What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Gilberdyke John]

just a sealed queen cell mid frame and only one and emerges and leaves with small swarm

The plot thickens. Not supercedure and not swarming - with only the one single cell.

Must be absconding.

If I were you I think I would get rid of all the queens and start again, with a fresh gene pool, if this is actually what is happening.

Andy - there is a queen supplier at Full Sutton, not far from you. If you're interested pm me

 

[Floyd]

Fed 3 Hives! The large early growth almost caught me out as everything seemed fine 9 days ago, all hives down to a part filled single frame of stores.

Has turned wet and cold up here in the Highlands, Forcast looking better for next week!

 

[YorkshireBees]

Dodged the showers and inserted clearer boards on all hives ready for extraction at the weekend!

Only got 1 sting, good result considering the weather!

 

[Erichalfbee]

Prepared one hive to be united next week
Checked queen cells in another.
Now chilling in St Davids for husband's birthday.

We drove down the coast from Aberaeron and the hedgerows are stuffed with laburnum hedges,bushes and trees everywhere disappearing into the fields.
Looked it up and it says good for bees. Must be some cracking honey being made somewhere.
Anybody keep bees in the area?

 

[Tabby15]

Wet and windy but had to check top BB of hive we performed demaree on last week as it's been 5 days. Worked inbetween showers. Knocked down quite a few "play cups" and found one charged cell on new drone comb. We aren't ready to breed a new queen so removed drone comb with cell.
Intending to do full inspection of all hives on Sunday so will check again then.

 

[Summerslease]

Got an email from my SBI who's coming for an inspection in a couple of weeks. Time to do a varroa count and look more closely for disease on my next inspection.

 

[madasafish]

Added frame feeders to 2 TBH nucs and fed - lousy weather here.. it rains then stops rain, then rains again.

In between showers, bees forage like crazy.

Inspected weakest nuc which ended winter on 1 tbh frame .. now three frames of brood and want to propagate from the queen later this year.

 

[hedgehog66]

Dug up 3kg of first early spuds in thunder storm. Couldnt inspect so thought id better do some digging otherwise a wasted journey
Sun still shining when i got back home 5 miles away
Hope it stays dry tomorrow for inspections

 

[YorkshireBees]

Removed 11 supers for extraction.

Another 11 to take off in the morning before the rain!

Then a bank holiday weekend of extracting!

 

[maddydog]

Not at the apiary as such but made appointments to go see 2 prospective sites. One is an acre field grown as a wild meadow and the other is a farm near my allotment

SWMBO posted a message on Facebook (after getting stung by one of the home colonies ) asking for interested landowners and got loads of replies. Don't understand it but can't underestimate the power of social media!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Although weather not ideal decided to inspect hives 1,2,7 and 8 two are absolutely bursting with bees but if the rain held off long enough I'd do the rest. Lit the smoker then it pissistently rained, had my tea and went out again and it was dry enough to open up. one hive was desperate for super number three but the rest were fine (apart from hive#1 - a swarm from last year - struggling to get up to six frames and virtually nil stores, now a spot booked for HM on the gate post and a trip to my queen breeder in the offing. Bees werent that happy, but considering the conditions acceptable behaviour. At least i confirmed that the swarm in the hedge last week wasn't one of mine!

 

[YorkshireBees]

Just off to collect the other 11 supers and then to the extraction room!

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Rain rain go away;
I'm nervous it's the seventh day.

 

[Cazza]

Rain rain go away;
I'm nervous it's the seventh day.

Rain rain, come and stay,
I'm off to a beer fest today,
no wish with bees to play...

That was truly awful!!!!!
Cazza

 

[Eyeman]

Originally posted by leonotron

There was still plenty of eggs in my hive and just the one queen cell. So is this a standard supercedure then? Do I leave them to it to supercede or is there a danger of a swarm?

If the colony COULD SWARM, and its the time if year it WOULD SWARM then whatever QC you see means it SHOULD SWARM.
As said before if in doubt get the queen out into a nuc with a frame of brood and some bees and your one QC is likely to not to cause a swarm.
You haven't said whether the queen cell is uncapped or capped? If it is capped and the queen is laying as usual, with no back filling of the brood nest with honey then this is what I would expect with supercedure. Unfortunately they can still catch us out and swarm when the virgin emerges.
Alec

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

She's beautiful and I love her

I got attacked by Buckybeast; it was not the day for going through a Demareed 5-box hive but as seen elsewhere on here, you can't fight the calendar and it got pretty intense at one stage but needs must, swollen wrists (and sore toches!) or not.

So I was glad to see her both on the run through and as I closed up; a QE over one box is really cheating in this regard so I lifted it one box to go to double brood: will probably take it off next inspection. Swapped three frames of brood sealed this week (so she's going a storm) with lovely dark frames from the nursery box. Took off the second ex double brood box including the original nuc frames I have been dying to see the back of.

All good: would just like to see more stores around the place.

 

[Goran]

Weather "normalised" ( don't know what will be normal in future..). Some flow, but affraid no or little black locust.. Made one split, due to swarming desire. Overall, as many report pretty much swarming, mine not so bad. Mostly which I know have that more in their blood gone for it. One line surprisingly maintain non swarming habit ( open mating, uncontrolled). I planned to make a lot of daughters of it this year. But have other things first unfortunatelly.

Disappointed, two daughters of it now eggs in qcells..

 

[madasafish]

Collected a starving swarm (listless bees), housed in TBH nuc and fed. Half an hour later and sun shining, they were flying. Then they started following.. with a vengeance..Two stings on the neck later...

I hope it was due to the starvation/weather or there will be a regicide..

 

[Tabby15]

Not strictly at the apiary but spent the day at a "bee health" day with excellent lectures and demonstrations covering disease, varroa, comb changing and apiary hygiene. We had newbies and old hands and a wealth of knowledge being shared. Flippin cold at times in an outdoor classroom and a marquee but well worth it.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

rained all afternoon so just got kit ready for tomorrow's beginners class and pottered around in the workshop. as it was rainong I thought i could quickly level out the hive stand that has sunk a bit into built up ground - rain - pah! my little beauties were still flying even in the heaviest downpours!!