What did you do in the Apiary today?

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I have neighbours like that. I only have two colonies of rather polite bees. We're very rural, but our neighbours have objected to our chickens and ducks (6 in an acre of land) just in case they 'trespass',

Saeson

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

bit too wet to do anything but even in the rain all the hives were busy bees foraging strongly and loads of bees orientating at the hive with the swarm I caught Saturday. Planted my new plum and greengage trees.

 

[Walrus]

Got a call from my farmer this morning saying that whilst cutting grass his tractor attachment clipped one of my hives and knocked it over. He's a nice guy and was sorry, plus they stung his head as he tried to make his getaway, and I'm grateful to have bees on his land.

I put it all back together again (2 deeps plus 4 shallows, bursting with bees) wearing my crazy leather gloves with gauntlets that I only use in emergencies. Got a few stings but they were surprisingly ok about things.

I hope HM survived as she is my best, but if not they should soon make another.

Interesting start to the week!

 

[YorkshireBees]

Finally back from working abroad, got through a few hives.
Some have swarmed, 1 has a DLQ and all have loads of full supers!!

More hives to check today.

Might even be able to turn my phone back on, I had 50+ missed calls all from people with a 'bee problem'.

 

[ugcheleuce]

On Sunday I split my one colony using what is known locally as a "flyer split" (put the queen, some bees and a few frames of mostly closed brood at the original location, at midday, and put the rest of the bees and frames somewhere else in the apiary, queenless). On Monday I returned and added a honey box on the flyer hive and gave them sugar water.

The queenless box (at new location):

The flyer box (with queen, at original location):

==

Also on Sunday, I tried to introduce an Italian bee into a hopeless queenless colony, but it turned out that the beek that I got the bee from uses German frames (they're 10 mm wider than the Dutch frames, although otherwise of similar dimensions), so I could not fit the bee into the box that I was going to use with the newspaper method. So... now I have a tiny Italian colony with an unmated F1 queen, and to the queenless colony I gave extra nectar, extra pollen, and a frame with eggs.

The queenless Buckfast colony:

The new, unintended Italian colony:

 

[Ely]

Just got back from helping someone with Tonyblokes hives. Didn't realise how nasty my bees are till I met his. Reallycalm and lots of honey.

 

[cjhart2]

Guessed right about the weather down here , and feed the newly arrived swarm . No way are they going anywhere in this torrential rain . Tomorrow looks the same , so they should have enough until Thursday . 7 frame prime swarm is worth preserving .

 

[Beauhawk]

Extracted 54lbs from one hive and 53lbs from the other - WOW!

Just need to see if it crystallises now so I can use my newly acquired warming cabinet and try soft set honey for the first time.

Added super to a swarm that was collected beginning May and has drown out a complete 14X12 BB - going great guns this colony.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Split the 2-story new nuc that swarmed yesterday (see "Who's lost a swarm?" thread) into a strong and a weak "half" with one sealed swarm cell each. Got 2 Q? bees in my hood somehow and took a rap to the top of the head. So I've had better days, but a learning experience, hopefully new queens and not too many bees flown (30 pct or even less). Most important-touch wood-Buckybeast is intact and I have shored up the pallet it is on: I estimate the rate of nectar landings there at ten per second; the main branch of the nuc has gone from about 3 to about 2.

 

[SireeDubs]

Saeson

Indeed. Twp.

 

[Ben90]

Gave a frame of honey stores to a cast I've hived to help them get started.

 

[YorkshireBees]

Inspected another 4 hives in a different apiary.

All 4 have full supers! Added a super each found all 4 queens still there (amazing after yesterdays experience) and demareed 2 of the hives.

Now trying to plan where I will find time to extract all the supers!

 

[user 6228]

Built a frame to hold the hives for the virtual bees

 

[richardbees]

All 4 have full supers! Added a super each found all 4 queens still there

magic!

 

[Itchy]

Wondered why I didn't listen to folk who told me to get matching kit

 

[Margaret Elisabeth]

Not today but at the weekend had a visit from an Irate neighbour. "Have you seen your bees?" I looked up to see they were attempting to Swarm, the queen is clipped. I did everything I could to placate him but he was not having any of it. Not even the honey. Awaiting repercussions as he threatened to complain to the health people and i was foolish enough to explain that the bee inspector was the government agent for bees.

 

[cjhart2]

Battering down the hatches here , already have a river of mud flowing down the field on the other side of the road , just moved up to an orange alert for more rain and heavy thunderstorms . Spring in France . It seems that when the wind stops the rain starts . Another hard spring .

 

[cjhart2]

Well that was an interesting hour , just got power back , we will try and salvage the cherries off the grass tomorrow , thank heavens we have hurricane straps on the poly tunnel , unbelievable wind , heard it first like an express train coming towards you then wallop . The bees were all tied down as the warnings were very precise this time ,and i can see they are still in place in the field , hopefully they are alright inside will check later once the rain stops .
Normally the only accurate weather forecast for France is on the BBC but meteofrance got it right this time . This lot is heading North at the moment so it might get a bit noisy on the UK south coast later .

 

[Goran]

Got to swarms today, they got me surprised.. Had to refresh my acrobacy skills to get them down, almost I went down together with one.. I don't like to see the swarm, even painted one.. Candidates for requeening. Also made one split, tomorrow second one for schedule..

 

[Summerslease]

United three hives I demaree'd a month ago. Two supers off each and LOTS of bees. The first time I'd used this procedure and it has stopped the swarm instinct so far. There's plenty of time for them to try again so I'll keep up the regular inspections.