What did you do in the Apiary today?

[MuswellMetro]

I drove down the lane to our OSR apiary were i had two re queening nucs and noticed a blue flashing light behind me

pulled over and let a bright red fire engine through

turned into the apiary, massive straw bail fire, within 50ft of the hives, the smoke mercifully blowing away from the apiary

the firemen looked more concerned at me putting on my bee suit than the fire, really spectacular flames as the stack was 50+ large bails, checked the hives and all seemed ok

then they sprayed water on the bail stack.....ugh everything covered in smoke, panicked bees zooming everywhere

Her indoors was with me, i said just put this half top on, just in case, i before arriving had told her all the bees here are calm bees not like the nuc, i bought home last month, ping she was stung in the knee through her jeans ( on the knee she had the knee replacement last year, she does not normal swear)

after it all was over, i took the tabs of the queen cages and were went to the Guinea pub in Ridge and had a pint, we both needed a drink

 

[louiseww]

swarm and nuc

I checked the swarm (well actually a caste) that left one of my hives, I collected then they went again (think I lost the queen in the process). This time they have stayed - well up to today - collected on Sunday afternoon. In view of someone's thread on this forum about the 'June gap' coming early and bees starving if they are nuc or have been split I plan to feed my nuc later with 1:1 syrup to be on the safe side - new swarm already being fed and seem happy enough. So now I have two hives and one nuc doing well and a small swarm that I am raising to a nuc so I can pass it on to someone else as I don't want four hives - three is enough. Another month or so and hoping to find a taker
Louise

 

[madasafish]

Added insulating roof to my second Warre hive (Delon type)..yesterday. Built in a great hurry to accommodate a second swarm.. (Carnies). Water based paint barely dry. Added eke and feeder as it was and is cold, wet and horrible with the odd exception - which was yesterday.

Making more hive boxes this pm from pallets.. had to buy more polyurethane glue * and sandpaper .

* Great for filling imperfections.. (was using Gorilla glue but 4 hour setting time.. now Lumberjack 45 mins glue - which takes 2 hours in the cold!)

Bees very busy in the odd sunny spells. New carnie queen producing much yellower shade of bees - Italian ancestry somewhere?

 

[YorkshireBees]

Had a call from my farmer (out apiaries) there was a swarm on the fencepost near to my hive. As it was lunchtime I went to have a look. Sure was a swarm, not that big but decent, brushed them into my swarm collection box and left them fanning whilst I checked my hive + 2 nucs to see if it came from there.

Rather confused as all seem well stocked in fact the 2 Nucs so much so that I moved them into full BB's.

Anyway, found the queen in the swarm and marked her, though I later decided she needs replacing as the hive decided that my ankles, even through socks and trousers tucked in seemed the best target! Hope the farmer didn't see me running round the field doing a strange dance trying to stop them stinging me!
Well approx 6 stings in each ankle and at least one through the suit.
Made a mental note to buy beekeeping trousers.

Later got a call from my mother to say the neighbor is having problems again and got stung under the eye. I am convinced he must use a strange hair care product or something as no one else in my family has been stung recently. So now I have to plan to start moving those hives to an out apiary!

 

[Moggs]

Tonight's inspection of the 'allotment' swarm (14 x 12) revealed a few mini QCells and a monster sealed cell! Thankfully, the Queen was still in residence (though I realise that I have probably acted at the 11th hour). So putting Rule #1 into practice ("don't panic") I remembered not to shake any frames with cells and walked away to think things through. With a view to an emergency artificial swarm, I hopped over to the out apiary to grab my spare hive.


Who would have thought, just as I popped the lid off, I was greeted by about 10,000 bees, looking inquisitively upward at me. At this point, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the apparent success of my bait hive (complete with lemongrass oil, don'tcha know).


So back home for a scout around for various bits of a WBC and the AS was completed within the hour. I'm not sure if I have acted in time. I could have clipped the queen at the time of transfer, but hopefully she will stay put.


Can't turn your back for a minute!

 

[Mike a]

Looks like spoon bender honey .
OSR?
John Wilkinson

Spot on John.

Currently has a very smooth consistency similar to golden syrup. Hoping it will remain spreadable after the repeated stirrings a day I gave it last week with an electric drill and corkscrew bit.

 

[TOBY-3652]

Went to have a look at my bees that i split 4 days ago. Left the old queen on old site.. Cant think i left a queen cell but she left the hive as i was there landed other side of hedge.. Checked hive and 1 sealed qc.. Got her in new hive and moved in new apiary

 

[tonybloke]

checked on a swarm that I hived 2 weeks ago, eggs seen!

 

[terryme]

*doing happy dance* we had our first swarm arrive in our bait hive in the garden! Pleased much. Probably a cast swarm as not very big (to our obviously untrained eyes) but now hived with much satisfaction.

 

[freethorpe bees]

checked on a swarm that I hived 2 weeks ago, eggs seen!

Hooray! Well done!

Moved my second hive a bit nearer (two feet) to where I want them to eventually be!

 

[Queens59]

Went through my hives with a local bee-brain - and learnt loads, a truly satisfying day.

The 14x12 WBC, had a queen pop out of a cell while we were watching...so amazing, and Bank Holiday Monday's swarm had eggs and brood for the first time. Then we went to the nasty hive, and he agreed that they were - we were all stung (although not so badly) so we are hoping to swop queens in a week or so.

Having not had anyone local to call on for help/advice before it is such a relief to know I do now although some distant phone & forum experts are still precious...and that I haven't done anything truly stupid either.

 

[MuswellMetro]

well it is raining for the first time in months so wrote up those inspection notes, that i had delayed for the last few weeks

looked at what i had written then tallied up what hives and Nucs i had, then quickly emailed the treasurer to arrange extra BDI insurance

not that i think insurance it worth whiled but do not want to invalidate other's BDI on the farm apairy

 

[Heather]

Took the plunge.
Have one BIG colony causing me concern. I did Oxalic in December- but they are showing great signs of varroa damage, minimal wings, crawling near hive etc. (think the brood box and super stopped full treatment to work - never use that method again)
They are on a brood and a half. 3 supers of capped honey.
Took off the honey. Shook swarmed them all into 14x12 brood and dumped 8 frames of brood. There was much evidence of the mite in the drone. I am cutting losses.
I did another Oxalic today.
I will extract the honey tomorrow and put back the wets for them to clean up as they have 9 frames foundation and 2 clean drawn to sort out.
Feel awful to lose all that brood but feel they will cope so early in the year.
Took me an hour to sort- but after 20 mins of finishing they were settled.
I now have a syrup feed on as they have loads of wax to produce and the nectar flow is slow.

 

[aberreef]

Watched in amazement at the number of drones in my TBH. There were so many at the enterance that they were forming golf ball sized bee balls and falling to the ground.

I did an inspection (due anyway) and the hive is totally full from front to back, still plenty of eggs and brood in all stages. I cut out 3 of the drone combs as I don't see the need for any more and the hive could do with a little more room.

The bees are starting to block cells with nectar so they are preparing to swarm I'd guess. The only QCs I found were empty though so I'll check again in a few days and do an AS when there's a nice fat larvae in them

No honey available to take though unless I destroy some brood combs. HM has laid on every single comb. I'll have to creat some kind of excluder I think; I don't see the point in bees with no honey, I didn't expect much but this is taking the p***

 

[alynewbee]

Spotted her maj, caught her (in one of those thingies that is supposed to look like a crack pipe), she dutifully wandered up and into my plunger thingy where I marked her. Gave her and the frame of brood I released her onto a gentle whiff of smoke and shut up shop. Praying I've not done any harm. Oh, and I named her - she's called Ruby.

 

[Chris Luck]

No honey available to take though unless I destroy some brood combs. HM has laid on every single comb

How many bars is that? It's most peculiar as outside or end combs are invariably stores/nutrition.

Chris

 

[chalkie]

I'm in the same boat as you john, been 10 days since last checked, not much chance of checking tomorrow either, hospital appointment which i imagine will take all day

Sun shining today and managed to go through the hives (been 14 days since last inspection), had intended to unite a queenless nuc and a queenless hive but when i cracked them open found eggs and both queens so the bad weather did me a favour as i would have combined them last week.

 

[Gardenbees]

Feel awful to lose all that brood but feel they will cope so early in the year.
Took me an hour to sort- but after 20 mins of finishing they were settled.
I now have a syrup feed on as they have loads of wax to produce and the nectar flow is slow.

Don't feel too bad: I just checked my shook-swarmed colony and it's doing brilliantly. I hate discarding brood too but I've never once regretted a shook swarm. It helps with all sorts of things, and the speed with which they build back up is incredible. The only time I wouldn't do it is if a period of very poor weather/dearth is forecast, because they do obviously need a good build-up period afterwards. But when you see lots of nice, clean, new brood comb it's all worth it!

 

[aberreef]

How many bars is that? It's most peculiar as outside or end combs are invariably stores/nutrition.

Chris

28 I think, maybe a few more. I'm surprised HM has got any eggs left

 

[Chris Luck]

That's incredible, that must be a heck of a colony. Is it about to swarm?

Chris