What did you do in the Apiary today?

[oliver90owner]

starflex,

I hope you are not using porters and waiting a day for them to clear. If so you could easily be extracting honey that is granulating - or not, if it is really bad!

For OSR, I brave the bees, open with no smoke (had 'smoky' honey once) and steal the good frames/supers and extract the same day, as I don't have facilities to keep the honey warm enough to prevent it starting to crystallise. Even if it looks OK, it can be blocking the filter pores and slowing down the process very markedly.

Next year I intend to compare poly supers with timber ones, on that score, if I get the opportunity.

Regards, RAB

 

[Haughton Honey]

Collected two primary swarms today and bunged them together in to a double National hive to sort themselves out.

Will re-Queen next week............!

 

[oliver90owner]

I collected another cast from the same place as yesterday. About 450g of bees. At this rate I might get a decent sized colony by the middle of the week!

RAB

 

[simonf]

Checked 2 hives on the OSR today doing OK, seems to be less honey in the super than last week, weather has been not bad either, lots of head scratching.

 

[YorkshireBees]

Checked 2 hives on the OSR today doing OK, seems to be less honey in the super than last week, weather has been not bad either, lots of head scratching.

If the weather has been anything like where I am, then there has been no rain for weeks and the OSR is probably not producing much nectar!


Checked on the swarm I hived last Monday, well had a quick peek inside (too windy for a proper inspection) and saw plenty of bees and probably 3 frames of eggs so I removed the bottom QE.

Finished off assembly of my new poly hives, just need to paint them now and they are ready for use.

 

[starflex]

starflex,

I hope you are not using porters and waiting a day for them to clear. If so you could easily be extracting honey that is granulating - or not, if it is really bad!

For OSR, I brave the bees, open with no smoke (had 'smoky' honey once) and steal the good frames/supers and extract the same day, as I don't have facilities to keep the honey warm enough to prevent it starting to crystallise. Even if it looks OK, it can be blocking the filter pores and slowing down the process very markedly.

Next year I intend to compare poly supers with timber ones, on that score, if I get the opportunity.

Regards, RAB

Yep, that is what I'm using, however, the supers are coming off tomorrow, ready or not!

I argree with you about having to get on with it, with out delay. I'll be extracting tomorrow, as soon as I get home. Hopefully, there will not be too many bees to eject from the supers.

Last year, I had one super that was totally void of bees and the porters worked fine. However, most of the other supers were much less successsful and it was as you said "brave the bees"!!

regards

 

[MuswellMetro]

Made another batch of 20 14x12 frames up, now run out totality and i expect my local beekeeping supplier has as well ,don't fancy a 3 hour drive to wragby

Then I cleaned up an old brood boxes i had around and went back to the apiary with more supers and tidied up the 14x12 ASs i did yesterday just in double supers with api ekes only half filled with frames, after the panic finding i had run of of brood boxes and frames for the last ASs

And i thought i had enough brood boxes at 2:1!!!!, i will have to raid the emergency-emergency store and make an eke and standard brood into a 14x12 for the new queen i have in a 6 frame nuc on OSR to build up

then i had a cup of tea and thought i was going mad as i saw a three foot high rat over the hedge, then realized it was not a rat but a Wallaby that must have escaped from the children's farm over the other side of the valley

 

[Russel]

Made another batch of 20 14x12 frames up, now run out totality and i expect my local beekeeping supplier has as well ,don't fancy a 3 hour drive to wragby

Then I cleaned up an old brood boxes i had around and went back to the apiary with more supers and tidied up the 14x12 ASs i did yesterday just in double supers with api ekes only half filled with frames, after the panic finding i had run of of brood boxes and frames for the last ASs

And i thought i had enough brood boxes at 2:1!!!!, i will have to raid the emergency-emergency store and make an eke and standard brood into a 14x12 for the new queen i have in a 6 frame nuc on OSR to build up

then i had a cup of tea and thought i was going mad as i saw a three foot high rat over the hedge, then realized it was not a rat but a Wallaby that must have escaped from the children's farm over the other side of the valley

Was that the herbal variety?

 

[Flatters]

I did my first AS today and not without hitches. My queen was a late one from last year and I did not have the time window in which to clip or mark her. I have been looking to do it in the current year inspections but she is an elusive one.

My 13 year old son and I went into the hive today with the intention of doing an AS if we thought they were ready, and they were. I could not see any capped QCs but there were a number of uncapped ones. We found the queen on the first pass but then she jumped off the frame and into the brood chamber so we had to carry on looking. After two more passes and no queen the bees were getting a bit tetchy so I decided to close it up and come back later.

After an hour we went in again and found her in the lower brood box. We moved her and the frame into a new BB, moved the old Q- hive to a new spot and put the Q+ box back in her old location. She has foundation in the BB and a fairly light super above so I have given them some 1:1 syrup.
The bees are still a bit tetchy and my youngest daughter who went out in the garden got a sting on the head. More a glancing blow and she is OK now.

A question though? Do I inspect both hives after a week and see how they are doing or should I leave one or both of them a bit longer to settle down? With them having so much attention I decided to close them up rather than count/knock down QCs, I think they will sort themselves out better being left to it.

 

[oliver90owner]

don't fancy a 3 hour drive to wragby


Buy on-line? Or could check availability and despatch date and order by phone.

Go to Windsor?( by bus?)

Probably not a lot in it with time and almost certainly a lot cheaper at current fuel prices!

Regards, RAB

 

[Queens59]

Checked swarm I hived last week - all seems OK, busy on2 frames at the moment.

Our WBC is playing me up though. I put a 14x12 BB on top of existing one, in the hope of splitting. They pulled it out well and in the last week laid up 5 full frames. However, in the original box - beside enormous drone brood cells there is what I think is a Q. cell...but I can't be certain! I wondered if the Queen's pheromone is too weak to fill both boxes...and am tempted to split...but don't want to do a stupid thing, plus it would use up all my spare WBC bits..

 

[VEG]

Painted assembled hives and made up lots of frames.

 

[YorkshireBees]

Went to put the QE back on hive 5 after removing it to encourage them into the super. Damn they were fast, not only have they drawn out some frames but a couple of frames now have eggs in it!

Had to go through BB to double check Queen was down there before I added QE below super!

 

[simonf]

Made 3 stands and 4 OMFs need to buy some frames and foundation, stocks are low

 

[tonybloke]

checked on a nuc I created after a colony swarmed last week, queen cell is sealed, bees given more feed in the frame feeder.

 

[starflex]

Removed 3 supers, off 2 hives. Not too many bees left in the supers, so I employed O90O's method of direct action, and got on with it (althought I had my smoker to hand just in case!). Extracted about 36lbs of OSR.

 

[beeboybee]

spaced out my frames in two supers and added a third

 

[MuswellMetro]

last night in the twilight i brought the New KBS queen in her 14x12 Nuc back from a three mile OSR apiary because the OSR is almost over and the rest of the forage there is scares this year due to the drought ,(now just the north facing slopes of OSR still showing full flowers)

Seemed very heavy when i moved it last night but to late to inspect,so checked it at lunchtime and decided it was "full" and was four frames brood arched with pollen and capped stores and one stores almost capped,good brood pattern, saw the queen

so moved them moved into a full 14x12 hive

checked the varroa count on the swarm I caught friday, 250 mite day one monday + 50 today day two with one strip of apivar, i know the beekeeper they came from and he let them swarm as he had run out of brood boxes and i know he did put apiguard in august but that means his rumo hive must have a very high load in the brood

 

[Queens59]

Not exactly 'in' the apiary...but it was in an apiary...I went to Buckfast Abbey for an Intermediate Beekeeping course. Looks like it could be good!

 

[tonybloke]

put together another two 16x10 brood boxes