What did you do in the Apiary today?

[einsteinagogo]

Quick visual check on Apiary 1 and 2 all colonies active now on field beans. Fixed some Caution Bees at Work signs in Apiary 2 and now have inspected a new Out Apiary which is private land not visible to public and will become my main Apiary and will relocate Apiary 1 and 2 to this new Apiary. Will move hive stands in as a start and speak to landowner to check they are in correct positions before moving colonies its also a 5 min walk from my house so more convenient. The Landowner is very supportive and her late partner kept bees and so did her parents so she knows what to expect and is very happy to have them on her land. Took off 4 supers for the year and extracted two distinct colours of honey a very dark amber and pale OSR yellow. I noticed one frame granulated in comb. All now extracted in honey bucket its a great feeling and feels like all the effort with a bucket of honey. That's the good news. But whilst removing supers I noticed many drones....in the top super never seen this many before and I regularly check every day this colony through clear crown board could I have a failing queen DLQ or drone laying worker will need to check at next inspection.

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[VEG]

Killed a drone laying queen and united it to another.

 

[afc98]

Just had a quick look through a hive, I found about 6 capped queen cells so I started making preparations for an artificial swarm. After about an hour of searching through my garage we finally find a spare floor, brood box, crown board etc. Only to discover we didn't have any made up frames. Several bruised fingers later we had made up 7 frames with foundation, so we decided to us an end frame. We ended up cutting up a commercial one to fit my national hive.
Back on site we then performed an artificial swarm.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Just had a quick look through a hive, I found about 6 capped queen cells so I started making preparations for an artificial swarm. After about an hour of searching through my garage we finally find a spare floor, brood box, crown board etc. Only to discover we didn't have any made up frames. Several bruised fingers later we had made up 7 frames with foundation, so we decided to us an end frame. We ended up cutting up a commercial one to fit my national hive.
Back on site we then performed an artificial swarm.

And the queen was still there! lucky you

 

[YorkshireBees]

Just off to extract the last 4 supers then cleanup.
Will be at the apiaries later to put extracted supers back on and inspect!

Loving the weather today!!!

Bah!!! Spoke too soon.

Nearly ran out of buckets, the honey took ages to run through the double strainer and when I had finished and cleaned up the weather changed!!!!!

So it was a little bit of light rain beekeeping putting supers on and checking the 3 demareed hives for QC's.

Now I just need a long weekend to recover!

 

[cjhart2]

So what do you need to catch a swarm , how about a tractor , 50m wire hawser , chainsaw , ladder and a convenient shower of rain . The Italian mob decided to swarm , not to the bait box no that would be too easy , instead they chose 20 m up a Chestnut tree on a 10 m bank . Got them though , sitting in a hive now and a pile of firewood as well . SWMBO said these swarms are easy to get , she was taking the pictures !!!!!!!

 

[jd101k2000]

A day of jubilation - had six virgins. 3 had BIAS on a couple of frames. 2 had eggs (queens were slightly later emerging).. and the latest emerging may have had eggs but I will check again in a week to make sure. Also found a site for an out apiary that is about 2 miles away. I can only think that the two virgin queens from the two swarms arrived and immediately said, 'you lot can look after the house, I'm off partying'.

 

[lilybetbee]

Installed my 2 new queens, hopefully that's the aggressive bees sorted out - fingers crossed!

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Gave 2 litres of 1:1 sugar syrup in a rapid feeder to the swarm I hived 3 days ago as they should have consumed the honey they ate before their journey by now. Too wet to look inside so didn't disturb the crownboard just took the cover off the feeder hole and sat the unit on top in the roof void.

 

[Peterxix]

Hived a swarm into my Warre.

snap,I Hived a swarm as well

 

[Jimmys Mum]

Opened a big previously thriving hive up where I have been waiting 4 weeks for a virgin queen post AS to get mated.....now its full of open and sealed drone brood only (no new eggs) and a smattering of sealed queen cells which look to have been created on drone brood. Pants! . Decided to transfer over a frame of eggs and young larvae from my best Buckie hive - let's see what they do with it, if anything!

On the upside I extracted another super of OSR honey just in the nick of time.

 

[kermit]

Been to the RVI in Newcastle for the first of my maintenance beesting desensitization jabs. I can now officially handle bees again

Not that it stopped me collecting a swarm last week.

Dave

 

[Heather]

Aaaaaaaaahhh!
Nice swarm 2 weeks ago (not mine), checked yesterday. BIAS so put queen into foam plunger marking unit. marked her, allowed ink to dry, gently put her back onto top of frame to run down.... she flew off..
Closed up and am hoping she returned. Getting nearer to clipping the little madams!

 

[whoosling]

Oh the ups and downs of beekeeping that books and courses can't cover. A short time ago I was crossing my fingers that I had one hive with a queen (couldn't find any signs of her) after my lovely second hive had swarmed, and the original hive had just drone brood. Today I've seen queens in both hives and the nuc I made up and a just opened queen cell someone gave me in the original hive. whoop whoop

 

[Glenviewbee]

Transferred the 5 frame nuc that was building quite nicely into a brood box, dummied down to 7 frames (with insulation in the space behind the dummy board)
Had a quick look at the colony from where I lost a swarm at the beginning of the month - lots of activity and loads of stores - capped honey, nectar and pollen, on 9 frames. The more central frames do seem to have the middle cells being left open and look somewhat polished to my eye. There were quite few drones making flights to and from the hive. By my calculation the VQ should have emerged on or around May 14th so hopefully will get evidence of a successful mating very soon. The bees themselves seem quite content.
I have a young queen in an apidea with a handful of bees (long story but next time there will be more bees put in with the QC). She is a very black queen, it will be interesting to see if she has mated ok.
My other colony is also very active - but again I am waiting on the results of a successful mating - fingers crossed. Didn't have a look inside the hive as this queen situation is possible emergence in the last couple of days.
Learning a great deal this year - hope the short term memory manages to transfer it all to the long term memory!

 

[Erichalfbee]

Consolidated a unite and gave them a shallow on top for brood and a half. Gave two spare emerging brood frames to weak nuc.
Checked bait hive cast from 12 days ago....2 frames of eggs. Had my marker handy but couldn't spot the queen.

 

[dpearce4]

Been to the RVI in Newcastle for the first of my maintenance beesting desensitization jabs. I can now officially handle bees again

Not that it stopped me collecting a swarm last week.

Dave

Fantastic news

 

[Marton]

Thought my first ever AS from the end of April hadn't produced a queen as no sign of queen, eggs or polished cells last week.

Inspected today with the idea of a test frame from the original colony but found loads of capped and open brood and it wasn't drone.


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[REDWOOD]

filling supers at the rate of knots, I think we are in for a good year (weather dependant of course)

 

[Jimmys Mum]

filling supers at the rate of knots, I think we are in for a good year (weather dependant of course)

My supers on all hives bar one, seem to be getting lighter not heavier.......
Hoping the weather will dry up a bit soon and the sun come out to play