What did you do in the Apiary today?

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Good grief: I had thought mine were calm; by Buckies are holy horrors by comparison, and my mongrels are demons. What strain are they? My colonies are a lot more crowded; maybe that has something to do with it.
 
We did a hive inspection later in the day today and found loads of bees. Part of that is due to up to 14,000 more bees having been born since last week, but there will also be more because there won't be as many out harvesting nectar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cHlgbF-deQ

No matter how calm the bees are I would still feel uneasy letting a young child get that close with no protective clothing on :calmdown:
 
Went through hive that I had placed a test frame in 4 days ago..no QCs, spotted new queen (I think) and saw a couple of single eggs (only in drone cells though). Hopefully all will be well. Whilst doing this noticed a lot of activity from other hive - lot of bees in the air and leaving the hive. Went through hive, no Q seen and a few uncapped QCs on one frame (no signs of any sealed QCs though - seemed fine few days back). Left 1 unsealed QC, couldn't see any sign of a swarm hung up anywhere. Meh :(

During all this smoker went out twice, ripped one of my gloves and also had a bee get into my veil. Have had it easy until now..welcome to the real world of beekeeping!
 
A red letter (green queen) day

One of my 2 new Qs (post a 19 May swarm) is going gangbusters and had laid up an entire BB including filling the entire drone trap and c/w a few playcups. Oops: had to pop another BB under in a hurry. The other (in the box that didn't get the flyers) is going well but nothing to compare: she'll catch up.
 
last year's queen - so this is her first season, did an A/S and moved her 12th May into a nuc, within a week she'd filled the 6 frames with brood, so hived her and put a super on previous weekend and added one more midweek. Checked today and she was on the first frame of stores, looked miserably thin and piping away. So we isolated her and boy, so glad we did that cos the middle frames were full of swarm cells, one or two were even capped! Put her straightaway into a nuc with a frame of brood, a few drawn frames and foundation plus feed.

Who said queens don't swarm in their first season :rolleyes:
 
Hive one plenty of bees and brood Moved some honey up to the top box as plenty of stores around brood. Hive two I had previously popped some bees and queen cells into over paper as it was a failing queen and later I found a queen dead on the alighting board. I did not know if it was the old or a new queen as the old one was not marked. The two hives now have brood in a regular pattern The smaller colony being without a queen excluder has brood in the super which is not a problem as I can move it down. Being a small colony I fed more syrup to help it along. I will be asking opinions in another thread.
 
Over here, today lime started opening flowers, few bees on it..
Of course they predicted for this week unstable and rainy with "touch" of winds.. I didn't expected any better. I was wondering how weather were nice.. It waited to lime start flowering..
 
What a lovely hot sunny day. 2 bait hives full of bees. Thanks be to God.
 
last year's queen - so this is her first season, did an A/S and moved her 12th May into a nuc, within a week she'd filled the 6 frames with brood, so hived her and put a super on previous weekend and added one more midweek. Checked today and she was on the first frame of stores, looked miserably thin and piping away. So we isolated her and boy, so glad we did that cos the middle frames were full of swarm cells, one or two were even capped! Put her straightaway into a nuc with a frame of brood, a few drawn frames and foundation plus feed.

Who said queens don't swarm in their first season :rolleyes:

Mine always do, it's a natural thing to do. Why wouldn't they?

Chris
 
One of my nuclei was full up (from a small swarm at the end of April) so upgraded the accommodation to a hive.

My No. 1 colony had virtually empty supers a week ago... today two were nearly full, so added another.
 
Had a queen rearing class for beginners, grafted 15 larvae. Got 5 queen cells now sealed and ready for raffle at next meeting. Filled an apidea with too many bees (forgot the measure). Bees abandoned apidea with mated queen. Took up residence in a poly nuc 60 meters away in the apiary on 1 frame. Noticed bees entering with pollen so investigated and found the laying queen, now clipped and marked. Will build up and give progress report.
 
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Three queens found and marked, two will be dispatched unfortunately, one on Wednesday and one next week. Took a while to find one, had to split the hive into three boxes and husband spotted her on the floor of the original box :)
 
United two colonies into one super colony on 14x12. One was queenless, used the newspaper method. Moved my new swarm which had arrived in a 14x12 brood box down from the tree and placed on the site of the now missing hive which went towards the united colony. The idea is that the swarm will gain a few extra foragers. Also changed the entrance and put a board as an obstacle in front of the entrance to help the bees leaving take stock of their new position. Then put a new 14x12 up in the tree. Then my car clutch pedal broke.
P.s meant to say on 2 x 14x12
 
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Pretty sure my oldest queen has gone off lay, I've not seen any BIAS for two week, so today I put a frame full of brand new eggs in the older hive. When will I know if it's worked, time wise?


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3 days, but bees may not make QCs even if queen less, you might need another test frame.
By the way if you haven't seen Brood In All Stages for 2 weeks queen has not laid for 2 weeks plus 24 days. You probably mean eggs, I guess.
 
New queen bee, that was taking a worryingly long time to come in to lay, found today above QE having laid up a super!
 
Moved three hive stands to new apiary site. Now trying to work out the easiest placement for working the hives and then Apiary No1 and Apiary No.2 will be merged here to this new site and Ap 1 and 2 will be closed down ....

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