What did you do in the Apiary today?

[einsteinagogo]

Finished a proposal for Apiary Site No.3, and had confirmation from "Landlord/Owner", I can keep Bait Hives there as a start.

Took a peek at Ap. No.1 and checked through clear crown board, lots of drones, and lots of bees and pollen going in.

 

[jd101k2000]

Had a sneak peek at a potential out apiary. Will see how it goes.

 

[YorkshireBees]

Managed to take a super from 2 hives in one apiary. Just parked at the next apiary (field) and the rain came back!!! %%$$^^

Will have to try again tomorrow!

 

[madasafish]

Added contact feeders to two Langstroths which were populated this week..

 

[Summerslease]

Gave my recently nucd swarm a frame of stores, which they liked, and a dose of thymolated varroa treatment, which they didn't. Woke at 5.30am thinking about my four demaree'd hives

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Prayed.

Please may my strong colony stick around till I can get in on Saturday... It may be under an awning, but in I have to go.

 

[pargyle]

Prayed.

Please may my strong colony stick around till I can get in on Saturday... It may be under an awning, but in I have to go.

Good luck ... been there, got the T-shirt, sadly - a bit late !! My advice, whatever the weather go for it ... they have their own timetable and it ain't yours !!

 

[cjhart2]

Cold , wet , no sun but when the Acacia is in flower , they are all flying .

 

[Erichalfbee]

HAVE to look inside one hive today others too, really, but they might wait.
Sunny spells but a roaring wind........sigh!!!!!

 

[Jimmy]

After being somewhat alarmed to realise that I've gone from 4 hives on April 22nd to 11 now, carried out some inspections in the rain. Of that 10, only 6 have laying queens though.

1st hive fine, plenty of BIAS, supers filling slowly.
2nd hive has become three; original Q seems hellbent on swarming despite my efforts, have split brood into two, each with a ripe QC.
3rd hive has become two; AS done in late April, q right half doing well, QC half also. At least one of the workers has taken it upon herself to start laying in the supers though.
4th hive swarmed despite AS. Waiting for Q to emerge.

A cast? swarm drawing foundation but no eggs.

And two nucs made up with brood, each with a new Buckfast queen. Lastly a nuc with a QC left by an ungrateful new Buckfast grrrrrrrrrrrr.

 

[Erichalfbee]

HAVE to look inside one hive today others too, really, but they might wait.
Sunny spells but a roaring wind........sigh!!!!!

Bit the bullet and it wasn't as bad as I thought.
Removed two bottom boxes fem Bailey changes. There were a lot of bees in both!! but the sun came out and everybody found their way home I think.
It really IS a good idea to change to a top entrance. I managed on one change and the bottom box was empty....save the bees. The other colony just couldn't get on with a change up top and consequently practically every frame has a lot of pollen stored. I'll freeze these and use them up slowly.

 

[TOBY-3652]

put a nuc box on top of a flat roof... bees been going in and out of 3 air vents for 2 days.. blocked them up. and today a prime swarm went in 6 frame nuc box..will have 2 put them in a hive tomorrow..mignt put them in my W B C

 

[YorkshireBees]

Extracted 2 supers and fetched another 7 from one of the apiaries!

It is so slow clearing each frame with a brush but I can't trust that the weather will be right for using a clearer board!

 

[Goran]

Watching another horror prognosis of coming weather, feeling hopeless as nothing can do.. Bees today had one day of nice forage ( luckily for them they don't know what is going toward us..). This is devastating the bees and me. If we " survive" somehow this season it would be miracle.. What then, I don't know.

 

[einsteinagogo]

Nothing to do Apiray No.1 Hive 1 waiting for virgin to mate and lay.
Checked cleaned and topped up feeders at Apiray No.2 both hives are drawing comb Hive 2 had built comb in feeder hole and queen had laid eggs so removed and removed brace comb that had been built in porter escape hole I wish they would draw out frames!

Apiray No.3 looks to become a reality Risk Assessments to be completed but hopefully bait hives to be set up soon.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Watching another horror prognosis of coming weather, feeling hopeless as nothing can do.. Bees today had one day of nice forage ( luckily for them they don't know what is going toward us..). This is devastating the bees and me. If we " survive" somehow this season it would be miracle.. What then, I don't know.

Goran, your updates are upsetting but keep them coming anyway because we feel for you. Good luck. We just lost our awesome spring here; hopefully it comes back but sometimes they don't.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Managed to get a decent time between 1730 and 1900 this evening to check the home hives (still another two at Garn cottage not inspected since the day after I returned from Africa)ten days after the last inspection due to work (jut a figure of speech - I attend an office) sod's law - checked the hive which I thought was one of the two least likely to come through winter, which has exploded in spring and obviously must have missed a QC or two last week - no sign of queen and loads of QC's, most of the emergency type. managed to damage one QC on moving the frame (they were constructed in such a way that the cells were stuck to the adjacent frame) and she was fully formed and after shaking herself down she disappeared amongst the throng.
Just for information for the few who gauge the possibility of a missed swarm by remaining population - this hive still seemed jam packed with bees and stores - in fact until I saw the presence of sealed QC's and absence of queen I was set to put another super on.

 

[YorkshireBees]

Today I will be mainly extracting this lot of supers removed from hives yesterday, after the weather picked up!

I will be ready if the weather picks up again to check / remove supers from my other out apiary!

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

So hard to tell whether I have lost a swarm (as per JBM above) but if what I did does not convince them they have swarmed, nothing will.

Chance I am original Q+ probably < 50:50 (swarmed or squished) but I was faced with no obvious evidence of a swarm plus a perplexing combination of 4-day larvae and a fully-sealed "supersedure or emergency" QC plus 4- or 5-day charged swarm cells. Sorry girls: I really have no idea what I am doing but now I have yet another nuc and feel slightly sick the way I always do after ripping their home apart.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Checked hives from outside after yesterday's Bailey end.
Quite a sizeable cluster of bees hanging under one floor so I scooped them up with a spatula into a tray and tipped them quickly into the top.

Just in time.....it's blowing a hoolie now. Where's spring gone now that Sycamore and Hawthorn are out