What did you do in the Apiary today?

[pigletwillie]

six out of seven hives are now on vacation whilst I build their apiary.

 

[milkermel]

nearly beggered my back

just gone into one of my hives to put in clearing board and cant believe the weight of the two supers. feeling a little hopefull!

 

[garlicpickle]

Quite a bit of pollen coming in but there doesn't seem to be anything much going up into the supers. What is there is mostly capped over so I'll probably take it off next week.
Spotted my beautiful 2012 queen in Hive 1 but also saw one charged QC high up on one of the frames so I wonder if they are planning to replace her. Closed up and left them to it. There's not many drones around and I didn't see any drone brood so they're leaving it a bit late.

 

[Martley]

New Queen

Split my hive 10 days ago and introduced a new mated Black Queen to the split. Checked today and she is happily doing her stuff. Result!
One relieved novice beek...

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Shook out the drone laying nuc. Popped down to Garn Cottage on the way back from fishing/cormorant count. to put some syrup on one hive (swarm from last month queen laying nicely but hardly any stores and no flow at the moment.) just slipped a smock on as I only had to put the feeder on and fill it (feeder board put on already yesterday in case anyone asks - I can hear a rumbling from certain quarters!)
Saw the hive was quite a bit off level - this was a stand I'd just chucked on the grass to home the swarm so decided to chock up one end so the syrup would be reasonably level. Note to self - you only have one pair of hands and your feet are needed to stand on.
A massive wobble almost upended the hive and THEY WERE NOT HAPPY managed to save the situation and after a ten minute stand in the orchard the other side of the stream complete with novelty 'bee gloves' (doesn't attack pheremone have a strangely satisfying 'fresh' odour) and an amusing leg slapping routine as no wellies either had to drive back home for the proper bee kit to do things properly.
If anyone wants to know, slight swelling of the hands but all seems good now - the bee in the trousers only got as far as mid calf!

 

[Chris58]

Checked first hive, 2 supers, filling and starting to cap. Saw eggs so left it at that (Phew - thought we'd lost her!). Bit pingy but so would you be if you thought someone was trying to pinch your honey - will recheck for capped honey at end of week.
Second hive again 2 supers, nearly all full and being capped as well. Laid back, so left them to it.
Noticed loads of Himalayan Balsam in flower - and white pollen being brought it - they love that stuff. Loving the lavender as well - bushes are alive with bees. Weather forecast here good for next week as well.

 

[La Folie]

Did our first queen intro so will wait to see if it works. Annoyingly the other queenless hive, which had a good queen cell, had knocked it down. I suppose our second queen intro is on the cards!!

 

[cjhart2]

Checked first hive, 2 supers, filling and starting to cap. Saw eggs so left it at that (Phew - thought we'd lost her!). Bit pingy but so would you be if you thought someone was trying to pinch your honey - will recheck for capped honey at end of week.
Second hive again 2 supers, nearly all full and being capped as well. Laid back, so left them to it.
Noticed loads of Himalayan Balsam in flower - and white pollen being brought it - they love that stuff. Loving the lavender as well - bushes are alive with bees. Weather forecast here good for next week as well.

Glad you recovered from the poor May you had , lets hope the good news continues .

 

[BeeJayBee]

Saw [a] hive was quite a bit off level - ... so decided to chock up one end ... A massive wobble almost upended the hive

Same here, but I got off lightly - the hive strap held mine together!

These things often happen in threes, so who's next to have a falling over hive?

 

[Elaine]

The 'undecided' hive seems to have sorted itself out after being left alone for three weeks- BIAS and _much_ better tempered.

 

[lebouche]

Moved one hive back two feet. Inspected it before hand. Frames were heavy and decided to leave them alone after a few frames....suddenly wondered why I was inspecting as they are fine. Don't think I squashed any. .
Put MAQ's on to my sick hive thanks to a kind person who let me buy just two.
Felt really guilty...stuff stinks. Some returning foragers can't bear to go back in and congregate on the outside. Most returning bees seems to land on the tops of others bees who are hanging out about six inches above the entrance.

Mite drop board is in and back of the OMF taped up so the formic can do it's stuff. Wondering if the entrance is too small with that smelly stuff in but they are too weak to open it. Saw two wasps go in without being ejected by the bouncers.


Didn't do a mite drop test first as think they are desperate for treatment.
Saw the dark queen. Seems the unite went well as they are stronger, as would be expected.

 

[Beauhawk]

Put MAQ's on to my sick hive thanks to a kind person who let me buy just two.
Felt really guilty...stuff stinks. Some returning foragers can't bear to go back in and congregate on the outside. Most returning bees seems to land on the tops of others bees who are hanging out about six inches above the entrance.

Mite drop board is in and back of the OMF taped up so the formic can do it's stuff. Wondering if the entrance is too small with that smelly stuff in but they are too weak to open it. Saw two wasps go in without being ejected by the bouncers.

There was a recent thread talking about MAQS and that the bees do need ventilation of some sorts! Don't truss the hive up totally.

 

[Erichalfbee]

From the MAQS website

Subject: Screen Bottom Boards or Mesh Floors

Q) Should I leave the Screen Bottom open or close it off?

A) There was only one trial run so far with screen bottom boards open, by Randy Oliver (www.scientificbeekeeping.com). He published the results in the February 2011 issue of American Bee Journal. There was a 4 to 5 % reduction in efficacy over a solid bottom board, however, both open screen and solid bottom boards saw over 90% drop in mite loads. Ventilation to the brood area is important during treatment, so leaving the screened bottom open will provide this additional ventilation.


Subject: Additional entrances, cracks in the equipment.

Q) Should I close off all entrances except the fully open bottom board entrance?


A) The fully open bottom entrance should be seen as meeting the minimum ventilation needed. Having additional entrances does not seem to affect the efficacy of the treatment. Adequate ventilation is critical with this product. For 2 brood chamber colonies some beekeepers set back the second story to create a temporary full width entrance, and then slide the boxes back square sometime after the first 3 days. If permanently reduced entrances are used, this set back procedure is absolutely necessary to provide adequate ventilation to the brood area.

 

[Vramin]

I put MAQS on one double brood hive 5 days ago. No discernible smell, no bearding and bees don't appeared bothered at all. Maybe 30 or 40 dead bees on the landing strip over the period. I did wonder whether I had a dud batch, but when I checked the varroa board (suspended well below the OMF to allow ventilation) I had 2000 drop, so I think it's working!

 

[lebouche]

From the MAQS website

Subject: Screen Bottom Boards or Mesh Floors

Q) Should I leave the Screen Bottom open or close it off?

A) There was only one trial run so far with screen bottom boards open, by Randy Oliver (www.scientificbeekeeping.com). He published the results in the February 2011 issue of American Bee Journal. There was a 4 to 5 % reduction in efficacy over a solid bottom board, however, both open screen and solid bottom boards saw over 90% drop in mite loads. Ventilation to the brood area is important during treatment, so leaving the screened bottom open will provide this additional ventilation.


Subject: Additional entrances, cracks in the equipment.

Q) Should I close off all entrances except the fully open bottom board entrance?


A) The fully open bottom entrance should be seen as meeting the minimum ventilation needed. Having additional entrances does not seem to affect the efficacy of the treatment. Adequate ventilation is critical with this product. For 2 brood chamber colonies some beekeepers set back the second story to create a temporary full width entrance, and then slide the boxes back square sometime after the first 3 days. If permanently reduced entrances are used, this set back procedure is absolutely necessary to provide adequate ventilation to the brood area.

Thanks.
Different advice to that which I received last week.

 

[Cazza]

when I checked the varroa board (suspended well below the OMF to allow ventilation) I had 2000 drop,!

Oooh, that's a bit scary.
Cazza

 

[Walrus]

Yesterday I went to apiary for first time since holiday to find the wasp level too high for comfort. Will spend time today trying to find and kill their nest. One nuc was being over run with wasps - closed entrance & not expecting good news when I check it today.

Bees were bringing in bright orange pollen & also some light yellow. Flow seems to have stopped for now.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I'm sitting in my conservatory/extracting room with a nice cold glass of Rosé watching the latest batch filter from the extractor.

 

[MuswellMetro]

I spent from 10:00am to 7:00pm extracting honey with a 9 frame electric spinner,, now collapsed in the arm chair, getting to old for this beekeeping lark

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Went skip-diving. derekm, MuswellMetro, here is some insulation-p0rn...

Also ran through to check for bias and stores and to add the rails I had forgotten for the poly box. What a mess. Should have popped the whole colony out to another box and back in.

Also killed a wax moth on the last undrawn frame. Any advice or thoughts?