What did you do in the Apiary today?

[crazy_bull]

put together another two 16x10 brood boxes

Congrats on the 1,000th post!!


Today i am trying to extract semi set OSR poxy stuff is about 50% set 5 days ago it was still un ripe now gone to far, oh the joys of OSR.


C B

 

[tonybloke]

gave my two new brood boxes a coat of Cuprinol green, made a couple of dummy boards, collected a nice sized swarm.

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

(yesterday) - inspected my new Buckfast nuc - lovely gentle kittens, no smoke required. HM not spotted but theres plenty of time.

Finally completed a shift from DN to 14x12 on nasty hive #2, and they seem calmer as well. Will see on the weekend if they've managed to do anything with the frame of brood given them from the nuc.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Checked one parent hive ASd last week.
It had two supers on (one largely unused under the excluder which I left on the parent hive as they were really full)
The queen had obviously laid in there and there were four queen cells in it...cheeky blighters....Just as well I looked in there as an afterthought.

Two colonies now each with a juicy queen cell hopefully hatching this weekend when we have torrential rain and hail forecast Sunday

 

[Poly Hive]

Got organised to re-queen the entire operation.

Found the six queens on multiple brood boxes. "Whew"

Setting up mini nucs for tomorrow so as to bank the scrap queens in case I can use them elsewhere.

Just another days keeping of bees....lol

PH

 

[madasafish]

Spread over three days. Tuesday my carnie hive swarmed. (it was big and I had I thought split out the QCs.. but after the event inspection found two sealed QCs..- a total of 10 incl. those split).

Hastily correx nuc boxed.. left overnight in open as very slow to enter, closed box Wednesay and kept cool in garage till I finished my first Warre hive...I am not an expert woodworker and have limited tools so that was fun. (only 1 box at present: used a Delon Alpine hive plan #).

Rehived Wednesday pm with no problems.
Inspected other hives Thursday am - cool with breeze but no problems and all well behaved except for one sting - closing a top bar on a bee - my fault.

Got to build another two Warre boxes and a feeder eke..One box down ..

Need rain desperately if only to keep nighttime temperatures up : light frosts overnight - in past week - have killed azalea blossoms, some raspberrry flowers and top of the beech hedge..

# 200 metres above sealevel is not quite the Alps but -10C is a warm winter...

 

[drstitson]

was on way to take a new nuc to garden at home when happened upon two swarms!

first went into it's box in textbook fashion - nice to see the fanning at entrance.

second took a bit of work - queen still on branch first go, 2nd go was obvious on surface of swarm but she circled on the board then flew back to tree. third time lucky - she was tipped straight into the box.

luckily had room in the smart for three nucs plus all my other gear i was carrying.

 

[aberreef]

Extracted my first ever super today

Scales topped out at 13lbs so no idea how much I got but it measures 1.25 gallons

What should I do with the cappings?

 

[thurrock bees]

melted some more wax down and rewaxed some super frames ( 25) and then upset the girls by cutting the grass around the hives ,

 

[Chris Luck]

What should I do with the cappings?

Put them outside in a tray for the bees to clean, ideally not on the ground, you'll end up with nice clean wax granules.

Chris

 

[Erichalfbee]

Is it wise to put them out in the open?
Better in a feeder inside an empty super over a crownboard?

 

[Mike a]

I watched an expert at work today grafting.

Learnt a hell of a lot and couldn't of asked for a better day or to met a nicer bee keeper, his lovely wife Sandra and family.

Thank you both very much.

 

[Chris Luck]

Is it wise to put them out in the open?

I don't see why not, I do it all the time with no adverse consequences.

Chris

 

[Hivemaker.]

Is it wise to put them out in the open?
Better in a feeder inside an empty super over a crownboard?

No its not Eric,second choice is the safest option.

 

[tonybloke]

hived the swarm I collected last night, helped Jen @ pictonfarm make some more hive bits for the project.

 

[greatbritishhoney]

Wandered about taking photos of all the wildflowers in bloom.
(just realised how sappy that sounds!!)

 

[Chris Luck]

No its not Eric,second choice is the safest option.

Safe from what?

Chris

 

[victor meldrew]

No its not Eric,second choice is the safest option.

Why feed all and sundry and encourage robbing ??

John Wilkinson

 

[Chris Luck]

Why feed all and sundry and encourage robbing ??

Well in my experience it probably mainly feeds my own bees, (but hey, I'm not selfish anyway), and secondly it doesn't encourage robbing at this time of year with all colonies strong, (or they should be, if not let them fail).

Chris

 

[victor meldrew]

Well in my experience it probably mainly feeds my own bees, (but hey, I'm not selfish anyway), and secondly it doesn't encourage robbing at this time of year with all colonies strong, (or they should be, if not let them fail).

Chris

You don't raise nucs then?
Bees are opportunistic critters and will gratefully accept free offerings (so will wasps ! yes even at this time of year.)
Bees from all over (I guess yours are ringed though? ) will eventually introduce disease into your apiary !

John Wilkinson