What did you do in the Apiary today?

[YorkshireBees]

oops forgot photos

In the meantime I have put foundation in a load of BS Deep and shallow frames and received a call from another friend that may have a swarm in their garden!

 

[plumberman]

Third super on one of my weapons grade hives..........

 

[rae]

AS'd the big hive. 2 14x12 nucs were created, as well as the original hive of flying bees. They have three supers that were pretty full, but now have a 14x12 to draw out, so they didn't get another super.

Caught a prime swarm from the "bad tempered" hive. It had come to rest in a bank and was eventually hived in the evening. It had made so many queen cells that the brood nest was split into two, and we now have a bad tempered nuc as well.

Checked one of the hospital cases: nice queen cells have been made from the test frame, so wait for a few weeks.

The other two hospital cases had well developed queen cells 2 weeks ago , still waiting.

One other hive was checked, pretty close to filling its super, so was given another one. No queen cells.

Absolutely knackered after a very hard day's beekeeping!

 

[REDWOOD]

bailey comb change completed today, they are now on fresh comb in a 14 x 12 brood box and new floor

 

[Juststarting]

Rushed home after panicing that I only gave bees a very quick check last week (eggs - yes - good - shut up hive) and despite having no reason to swarm yet, extra BB added two weeks ago, I'd spent the day worrying that they might have other plans. Anyway after checking they had only made a few play cups and had happily moved up to top BB and had laid up 3-4 frames and drawn out rest.
So no panic needed!

 

[richardbees]

Yorkshire

thanks for posting those great photos !!

richard

 

[MuswellMetro]

went to see another hive and walked past two AS hives done yesterday and decided to changed their QE for a clean one and just put the hive records under the lids


found that they had turned nasty, very nasty, the down the welly type nasty and circulating outside the car type nasty (the car was other side of the field) if it had been a petrol car they would have had some petrol, one was aggressive last year and the other re queen last autumn

One AS as previous post is a failed demaree is definitely queenless in both halves arranged as nuc+QC and old brood+twoQC, by the end of five minutes i had five stings , one right under under the glove cuff seal, one in the welly, one on the nose through the veil, then a further two on lower arm through suit packing up, hid in a shed four three minutes but some still outside


still onward in the afternoon I went and helped check two rose OSB at another apiary, quiet as pussy cats , Queen Cells, we stopped counting when it got over 30

Had a nice pint of Fuller ESB beer and talked about my two ASs, petrol, cleaning fluid and whether you can reuse the frames if you have poured petrol over them

 

[YorkshireBees]

Had a meeting with the local farmer and chose one out apiary site with another possible and a 3rd to inspect at a later date.

Put 2 hives out in new out apiary one empty and and in 2nd hived swarm from earlier at about 20:45!!

Now all I have to do is get more hives out there ready for the swarms this week!

@richardbees, thanks! I may have some nice short vids aswell but have to find time to check them out 1st.

 

[Gardenbees]

.... by the end of five minutes i had five stings , one right under under the glove cuff seal, one in the welly, one on the nose through the veil, then a further two on lower arm through suit packing up, hid in a shed four three minutes but some still outside

Ah, you can run, but you can't hide! I sympathise - the end-of-the-nose attack is particularly painful & undignified - not helped by the general hilarity of onlookers.

Is it me or has the unusually fast buildup/swarminess this spring led to more cases of grumpy bees? Mine have settled down now but one colony had a really bad tempered patch a couple of weeks ago when they were overcrowded, giving me more stings than I've ever had in the whole of my life (admittedly not many). A bad misjudgement on my part, as they're usually so calm. Given more space and a hasty AS, they have calmed down completely, but it was unpleasant for a while.

All I've had since is one deadly accurate sting on the ear (after a recent haircut, so I guess I was smelling of hairdresser-brand shampoo, which was perhaps asking for it). I went to buy a couple more supers this lunchtime, hoping nobody would notice that I now resemble a lopsided bullfrog.

 

[Mike a]

What are the chances?.

The colony in my over sized top bar hive which I haven't got round to reducing in depth properly yet, I thought had failed. Last time I saw them back in January there was only a small cluster of bees about 4" across. As I walked pass the hive I glanced over out of habit and was shocked to see a steady stream of bees coming and going. So I opened it up.

The combs further in are crawling with bees.

I doubt very much the small colony could of grown so much that the queen is now laying on the 7th comb and almost filling it with eggs. They have also extended every comb down now to make proper inspections a problem in case the combs fails. I carefully checked bars 5-6 to see a mass of sealed worker brood and a nice arc of wet stores.

To be honest I think its more likely to be swarm thats taken over the hive as I can't see how a small cluster could of grown so quickly. If so thats two swarms this year and 6 calls about bumble bees / solitary bees.

 

[simonf]

Checked my hive in the garden tonight and they have burst into life, not very happy though, tried not using no smoke but they were bouncing of my veil and making very unhappy noises (not the usual happy one's lol) put on another brood box last week and already half of it has been drawn out with lovely fresh comb up to the rape this week.

 

[Silly Bee]

Sat with my feet up on my chair, mug of tea, watching the coming and goings, they are bringing in two types of pollen, bright yellow, and a dark, rich orange.

Very busy, (they are) and we are all enjoying a lovely sunny day.

 

[Chris Luck]

Two swarms, one deep in brambles, other up an oak tree....don't you love 'em?

Both now housed and I'm cream crackered, the bees may love the OSR but it does my head in - as in serious head aches.

More tomorrow I should think.

Chris

 

[MuswellMetro]

sorry bought a gallon of petrol

well washed my beesuit in soda 60c, cleaned the hive tool, had another shower ,made sure i did not smell of perfume and:-

went back to my apiary, lovely day 29C at 3:00 ( south facing Victorian wall garden) and within 25yds of the hives had a follower

return half and hour later with another beekeeper just to get a second opinion, smoked lifted the crown "ROAR and up"yep your two AS splits are too aggressive, walked back to the car 250 yds and still had five followers each ( late august supersedure so guard bees now from supersedure queen)

this evening i bought a gallons of petrol and returned at dusk need i say more other than i now have two less coloneys to look after

what else did i do, well inspected with other beekeeper 3 nice calm bees colonies ( one hasd swarmed) and another three this evening owned by a beginer all calm bees and all withing a mile of mine, where did the queen find agreesive drones to mate

agreesive ok i could cope, but not followers and at that distance

 

[milkermel]

got first sting of the season!!! floor in to monitor mite drop on the up side, 11 frames laid up and 4 frames packed with pollen (double brood), Super on. to give a bitt more room

 

[YorkshireBees]

Check the hive at my brothers house (was on brood and a half).

2 Queen cells (one with lots of royal jelly but no grub) and lots of play cups) in the half, removed them.

Gave another deep brood and demareed the half. Honey super about a 1/3 full already.

These bees are normally very calm but were a little more in my face, having said that it was 17:30 (still hot 20degs) and it was a full inspection.

No calls for swarms yesterday hoping they may start today.

And checked out another field my local farmer mentioned on Monday night, another potential site!

 

[drstitson]

yesterday - set up two newly purchased polyhive langstroth nucs in the apiary - both hives absolute pussycats when travel screens removed and roofs fitted properly in evening.

finally had chance to deal with my nasty adopted colony which has been struggling this spring. had great pleasure squishing HM and then giving them a frame of brood with nice ripe queen cell plus some extra brood and pool of 3 lots of young bees.

this morning first thing - removed extra nuc box that had been used as a "funnel" last night to pour bees into the box (above) and which had remained stubbonly full at end of proceedings. all now contentedly down with the brood frames. job done (hopefully).

 

[Silly Bee]

I saw them first thing this morning at about 07:30 and pleased to see them already at work.

 

[witchcraft]

I got my first bees yesterday - so I set them up in a nice newly planted orchard and watched them enjoy the sunshine. Came back later and added 1/2 gallon of syrup to help them draw out the two supers of foundation I added too.


Fingers crossed

Mark

 

[drstitson]

witchcraft - in what form did you get your bees? nuc or full colony?