Mouse guards all round this winter!
 
Tweezered a few larvae with sacbrood out of one colony
 
Watched misty-eyed with relief as the little dudes brought home the pollen. They may yet survive! Particularly impressed by no. 2376 who came stuttering in like a crippled Lancaster, with several pounds of pollen clinging to her undercarriage. Hurrah for OSR (did I really mean that?)
 
first ever inspection

My husband and I (Lol) did our first inspection today on our first ever nuc that we got last week. It went very well. I was nervous and admitted this after. Bless him, my husband said he wasn't nervous at all, as he thought I knew what I was doing. ( If only I felt that way!)
 
Watched misty-eyed with relief as the little dudes brought home the pollen. They may yet survive! Particularly impressed by no. 2376 who came stuttering in like a crippled Lancaster, with several pounds of pollen clinging to her undercarriage. Hurrah for OSR (did I really mean that?)

Very poetic! :)
 
Checked through the boxes for QCs, none yet despite 5-7 good frames of brood in each :) #1 is going to need re-queening this season though, the little feckers were pinging me like hailstones from the second I lifted the lid!
 
Put 3rd super on one hive and moved a nuc into full hive

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Checked through the boxes for QCs, none yet despite 5-7 good frames of brood in each :) #1 is going to need re-queening this season though, the little feckers were pinging me like hailstones from the second I lifted the lid!

Read an article, watched a vid suggesting sumac (stags horn)seed pods added to smoker calm the most angry bees!
I also read that the same seeds are used in a 'tea' to introduce calm in the human species!
I happen to have such a tree near the apiary so will explore !
Vm


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Completed my first proper inspection this morning following my pakaged bees that were hived 9 days ago and was delighted all round! Beautifully white, drawn comb on four frames, stores building nicely and caught site of HM.

Removed insulation from other side of dummy board and added two more frames.

I felt very accomplished after that and gave myself a pat on the back! Then, after replacing the feeder and the roof, realised I had been so excited and not looked for eggs - Doh! The elation deflated at that point!

Still got lots to learn......
 
Entrance block

My Bees were so so busy yesterday, I removed the entrance block to give them more space to get in!
I am sure this is the right thing to do?
 
Did a show and tell demo on one hive for the volunteers on my National Trust site, nice quiet bees, no surprises, fascinated audience. Then after lunch had a dozen local association members over to inspect three more colonies, let someone mark 2 queens and performed an artificial swarm to the delight of all the new beekeepers.
 
United a small colony with a large one and inspected another colony to see if a recently introduced queen was laying yet - all well.
Also watched some scouts checking out my bait hives, they seem very interested in one in particular.
 
knocked 10 brood and 20 super frames together and a couple of supers. Maybe I'm being too optimistic
 

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