What did you do in the Apiary today?

[itma]

... smoke certainly annoys the hell out of them.

Maybe try something different in the smoker, since this lot seem to have different tastes?

 

[Suzi Q]

Checked on a nuc, decided it needs to be hived tomorrow, made up some frames, sorted out a floor, roof, crownboard, etc. Very calm bees, didn't mind me opening and lifting frames without smoke/water spray. Saw the queen trying to lay in a little bit of comb in gap to feeder compartment, definitely needs to be hived.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

I know they're not, but it sounds like the way Africanized bees behave, especially the following.

 

[Cazza]

It's so warm this morning that I have already inspected a hive. New queen, great laying pattern and good temper. That's put me in a good mood for the day. Yippee.
Cazza

 

[Heather]

I inspected my little apidea yesterday- queen laying well, colony expanded ( I did put rather too many bees in original apidea) so I put a 2nd apidea onto the top of the first to give more room. Next problem- .... moving them into a small Nuc box as a colony- or shall I grab the queen out and get them to produce another, making it a queen rearing machine??

If you reckon get them on as a unit into a Nuc box- how do I do that - yellow baby frames from apidea to Hoffmans

 

[Little John]

The inspection today started off ok, got the lid off without any of them getting excited; split the super from the brood, likewise - then a few foragers returned, and rather than enter the hive they started circling (around me). These were joined by more, and the cloud started to build, as per usual.

It's been useful to write about this, as seeing the story 'out there', has put me in a kindof 'third party' position - i.e. if someone else had this problem, what would I suggest ?

Well, the problem with this particular hive (doesn't happen with any of the others) starts ONLY when some foragers return, to find me interfering with their home.

So - why not simply take the foragers out of the equation ? i.e. mount the hive on wheels, move it ten feet to one side before even taking the lid off - do the inspection - put everything back 'as was' - then move the hive back to it's original position. In theory, the majority of foragers should be none the wiser, except for having to wait around for some human idjut to let 'em back in. Might be worth a shot.

The other thing I've been reflecting upon is that their (the miffed bees) focus is soley upon my head - both when veiled, and for two days afterwards when not.
I've tried changing soap (twice) to no avail, but I am due a haircut - maybe that will help - but I rather think that this is primitive instinctive behaviour intended to ward off bears.

TryingToLetThemBee: I know they're not, but it sounds like the way Africanized bees behave, especially the following.

Exactly.

Thanks for all the tips and advice. Appreciated.

LJ

 

[user 6228]

Looking at the swarm/split schedule decided to inspect 2 hives that are likely to have come into lay in the last week. This turned out to be the case. We now have 7 out of the 11 are now in lay. the remaining 4 are the "swarmed from" hives, so these are expected to be the last hives to go into lay. Those will be left alone for a while longer

 

[user 6228]

I inspected my little apidea yesterday- queen laying well, colony expanded ( I did put rather too many bees in original apidea) so I put a 2nd apidea onto the top of the first to give more room. Next problem- .... moving them into a small Nuc box as a colony- or shall I grab the queen out and get them to produce another, making it a queen rearing machine??

If you reckon get them on as a unit into a Nuc box- how do I do that - yellow baby frames from apidea to Hoffmans

see cushman for "folding frames"

 

[user 6228]

I inspected my little apidea yesterday- queen laying well, colony expanded ( I did put rather too many bees in original apidea) so I put a 2nd apidea onto the top of the first to give more room. Next problem- .... moving them into a small Nuc box as a colony- or shall I grab the queen out and get them to produce another, making it a queen rearing machine??

If you reckon get them on as a unit into a Nuc box- how do I do that - yellow baby frames from apidea to Hoffmans

see cushman for "folding frames"

 

[garlicpickle]

Went down to take off the Snelgrove and give my split its independence with a new roof and floor, before temporarily moving them to a different apiary this weekend.
Still no new brood visible, but all the old brood had hatched and the BB is almost wall to wall with OSR so the poor queen would have nowhere to lay anyway!

So came home, quickly knocked up a super and frames because I didn't have any already made up, swore, cursed (woodwork isn't my forte) and have just been down to put it on.

Because I only started with a nuc in mid July last year and the weather was awful anyway, this is my first experience of a good nectar flow and I hadn't taken on board just how fast they would be bringing the stuff in. Lesson learned for next year to make sure I have more stuff ready than I think I'll need!

 

[madasafish]

Transferred one frame of hatching brood to Q- queen raising hive(QRH)
Cell protectors on 3 QCs in QRH.
1 QC to mini mating nuc stocked by nurse bees from the frame of hatching brood.

Left one QC to hatch and requeen Q- hive.

The hive that donated the frame is full of bees but after teh abysmal weather we have had has eaten most of its honey!:_(


Lots of pollen still around. Bees busy on everything in our garden.. plus LOTS of bumbles.

EDIT : QRH in foul mood, stung me once and had to be smoked (unusual for me to smoke anything). Bees followed me to garage.. pinging away..Glad when they are requeened.

 

[Chris Luck]

What a year - large prime swarm, 5th July.

Chris

 

[itma]

...
Still no new brood visible, but all the old brood had hatched and the BB is almost wall to wall with OSR so the poor queen would have nowhere to lay anyway!
...

Strong suggestion that you try and extract a spinner-ful (probably 3 or 4) of those brood box frames.
If its OSR, don't hang around. It won't be extractable very soon.
If you get some honey, then great, but that's not the urgency.
Empty comb is the best thing to get the new Q going. No empty comb and they will be swarming before doing anything worthwhile.
I'd also suggest bruising the cappings on some more of the BB honey.
And seeing if you can swap a used frame into the middle of that new super, to tempt them up.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Lots of pollen still around. Bees busy on everything in our garden.. plus LOTS of bumbles.

+1. Went from seeing first honeybee in the garden a week ago to clouds of them now; unusual amount of bumbles all season. Starting to feel like... No: musn't jinx...

 

[garlicpickle]

Strong suggestion that you try and extract a spinner-ful (probably 3 or 4) of those brood box frames.
If its OSR, don't hang around. It won't be extractable very soon.
If you get some honey, then great, but that's not the urgency.
Empty comb is the best thing to get the new Q going. No empty comb and they will be swarming before doing anything worthwhile.
I'd also suggest bruising the cappings on some more of the BB honey.
And seeing if you can swap a used frame into the middle of that new super, to tempt them up.

Thanks itma

it's still like water just now, I shook one and it just ran out, I'm pretty sure it's OSR because there's a massive field of it just over the road. There are still about 3 end combs of foundation which they haven't touched as they have been too busy filling up the drawn comb in the brood nest. Last Saturday there was 2 frames of stores and the rest was either capped brood from the old queen, or empty cells waiting for the new queen to lay in there. It's all happened really fast.

I have just ordered a small extractor from T's, if it doesn't come very soon (so I can free up some brood comb) I will take the QE off and let her go upstairs I think. I can take a used super comb out of the original colony.

I'm not too bothered about the honey but I don't want them to swarm. Although if the queen is not yet laying there will be no eggs for them to make queen cells. I did check for QC and there were none. I'm going back there tomorrow to meet with my mentor, so he can help me decide what to put where

Only went today so I didn't have to go tomorrow, because I'm supposed to be playing at a band gig, but I'll have to give band a miss and sort the bees out. My mentor is only available on Saturday mornings.

 

[user 6228]

Looking at the swarm/split schedule decided to inspect 2 hives that are likely to have come into lay in the last week. This turned out to be the case. We now have 7 out of the 11 are now in lay. the remaining 4 are the "swarmed from" hives, so these are expected to be the last hives to go into lay. Those will be left alone for a while longer

Correction 8 out of 11, One of the 4 mentioned above was a swrm not a "swarmed from". This last swarm had a feeder on it and was not really due to be in lay. As the other hives seemed quite replete with stores, I removed the feed from it (empty now of course) I then checked that they werent stores bound, and so I found the eggs.

 

[itma]

... Last Saturday there was 2 frames of stores and the rest was either capped brood from the old queen, or empty cells waiting for the new queen to lay in there. It's all happened really fast.

I have just ordered a small extractor from T's, if it doesn't come very soon (so I can free up some brood comb) I will take the QE off and let her go upstairs I think. ...

Seems a bit late for OSR, I think, but then I don't have any of it, so its your call!

If its just nectar, they'll clear it themselves quickly - but if its capped honey, they'll need 'encouragement' to reassign the space.

I'm not sure that the smallest extractors can take brood frames - I was thinking that your club extractor might be called into play.

 

[garlicpickle]

Seems a bit late for OSR, I think, but then I don't have any of it, so its your call!

If its just nectar, they'll clear it themselves quickly - but if its capped honey, they'll need 'encouragement' to reassign the space.

I'm not sure that the smallest extractors can take brood frames - I was thinking that your club extractor might be called into play.

There's loads here just came out a week ago! unfortunately they will have to draw some comb in the super before they can move the nectar upstairs as i only had foundation to give them.

The extractor I ordered will take 2 deep or 4 shallow frames.

 

[itma]

...unfortunately they will have to draw some comb in the super before they can move the nectar upstairs as i only had foundation to give them.

A good nectar flow will encourage and support comb-drawing.
Nectar gets shifted around all the time it is being concentrated.
So - don't panic!

 

[garlicpickle]

So - don't panic!

Not panicking - yet!